from the Cordova Times, March 21, 2025
When Flu Fears Raged in Alaska
By Hank Nuwer
The Cordova Times in 1920 addressed a nasty flu outbreak that resulted in deaths all over Alaska from 1918 to 1920. Similar outbreaks in Seattle, Chicago and New York resulted in many cases due to the greater crowded conditions and, in many cases, below minimum standards of cleanliness.
The article contained advice from Dr. Rex F. Schwartz. He noted that the disease resembled a similar outbreak of flu that beset the world in 1889 and 1890.
Patients reported high fever, chills and pain, and lethargy. Those patients who reported inflammation of the ear and developed pneumonia were particularly in danger.
He conceded that most people regarded the outbreak as Spanish influenza, but he stressed there was no evidence it originated in Spain.
The disease was particularly feared in 1918 as 250,000 American soldiers boarded troop ships to fight in Europe against Germany in the Great War.
By mid-November, the disease outside Cordova was reported in such numbers that assistant federal health commissioner Dr. W. W. Council and city health officer Dr. W. H. Chase ordered the shuttering of churches, schools, and theaters.
The closings might have stopped a greater epidemic over the following six weeks.
Cordova physician Dr. Emil Krulish reported 130 cases of influenza at Christmas time, 1918. Krulish tried to calm fears, saying he believed the worst was over with 54 cases and three deaths in recent days.
Assisting local doctors and nurses were two doctors and three nurses who arrived in Cordova around December 1, 1918.
Postal workers in Fairbanks, Nenana and elsewhere feared the disease could be spread in the mail. All mail for a time there was fumigated.
However, the disease ramped up in 1919. The deaths of Cordova shoemaker John Olsen, Cordova packing plant employee M. Broderick, and Sand Point resident John Henry Nelson were recorded by January 6, 1919.
Cordova responded by insisting upon quarantine for all non-residents arriving in the city out of an abundance of caution. Those quarantined were told they had “to puggle up” and pay all costs incurred during their quarantine at local hotels.
Anyone wishing to leave town by steamer or to and from the Chita train needed permission from Cordova’s health officials.
By January 20, 1919, local officials announced the disease under control once more.
An announcement was made that excellent skating was now on hand in Cordova, signifying that the quarantine was ended.
But elsewhere, the influenza continued to claim victims. By far the cases of influenza in Alaska posted the greatest threat to human life if the disease hit the villages of the territory’s indigenous populations.
On January 20, 1919, Tindian agent Glass reported an outbreak of 20 new influenza cases at Copper Center.
In April of 1919, a relief party led by Jones Island trading station operator Peter Brandt and Alaska pioneer Harry Ashton arrived at Cape Prince of Wales to find tragic conditions, according to the Cordova Daily Times of April 30, 1919.
“The natives were found in a pitiful state when the relief party arrived and only their heroic work presented the entire decimation of the natives,” noted the Daily Times. “Practically every igloo in the village contained one or more corpse(s).”
In addition to treating the town’s surviving 150 residents, the relief party buried the dead.
When they departed, the two rescuers informed the Daily Times that the surviving residents were “in excellent health.”
They then set out to return to Nome by way of York, where they reported the birth of a new baby, a sign of normalcy returned.
“Ashton and Brandt deserve the highest commendation for the splendid work done by them voluntarily and without thought of reward,” noted the Nome Industrial Worker newspaper.
Hank Nuwer will celebrate his 79th birthday by beginning studies in the Fall semester at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in the English Department’s Creative Writing MFA graduate program. His specialty will be nonfiction.