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Sheriff Fay F. Brown’s Badge: The Influenza Epidemic in 1918

April 1, 2020 by Jim Potter 11 Comments

https://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Sheriff-Fay-F.-Browns-Badge-Episode-19.mp3

· Sheriff Fay F. Brown’s Badge:

The Influenza Epidemic in 1918

Fay Forrest Brown and his wife, Cora May Phares Brown, are asleep in their bedroom. Fay is the Reno County, Kansas, sheriff; Cora is the jail matron and cook. It’s July 6, 1927.

*

“Cloe! Cloe!” screamed Fay. “Hold on!”

“Fay, wake up!” said Cora, firmly touching his shoulder. “You’re safe. You were dreaming.”

“I saw her turning blue, then purple,” said Fay, his body sweating and hyperventilating.

*

Cloe Marcia Brown Young, 25, died on December 5, 1918, at Kansas City General Hospital in Missouri. Her husband, Errett Samuel Young, 37, passed three days earlier. Both had developed bronchopneumonia after being infected by the “Spanish” influenza. Their orphaned son, Howard, 3, died later from the same virus, on December 28.

*

“The dream was so real,” said Fay. “Cloe was dying, but there wasn’t anything I could do to help. Her fever was blistering; she was bleeding from her nose, she was drowning from the fluid in her lungs.”

“Her pain was unimaginable,” said Cora. “In the fall of 1918, no one was safe.”

“It happened so suddenly,” said Fay.”

“Like a lot of other previously healthy young people,” said Cora, “Cloe was struck down and died within a day or two of developing symptoms. Doctors didn’t have any good answers to a global nightmare.”

“We still don’t have answers,” said Fay. “It could happen again.”

“Remember how people were told by so-called experts to eat onions and garlic, and to avoid kissing?” asked Cora. “I’m pretty sure eating the onions and garlic would have prevented most of the kissing.”

“They say at least fifty million people died worldwide,” said Fay. “But losing Cloe was so hard, different from losing my parents. One common element though, I was powerless to protect those I loved. ”

“We are powerless,” agreed Cora.

“I’m back to wondering how things could have been different,” pondered Fay. “Would Cloe and her family have been any safer if they had remained in Lincoln, Nebraska? Moving to Kansas City seemed like a good idea at the time, before there was an epidemic.”

“By the fall, the flu was everywhere,” stated Cora, “and it got much worse than the first wave which had milder symptoms.”

“I remember the quarantine regulations in Hutchinson,” said Fay. “They were strict, but necessary. If a house had a person with the influenza, the health department required it to be placarded. All patients with the disease were required to be isolated in a room.”

“And the quarantine of patients had to be continued for five days after the temperature had reached normal,” said Cora.

“All cases had to be reported to the health officer within twenty-four hours,” said Fay. “The police force was instructed to prohibit crowds of gathering at any place for any purpose.”

“And anyone caring for a patient having the flu, who wanted gauze masks, could go to the Red Cross Headquarters and pick up a free supply,” said Cora.

“Kansas City, Missouri, wasn’t as careful as Hutchinson,” said Fay. “If ‘Boss’ Pendergast and his powerful political machine had given the order, they could have closed businesses down as tight as a drum, but that would have been bad for their bootlegging, gambling, and prostitution.”

“It’s too bad that politics was so heavily involved in public health matters,” said Cora, “but remember, they didn’t know there was going to be a second wave of the epidemic. And there was a war on with a lack of nurses to care for the sick.”

“I still think they were more concerned about making money than saving lives,” said Fay. “Cloe and Errett and Howard deserved better.”

“Remember how the Elks Home was used as an emergency hospital?” asked Cora.

“They came through in a crisis,” said Fay. “Exceptional organizations and caring people stepped up when conditions were grave. I’m still proud of our community-minded people in Hutchinson.”

“Without a vaccine, so many people risked their lives for the sick,” said Cora.

“Like you, Cora,” said her husband. “Even though you wore a mask, you had telephone operators on each side of you all day. You and the other telephone girls made sure our country’s communication network was operating to battle the epidemic while fighting a world war.”

