The Grip of “La Grippe,” 1895

The “grip” is an old fashioned term for the flu. I don’t know if anyone still uses it, but my grandparents did. The grip was the English version of the French term “la grippe,” which translates to “flu.” No surprise there. The flu killed hundreds of millions over the centuries; the last desolation being the “Spanish flu” of 1918-20. Thanks to modern medicine, the flu has moved from a life-threatening killer to a wintertime inconvenience in the last hundred years.

In Westerville as in most of North America, yearly bouts of the grip preyed mostly on the very young, the very old, and folks with underlying health problems. Then as now, one did not need to wait for a pandemic - the flu claimed more or less victims each year until vaccines were available.. Let’s look at three victims of the flu in March of 1895 that were printed in the Columbus Dispatch, when flu was dangerous enough to make the newspaper, but not a case of overflowing morgues and coffins stacked high.1

The Young

 “Mrs. Starkey, a widowed sister of Professor McFadden, died of la grippe at her home on College ave Friday morning….” 

Anna McFadden Starkey (1855-1895) had not been ill for long; la grippe struck her and she developed “capillary bronchitis.” Now known as acute bronchiolitis, the condition inflames the airways of the lungs.     “The entire community was startled last Thursday by the announcement…” of the death of Mrs. Starkey. Her funeral service was conducted in part by Otterbein president T.J. Sanders, and several other clergy were present. A widow, she left behind two small children.2

 The Sickly

 “The crippled son of Lorenzo Adams died from the effects of la grippe and pneumonia last week, aged 21. The funeral took place from the family residence on Plum street Friday morning.”

The “crippled son” in this case was Eddie Adams. We don’t know much about Eddie, but he was born with several birth defects. On his entry in the 1880 census there is an unusual note: “Spinal affection [sic] - Enlarged Head.”3 The modern term for this condition is “macrocephaly,” which can be normal or caused by several conditions.4 From this distance, we cannot say what caused Eddie’s disability, or what kind of life he lived, but his obituary called him by the diminutive “Eddie,” a sign, I think, that Eddie was cared for, and missed when he died.

 The Elderly

 “E.C. Brett, aged 84, is one of the victims of this dreaded disease.”

 Ephraim C. Brett was an old man in 1895. Born in 1811 in Connecticut, he relocated to Westerville in 1865. He was a millwright and machinist and lived on North State Street. Described as “quiet and benevolent” and a great student of the Bible, he was active in the Baptist church. His obituary claimed Brett was known for industry, integrity and honesty.5

In 1895, he contracted la grippe. Since he was quite old by the standards of the time, he was probably written off by the readers of the Dispatch. The news announcement, however, called him a victim, not a fatality. That he had the grip in 1895 was certain, but he recovered, and lived on until 1901.

Take that, virus!

 Many others in Franklin County contracted the flu that early spring. A boy, the son of Columbus doctor C. A. Howell in Minerva Park, was sick with it.6 Flu was a moderate killer, but that was coming, in 1918. Did any of the victims of Spanish flu remember the outbreak of 1895?

1 Columbus Dispatch, March t, 1895.

2 https://whmcollection.net/collection/collectionspace/detail/e0ec217a-8643-446e-92b7

3 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBV-BM7?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F 61903%2F1%3A1%3AM8M4-HWQ&action=view&cc=1417683

4 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22685-macrocephaly

5 https://whmcollection.net/collection/collectionspace/detail/4d174a77-1bd8-4635-a050

6 Dispatch, March 6, 1895

6 Dispatch, March 6, 1895.

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