Presque Isle Co - 1918 Death Records Transcribed!

If you check out my post from last week with the records from Alpena, you'll see what I'm trying to accomplish here by transcribing the 1918 death records for Alpena and Presque Isle Counties...for now I'll avoid repeating myself!

To see the database of 148 death certificates for PI County from 1918, please go here.  I extracted a lot of good data like first/last/maiden name, death date, age, name of parents, and cause of death, but to see the whole certificate and additional info, visit Seeking Michigan and search.  Death certificates are available from 1897-1920.

Here are the stats for Presque Isle County, during the year of the infamous influenza epidemic:

Total Deaths - 148

Accidental - 4 (3%)
Cancer - 5 (3%) *today cancer accounts for over 20% of deaths in the US
Heart Disease - 13 (9%) *today, heart disease accounts for nearly 25% of US deaths
Influenza - 25 (17%) *much lower than Alpena/national averages which were around 35%
Other Diseases (Scarlet Fever, Typhoid Fever, Cholera, Meningitis, etc) - 15 (10%)
Tuberculosis - 12 (8%)
Suicide - 2
Infants - 51 (34%)

In comparing these numbers to those of Alpena County, a few things stand out.  First, the dramatically lower number of influenza-related deaths.  Could this be because of the lower population density and fewer outside visitors?  Perhaps.  It could also be that, in the more rural Presque Isle County, fewer deaths were actually reported.  One thing I definitely attribute to PI County's much higher rate of infant death is the rural location and lack of medical or sanitary resources nearby.

In the Victorian Age, there was a huge disparity between urban and rural populations, and the difference in available technologies and medical care was great.  For example, Alpena and Presque Isle townships didn't even have electricity until the late 1930s, when Alpena Electric Light Company had already been serving Alpena since 1881.  Also, very few in the farming community had automobiles at that time, denying them access to McRae Hospital in Alpena.  Contrary as it sounds, very few farmers at that time even had horses, which were a luxury.  Many farmers could only afford the more practical option of oxen, which could help with farm labor. Unless a qualified medical professional was in walking distance of those in peril, they were usually on their own, in a time when there was no internet, virtually no farmers had a secondary education, and very little medical information was available to the rural public.

Alpena Co - 1918 Death Records Transcribed!

Over this week I transcribed all of the 1918 death records from Alpena County found on Seeking Michigan and compiled them into a database which can be found here.  Presque Isle County is up next and should be completed by the end of next week.

Information included in the database is city/township of death, date, name, name of father and mother (when available), and cause of death.  Maiden name, if available, is shown in parentheses after the married name. Information is only as accurate as written and transcribed - I tried my best!  Additional information, including place of birth, address, spouse, place of burial, and more can be found by visiting Seeking Michigan and searching for the (free!) actual death certificate.

Why only 1918, you ask?  1918 was the year of the great Spanish Influenza pandemic (also known as La Grippe), in which many Alpena and Presque Isle residents, most of them healthy young adults, lost their lives.  One family hit particularly hard was that of James Arbuckle, who lost his wife, a son, a daughter, and a grandson to the flu.

The numbers are astounding:

For the year, there were 304 death certificates available (*not all are included, May-August is especially sparse.) Of those 304 deaths, 107 were caused by influenza, making up 35% of the total number of deaths for 1918.  This figure may be elevated due to the absence of records from the summer months during the "eye" of the influenza storm, but is generally in line with the national rate of 32%.

Before October, when the second and most deadly wave of the epidemic hit, the death rate for the county averaged 24 deaths per month.  But in October, when the epidemic was at its worst, there were 56 deaths - a mind-blowing 233% increase over the January-September average.  78% of the deaths for October were caused by influenza.  And November wasn't much better, with 51 deaths.

By December, the flu was still rampant but the worst of the epidemic had passed - the number of deaths was down to 36, with 44% of the deaths being influenza-related.

The second highest percentage of deaths, at about 20%, sadly belonged to infants who made up 61 of the 304 total deaths.  Of those 61 infant deaths, 13 were stillbirths, 10 were premature births, 10 were caused by influenza, 6 were caused by cholera (of which there was also an outbreak in October of that year), and 5 were caused by eating/stomach related issues.

Leading causes of death for 1918 (based on the available information):

Influenza - 107 (35%)
Infancy-related - 61 (20%)
Heart Disease - 20 (6%)
Accidental - 17 (5%)
Cancer - 12 (4%)
Tuberculosis - 8 (2%)

Can you imagine living in a time where the flu caused 35% of deaths, and infants made up 20% of deaths, yet heart disease and cancer only made up 10% of deaths combined?

By comparison, here are current US figures, as released in 2002:

Heart Disease - 28.5%
Cancer - 22.8%
Accidental - 4.4% (virtually unchanged)
Infant Deaths - <1%

During the recent H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak, the P&I (pneumonia & influenza) death rate rose to 7% at its very worst. Once you comprehend the full magnitude of the Spanish flu outbreak, it's a little easier to understand why the medical community was so concerned about the swine flu.

I hope you enjoyed learning about this difficult time in our history, and hopefully some of you were able to utilize the records.  Have a great weekend!