Behind Stone Walls: The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918/1919 at Pennhurst State School & Hospital

• In 1978 a memorial stone was erected at Pennhurst to remember those who had died there. The institution finally closed permanently nine years later in 1987. Photo courtesy of El Peecho's Pennhurst Information, http://www.elpeecho.com/pennhurst/pictures_cemetary.htm.

In 1918, as the First World War drew to a close and soldiers returned home, they came back to a horrific scene. By the end of 1918 the Spanish Influenza pandemic held the world on the brink. In Philadelphia, public officials waited until it was too late to acknowledge the existence, let alone severity, of the influenza epidemic rocking the city, which only heightened panic and hindered any future attempts at quarantine. When the so-called Spanish Lady finally vanished in the summer of 1919, it left anywhere between 50 and 100 million people dead globally. In Philadelphia the influenza epidemic hit hardest between September and November of 1918, and roughly thirty percent of the city’s population of 1.6 million residents contracted the disease (roughly 47,000 cases were reported), and it ultimately claimed upwards of 12,000 lives, a death toll significantly higher than any other major American city in 1918.

Things were more than dire enough in a city of 1.6 million people, but what were the experiences of those forced to live in a world apart? How did the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918/1919 impact people with intellectual and developmental disability who were in institutions? For Pennhurst, anyway, the situation was hardly much better behind its walls than it was in the city. In fact, the epidemic impacted the institution severely enough to alter its practices for handling the remains of residents who died while in the institution’s care.

• This field on the former Pennhurst property contains grave markers for those who died and were buried here while at Pennhurst. Photo from Abandoned But Not Forgotten.

Although Pennhurst’s superintendents over the years would publish biennial reports covering the institution’s operations and any issues that arose, no such report has been found which covers 1918 when the influenza epidemic would have been present. Lacking this, one must look elsewhere: to the cemetery. In examining the dates on the tombstones in the cemetery on Pennhurst’s property, one realizes that no resident was buried there prior to 1918. At the same time, however, just because there are tombstones dated 1918 does not mean it was Spanish Influenza that took the person’s life. For that information one must look to the death certificates which have fortunately been found and digitized.

• Nooman Small was the first person at Pennhurst to die from the influenza epidemic. He was thirty years old when passed on October 12, 1918. Photo from El Peecho's Pennhurst Information.

In the Pennhurst cemetery there are forty graves, and based on the grave markers, of these forty, twenty-three present 1918 as the year of death. Of those twenty-three grave markers, there are twenty-one corresponding death certificates. Given that the Spanish Influenza pandemic affected the world between 1918 and 1919, it is also worth examining the records available on the four residents who died in 1919, though of these four only the death certificate of one Mortimer Thompson (1861-1919) is available, so for the purposes of this post I will not address 1919. Of these twenty-one individuals for whom we have death certificates, how many died from complications attributed to influenza? Twenty. Almost all of the Pennhurst residents whose death records we have access to died from the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918. The sole exception was Frank Meredith who, unfortunately passed from exhaustion and tuberculosis of the intestine at eighteen years old. The others, among who were Albert Bennet Freas, Alfonse Rizzoto, Alverna Johnson, Angelina Randazzio, Anna Nesklatis, Charles Ernst, Clara Butler, Clayton A. Gibbs, Dorothy Broghamer, Florence Hinkle, Florence Pidgeon, Henry von Hecker, James Coster, James Daley, Mazie Martin, Morris Finkle, Nooman Small, Walter Rothrock, William Ross, and William Todd, all died from influenza. I name them all, because all too often those who were most negatively affected throughout the history of intellectual and developmental disability are stripped of identity. They become the unknown former residents of Pennhurst, when in reality they were children, teenagers, and even adults with names and families, and they deserve to have their names remembered.

- Florence Pidgeon was one of the young women at Pennhurst who died from influenza on October 22, 1918. She was twenty-five years old when she passed. Photo from El Peecho's Pennhurst Information.

All those who died and have graves dating to 1918, whether they died of influenza or tuberculosis of the intestine, died in mid- to late-October (roughly between October 12th and the 29th). This concentrated period of elevated infection and death correlates to that In Philadelphia, the nearest major city to Pennhurst, where the worst of the epidemic took place over five weeks, between September and the beginning of November. The question remains though: the residents in Pennhurst were there to be kept from the general population, to be kept in a world apart; how did the disease reach them? Though I lack the source materials to support this assumption, I do suspect that the most likely explanation is that the employees who ran the institution, but who did not live there, brought the influenza virus into work with them, thus infecting residents.

• According to available records, Clayton Gibbs was the last person at Pennhurst State School and Hospital who died from Spanish Influenza on October 29th, 1918. He was seventeen years old when he passed. Photo from El Peecho's Pennhurst Information.

Something else worthy of note, is that prior to 1918 no deceased resident at Pennhurst was buried on the property. Indeed, the cemetery that exists now with forty markers originates from 1918. Gregory Pirmann, a former employee at Pennhurst and activist in preserving its history and the memory of those who lived there, explained that when someone died at Pennhurst but had no next of kin, the institution was responsible for arranging the burial and usually did so elsewhere. However, in the cases of the twenty-four who died in 1918, he suspects that the sheer volume of deaths and fear of further spreading the epidemic by returning the deceased’s remains to their various counties of origins forced the administration to create the cemetery. Dr. James Conroy, co-president of the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance, shared Pirmann’s assessment, “The bodies of folks who died were returned to the county from which they came. However – during the epidemic, it seems, the counties refused to accept the bodies.” This then required Pennhurst to allocate land to bury the deceased on the property. In brief, the Spanish Influenza epidemic impacted Pennhurst so severely, despite its separation from society, that those who ran the institution were forced to alter their policies on handling the remains of those who died in the institution, adding yet another layer of tragedy onto the lives of the men and women who were sequestered there.

100% of the SBD rewards from this #explore1918 post will support the Philadelphia History initiative @phillyhistory. This crypto-experiment is part of a graduate course at Temple University's Center for Public History and is exploring history and empowering education to endow meaning. To learn more click here.

Sources:

[1] Kevin C. Shelly, “Philadelphia Was the Epicenter of a Deadly Worldwide Plague 99 Years Ago,” Philly Voice, January 18, 2017. http://www.phillyvoice.com/influenza-philadelphia-was-epicenter-of-a-deadly-worldwide-flu-epidemic-99-years-ago//.

[2] Thomas Wirth, “Influenza (“Spanish Flu” Pandemic 1918-1919),” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/influenza-spanish-flu-pandemic-1918-19/. (Accessed 1/22/18).

[3] Mortimer Thompson (1861-1919) Certificate of Death, Pennhurst State School & Hospital, found on Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36114032/mortimer-thompson. (Accessed 1/23/18).

[4] Frank Meredith (1900-1918), Certificate of Death, Pennhurst State School & Hospital.

[5] All certificates of death found at Find a Grave, though some have since been taken down. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2302420/memorial-search?page=1#sr-145026552. (Originally Accessed 10/8/16)

[6] Derek Duquette, Personal Correspondence with Gregory Pirmann and Dr. James Conroy, September 28, 2016.

[7] Derek Duquette, Personal Correspondence with Dr. James Conroy, September 17, 2016.