Part 1 – 1918

On a recent post in the Wilkinson County Mississippi Genealogy Group Facebook page, Monica asked the question:

“Have you found any family members impacted during other times in history, i.e. Influenza of 1918?”

After thinking over the question for a minute I remembered a family story I was told, and my short answer is – yes.  

My grandmother Beulah Veal Payne was born in 1910 to Ollie Veal and Kate Lewis of Woodville, Mississippi.  From 1997-2000, my mother, along with my aunts, were her steadfast caretakers.  During those years they had plenty of time to talk with my grandmother about all the stories, trials and tribulations she had had over the years. 

My mother told me one story my grandmother remembered from when she was a little girl growing up in Woodville.  My grandmother said they were not allowed to go outside during the “sickness” and that one person went outside of the house to empty the slop jar and dropped dead.  She remembers how confined they were in the house and it was smelling bad and they were not allowed to go outside, not even to empty the slop jars.

Was this a true-to-life story or a child’s remembrance of life during a pandemic? Was the virus so contagious that children feared going outside even for a short while?  What stories will children remember after being sheltered-in in the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020? Think about it, if your bathroom toilet backed up during the Pandemic would you let a plumber into the house, that is, if you could find one who would answer your call?

The details of the warning were clear, whether the story was as she remembered it or not – don’t go outside the house.   A small child born in 1910 remembered the story she was told over 80 years ago, that someone in the family had gone outside and died while emptying the slop jar.   And, as a result, they were “sheltered in place” and not allowed to leave the house. 

When the Facebook question was posed about the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, my thoughts immediately turned to my stack of family death certificates.  My first instinct was to search for people who had died around 1918 and to find out what were the causes of death.

In an earlier blog post on Profiles of 5 Wilkinson County Civil War Black Freedom Fighters, I remembered a brief bio I wrote about Nolan Veal, who was an older cousin of my grandmother.

“Noland Veal (#35), younger brother of Madison Veal, was born in 1845 on Holy Grove Plantation in Woodville, Wilkinson County Mississippi. He married Millie Wright. In March 1863, Nolan Veal, along with Andrus Hayden (#34) and William Bladen (#19), ran away to Bayou Sara Louisiana and enlisted in the Union Navy aboard the gunboat USS Kenwood.  He died April 8, 1919 on Cherryfield Plantation in Woodville, Mississippi.”

So, off to the stack of family death certificates…