Flu Epidemic

With a flu epidemic in the headlines I thought about the family members who died 90 years ago. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed between 20 and 30 million people worldwide. It killed more than the infamous Bubonic Plague.

In my family I know of several casualties. My great uncle Clyde Fulford died from the flu on October 25, 1918. He had travelled from Cortez, Florida to Tampa because his sister Dora Fulford Adams and her family were sick. After helping out there for a couple days he came down with it himself. He returned home but died a couple days later.

I found this letter from his niece, Pauline Adams Forcke dated 10/23/1997:

"We lived in Tampa during the First World War. I'll never forget that people died by the hundreds with the flu. Uncle Clyde came up to check on us. Other than Mann we were all down with the flu. Uncle Clyde was sick when he left to go back to Cortez. Papa begged him not to go, he had to travel by steamer. He was dead three days later."