ANOTHER PANDEMIC

We have been dealing with the world-wide COVID for two years now, most of us vaccinated, some of us contracting the disease, and to my knowledge, no family members having died from the disease. We have heard from time to time the comparisons of COVID to the 1918-1919 Influenza that was also worldwide and deadly.

I don’t wish to discuss our situation today because I know how emotional, and political, it has become. But I’d like to write today’s post about what I’ve learned about the Influenza and its effect on our Iowa family members.

The Influenza actually had nothing to do with Spain. The best guess is that it started in Haskell County, Kansas, where the first known case was recorded. A remote farm area, it might seem unlikely for it to have traveled so quickly and become a worldwide pandemic. But, when we take into account our involvement in World War I, one can see how this could happen.

From Haskell County and other parts of Kansas, men came into close contact with each other at Camp Funston (now known as Fort Riley). Over 500 soldiers became ill there in the first week of March 1918, and within 3 more weeks, more than 1,100 men were sick. And by the end of the spring, 48 soldiers had died.

Still, after training, soldiers were dispersed to other camps, other bases, and then onto ships to Europe. Once the virus reached Europe, it spread quickly, not just among Americans, but also among our Allies.

Ships now traveling back and forth to and from the United States carried the original strain as well as new, more dangerous ones. And now we see an unchecked spread in the United States, especially in large cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco. Strains continued to mutate. The flu reached more remote areas, and eventually it killed 16 million people worldwide. The war itself had killed about 50 million people. Thirty percent of our army was affected.

My great Uncle Frank Linn, a soldier in France, was detained and quarantined before he was allowed to board the ship back to the United States. Undoubtedly, it was the flu.

When we review death records for 1918 and 1919, it’s important to look at “hidden” or “alternate” causes of death. Some were listed as having died of spinal meningitis or pneumonia when it was really Influenza.

What influence did this have on daily life in the United States? Theaters, churches, bars, and other public places were closed because of the flu. Schools in Chicago were closed for a time. During this time, the life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years. In Iowa, schools were closed, masks were mandated, and many businesses had to close temporarily or even permanently. Farmers were able to feed themselves and their families, but I wonder how well they were able to move food or animals to their next destinations.

Below is just a sampling of articles taken from the Dayton and Stratford areas. Included are two links to more details about the origin of the flu and the protests about wearing masks.

Most of the information from these articles reminds me a great deal of what we are now going through. Pandemics 100 years apart. Affecting our ancestors then and us today.

Dayton Review, October 1918

The Origin of the 1918 Flu

Protests to Mask Wearing

Fort Dodge Messenger, October 2018

Webster City Journal, October 2018

Stratford Courier, October 1918

Daily Freeman, November 1919

Daily Freeman, December 2018

Webster City Journal, October 2018. Williams is in Hamilton County.

Stratford Courier, December 1918     

The Mystery of Maria Barquist Olofson

Maria Barquist Olofson is my 2nd great grandmother, born on 28 September 1842. She was the third of 6 children born in Sweden to John Barquist, Sr., and his wife Marget Pehrsdotter. But when did Maria die, and where is she buried? 

Let's take a look at what we know about Maria:

When Maria was just 15 years old, the entire family came to the United States, settling first near the Jansonite settlement of Swedes in Illinois. But soon they moved to Hardin Township in Webster County. There, Maria met and married Olof Olofson in 1865.

Maria and Olof had a son, William Edward Olofson, born in 1866. The family was not well off when compared to others in the area, including the Barquists. For example, in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedule (Agriculture), Olof Olofson is shown in Hardin Township, Webster County. He has 30 improved acres and 40 unimproved woodland or forest acres and 19 unimproved "old fields" not growing wood.

Olof's father-in-law, John Barquist, Sr., however, is listed as having 60 tillable acres, 100 total acres. it also lists the value of his property, crops, and animals. [Note: You may recall the post from last year about John Barquist being one of the settlers who had his property taken from him in a dispute that went all the way to the Supreme Court for a final decision.]

Whether the Olofsons had wealth or land, they had a real community of Swedes including Olof's mother and siblings and their families, as well as Maria's parents and siblings and their families. They were church-going people, belonging to the Stratford Lutheran Church.

On 31 July 1869, Olof and Maria had a second child, a daughter named Matilda. We see her in the Stratford Lutheran Church records with her parents and brother "Eddie". But Matilda's life was short. We see an entry in that same church record for February 1870, stating that Matilda had died.

The 1870 US Federal Census was taken in August and shows Olof, Maria, and their son Eddie. Daughter Matilda is gone, but I have no death record and no burial location for her. That isn't unusual for the time as Iowa was still a relatively new state without standardized rules for vital records.

But adding to the mystery is what then happened to Maria? In the 1880 US Federal Census, this is what we see:

Olof, age 43; W. E. (Eddie), age 14; and Olof's mother Christine Olofson, age 76. No Maria. And did you also notice the letter "D" in Olof's record? That is a column for marital status: Married (M), Single (S), or Divorced (D).

Now, was that accurate information? Census information is only as good as those GIVING the information and those WRITING it down. If Olof and Maria were indeed divorced, there is no record. But clearly something happened between the 1870 census where we DO see Maria and the 1880 census where she is gone. 

I've looked in many, many places. With her parents, her siblings, in the insane asylum, married to someone else, and in death and burial records. But I've not found her. I've had others look, asked for help from local genealogy societies, worked with others researching the Barquist family, and still not found her. Nor have I found daughter Matilda.

I put this brick wall away, but periodically I look again, hoping there are new records, new information, additional ideas for finding Maria, for finding Matilda's burial plot. My tree is so beautiful with branches going up and out into a fullness that makes me so proud. And yet, I have one branch that has a hole in it. 

Recently, I came across an article about the Methodist Church cemetery in Hardin Township. The following transcript is about John Linn, but I think you might see the relevance to our Maria Barquist Olofson brick wall:

"John Linn born in Sweden in 1826 and settled in Hardin Township in 1850. Mrs. Edna Anderson of Stratford is a granddaughter. She is 87 and very, very alert. She told this story: They had a daughter 2 years old [Julia Linn], a second daughter [Mary] was born and the mother died. Mr. Linn hewed out a large walnut log and buried her in this. Later when the cemetery was moved from the Methodist Church site, she was moved also to the South Marion Cemetery along with other graves."

She and others were moved to the South Marion Cemetery! Could Maria and Matilda also be among those moved from the Methodist Church cemetery to the South Marion Cemetery?

I've checked the records. First, there is no mention of John Linn's first wife Brita being buried there. And there is no record of Matilda or Maria being there either. I've emailed the local genealogy society and haven't heard back. Still, I'm hopeful that we will learn where Brita, John's wife is, and more important, where Maria Barquist Olofon and Matilda Olofson are buried.

40 years of searching. Do you have any thoughts? I'm willing to look anywhere. None of these female ancestors should be lost.

Maria Barquist Olofson