Photo from the 1906 Biennial Report of the Whittier State School showing the boys working setting type in the Print Shop.

George Woods: A Whittier State School Cadet Part 1

adminFred C. Nelles School, Whittier History 1887-1918

George Woods, a cadet at the Whittier State School, was a good kid. How do we know anything about George? The boys and girls attending the Whittier State School (WSS) published a monthly magazine called, appropriately, The Whittier Boys and Girls Magazine. It was both written and printed at the school by the boys in the printing shop. The girls submitted articles, stories, essays and poems to the Magazine, but they were not involved in editing, lay-up, or printing as the boys were. The California State Archives in Sacramento have a good collection of the WSS publications. Staff and volunteers …

An image from a 1918 newspaper with a drawing of an apparent Spanish man coughing with people behind him looking upset. Text says "Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases / Spread of Spanish Influenza Menaces our War Production"

Whittier in the Time of the Spanish Influenza

adminWhittier History 1887-1918

Whittier was only 31 years old when it was hit by the world-wide pandemic called Spanish influenza.  It was called the Spanish flu not because it originated in Spain, but because most of the hard-hit European nations were under war-time censorship, so the news just didn’t get out.  Spain, being a neutral country during WWI, widely publicized the outbreak occurring there.  About 675,000 Americans would die from the Spanish Flu between 1918 and 1920. The first Whittier death from the Spanish flu occurred at the Whittier State School on September 14, 1918.  Cadet Walter Bruhms was a healthy 16 year-old. …