“At Bell Telephone, the extremely contagious influenza virus became deadly for too many,” said Cora, thinking of friends she had lost.

“Errett did laundry work,” said Fay. “He might have been exposed to the virus because he was helping others be sanitary. He might have lost his family because of his job.”

“Didn’t Cloe and Errett used to say that they would have never met if it hadn’t been for dirty laundry?” asked Cora.

Fay laughed. “She was a laundress,” stated Fay.

“We’ll never know where they picked up the virus,” said Cora. “Camp Funston was a few hundred miles away from KC and the soldiers were constantly passing through the area on rail. So many of them were infected.”

“Yeah,” said Fay, “people say the influenza started in Kansas, not Spain.”

“City leaders in KC were inconsistent with their messages,” said Cora. “On Armistice Day, the city had massive crowds of people celebrating in the streets, while at the same time, health officials told the public to avoid crowds and wash their hands.”

“Cloe was a one-year-old when father died, four when mother passed in 1897,” remembered Fay. “Some people said that Errett was both a husband and a father to Cloe, the father she never knew. I don’t know about that.”

“Errett was lucky to find Cloe after his first wife died,” said Cora.

“Cloe was the prettiest little girl,” said Fay. “Don’t tell Dora or Sallie I said that, but they’d agree. We all knew it. We were her cheerleaders and tried to be her protectors, but being children and separated, farmed out, made it impossible sometimes.”

“You, the girls, Dallas, all did your best,” offered Cora.

“Because she was the youngest,” said Fay, “after nearly a decade, it’s still hard to believe she’s gone.”

“Fay,” said Cora as she gently touched his shoulder, “you’ll always have your good memories of her.”

“Yes, that’s true,” said Fay, “and I’m glad to have this group picture of the five of us.” Fay picked up the framed photograph from the dresser and examined it.

“Look at her with her blond hair, curled in the back, and her pretty bows.”

“She’s precious,” said Cora.

“Yes,” agreed Fay as he exhaled, “gone, but precious.”

*

Until next time, happy writing and reading.

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Armistice Day, bronchopneumonia, Cloe Marcia Brown Young, Cora Brown, Errett Samuel Young, Fay Brown, influenza epidemic in 1918, Jim Potter, Kansas Authors Club, Kansas City General Hospital, Kansas City Missouri, quarantine regulations, Reno County Sheriff, Sheriff Fay Brown, Sheriff Fay Brown's Badge, Spanish influenza

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alex says

    April 1, 2020 at 8:42 am

    Powerful parallel!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 1, 2020 at 9:08 am

      Thank you. Sometimes knowing we managed before helps us manage today.

      Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 6, 2020 at 2:09 pm

      Another interesting story! We both listened…very timely

      Reply
      • Jim Potter says

        April 6, 2020 at 3:30 pm

        Natalee & Jim, Thanks for listening and commenting. Jim

        Reply
  2. Lynn says

    April 1, 2020 at 11:23 am

    Perfect timing for this! Nicely woven history. It gives a great glimpse into how Hutchinson, Kansas of the past responded to a historic pandemic. The similarities are remarkable. Thank goodness we have our technology and the building blocks of past experiences to help us battle our own modern “invisible” enemy.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 1, 2020 at 7:26 pm

      Lynn, thank you so much for commenting. I guess both viruses were similar in that it’s just hard to fathom, or accept, that something invisible can be so deadly worldwide.

      Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 1, 2020 at 7:28 pm

      Lynn, thanks for commenting. Both pandemics were hard for the general public to accept as being so deadly until it got closer and closer.

      Reply
  3. Nancy Kopp says

    April 1, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    We have so much more to fight with today, and it’s still a frightening situation. Good to read this for comparison.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 1, 2020 at 7:30 pm

      Thanks for commenting. Yes, they are comparable so far. I just hope the final deaths aren’t even close to what happened in 1918-19.

      Reply
  4. Marilyn says

    April 2, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    Fascinating read, Jim. We see so many parallels with a deadly disease from over a century past.. Your words make the angst real.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 2, 2020 at 8:10 pm

      Marilyn, thanks for your comment. We’ve been here before and we can survive this.

      Reply

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Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

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Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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