Remembering the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918

by Scott Wheeler | Special to the Vermont Guardian

Posted December 28, 2004

Nobody enjoys a bad case of the flu, but there are still some Vermonters alive that will tell you that no flu season compares to that of the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, an epidemic that killed as many as 40 million people around the world, including about 1,770 Vermonters.

“Today’s flu isn’t anything like the influenza of 1918,” Nelia Spinelli said, remembering back to the years when tears flowed by the bucketful in her hometown of Barre as that community, along with other communities around the state, buried their dead. “There is just no comparison. At the time, people were dying like flies. It really was a terrible, terrible time. The hearse was going to the cemetery all the time.”

The flu hit Vermont in September at a time when many U.S. soldiers, including some from Vermont, were battling German soldiers in Europe during World War I. Before the flu reached the Green Mountain State, U.S. troops were dying from its effects on the battlefronts. The flu swept into Vermont with a vengeance during the waning days of September. It left as quickly as it came. By the end of October, the epidemic had let go of its grip on Vermont, leaving hundreds dead and changing the lives of countless thousands of others.

Click here for the full text of this story in our subscriber's area.