Bovina Bicentennial Celebration, Update 1

This is the start of a monthly series about the upcoming Bovina Bicentennial Celebration in 2020. Here’s where we are at:

• An ad-hoc committee met last year to brainstorm ideas for how to celebration our town’s 200^th birthday.
• The town of Bovina has put $1000 in my budget specifically as seed money to fund the 2020 celebration.
• In the fall we launched a logo contest. Wendy Buerge, Rick Mills and Jack Burns served as judges and chose a design by Samantha Misa (design on top). We’ll be using it on anything related to the celebration. The judges also chose two other designs by Steve Burnett and Alexis Rockefeller (Chuck and Betty McIntosh’s granddaughter) to be used in other venues. Thanks to all who submitted designs. These will be displayed next summer on Bovina day (July 20).
• I am working on having a poster made of the 1888 painting of Bovina Center to promote the celebration and as a fundraiser. Torkil Stavdal has graciously donated his time to photograph the painting for the poster. I will be applying for a Delaware County Tourism Promotion and Development Grant in February to help pay for the poster.
• Chuck McIntosh has offered his auction skills to hold a pie auction to raise funds for the celebration. It will be on Bovina Day, July 20, 2019. A committee is being formed – if you are interested in being involved let me know.
• Purple Mountain Press is going to publish my history of Bovina this year. Proceeds from the sales will go to the celebration.

The big celebration will take place the weekend of August 1 and 2, 2020. Details still need to be worked out, but I hope we can include a parade, town picnic and maybe fireworks. So mark your calendars and stay tuned for further developments.

Epidemic Influenza in Bovina

The 1918 influenza pandemic is believed to have infected 500 million people around the world, with 50 to 100 million dying, estimated to be about five percent of the world’s population. In the United States, it was estimated that about 28% of the population died. There were two ‘waves’ of the illness, though it seems Bovina saw mostly infections from the second, deadlier wave. Though deadlier, Bovina saw only two fatalities, while over forty people became ill.           

Local newspapers started reporting on cases of influenza in Bovina in October 1918, when “several mild cases” were reported. By the end of October, there was enough concern that the schools and local churches closed. Two of the people contracting the illness were Dr. and Mrs. N.B Whitcomb. He was the first Bovina resident to get the disease (his wife was the second). The full list is at the end of this entry.

They recovered, but October saw the first of the two Bovina fatalities when Mrs. Loron Maxim passed away on what was then the Hewitt farm in the Mountain Brook region. Mrs. Maxim was born Jennie Graham, the daughter of William and Eunice Graham. She was 30 years old at her death. Her illness lasted about five days. She was buried in Hardenburgh in Ulster County. Jennie and her husband had been in Bovina only a brief time. Loren remarried in 1920 and left Bovina.

The Bovina Board of Health reported thirty-eight new cases of influenza in December, but for January only eight new cases. One of the cases reported in January 1919 was Louise Hilson, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hilson. She recovered, as did all the children who got the illness in Bovina. But in March 1919, the Andes Recorder reported that a “Bovina Boy Dies in West.” The article went on to state that “Floyd Ruff, son of the late William L. Ruff, of Bovina, died in Kansas City this week and the remains arrived here Thursday evening.  He had been ill for several weeks and it is reported had been afflicted with influenza and measles and typhoid fever.  He had lived with his sister, Mrs. Chauncey McFarland, and only went west last fall.”

As the epidemic faded, Bovina did see one more fatality. On April 21, 1919, Lucy Alta Lee died from the flu, after being sick for six days. Lucy was married to John B. Lee and was his second wife. She had five children, including a son Donald, who was in World War One and was still in France when his mother died. Her stepson Clarence also was a World War One veteran who was gassed in the war and died from its effects in 1922. At the time of her death, her husband and three of her children also were ill, but they all recovered.

Edward Schneider, brother of Lil Hilson, was the last survivor of the epidemic in Bovina, dying ninety-seven years after being ill in 2016 at the age of 102.

From the Bovina Board of Health records, the following were reported suffering from epidemic influenza (usually abbreviated as E.I.). They are listed in order of illness:

October

N.B. Whitcomb

Mrs. N.B. Whitcomb

Chas Russell (brother of Cecil Russell)

Mrs. Chas Russell

Mrs. Loren Maxim (the first fatality)

Edwin Scott

Mrs. Marshall Scott

Margaret Gordon (later social studies teacher at Delaware Academy)

The following people were all believed to have caught the illness attending a Thanksgiving Day church service and became ill the end of November/early December:

Mrs. Marshall Thomson

Miss Mable Fiero

Mrs. Geo Cobb

John Galloway

Mrs. Thos Graham

Mrs. Geo Russell

Other victims reported for December:

Arthur Russell

Hazel Aitken

Ernest Russell

Robert Hunt

Jannette Laidlaw

Jas. Hilson (brother to John Hilson and uncle to Alex and Jack Hilson)

