Recently, I came across two snippets of local citizens who experienced the Spanish Flu first hand. The first is from Mary Eloise Sifford Thomas who was born near Susanville in 1892. She stated that the flu was very bad and that several people in Susanville had died from it. She, as well as her four sisters contracted it and that old fashioned vegetable soup seemed to help. Her father, Tom Sifford, never did come down with the flu. She wrote, “I think chewing tobacco and taking a little whiskey made him immune.”
George McDow, Jr., who was born in Susanville in 1910 wrote, “Our town was not spared from the devastating effects of the nation-wide influenza epidemic. One of the prominent people to succumb to the illness was Lassen County Surveyor, Thad McKay, a good friend of my father. As a precautionary measure the Town Trustees had closed the theater and all the saloons and barred any public gatherings, but only for a short while.”