Worlds Apart with the “Spanish” Flu
Elizabeth (“Betty”) Cutter and Manning Willard Morrill married on October 13, 1917. Manning was stationed at Camp Devens, MA, awaiting orders to serve overseas in World War I. Betty was an Assistant Professor of Botany at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
A month later Betty became pregnant. In February, 1918 she resigned her position at Vassar and went to live with Manning’s parents in Roxbury, MA.
Manning was ordered to France in July, 1918, where he served as a billeting officer.
Their son, Manning Cutter, was born September 2, 1918. For 3 1/2 months Betty and the baby lived with Manning’s sister and brother-in-law in Newton, MA.
Even after the November 11, 1918 Armistice, Manning Willard remained stationed in France for 6 more months. While apart, they corresponded almost daily. In December 1918 each of them was stricken with the “Spanish” flu. “Worlds Apart with the Spanish Flu” is comprised of selections from their letters around that time.
![[Receipt from Fox Bros. Grocery]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/23837-FoxBrothers.jpg)
This is a sequel to the earlier post about Leonard Richardson Cutter and his Nephews. The youngest Fox brothers John and Frank had followed their older brother Charlie from Rockton, Illinois to Boston and were working as clerks for his grocery company, Charles E. Fox & Co. In 1878 tragedy struck the Fox family. ![[Hon. Joel Parker]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/joel-parker-cropped.jpg)
… And now, assembled here as the surviving representatives of the first century of our incorporation, and standing just within the threshold of its successor, let us dedicate this new municipal century, in which the town and its indwellers are to do service for another hundred years, to the prosecution and extension of every good and beneficent work of its predecessor. I feel assured that you will join with me when I say…![[1901 Map of Hillsboro County, OH]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/oh-highland-county-ohio-1901-map-by-cram-hillsboro.jpg)
Follow this link to a fascinating 26-page account of pioneer life in the 1800s, passed down through our family: ![[John and Priscilla Alden]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/john-and-priscilla-hunting.jpg)
Among our direct ancestors 12 generations ago was a pair who had arrived on the Mayflower – John and Priscilla Alden. Their relationship was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1858 poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” ![[Chief Metacom]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/metacom.jpg?)
John Shattuck, son of William, was born in Watertown, Feb. 11, 1647; and, according to the records of that town, “was drowned as he was passing over Charlestown Ferry, the 14th Sept. 1675,” 86. 28 y. 7 m. 3 d. …The year 1675 is well known in history as the commencement of the most disastrous war with the Indians that ever occurred in New England. ![[Portrait of Leonard R Cutter]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/leonard_richardson_cutter.png)
“Several of Mr. Cutter’s nephews became, for the nonce at least, partial substitutes for a son, and their recollections of their associations with him, which extended through a long series of years, present a view of the man which undoubtedly gives to the world a truer index to his character than would be obtained by a long term of business intercourse. It is during the hours of recreation and relaxation that one gets nearer the heart and soul of a man…![[Motley crew of 5 in slickers]](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/motley-crew.jpg)
In July 1894 a “motley crew” of 5-8 young men, among them Edward Jones Cutter and Henry Arthur Cutter, embarked on the beautiful sloop “Winsome” in Boston, Massachusetts.![[Pencil drawing of Jaffrey homestead];](https://morrillelrodweb.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/jaffrey-homestead.jpg)
Edward Stearns Cutter describes growing up on the farm of Daniel and Sally Jones Cutter in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, with his brother, Leonard Richardson Cutter, in a letter to Leonard’s daughter Agnes Cutter Bigelow. “Of course I was very much pleased with my little baby brother [Leonard] and very careful of him, as were also all my sisters, and as he grew up toward manhood, he was ever afterward, till I left home for college, my most intimate companion, playmate, schoolmate, roommate, bedfellow and workfellow…