Geneva Faces a Virus and Other Disruptions

By Dani (Fitzgerald ‘14) Brown

While the current COVID-19 pandemic feels daunting and unlike anything our nation has previously seen, our not-so distant past reveals several major disruptions to Geneva College, including an even deadlier pandemic: the Spanish Influenza of 1918. Over one hundred years ago, the world was fighting a virus that infected about 500 million people — approximately one-third of the world’s population. The 1918 flu was notorious for its high mortality rate in healthy people, particularly those between the ages of 20 to 40.

Geneva College, like many institutions, felt the weight of the infection.

That academic year of 1918-1919, Geneva saw its largest enrollment to date, with 542 students. The Cabinet student newspaper was not published that year, and the college was surprised in September to be hosting 95 members of the Student Army Training Corps, which set up barracks on the third floor of Old Main in the literary society rooms, causing the societies to cease operations for a time. The college halted classes for two weeks on October 11, 1918, after 50 Geneva students suffered from the virus. Of those students, all recovered except one. Samuel A. Steele, then 25, was the captain of Geneva’s football team. He became sick with the flu and eventually died from pneumonia following that infection.

Steele was championed as “not only a genial companion, but a sterling Christian,” according to The Christian Nation’s write up. Steele’s parents were also

ill with the influenza at the time of his death.

His funeral was similar to funerals during the current COVID-19 pandemic, with limited attendees due to the highly contagious nature of the flu. The football team was distraught over the death of their teammate who had died at home.

Six of the players were pallbearers who carried

Steele to his resting place, a quiet cemetery in New

Alexandria, PA. The senior class of 1919 recounted Steele as a “good comrade with his jolly smile and helpful ways… by his death not only did the class lose a valued member, but the whole school lost a leader and friend.”

Geneva reopened classes at the end of October, and in November, won a football game against Westminster College, which was the first football game on campus following the pandemic. The stadium was packed with students, displaying the college’s comradery and commitment to one another. The armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11. Less than a month later, at the beginning of December, Geneva alumnus J. French Carithers, of the Class of 1912, died from pneumonia following an infection with the influenza. Carithers was attending the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh at the time. He previously served as a missionary and teacher in Turkey. On his deathbed, Carithers sang well-known Psalm 23 with his mother, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” After his death, a fund was created by the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to perpetuate Carithers’ missionary work. The Synod called Carithers, “a faithful friend, a helpful companion; a real Covenanter, and although dead, the influence of his life still lives.”

While the origin of the Spanish Influenza of 1918 is still unconfirmed, the virus spread worldwide between 1918 and 1919, and was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Similar to the current COVID-19 pandemic, no vaccine was available to protect against the infection. Unfortunately, no antibiotics were available then to treat secondary bacterial infections. Treatment and prevention for the influenza looked nearly identical to that of COVID-19 treatment and prevention: isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and limiting public gatherings. During the Spanish Flu, Geneva administration, faculty and staff worked together to provide a safe environment for students despite the pandemic at hand.

Today, the college is working together again. Geneva canceled in-person classes when COVID-19 hit the country and has continued efforts to make learning accessible to all students, while keeping health at the forefront.

A few other crises caused disruption on the campus of Geneva College in the years since the Spanish Flu of 1918. • As America prepared for World War II, on January 12, 1942, the Geneva College faculty voted for an accelerated schedule with no spring vacation and no final exams. Commencement was moved to May 19. A new full semester began on May 26 and ran until September with the goal of quickly providing technically trained men for leadership in the war cause.

• In the spring of 1943, McKee Hall was partially quarantined due to a case of spiral meningitis, and two brothers in Patterson Lodge contracted measles, forcing the men to move into private homes. In the fall of that year, football was suspended and did not resume until after the war in 1946.

• Unusually cold winter weather and a natural gas shortage in January 1977 prompted the college to heed the Columbia Gas Company’s request to restrict operations. Most of the Student Center, Metheny

Fieldhouse, McCartney Library, Johnston Gym,

McKnight Hall, Troeter House, George Manor and

Language Hall were closed. Classes scheduled for those buildings met in the dining hall. Gym classes were cancelled. Indoor temperatures were kept lower than normal even after a January 20 permission to resume operation. As gas shortages persisted and to avoid penalties as much as $100,000 for overuse,

President Clarke declared the campus would be closed for an extended break from February 4 through February 28, and commencement was delayed one week. The basketball seasons for men and women continued through the break with student-athletes living off campus and providing their own meals.

Forty-three years later, a new disruption arrived. G