On Sept. 18, 1918, Detroit Health Commissioner James W. Inches warned citizens of the possibility of the influence epidemic arriving in the city.  Inches was already well aware of the likelihood of influenza coming to his city.

The city, he said, had experienced an outbreak thirty years earlier (the so-called Russian influenza of 1889) and had dealt with a smaller outbreak the past spring. Now, with serious epidemics already occurring up and down the East Coast, Inches cautioned residents that influenza, although usually a mild disease, could cause death in its more virulent form.

Influenza slipped silently into Detroit. On Oct. 1, the city’s first influenza-related death occurred, although it went unreported in the newspapers and Inches made no mention of it. It was not until two days later, on Oct. 3, that the Detroit Free Press reported the presence of fifty suspected cases of influenza in the city. Two days after that, there were 135 suspected cases. Inches doubted that any of Detroit’s 185 total cases were all of the “Spanish” variety, and told residents there was no cause for alarm.