The Pandemics That Shaped Regina
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This October I attempted to host two "Pandemic Stories" walking tours of the Regina Cemetery, with the purpose of highlighting the stories of some of the deadliest diseases to plague out city. Unfortunately, the first tour was very cold, and the second one was called short due to a blizzard. I spent a lot of time researching these stories so I thought it would be a good idea to write them down and share them here instead.
Although Regina is a young city, it has struggled through its fair share of pandemics and epidemics. Many of these stories are forgotten today, and these lessons are unfortunately lost with them. Hopefully this article keeps these stories alive a little bit longer.
Smallpox
Smallpox has been with humanity since as long as records existed. It's estimated to be around 10,000 years old. It's been a constant plague in Europe for thousands of years, and when Europeans made contact with the Americas, it swept through the Western continents like a scythe. Two major smallpox epidemics ravaged what is now Western Canada -- one in the 1790s, which some evidence pointing towards it being deliberately done by the Hudson's Bay Trading Company, and another in the 1830s, that the Hudson's Bay Trading Company tried to vaccinate against.
During both pandemics, smallpox would kill around 50% of the local Indigenous population. It was known as the "rotting face disease" as victim's faces would burst out in blisters, or "pustules", which would then spread across the entire body. The 1830s epidemic would be so bad, it was known by some communities as "the year the camps went silent".
The Regina Indian Industrial School, created as part of a nation-wide genocidal effort to "remove the Indian from the child", would also see a fair share of deaths occur within its walls due to smallpox. It's believed that of the 48 students that died at that school, 20% of them died from this disease.
But smallpox was still a threat to settlers too. When Regina was established in 1882, one of the first buildings created were "pest houses", located not too far from the city's cemetery, which opened in 1883. These "pest houses" were for smallpox patients, so they could be quarantined away from the rest of the population. The city's primary and most long serving "pest house" was on the corner of 4th Avenue and Halifax Street, just east of where the Wholesale Club is today.
(Hover your mouse over the below picture to see both maps.)
At first, the pest houses were no more than a shed, with a wooden bed and a table. There was no heat, no power and no water -- although those hadn't been brought into the city yet anyway. There was also no nurses and no staff. Health authorities and police would place people in these pest houses, and bring them back if they attempted to escape -- which happened often.
In 1912, Regina had a major escape from the pest house. J. B Stenason (sometimes also called J. R. Stenason) was first placed in the pest house in March of 1912, after being seen at a skating rink with smallpox. He would break out on Tuesday, March 19th. He would walk to Kronau, and then hitch a ride with a livery man to Lajord. From there, he took a train from Lajord to Regina, then Regina to Moose Jaw, then Moose Jaw to Maple Creek when he was finally apprehended by authorities. Along the way, he was sick with smallpox, spreading it from city to city. Health authorties were forced to reach out to hundreds of people to get them vaccinated.
However, a week later, on March 28th, The Leader reported that Stenason hadn't actually been captured at all -- he was still at large, and possibly either in Swift Current or southwards "busy infecting Uncle Sam's subjects in the northern states".
On April 1st, another article came out, this time questioning if Stenason even had smallpox, or if he even had broke quaratine, and saying that he might still be in Regina. A friend of Stenason said he "knows for a fact that he is in town and is ignorant of all the commotion he has caused".
Over a month later, on May 11th, an article was printed that Stenason was located in the United States, boasting of his escape from the pest house.
In 1917, 10-year-old Edwin Gordon Spooner (415-P06-LS) was discovered with smallpox while attending Strathcona School. As a result, the Spooner residence was forced into quarantine, and Edwin was placed in the pest house. Every child at Strathcona would be vaccinated as well. These mass vaccinations of schools were very common during the 1910s and 1920s, as the smallpox vaccines didn't always take successfully. Spooner would survive his illness, return to class, and pass away many years later in 1996.
Following World War I, the pest house in Regina got a major upgrade, with Alderman McInnis saying it was now "palatine", or like a palace. However, it still had no sewer system, water or power. It did have security and staff to watch over the sick, however.
In 1921, Regina had another major outbreak of smallpox in schools across the city, including the "Home for Incurables" that once stood in in Central Park. Over twenty students would get ill from the disease, and most would end up in the pest house.
In 1924, 30-year-old Joseph Rodgers (229-P05-LS) was admitted into the pest house. He was admitted at the same time as a young boy, who a doctor discovered as having smallpox after going to the wrong residence for a house-call. Dr. Bow, Chief Medical Officer for Regina, would say that Rodgers had the “worst case of smallpox in the history of the city", and he would die from the illness on January 27, 1924.
By 1932, the pest house was abandoned, as the city "was much healthier" according to The Leader. Because of this, it became frequented by vandals, and had both the windows and crockery smashed. A year later, an oil firm purchased the land to turn it into a warehouse, but that never materialized.
In 1945 a gruesome discovery was found inside the pest house. Two decomposing corpses were found inside the building, with their remains being hair, skin and weather-bleached bones. They were found by Dr. George Walton, but it was decided not to call the police, as it was determined these were the bones of a rabbit and a cat.
Today, smallpox and the pest house are a forgotten part of our history, but it's something that threatened families, schools, communities, and even entire peoples for countless centuries.
