A Department of Health warning stating the public must continue to exercise caution despite the reopening of many schools and other places of assembly in mid-November 1918.
Source: RS136-L5d3 (11): Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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One type of public closure that sparked intense debate was the closing of primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools. The Common Schools Act of 1871 entitled all New Brunswick children, regardless of religion, gender, and socioeconomic class, to a free education. For most young New Brunswickers during the early-twentieth century, this meant attending classes in rural one-room schoolhouses (PANB, “Education: The Early Years (1784–1871)”). Often overcrowded and poorly insulated, schools were sites of concern for the spread of viruses like influenza. To protect New Brunswick children and educators, the Department of Health closed all schools between 11 October and 18 November 1918.
"I was going to school and three of my cousins in the same family [Ouellette] they died of the Spanish flu."
M. Henry Michaud
The following government announcements and correspondence from concerned members of the public present both sides of the debate over closing New Brunswick schools.
For more information on the history of schooling in New Brunswick, please consult another PANB exhibit, “ Education: The Early Years (1784-1871),” part of the Archival Portfolio collection.
A Department of Health warning stating the public must continue to exercise caution despite the reopening of many schools and other places of assembly in mid-November 1918.
Source: RS136-L5d3 (11): Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Letter from Lillian Clarke, dated 11 July 1982 to author Eileen Pettigrew, reminiscing on her experiences with the Spanish influenza in Saint John at the age of fourteen. Although her school closed two weeks prior, Clarke still fell ill, manifested through a lack of coordination and delusions of elephants marching in her room.
Source: MC3682/Box 5/File 1: Eileen Pettigrew fonds.
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Letter from Mrs. Elijah R. Shaw (née Susie A. Lovley) of Upper Woodstock, dated 4 November 1918, inquiring whether schools will reopen before the end of the term. The author wishes for her daughter, schoolteacher Bessie H. Shaw who contracted influenza in Jacksonville, to heal at home.
Source: RS136-L5d3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Announcement declaring New Brunswick schools to reopen on 18 November 1918 for healthy students, at the discretion of local communities.
Source: RS136-L5d3 (10): Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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Letter from mother of four, Mrs. Elmer Tingley of Little Rocher, dated 19 November 1918, expressing concerns to Chief Medical Officer, Dr. George G. Melvin, regarding the opening of public schools.
Sources: RS136-L5d3 (8) and RS136-L5d3 (9).
Report in the 19 December 1918 issue of Hartland’s Carleton Observer covering local influenza cases spreading in schools and children’s susceptibility to contracting the virus.
Source: The Observer: UNB Libraries, Reference Department, reel #5.
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Letter from Walter S. Fairweather, to Dr. William F. Roberts dated 7 January 1919, urging the Minister to not close schools in Sussex again due to influenza. Certain Sussex is rid of the flu, Fairweather fears his two sons will lose a year’s worth of education.
Source: RS136- L5d3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Dr. William F. Roberts’s 8 January 1919 reply to Walter S. Fairweather’s letter. Roberts asserts that, unless the province reaches another widespread outbreak akin to the fall of 1918, it is at the discretion of local boards of health to close schools. He also stresses that business interests should not supersede the well-being of New Brunswick citizens.
Source: RS136- L5d3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
Update, found in 21 October 1918 issue of the St. John Standard, concerning influenza in Sackville. Notably, Mount Allison students maintain distance from townspeople off campus.
Source: MC1438: St. John Standard fonds, F03797.
Letter from C.C. Jones, Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick, dated 26 December 1918, requesting Dr. William F. Roberts allow the university to reopen as planned on 6 January.
Source: RS136- L5d3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.
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Letter from Dr. George G. Melvin, on behalf of Dr. William F. Roberts, replying to C.C. Jones on 3 January 1919. Melvin expresses his unwillingness to interfere with Fredericton’s local board of health’s plans to reopen public buildings on 13 January 1919.
Source: RS136- L5d3: Records of the Deputy Minister of Health.