The Great Plague of 1918 Hit Truckee Like a Runaway Train
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Dr. William Curless, Truckee's primary physician during the 19th century.
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By the time news of the renegade virus, locally called “the Spanish flu,” reached Truckee on October 24, 1918, doctor George W. Bryant had already issued a request in the Truckee Republican to close all public gatherings, including schools.
The newspaper published warnings that people should “keep out of crowded places, avoid persons who cough, wash hands before eating, stay outdoors as much as possible and don’t use a common drinking cup.” Masks for “influenza prevention” were sold at the local drug store.
Despite all the warnings and precautions, the flu virus hit Truckee like a runaway train. Entire families were afflicted and many died. In one week alone, there were 42 new cases in town. The total number of deaths in Truckee is not known but, according to old-timers, more people in town died from this epidemic than from any other single event in the town’s history.
Truckee was ill equipped to handle an epidemic of this magnitude. There were only two doctors in town at the time, Dr. Bryant and Dr. Joseph Bernard. A small hospital had been built in Brickelltown, but it only had 10 rooms. The two doctors worked all day and all night making house calls on sick residents on cold winter evenings. It didn’t take long before Dr. Bernard himself became ill, leaving only Dr. Bryant desperately trying to keep the situation in hand.
Seriously ill people had to be taken off passing trains and were provided care by Dr. Bryant and the rapidly recovering Dr. Bernard. The Women of Truckee Red Cross branch unselfishly worked side by side with the doctors making soup and food for the ill.
To make matters worse, by January 1919 one of Truckee’s most severe winters had set in. The late Marjorie Zoebel, although only a young girl at the time, provided the Truckee-Donner Historical Society with some unforgettable memories of that tragic winter which claimed the life of her father, Peter Fay, an S.P. engineer.
“Most of the residents were down. The few that were still on their feet and able to carry on made gallons of soup and shared it with neighbors who were less fortunate. The storms seemed relentless! For days upon end the thermometers fell to 20 and 30 below zero. Wood and coal were our only fuels. Neighbors had to depend on another’s neighbors to haul out ashes, chop wood and bring in coal. Mom and dad had become terribly ill. Dad was downstairs and I was upstairs in bed. Mom had walking pneumonia, but somehow kept going. She not only took care of us, but helped others. In time I learned that my father had passed away. Charlie Ocker, the undertaker, came and took dad away before I was allowed downstairs. Because of the incessant storms, trains were not able to get through. So many had died that all the caskets had been used up. The funeral home could only hold so many corpses waiting for caskets. Dad was brought home and laid out on our couch. Friend after friend came to sit with him. Eventually the casket came but with nothing to hold it up. How odd that I would remember that they used broomsticks.”
Dr. Bryant may have been the ultimate victim of the disease. He died from a flu virus in 1922. Truckee’s former judge, the late Fosten Wilson, remembered him as a kind man.
“He was well-liked by everyone. He nearly worked himself to death during the flu epidemic. He once went to Hobart Mills by sled to treat a sick man. The man was taking some medicine another doctor had given him and Dr. Bryant threw it out in the snow and applied mustard plaster to the man’s chest. The next day, the fever broke and the man recovered. There were no antibiotics and the methods of treatment were primitive. I think it was faith that healed the man.”
Today, scientists are still trying to piece together the reasons why global flu epidemics occur every 30 years or so. Studies indicate that the 1918 flu virus was exceptionally “virulent” because it underwent several sudden and dramatic mutations in its structure. Such mutations can turn flu into a killer because the victims’ immune systems have no antibodies to fight off the altered virus. Many predict that another lethal plague of flu could erupt again at any time.
However, Truckee is fortunate to have grown from a two-doctor town to a small city with a modern regional hospital with many practicing physicians. Our local doctors might be further encouraged by recalling the pioneer spirit of the town's early heroic physicians, including Drs. Bryant and Bernard, who battled endless blizzards and deep snows in sub-zero weather to reach the injured and suffering. They did so often knowing that their only payment would be the satisfaction of doing their duty.
