Fairhope, Alabama
DR. GEORGE "NICK" SHELDON
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| Dr. George Sheldon at right circa 1910. |
DR. GEORGE "NICK" SHELDON
According to local historian Donnie Barrett, "... he was well known for directing school plays and
was a delightful town character ... was
hired by Dr. Clarence Mershon to first be a druggist ... but his practice soon
developed. He went to help in the Mobile Hospital and caught the flu, and died ... ."
According to other records, Dr. Sheldon was born in 1868 in Mobile and attended the Mobile Medical College; he never married and died at age 50 on February 2, 1919. He is buried in the Old Methodist Cemetery on Dryer Road in Daphne.
He is listed as a physician/surgeon in the 1910 census (Fairhope).
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| Grave marker. |
1918 FLU "MOST DESTRUCTIVE IN HISTORY"
According to the Alabama Department of Public Health:
"In the twentieth century, major pandemics occurred in 1918-1919, 1957-1958, and 1968-1969. The 1918-1919 pandemic was the most destructive in recorded history. It started as World War I (1914-1918) was ending and caused from 20 million to 50 million deaths - two to five times as many deaths as the war itself. When and where the pandemic began is uncertain, but because Spain experienced the first major outbreak, the disease came to be called the Spanish flu. The virus was exceptionally lethal. Many of the deaths were among young adults age 20 to 40, a group usually not severely affected by influenza. In the United States, the first reported cases surfaced at an Army camp in Kansas as World War I began winding down. In Alabama, the first cases were reported in Huntsville. The virus quickly spread and paralyzed many communities as it circled the world."
"In the twentieth century, major pandemics occurred in 1918-1919, 1957-1958, and 1968-1969. The 1918-1919 pandemic was the most destructive in recorded history. It started as World War I (1914-1918) was ending and caused from 20 million to 50 million deaths - two to five times as many deaths as the war itself. When and where the pandemic began is uncertain, but because Spain experienced the first major outbreak, the disease came to be called the Spanish flu. The virus was exceptionally lethal. Many of the deaths were among young adults age 20 to 40, a group usually not severely affected by influenza. In the United States, the first reported cases surfaced at an Army camp in Kansas as World War I began winding down. In Alabama, the first cases were reported in Huntsville. The virus quickly spread and paralyzed many communities as it circled the world."
According to other reports:
"That Great Pandemic ... first appeared in late September 1918 in Florence, Alabama, in the northwest corner of the state ... three weeks later, more than 25,000 cases of influenza in the state had been reported ... impossible to know for sure exactly how many Alabamans were affected by the flu ... but, it is known that during the last two weeks of October, more than 37,000 cases of the flu erupted in Alabama. People around the state died by the hundreds. Health care professionals worked tirelessly, and with limited resources, to stem the tide of the rising pandemic ... [doctors were] overwhelmed with work [and] were handicapped by inadequate transportation and two days behind in making calls; many patients . . . had been sick in bunk houses and tents for several days without nourishment, or medical and nursing attention, the sanitary conditions of the bunk houses were deplorable; the mess halls were grossly unsanitary and their operation much hampered by the lack of help; the existing hospitals were greatly overcrowded with patients; and patients were waiting in line several hours for dispensary treatment, and were greatly delayed in obtaining prescriptions at the pharmacy. The epidemic was so far progressed that the immediate isolation of all cases was impossible."
"That Great Pandemic ... first appeared in late September 1918 in Florence, Alabama, in the northwest corner of the state ... three weeks later, more than 25,000 cases of influenza in the state had been reported ... impossible to know for sure exactly how many Alabamans were affected by the flu ... but, it is known that during the last two weeks of October, more than 37,000 cases of the flu erupted in Alabama. People around the state died by the hundreds. Health care professionals worked tirelessly, and with limited resources, to stem the tide of the rising pandemic ... [doctors were] overwhelmed with work [and] were handicapped by inadequate transportation and two days behind in making calls; many patients . . . had been sick in bunk houses and tents for several days without nourishment, or medical and nursing attention, the sanitary conditions of the bunk houses were deplorable; the mess halls were grossly unsanitary and their operation much hampered by the lack of help; the existing hospitals were greatly overcrowded with patients; and patients were waiting in line several hours for dispensary treatment, and were greatly delayed in obtaining prescriptions at the pharmacy. The epidemic was so far progressed that the immediate isolation of all cases was impossible."
Total number of deaths in the state was estimated to be 16,000, according to the health department (chart below).
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