Spanish Influenza, Dec. 2, 1918

Sheridan Media reporter Pat Blair looks back in time, over 100 years ago, to the impact of Spanish influenza as reported in the pages of the Sheridan Enterprise in 1918.

Harley Merrill, who operates the Foss ranch about 21 miles out of Sheridan on Tongue River, died from influenza just before 7 o’clock this morning, Dec. 2. The body is now at the Champion & Shannon funeral rooms. He leaves behind a wife and seven children, all of them suffering with influenza.

Sheridan Masons who planned to go to Cheyenne for the Consistory reunion received notice that the event has been postponed due to the Spanish influenza outbreak there.

The U.S. Public Health Service is warning of reports from England and Spain of an increase in tuberculosis after the influenza epidemic.