Letter #7

Letter #7
(This letter is from Hazel, Violet’s older sister)
May 22, 1918
Woods Cross, Utah

Dear Bro. Henry,
I guess you will read a letter soon from someone besides Violet. We have sure been lonesome without you, but never mind, you will soon be back. Well, we are all feeling fine, especially now that the asparagus is cut. Well, Henry, I hope you are enjoying your school the best you can. It is sure a good chance for you boys. Don’t they give a business course in the school? The school must be a large one and the course you are taking is fine. It is sure a good schooling. I hope you are not worrying because the Lord will take care of you wherever you are if you will do your part and I know you will do that. Well, I am going to have the honor of helping to make the service flag from our ward. The Relief Society bought the cloth and asked me if I would make it. I can ask those I want to help me make it. Violet says she is going to put one large star in the center for you. We all feel the same way. There are over fifty stars to go on the flag. I am sure glad to think that Bountiful is waking up to the fact that they have not got a flag and are going to have one. Well, we have had more rain since you left. The gardens are looking fine. Father says his melons are coming up good. Well, I guess we will all have to stay in Bountiful for at least two weeks as the town is under quarantine for scarlet fever. Aren’t you glad you got out of the town when you did? I sure hope no one calls me on a case of scarlet fever, for I have never had it myself. Well, Violet said I was called to the door, but I am back again. I don’t know what to write for I guess Violet has told you all the news, but never mind, it will help to pass the time for you. Well, Henry, I am trying to take your place with Violet in taking her out and being her sweetheart, but she says that there isn’t anybody that can take your place. Well I am glad that she feels that way. I will take care of her and show her as good a time as I can. Was up to a party at Fred Briggs last night and had a fine time. I suppose Violet has told you all about it. Your mother got a letter from David yesterday and he said that he could not get a furlough to come home. Your mother was very much disappointed, but I think he will get it later on. Violet and I are going to go to Salt Lake long enough to go to a show Saturday. I don’t know if they will let us out of Bountiful or not because of the quarantine. Sister Jennings is very sick. She is at the L.D.S. Hospital. The doctors won’t tell Bro. Jennings what is the matter, but she has a baby about two weeks old. I think it is blood poisoning she has got now. Hilda Ford leaves on her mission tonight. There is a girl from Layton going with her. I went through the temple with her the day after you left. Well, I suppose Clyde has got all the officers frightened of him. I hope they have got him frightened. I know that you and George Morgan are going to be all right, and get along all right with the officers. Well Henry, by the way, all the fellows are going off to war. I guess I will have to be a ministering angel unless you do different than Irvin did, and hustle and get me a Jim in the army, ha ha! Sister Stringham said to give you her love and wanted to be remembered to you. They are sure pleased to have Ward home for a few days. By the way, I wrote to Haven the other day. Do you think it will knock him off his tent, or off his perch? Well, I wrote anyway, and if he don’t like it, he can lump it, or mash it, ha ha! Well, I have orders to stop writing so I guess I will have to close so I will have the privilege of writing again. Hoping the Lord will bless you and protect you, I know he will. Hoping to hear from you soon.
I remain as ever,
Hazel, the chaperone

All the folks send their love, but I suppose there is just the love of one that you will accept.
P.S. Delores is going to Mary’s tomorrow.
P.S.S. I got some face cream for Violet so she will be good-looking when you get home.


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FYI: The pandemic spread through almost every location on earth. Declared a pandemic in 1918, the total count of its victims ranged from 40 to 100 million people.
(As a story was told) … “At my grandparent’s home in Utah, the family was quickly infected and was quarantined to their home. Neighbors had to bring fresh food and milk to their doorstep and yell through the closed windows to alert the family to retrieve them after the benefactor backed away. No face to face or touching contact could be allowed”.

I vaguely remembered a story my dad (Richard) told us about being quarantined, so I called him and Uncle Steve for more details. Here’s what I learned: It was true that not only houses, businesses, and churches were quarantined, but sometimes entire cities. So as Hazel tells it, Bountiful was under an entire- town quarantine at one point.

When the grandparents lived in Layton, Richard caught scarlet fever. The house was quarantined by the health department. For three weeks he was, literally, sealed up in his room: that back north bedroom with all the windows. Steve said that Grandma actually sealed up the door and all the cracks with wet newspapers. Dad said she sealed up the door with papier mache. His meals were handed in through the window from the outside. I asked him how he used the bathroom, but he said he didn’t remember. The other kids who usually slept in there (Steve and Jay) were sloughed off to the couches (when Elizabeth contracted it, she was quarantined in the living room). One day Grandma heard voices through the secured bedroom door and found that Richard’s good friend, Newell Layton, had snuck in from the outside and they were having a grand time.

Just a note: I asked my husband about quarantine orders (he is the Health Officer and the only one with legal authority to affect quarantine in Weber Co.) I ran Hazel’s story by him. He said it would be impossible and unenforceable to quarantine Ogden these days, although he could announce a voluntary situation. Recently the stake president asked him for advice on cancelling church. Only twice has he had to serve legal orders of quarantine—once on a parolee with active TB who wouldn’t come in for treatment, and another on a prostitute with positive HIV who refused to ‘retire’ ….but he tells a funny story about Panguitch, Utah. During the terrible pandemic, the citizens of Panguitch were determined not to let it infect their community, so the health officer quarantined the entire town. No one was allowed in or out for a month….until they decided that just the mailman could come in … and … you guessed it … the mailman was a carrier (no pun…) and infected the whole town…. I guess when the Utah health directors get together; they tell really funny stories like that one.