Spanish Flu Exhibit

Martha Lamar, widow of MC Professor Rev. Thomas Jefferson Lamar, donated six thousand dollars for the building of a hospital on campus and it was built in 1910. Thanks to her contributions, this offered a solution to some of the issues caused by quarantine.

Wilson stated in his 1919 President’s Report that “about two hundred and fifty had it before the holidays and several since then. One hundred and twenty-five were in bed at the same time,”. With so many students and faculty sick, the campus hospital became completely full. When the hospital began to overflow with Spanish Flu patients, the campus turned to Carnegie Hall to house students with milder symptoms. The second floor was predominately used as sick rooms.

Even Maryville College’s President Samuel Tyndale Wilson became sick with the Spanish Flu. He, as well as several of his family members, had been noted to have had weaker immune systems than most, causing him to fall ill rather frequently.

Wilson’s journal first notes his experience with the illness on February 23, 1920, when he mentions having symptoms such as fever and chills. In a letter to Rev. J. H. Miller, he mentions that “I am down with the influenza, having the worst time of my life,”. His last visit from the doctor was noted on March 8, 1920. The third page of the Highland Echo published on April 1, 1920, announces his return to work after recovering.