In a few early autumn weeks in 1918 an epidemic of Spanish Influenza ravaged the United States. It was called the Spanish Flu because it was believed to have been carried to the USA on a Coast Guard Cutter from Spain. You would be working with someone one day, they would go home because they didn't feel well and within days they were gone. The death toll around the world was 21 million of which 548,452 were in the USA – ten times more than the 53,513 American lives lost in WWI. Remote Eskimo villages in inaccessible Alaskan regions were completely wiped out. The flu began with a high fever and aching bones. After about four days, many cases developed pneumonia. The lungs of the victims would fill with fluid, causing death. Highly contagious, "open face sneezing" in public was subject to fines and imprisonment. The Spanish Flu killed its millions and then mysteriously disappeared.
It also circulated in the military, striking first at Fort Riley, Kansas in March 1918 but remaining relatively dormant until the fall. Eventually a call-up of 140,000 draftees was canceled because camp hospitals were full. Two of Ridgewood's 113 Honored Dead died within a week or each other, victims of the flu.
One if them was Thomas Milton Boyd who was born May 18, 1894 in Brooklyn and lived at 8 Brookside Ave. with his parents, two sisters and two brothers. He went to Ridgewood Preparatory School before becoming associated with his father in business in Philadelphia. He married Helen Ward on April 27, 1918. He enlisted June 5, 1917 but it was determined that he was unfit for active military service so ironically, he joined a Medical Detachment in the Sanitary
Corps. September 3, 1918 and reported to Camp Dix. He died there a month later at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 1918 of septic pneumonia, developed from Spanish influenza. He is buried in his family's plot Lot 1136, Grave 2 at Valleau Cemetery. At death he was 24 years old.
bio contributed by Chris Stout (#48289027)
It also circulated in the military, striking first at Fort Riley, Kansas in March 1918 but remaining relatively dormant until the fall. Eventually a call-up of 140,000 draftees was canceled because camp hospitals were full. Two of Ridgewood's 113 Honored Dead died within a week or each other, victims of the flu.
One if them was Thomas Milton Boyd who was born May 18, 1894 in Brooklyn and lived at 8 Brookside Ave. with his parents, two sisters and two brothers. He went to Ridgewood Preparatory School before becoming associated with his father in business in Philadelphia. He married Helen Ward on April 27, 1918. He enlisted June 5, 1917 but it was determined that he was unfit for active military service so ironically, he joined a Medical Detachment in the Sanitary
Corps. September 3, 1918 and reported to Camp Dix. He died there a month later at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 1918 of septic pneumonia, developed from Spanish influenza. He is buried in his family's plot Lot 1136, Grave 2 at Valleau Cemetery. At death he was 24 years old.
bio contributed by Chris Stout (#48289027)
In a few early autumn weeks in 1918 an epidemic of Spanish Influenza ravaged the United States. It was called the Spanish Flu because it was believed to have been carried to the USA on a Coast Guard Cutter from Spain. You would be working with someone one day, they would go home because they didn't feel well and within days they were gone. The death toll around the world was 21 million of which 548,452 were in the USA – ten times more than the 53,513 American lives lost in WWI. Remote Eskimo villages in inaccessible Alaskan regions were completely wiped out. The flu began with a high fever and aching bones. After about four days, many cases developed pneumonia. The lungs of the victims would fill with fluid, causing death. Highly contagious, "open face sneezing" in public was subject to fines and imprisonment. The Spanish Flu killed its millions and then mysteriously disappeared.
It also circulated in the military, striking first at Fort Riley, Kansas in March 1918 but remaining relatively dormant until the fall. Eventually a call-up of 140,000 draftees was canceled because camp hospitals were full. Two of Ridgewood's 113 Honored Dead died within a week or each other, victims of the flu.
One if them was Thomas Milton Boyd who was born May 18, 1894 in Brooklyn and lived at 8 Brookside Ave. with his parents, two sisters and two brothers. He went to Ridgewood Preparatory School before becoming associated with his father in business in Philadelphia. He married Helen Ward on April 27, 1918. He enlisted June 5, 1917 but it was determined that he was unfit for active military service so ironically, he joined a Medical Detachment in the Sanitary
Corps. September 3, 1918 and reported to Camp Dix. He died there a month later at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 1918 of septic pneumonia, developed from Spanish influenza. He is buried in his family's plot Lot 1136, Grave 2 at Valleau Cemetery. At death he was 24 years old.
bio contributed by Chris Stout (#48289027)
It also circulated in the military, striking first at Fort Riley, Kansas in March 1918 but remaining relatively dormant until the fall. Eventually a call-up of 140,000 draftees was canceled because camp hospitals were full. Two of Ridgewood's 113 Honored Dead died within a week or each other, victims of the flu.
One if them was Thomas Milton Boyd who was born May 18, 1894 in Brooklyn and lived at 8 Brookside Ave. with his parents, two sisters and two brothers. He went to Ridgewood Preparatory School before becoming associated with his father in business in Philadelphia. He married Helen Ward on April 27, 1918. He enlisted June 5, 1917 but it was determined that he was unfit for active military service so ironically, he joined a Medical Detachment in the Sanitary
Corps. September 3, 1918 and reported to Camp Dix. He died there a month later at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 1918 of septic pneumonia, developed from Spanish influenza. He is buried in his family's plot Lot 1136, Grave 2 at Valleau Cemetery. At death he was 24 years old.
bio contributed by Chris Stout (#48289027)
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