1918

Spanish Flu

A disease that was first recorded in Haskell County, Kansas, one hundred years ago 1918. It spread quickly: not only throughout the U.S. but across the world. During the pandemic that lasted two years from its outbreak in the U.S., the American death toll was 548,000. Across the globe - an estimated one-third of the world's population was infected with between 50 million to 100 million people killed.

World War I contributed greatly to the spreading of the disease as transported soldiers spread the disease from port to port.

Fatalities in Rockford numbered 323, with nearly 100 more in the rest of Winnebago County. Camp Grant, the Army training facility south of Rockford, had more than 1,400 fatalities.

Photo from Rockford Public Library, Local History.