The 1918 influenza pandemic is estimated to have killed between 40 and 50 million people around the world and up to 675,000 in the United States. It hit Mississippi hard. Dr. R.W. Hall of the State Board of Health called it “the greatest loss of life” from a disease in Mississippi history at the time, causing 6,219 deaths from September 1918 to January 1919.
However, Hattiesburg and the surrounding county weathered the virus well. In fact, when it was over, Dr. F.E. Harrington, U.S. public health officer in charge of south Mississippi, said, “The record of Hattiesburg during the influenza epidemic is one of the best, if not the best, in the count[r]y.”
While 1,018 cases of influenza were reported in Forrest County, there were only 27 deaths.
The relatively light effect that the influenza had on the area is mainly attributable to the U.S. Public Health Service working in the area to keep soldiers at Camp Shelby healthy. They came to Hattiesburg in 1917, the year Camp Shelby was established, and began modernizing the city and surrounding county when it came to public health.
This included everything from upgrading garbage disposal, making sure food providers and restaurants were sanitary, and introducing health examinations and education in schools.
The virus first appeared in Hattiesburg on the Mississippi Normal College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) campus on Oct. 1. It was brought to campus by a young man from the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Nitrate Plant who arrived at the college to be a part of the newly formed Student Army Training Corps. The goal of the corps was to train military officer candidates. The corps was later renamed the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, more commonly known as ROTC.
Dr. May Farinhart Jones was the college physician. A Virginia native, Dr. Jones was a graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Baltimore and also spent time on post-graduate work at John Hopkins University. In 1901, she became the first woman to be admitted into the Mississippi State Medical Association.
After working as college physician at the Mississippi State College for Women in Columbus for several years, she came to Mississippi Normal College upon its opening in 1912. She taught physiology and hygiene at the college, worked with community children as the U.S. Public Health Service’s school inspector for Forrest County, and even wrote health textbooks for children.
By Oct. 5, eight cases of influenza had been reported on campus, and Dr. Jones had an epidemic on her hands. The decision was made to not send the students home to their communities so as not to spread the virus any further, unlike every other college in the state, and classes continued on campus.
Joseph Cook, MNC president, had begged the Legislature for funds to build an infirmary on campus, but it had yet to happen. So, on Oct. 7, the Industrial Cottage, now the Honor House, was turned into a hospital housing mainly men (aside from three women who contracted pneumonia.) The number of new influenza cases peaked a week later at 24 new cases.
To stop the spread of the virus, precautions were put into place, not unlike the social distancing measures put in place today. For example, they canceled chapel and other gatherings. Doors and windows were propped open in classrooms, students were only allowed to sit in every other seat, and only six people were allowed to a table in the dining hall instead of the usual 10.
Of the roughly 350 people on campus (faculty and students), 130 or 37 percent contracted the virus. Fifty-five of the 61 men who got the virus were part of the Student Army Training Corps. Because many of the men were SATC soldiers, Dr. Jones was able to get one nurse and four orderlies from Camp Shelby. Patients were given a “nutritious diet” of mostly milk and eggs, warm baths for reducing high fevers and aspirin for pain.
Due to these actions, not a single life was lost at the Mississippi Normal College during the influenza epidemic. Later that year, Dr. Jones went on to become assistant superintendent at the Tuberculosis Sanitorium near McGee, Mississippi.
Lisa Foster is a historian living in Petal. Write her at lisacfoster@ymail.com. Various sources were used for this article including the report by Dr. Jones, “Influenza Epidemic at the Normal College,” given to the Mississippi Medical Association in May 1919, and Dr. Chester “Beau” Morgan’s book, “Dearly Bought, Deeply Treasured: The University of Southern Mississippi, 1912-1987.” Other sources included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The Mississippi Encyclopedia,” and various newspaper articles, among others. Special thanks to Suzanne Jones Johnson and the Jones family for providing photographs and other related material.
