Part 8: Manitobans who died fighting "Spanish" Influenza

© 2020, Christian Cassidy

This series tells the stories of some of the Manitobans who died fighting the "Spanish" Influenza pandemic of 1918 -1919. For the complete list and an introduction to the series, see part one.

Dr. David Ralph Houston (1883 - 1918)

Dr. David Ralph Houston was born in Emerson, Manitoba in 1883. One newspaper story aid that he graduated from the Manitoba Medical College in 1908, but an extensive search of medical college class graduation photos from the early 1900s does not show show his name.

Houston practised at Dominion City then had to retire for a few months due to ill health. He resurfaced at Brandon from November 1918 to February 1919 and then went to Miami, Manitoba. and settled there with his wife and five children.

Houston contracted influenza while treating the sick. A column in the Miami and RM of Thompson history book says it may have been from a patient he visited in Morden. He brought the disease back to the the home and the entire family became ill.

According to Manitoba Vital Statistics, Houston died on November 15, 1918, and Helen, his six-year-old daughter, died three days later. They are buried at Miami, Manitoba.

Image sources:
Classified ad from Dec. 27, 1917, Brandon Sun

Death record from Manitoba Vital Statistics

Dr. William Frederick Orok (1882 - 1918)

Originally from Barrie, Ontario, William Frederick "Fred" Orok was the brother of Dr. R. D. "Dick" Orok, a doctor and former MLA at The Pas.

A 1918 newspaper story says Orok graduated from the Manitoba Medical College in 1916, though The Pas Herald newspaper mentions him spending time as a doctor in the region's logging camps in the winters of 1914 and 1915. By the summer of 1916, he was an intern at the Winnipeg General Hospital and worked in its laboratory.

According to this paper, Orok had been appointed to the position of assistant pathologist in November 1918, but ended up contracting influenza likely through his work at the lab and died after just a week.

Orok's brother came to Winnipeg after his death to make funeral arrangements. Orok was buried in Midhurst Union Cemetery at Midhurst, Simcoe County, Ontario.

Image sources:
Portrait from Faculty of Medicine Archives, University of Manitoba

Clipping from Nov. 27, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press

Evelyn Maw ( 1890 - 1918)

The last entry is someone who wasn't a nurse, but she died serving the sick.

Society girl Evelyn Louise McMillan was the daughter of William McMillan, president of Dominion Grain Elevator Co., and the niece of grain merchant Sir Daniel McMillan. She married Joseph Stanley Maw, the second generation, and new president of, the Joseph Maw automobile business, in Long Beach, California in April 1918. (California as where the McMillan's usually spent their winter months and the Maws had family there.)

When the newlyweds returned to Winnipeg they settled at her parents' large home at 146 Hargrave Street. (By this time, her parents were in their sixties and spent much of their time travelling the continent or at their summer cottage in Lake of the Woods.)

A story in the Winnipeg Free Press noted that Evelyn Maw had been "most active arranging for the diet kitchen." This was most likely the Central Diet Kitchen at Alexandra School on Edmonton Street.

Using her automobile, Maw delivered meals to sick families and it is believed she contracted influenza on one of those visits. Her husband also became seriously ill. 

Maw died on November 30, 1918 and was buried in the McMillan family plot in Elmwood Cemetery.

Images source: Dec. 2, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press