|
In October 1919, the town of Ravenna was preparing for a huge homecoming for the returned soldiers of World War I. The war ended nearly a year before, but the celebration was postponed from its May 1919 date because many of the veterans hadn’t returned yet. Coinciding with this jubilant homecoming celebration was the first anniversary of the beginning of the 1918 influenza epidemic. For many families, it was a time to remember the loved ones they had lost a year before. In the fall of 1918, World War I was coming to an end, but what the weary world didn’t know was that an ever-more lethal enemy was about to burst upon the scene. The faceless killer would claim far more victims than the war. It was called the Spanish Influenza. By spring 1919, millions world-wide had died, including nearly 600,000 Americans. Influenza struck the large cities and the small towns without discretion. In a recently published book, Winter of Death: Victims of the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic in the Ravenna, Nebraska Area, Ravenna author Valerie Vierk documents the deaths in her hometown during that awful time. In 1918, Ravenna had a population of nearly 1,700 and suffered 31 deaths from influenza and pneumonia in a six-month period. This was a far higher death rate than any town in Buffalo County, and possibly more per capita than any other town in Nebraska. Additionally, there were deaths from the war, and a young physician and his driver suffered untimely deaths in an accident. As a child, Vierk heard her mother and grandmother speak of Ravenna’s victims of the terrible epidemic, and saw some of the graves when she decorated graves of the war veterans in Ravenna’s Highland cemetery with her Girl Scout troop. In the fall of 2007, with the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the epidemic /pandemic only a year away, Vierk decided she wanted to learn more about these victims besides reading an aging grave marker. Through research in the microfilm of the Ravenna News, she was stunned to learn how many victims there had been, and how young they were. They ranged in age from 1-46 years. Most were under 30. Vierk’s 74-page book includes biographies of each victim, plus photos of the grave markers of each, and when available, photos of the victims themselves. Additionally, the author has included charts showing the names, dates of death, age, burial locations, and occupations of each victim. Vierk also includes an epilogue, briefly documenting the major influenza epidemics of the past 50 years, and sounds a warning that even with modern medicine, influenza is still a dangerous disease. Winter of Death is available at www.lulu.com or directly from the author by writing valvierk@hotmail.com. The book is also available at Refinds and Hastings Books in Kearney and Grand Island.
Valerie Vierk has published two other non-fiction books: old Stars and Purple Hearts—the War Dead of the Ravenna, Nebraska Area (2005) and Sailing the Troubled Sea—A Nebraska Boy Goes to War (2007) which she co-authored with her father, Herbert Nolda. Vierk holds a BA in English and a minor in history from the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she has been employed for 25 years. She is a 20-year member of the Nebraska Writers Guild.
| 
Quick Links