The newspaper published warnings that people should “keep out of crowded places, avoid persons who cough, wash hands before eating, stay outdoors as much as possible and don’t use a common drinking cup.” Masks for “influenza prevention” were sold at the local drug store.
Despite all the warnings and precautions, the flu virus hit Truckee like a runaway train. Entire families were afflicted and many died. In one week alone, there were 42 new cases in town. The total number of deaths in Truckee is not known but, according to old-timers, more people in town died from this epidemic than from any other single event in the town’s history.
Truckee was ill equipped to handle an epidemic of this magnitude. There were only two doctors in town at the time, Dr. Bryant and Dr. Joseph Bernard. A small hospital had been built in Brickelltown, but it only had 10 rooms. The two doctors worked all day and all night making house calls on sick residents on cold winter evenings. It didn’t take long before Dr. Bernard himself became ill, leaving only Dr. Bryant desperately trying to keep the situation in hand.
Seriously ill people had to be taken off passing trains and were provided care by Dr. Bryant and the rapidly recovering Dr. Bernard. The Women of Truckee Red Cross branch unselfishly worked side by side with the doctors making soup and food for the ill.
To make matters worse, by January 1919 one of Truckee’s most severe winters had set in. The late Marjorie Zoebel, although only a young girl at the time, provided the Truckee-Donner Historical Society with some unforgettable memories of that tragic winter which claimed the life of her father, Peter Fay, an S.P. engineer.
“Most of the residents were down. The few that were still on their feet and able to carry on made gallons of soup and shared it with neighbors who were less fortunate. The storms seemed relentless! For days upon end the thermometers fell to 20 and 30 below zero. Wood and coal were our only fuels. Neighbors had to depend on another’s neighbors to haul out ashes, chop wood and bring in coal. Mom and dad had become terribly ill. Dad was downstairs and I was upstairs in bed. Mom had walking pneumonia, but somehow kept going. She not only took care of us, but helped others. In time I learned that my father had passed away. Charlie Ocker, the undertaker, came and took dad away before I was allowed downstairs. Because of the incessant storms, trains were not able to get through. So many had died that all the caskets had been used up. The funeral home could only hold so many corpses waiting for caskets. Dad was brought home and laid out on our couch. Friend after friend came to sit with him. Eventually the casket came but with nothing to hold it up. How odd that I would remember that they used broomsticks.”
Dr. Bryant may have been the ultimate victim of the disease. He died from a flu virus in 1922. Truckee’s former judge, the late Fosten Wilson, remembered him as a kind man.
“He was well-liked by everyone. He nearly worked himself to death during the flu epidemic. He once went to Hobart Mills by sled to treat a sick man. The man was taking some medicine another doctor had given him and Dr. Bryant threw it out in the snow and applied mustard plaster to the man’s chest. The next day, the fever broke and the man recovered. There were no antibiotics and the methods of treatment were primitive. I think it was faith that healed the man.”
Today, scientists are still trying to piece together the reasons why global flu epidemics occur every 30 years or so. Studies indicate that the 1918 flu virus was exceptionally “virulent” because it underwent several sudden and dramatic mutations in its structure. Such mutations can turn flu into a killer because the victims’ immune systems have no antibodies to fight off the altered virus. Many predict that another lethal plague of flu could erupt again at any time.
However, Truckee is fortunate to have grown from a two-doctor town to a small city with a modern regional hospital with many practicing physicians. Our local doctors might be further encouraged by recalling the pioneer spirit of the town's early heroic physicians, including Drs. Bryant and Bernard, who battled endless blizzards and deep snows in sub-zero weather to reach the injured and suffering. They did so often knowing that their only payment would be the satisfaction of doing their duty.
In June 2018, Truckee-Donner Historical Society received a biography compiled about Dr. William Curless by Alan Wallace. Mr. Wallace kindly allowed us to link to his biography of Dr. Curless and the accompanying source information. Dr. Curless Biography and sources . There is an article in the 1895 Railway Surgeon about how Dr. Curless treated our own John Titus for a horrific back injury. HCS 3/24/2021