Geo Russell

Mrs. D. Davidson (mother of Fletcher Davidson)

Fred Henderson

Burton Henderson

Robert Fiero

Ruth Coulter (later married Bill Parsons)

Helen Galloway

Mrs. John Blair

Mrs. John McCune

Miss Ruth Ormiston (later married Henry Monroe)

Marshall Thomson

Mildred Smith

Fred Whithead

Frank Miller

Marion Ormiston

Harry Robinson

Louise Hilson (child age 2)

Muriel Ruscoe

Jean Hume

Geo. Johnson

Mrs. Geo Johnson – Mrs. Johnson was reported as catching the illness on a train from Alberta, Canada, thus infecting her husband and a couple of her neighbors.

Annie McFarland

Mrs. Thos Archibald

Edith Erkson

Bessie Erkson (child, age 3)

Robert Erkson

Mrs. C. Erkson

Frank Pershall

Claud Erkson

Walter Wilson

Mrs. Ruscoe

January 1919

Fred Whithead

Mrs. Whitehead

Edward Schneider (child age 5)

Carl Doonan

Lew B. Locelyn

Helen McDivitt

John Quinn

Mrs. John Scutt

For some reason, any illnesses after January were not recorded, including the death of Lucy Lee (that information was noted in the newspaper).

January 1919 - 100 Years Ago "in That Thriving Town"

The Andes Recorder's Bovina column reported at the start of the year the Bovina Fire Insurance Company's pay out of claims for several people, including John Miller's burned barn and several livestock deaths. The local doctor upped his charges for house calls and a Dairymen's league was created.

January 3, 1919

·         A New Years dance was held here on Wednesday night.

·         Cecil Russell, who recently purchased the general merchandise business of Andrew T. Doig at the old Thos E. Hasting store, took over the business January 1.  The inventory was taken the past week.

·         The team of Mrs. Rockafeller, driven by her son Floyd, ran away Saturday.  The lad had them hitched to a bob when they started and he was dragged some distance behind the bob before he could disengage his hands from the lines.  The team then ran to James Bramley’s and after circling around among Bramley’s cows, which were being watered, ran on a knoll and were caught.  No damage was done.

January 10 1919

·         George H. Russell has moved from Russell hill to part of H.C. Burgin’s house in the Center.

·         Mrs. Frank VanDusen received a German helmet from her son, Leon, who sent it from the front.

·         William R. Aitken of the U.S.S. Wanderer has been here on a five day furlough, to visit his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Aitken.

·         Louise, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hilson, is now improving rapidly from an attack of influenza under the care of Miss Muir as nurse.

January 17, 1919

·         Dr. Whitcomb has increased his charge for calls in the village to $1.50 and other calls accordingly.

·         Harry Barlow age 10 years, died on his birthday, January 14, at the home of his aunt, Mrs. Wm. B. Smith, from Bright’s disease an heart trouble, which dated from an operation for appendicitis last February. He was born in Colorado and after the death of his mother came to live with his aunt.

Bovina Fire Insurance Co

List of amounts paid:

John M. Miller, barn burned - $2,000

Mrs. JohnIrvine, cow killed - $50

Emler Close damage to house - $11.17

R.E. Thomson, cows killed - $350

A.B. Phyfe, cows killed - $150

M.W. Thomson, cow killed - $20

N.B. Whitcomb, horse killed - $25

Ellsworth Tuttle, sheep killed - $5

Salary of officers - $102

State organization - $3

T.W. Miller printer - $9

January 24, 1919

·         Sloan Archibald lost a valuable cow Saturday. It bled to death after being dehorned.

·         Calvin Russell has gone to New York City, where he has employment for the winter.

·         Mrs. John A. Irvine is having an electric lighting system installed in her residence on Maple avenue.

·         The Bovina Center Co-Op Creamery patrons received a dividend of their surplus amounting to $3,632.16. The stockholders dividend this year was 5 percent.

·         Harold Robinson is home, discharged from the army.  Homer Burgin, who is in the marines, is home from France on a 30 day furlough.  He was “over the top” four times. J.L. Myers of the Aviation Corps, is still enjoying a furlough.

League Formed in Bovina

At a farmer’s meeting held Tuesday about 44 names were enrolled as members of the Dairymen’s League, W.J. Storie was chosen president; A.T. Archibald, secretary, and Frank T. Miller, treasurer.  A good start for the League in Bovina.

January 31, 1919

·         Letters from the boys ‘over there” are beginning to sift in, to the great relief of anxious mothers and other relatives.

·         The officers of the R.P. church for the ensuing year are: Fred Henderson, superintendent; Kenneth Kaufman, assistant; Millard Russell, secretary and treasurer.

·         A party Tuesday evening at Mrs. Ida Burgin’s, in honor of her son, Homer, whose furlough will soon expire, was largely attended, a number from Andes being present.