Many classmates and friends didn’t make it.

Buffalo, New York

This is as much as I remember-I was fairly young when my grandmother told me this story. Her maiden name was Ruth Brierly, her married name was Millring- she married Edwin Millring- and she lived in a small town near Buffalo, New York.

She said the police put road-blocks on all the roads into town and stopped anyone who looked sick. She got sick in the fall, and her mother locked her in her bedroom with a Ben Franklin stove blazing away. After a week, she felt better, but her mother wouldn’t let her go out. Apparently, people frequently got relapses that were far worse than the initial disease.

She recalled that there were many memorial services the following spring, and many classmates and friends didn’t make it.

Contributed by Justin Smith, grandson of Ruth Brierly- Millring.