The Last Pandemic: Mary Elizabeth Merrill (1886-1918)

Mary Elizabeth Merrill,

(1886-1918)

Commonly called the Spanish Flu, although it is now widely believed to have originated in the state of Kansas, the last pandemic had an irrevocable impact on our family.

On Thursday, 3 October 1918, our grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Merrill of 413 Lincoln Avenue in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, died from the Spanish Flu. Her death certificate attributes her cause of death to La Grippe. She had been sick for two weeks. During her last four days, she suffered from pneumonia. The family legend is that she was pregnant with her fifth child. Mary was only thirty-two years old.

Dot (Dorothy), Gil (Gilbert),  Lib (Elizabeth Mary), and Fred  (Frederic) Merrill, c. 1917

The whole family was stricken by the virus, and a nurse was brought to their home to care for the family. Mary’s four children recovered without any lasting physical effects. My dad, Gil, was five years old at the time. Dad told me that his earliest memory was awakening in his bed and being told by Grammie Fitzgerald, Mary’s mom, that his mother had died. Evidently, he coped with his grief by forgetting the years with his mother. His brother, my Uncle Fred, was only three years old, and he told me that he had no recollection of those terrible days.

Frederic Carroll Merrill aka Pup, c. 1917

Pup, the name we called our grandfather, was the Deputy Collector for the Internal Revenue Service’s office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Overwhelmed by the death of his wife, Pup sent two of the children to live with relatives. Only three years old, Fred went to live in the nearby town of New Castle with Grammy Merrill [Pup's mother] and Aunt Bud [Pup’s sister. Aunt Lib was sent sixty miles away to live with Pup’s brother and sister-in-law, Harry and Alice, in Nashua, New Hampshire. Uncle Harry and Aunt Alice had four children of their own: Cliff, fifteen; Ruth, thirteen; Florence, twelve; Louise. ten years old. The oldest child, eleven-year-old Dot, remained at home and looked after her brother Gil. My Aunt Lib was seven years old when her mother died and she was sent away. No stories have reached me as to how she coped with her grief. If I had just lost my mother and then had been separated from the rest of my family, I think I would have been traumatized by feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Did Aunt Lib feel that way? I don’t know.

Grammie (Jenny Fitzgerald), Maurice, possibly Uncle Charles Merrill, Francis, Gil, and Pup, c. 1918

Mary was survived by her mother, Jennie (McCormick) Fitzgerald of Andover, New Hampshire, and two brothers, Francis and Maurice Fitzgerald. During normal times, Francis and Maurice lived and worked on the family’s farm in Andover. World War I was raging in Europe. Francis, aged twenty-four, and Maurice, aged nineteen, were contributing to the war effort by working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Their draft registration cards indicate that they were living in Fred and Mary Merrill’s home at or about the time of Mary’s death.

The Spanish Flu originated in Kansas in March of 1918, and it was spread around the globe by American troops joining the war effort. In the Fall of 1918, the virus came back to this country on board Naval ships returning to places such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where Frances and Maurice worked. Whether one of Mary’s brothers brought the virus into their home on Lincoln Avenue or whether Mary became infected by community spread, we will never know.

Within about a year of the death of Mary, Fred arranged for a live-in housekeeper, and Lib and little Fred returned to the household. Over the ensuing years, the children developed a close bond with one another and with their father. My cousins and I never heard any of them say a harsh word about their father or their siblings. Dot, six years older than the next oldest child, felt a strong sense of responsibility for the well-being of her father and her brothers and sister.

Pup, Dot, Lib, Fred, and Gil, Brooklyn, New York, c. 1927

Pup’s job in Portsmouth was a political appointment, and by 1924 he lost his position in federal service. He moved to Nashua, New Hampshire, and joined his brothers, Harry and Charles, in the ice box business. The job led to his relocation with the family to Brooklyn, New York in 1927. At some point around the time of the Great Depression, Pup was earning less and less money, and the family became dependent on the money which his daughter Dot was earning as a typist for an insurance company. Dot’s fiancé wanted to get married and move away from Brooklyn. Dot felt she needed to stay in Brooklyn to help her father and siblings. Her fiancé left without her.

Wilbur and Lib aka Mary Munson, 1940

Aunt Lib broke the norm for our family by starting her own family when she was just seventeen years old. Her family grew to six children, forty-two grandchildren, and over one hundred great-grandchildren.  Aunt Lib always seemed happy. During their thirty-seven years together, Aunt Lib made every effort to spend as much time as possible with her husband, Wilbur Munson.

Charles Hanna (Uncle Chuck) and Dot, 12 October 1940

As my cousin Donna said: “Aunt Dot was really the saving grace. She was saint-like in generosity and patience, and she was so intelligent that she effortlessly encouraged growth.”

Over the decade of the 1930s, Aunt Dot was the principal provider for the family. Fortunately, she met Uncle Chuck. In 1940, at age thirty-two, Dot married Charles Hanna [Uncle Chuck]. Uncle Chuck was a man with a generous spirit and was willing to share in the support of Pup for Pup’s remaining years.

Dorothy and Gil Merrill, 8 November 1942

Betty and Fred Merrill, 7 February 1943

A couple of years later, Gil married Dorothy Bals, and Fred married Betty Gormley.The two brothers had homes just blocks apart in Valley Stream, New York. Their sisters lived in Brooklyn, a short drive from Valley Stream. 

Pub with Lib's family, 10 January 1955

Pup with Dot and Gil's families, c. 1955

Pup at a family gathering, c. 1961

The cousins gathered for family celebrations and some made weekly visits–when Pup would give each visiting grandchild a dime, then something of value. Pup lived until he was eighty years old, passing in 1965. 

Fred and Mary Merrill founded a rich family–close, thoughtful, creative, and loving. Although our grandmother died over a hundred years ago, and even though we never knew her, she is still missed.



by Cathy H Paris, edited by Donna Feary, 7 April 2020

© 2020, Cathy H Paris