Pueblo Closed Theaters, Schools and Churches in October 1918, Two Days After a Liberty Loan Parade
City commissioners ordered the closures on October 3, 1918, as Spanish influenza reached Pueblo. Case counts climbed through the month, according to Pueblo Lore.
On October 3, 1918, Pueblo’s city commissioners ordered theaters, schools, lodges, churches, pool halls, dance halls and public meetings closed, according to a Pueblo Lore article by Ione Miller. The order ran in The Pueblo Chieftain on October 4.
It came two days after what Miller calls “probably the largest public gathering Pueblo had ever witnessed.”
The parade and the order
On the evening of October 1, reportedly 8,000 people marched in a Liberty Loan parade, with an estimated 50,000 spectators, Pueblo Lore says. The article cites the Chieftain of October 2.
The same article says Red Cross chairman R.S. Gast had suggested on October 2 that closing schools and other gathering places might be wise. On October 3, City Physician Dr. W.E. Buck announced that six cases were known. The article says physicians were required to report every case.
The commissioners’ order did not call the situation an epidemic, the article notes. It said the disease had become epidemic in parts of the country and in several Colorado cities. Schools were to send pupils home after a lecture on disease.
Daily life
The McClelland Public Library closed until the quarantine was lifted. Churches told families to hold services at home. Funeral directors announced that burials would be private, limited to immediate family and clergy.
The article says horseshoes, one of the few recreations not restricted, “took on new popularity.”
County schools also closed in stages. The closing order was first set for one week, then extended, then extended indefinitely.
The counts
- October 5: 15 cases, according to Pueblo Lore.
- Within about two weeks: 114 cases in the city, not counting 20 in the county, and 12 deaths on the article’s list.
- October 20: at least 244 cases and at least 27 confirmed flu deaths.
- October 22: 50 deaths and 391 cases.
An emergency hospital with 20 beds was being set up at 329 Central Main, next to City Hall. The article also says one-third of Pueblo’s 80 physicians had left for war service.
Elsewhere in Colorado
Pueblo was not alone. The University of Michigan’s influenza encyclopedia says Denver’s closure order, covering schools, theaters, churches and similar venues, took effect October 6, 1918. It says Governor Julius Gunter issued a statewide closure order and gauze mask requirement on October 16. That page does not mention Pueblo.
What we don’t know
- Exact totals. Miller writes that researchers have always found it extremely difficult to report exact numbers, and that not all deaths were reported as influenza.
- The Ledger has not seen the Chieftain pages. Every Pueblo figure here comes through Miller’s article.
- When the closures ended. This installment of the series does not say. A preview of the next issue says the epidemic would not abate until well into 1919.