A few years back, I was helping do a web site for the rural county where I live. I was making this graph to show how the coming of the railroad in 1896 and the later construction of an interstate had a major effect on the population of the county. I noticed the obvious "dip" in 1920. When I asked, local historians knew why immediately – the 1918 Influenza Epidemic hit hard here. There are no precise figures that I could find for the death toll, but looking at that graph, it looks close to 10%. Influenza epidemics are scary things…
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