Copyright © 2020 John F. Oyler
May 28, 2020
The “Spanish” Flu in Bridgeville
Our current pandemic has frequently been compared and contrasted with the massive flu epidemic in 1918 and 1919. We got to wondering just how serious it was in Bridgeville. The result of our research has been that it was indeed serious.
For perspective we should consider overall statistics. Worldwide the epidemic lasted from Spring 1918 through early summer 1919. In 1919 the population of the whole world was about 1,600,000,000 persons (one-fifth of what it is today!). About five hundred million people were infected; total deaths were estimated at fifty million, might have been twice as high. A fifty million total produces a mortality rate slightly over 3.0 percent.
The population of the United States was one hundred and three million; about three million people were infected. Total fatalities were between five hundred thousand and eight hundred and fifty thousand. The lower total produces a mortality rate of about 0.5%, well below the global value. Incidentally, 1918 is the only year since 1900 that the nation’s population actually decreased.
The population of Pittsburgh was about five hundred and seventy-five thousand. Its first cases of the flu were reported on October 2, 1918 – two army cadets being trained on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The epidemic ran through mid-April; total deaths were about four thousand six hundred. The resulting mortality rate of 0.8% was the highest of any major city in the country.
A rigorous search of contemporary newspapers turned up a few vague references to Bridgeville and one that appeared to be specific. An article in the December 8, 1918, Pittsburgh Daily Post, discussing bans closing schools, churches, theatres, and other public places in the communities of Avalon, Bellevue, Ben Avon, and Emsworth reported they were being renewed and extended until December 18.
Almost as an afterthought, the article also reported “A similar ban has been placed on Bridgeville. At Bridgeville the health officer reports that there were 100 serious cases, that brought the ban on one-half-day’s notice.” This suggests that Bridgeville may well have been one of the major hot spots in Allegheny County, outside of the city.
This suggestion is reinforced by information from the family history of the Fryer family, as reported in “Bridging the Years”, Volume III, the commemorative yearbook published by the Bridgeville Community Association as part of Bridgeville’s Centennial celebration in 2001.
According to this history, the Amos Fryer Funeral Parlor “buried over 121 citizens during the National Tragedy of the Influenza Epidemic from our community.” Ironically this total included the Funeral Director, Samuel Blake Fryer, Sr., buried on October 26,1918, and his infant son, Paul, five days earlier. Mr. Fryer had recently inherited the business from his father, Amos, who died on May 8, 1918. These were certainly difficult times for the Fryer family.
Amos Fryer, born in 1847, was the grandson of Leonard and Eleanor Fryer. They came to western Pennsylvania in the late 1700s, originally settling on Miller’s Run. Their seventh son, Samuel, was Amos’ father. He built a grist mill on McLaughlin Run, close to today’s intersection of McLaughlin Run Road and Baldwin Street. Amos inherited his father’s entrepreneurial bent, establishing Bridgeville’s first lumber yard. In 1875 he sold the lumber yard and opened a furniture store, with undertaking as a sideline. This ultimately led to the success of the Fryer Funeral business.
In 1918 Bridgeville’s population was about 3,000. In 1920, after the epidemic had faded into a memory, the nation suffered 13.0 deaths from all causes, per 1,000 residents. Based on this, we assume there would have normally been about forty deaths in a typical year in Bridgeville.
Any analysis of this type must consider the fact that there were additional funeral parlors in Bridgeville at this time. “Squire” William Russell’s undertaking business was started in 1904 and was near its peak in 1918; there may have been others. Apparently the Russell family, like the Fryers, suffered an ironic death, The “Bridgeville” column in Canonsburg’s December 21, 1918 “Daily Notes” reports “Mrs. Will Russell is among the late flu victims”. She probably was Squire Russell’s wife.
Another relevant factor is the fact that Bridgeville funeral parlors served a wider area than just the Borough itself – Miller’s Run in South Fayette, Thom’s Run in Collier Township, Beadling in Upper St. Clair, etc. If we add another 7,000 persons in these communities, the total deaths in a normal year for “Greater Bridgeville” would have been one hundred and thirty. Assuming the Fryer Funeral Parlor handled half of them, their annual load would be sixty-five, well below the “121 citizens” reported for the seven months the epidemic raged.
It is easy to speculate that the mortality rate passing through this one funeral home during the epidemic was several times the normal rate. This speculation is reinforced by statistics from Pittsburgh at the time, where the rate of documented flu deaths was almost identically equal to the rate of deaths from all other causes. If Bridgeville was indeed a hot spot, its rate would have been higher than the average for Pittsburgh.
The effects on Bridgeville residents of this scourge were not limited to local deaths. The March 10, 1919 “Daily Notes” reports that Bridgeville’s T. A. Warrensford family had been notified of the death of their son Lloyd, of pneumonia, in a hospital in France, on February 17, 1919.
His story is well chronicled in my brother’s book “Almost Forgotten”. He is one of four local men who lost their lives in World War I while serving in the 319th Infantry. It is well documented that more servicemen in that war died from the flu than were killed in action.
It certainly does appear that the Spanish Flu Epidemic in Bridgeville was a much more significant event than we had realized and that the number of deaths it produced was at least twice as many as those from all other causes in that period.
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