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Earlier Pandemic Nearly Ends Hart Family Line

Melissa Berry
Montage: photos of George Hart and his family. Credit: Carolyn Wood Hart.

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry digs into old newspapers and family records to tell the tragic story of the Hart family, nearly wiped out by the pandemic of 1915-1917. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Before the 1918 Influenza, rightfully called “the Mother of All Pandemics,” another epidemic of grippe (influenza and pneumonia) swept over the United States. The nation’s death rate rose sharply due to this respiratory disease epidemic, which lasted between December 1915 and January 1917.

One of Massachusetts’ oldest blood lines, the Hart family, almost perished due to the grippe. The ancestral line can be traced back to Governor John Endicott, Elizabeth Hutchinson Hart (targeted in the Salem 1692 witch hysteria), and notable New England forebears like Gilbert Tapley, Henry Lunt, and Captain John Putnam.

But the grippe nearly ended this family line, leaving only one member left alive.

Montage: Hart family photos. (left) Mary Josephine and brother George Hart; (middle) George Hart; and (right) George Hart family. Credit: Carolyn Wood Hart.

In the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, three Hart family members (Lois Augusta Shute Hart, widow of Henry Jackson Hart, and her two daughters Harriet Augusta and Mary Josephine), residing at 3 Fruit Street, died within a week of each other. At the same time the only surviving male heir, Lois’ son George Albert Hart, barely escaped the deadly illness.

Mary Josephine was a nurse who attended the Anna Jaques Nursing School in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1899. She was employed at the Anna Jaques Hospital and provided home care.

Montage: Mary Josephine Hart. Credit: Carolyn Wood Hart.

She was considered “one of the most popular and efficient trained nurses” in the area. On 11 September 1906, the Newburyport Daily News reported that Mary Josephine Hart had contracted a fever while caring for Mrs. Anna Mapplebeck – who had typhoid. Mary was lucky this time, and survived the exposure. However, her immune system was compromised.

A decade later, Mary was not so lucky. During the month of December 1916, she provided nursing care for Mrs. Georgina Keyes, widow of Henry E. Keyes, living on Railroad Ave. in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Mrs. Keyes had the grippe.

While Mary was tending to Mrs. Keyes, she wrote to her mother and sister Harriet.

Photo: letter from Mary Josephine to her mother Lois Augusta Shute Hart (“Ma”) and sister Harriet Augusta Hart (“Hattie”), December 1916. Credit: Carolyn Wood Hart.

Shortly after this letter, all three Hart women were dead from the grippe.

Montage: daughter Harriet Augusta Hart (left) and mother Lois Augusta Shute Hart (right). Credit: Carolyn Wood Hart.

The mother, Lois Augusta Shute Hart, was the first to get it. Her nurse daughter Mary tended to her at home. Then Mary also contracted the disease and was taken to the Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Neither woman survived: Lois died at home during the night of 3 January 1917, and Mary died the next morning at the hospital.

Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 4 January 1917, page 1. Credit: PARS International New York.

Note the ominous last sentence in this article:

“A second daughter is now a patient at the Newburyport hospital and her condition is regarded as serious.”

Harriet Augusta Hart didn’t make it either.

Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 7 January 1917, page 2

After losing his mother and both sisters in just five days, George Albert Hart seemed to be next. On January 11, the Boston Globe announced that George was seriously ill with pneumonia.

Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 11 January 1917, page 1. Credit: PARS International New York.

Thankfully, George recovered to carry on the family line.

His descendant Carolyn Hart Wood notes:

“The story of my great-grandfather George Hart’s beautiful sister [Mary] Josephine working as a nurse and caring for those with influenza is the same today with COVID-19. My family perished as a result and so are families now. Had George not survived the influenza pneumonia the Hart Family story would have ended that year.”

George’s granddaughter Mary Lois Pletsch published family memoirs. This is from her mother Mary Lois Hart:

“I remember Mary Josephine’s death and the flu which swept this country. In the cities people died in the space of two days. My Aunt [Mary] Josephine, who was a registered nurse, had contracted it from one of her patients. She brought it home to her mother and sister. My father was the only one of his family left, his father having died young. I remember my father [George Hart] sitting at the dining room table looking over the watches and jewelry that had belonged to his dear ones, the tears running down his cheeks. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.”

Further Reading and Sources:

Genealogy:

Mrs. Georgina Keyes

Hart Family:

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