Polio
Like smallpox, polio has been a constant in our collective history, but prior to the 19th Century, it wasn't much of a problem. Polio is spread via infected fecal matter into the mouth. Many children would contract the illness while still in the womb, and be born with a natural immunity to it. However, after the 19th Century, when sanitation and hygiene became more commonplace, polio became less common, and less immunity was developed because of this.
This lead to several polio outbreaks during the 1910s, 1930s and 1950s. Polio was considered one of the most feared illnesses during this time. It would cause an infection of the spinal cord, which could cause paralysis of limbs, or even of the lungs, leading people to suffocate. The illness was then responsible for the creation of a machine called the "iron lung", a vacuum sealed chamber where patients would be placed inside and have machines pump their lungs for them. Victims of polio could spend days, weeks, months, years or sometime even their entire lives inside an iron lung.
Polio was contagious, and outbreaks often lead to widespread closures of schools, playgrounds and movie theatres. This is what happened in Regina in 1953, during Canada's deadliest polio outbreak. Across the country, over 9,000 people would contract polio, many with permanent disabilities following the infection. 500 of these people 9,000 would die.
Louva Catherine McDonald (529-P08-LC), a local girl, would contract polio in Regina during this 1953 outbreak. She was four years old. She struggled aginst this illness but eventually succumbed to it. She would be one of eleven people who would die in Regina from polio that year.
Louva McDonald would be one of the victims of the last polio epidemic in Canadian history.
The Salk Vaccine was created only a few years later, between 1954-1955. This vaccine could prevent polio infection from taking place. Through nation wide vaccination programs, polio became manageable for the first time during the 1970s, and Canada was declared polio free in 1994.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, or TB, was first reported by the ancient Egyptians, and has been a scourge ever since. For millenniums, there was no treatment for TB, and no vaccine. It was called "white death" or "consumption". It was very deadly, and very contagious. It was believed in the 1890s that fresh air and sunlight was the best way to treat TB, so sanitoriums were created around the world to treat patients. These were very much needed due to how many people were sick. For example, in 1908, 12,000 Canadians would die from TB, and even by the 1930s, with better treatment and sanitation, that number was still around 6,000 deaths annually.
In 1917, a sanitorium was built in Fort Qu'Appelle to house these patients, called Fort Qu'Appelle Sanitorium, or colloquially as Fort San.
Born in Winnipeg in 1919, Olga Joan Scarth (1C-FOH-L25) attended St. Agnes Priory along with her siblings. She would go on to have two years high school and two years of nurse's training as a practical nurse at St. Boniface Hospital. In 1942, during World War II, Scarth served as part of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. However, her service was cut tragically short. In March, she was recorded as being "sick in quarters" and by August in 1942, she was admitted as a patient to Fort San. In September of 1943, Olga Joan Scarth would pass away from tuberculosis and be buried in the Regina Cemetery.
One year later, in 1944, a vaccine was made against tuberculosis. During the 1960s, X-ray vans would often go to different schools around Regina, scanning students and staff for signs of the illness, and vaccinating students on location. Due to this aggressive identification and vaccination program, tuberculosis was finally be defeated. Fort San would be closed in 1971 and has since been demolished.
However, in many ways, tuberculosis still lives on in our collective culture and history. TB patients are romanticized by their fair skin, flushed cheeks, and thin figures, and were used as beauty inspiration during the 18th Century. Many famous poets had TB, and this made the imagery of a struggling or sick writer famous. It even carried over into popular culture and referenced in films like 2001's "Moulin Rouge!", or 1984's "The Magic Mountain", as well as in songs like Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" or Taylor Swifts "the lakes", which pays homage to the sanatoriums in England.
For those who are familiar with Louis Simmie's "The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson: A True Story of Love & Murder", tuberculosis also had a major role in John Wilson's love affair with Jessie Patterson.
Typhoid
Typhoid is an infection that causes a three-week long illness. During the first week, the paient is incredibly ill, often becoming extremely dehydrated from vomiting and diarrhea. During the second week, they either begin recovering or begin failing, and in the third week, they either recover fully or pass away.
One story of typhoid in Regina is that of George Cook (84-P04-LS - unmarked), a missionary from the Methodist Church in England. He lived in a colony about 30 kilometers south of Regina in 1909. One January day, after arriving home to his small shack on the open praire, he found himself unable to unhitch his horse because his hands had frozen. In panic, he abandoned his horse, and his mitts, and hurried across the frozen prairie to a nearby house for help
Missionary superintendent Rev Oliver Darwin said that by the time Cook arrived, his hands had "frozen solid." He was taken to the hospital the next day. Four of the fingers on his left hand would be amputated, and he would lose all five finger nails on his right hand. However, after a brief recovery, he was back on his feet and resumed his duties.
That is, until the spring when his feet got wet from the thawing snow, and he developed pneumonia, and later typhoid fever, ultimately succumbing to it.
A more famous story occurred at the Regina College Campus Building in the winter of 1920. One late November day, a milk delivery was made to the campus, but the delivery driver was sick with typhoid. The milk he delivered was not pasteurized, and as a result, each bottle became an incubation of the illness.
As the spoiled milk was given to staff and students to drink, many began to fall ill. Sixty-eight students and four teachers contracted the illness, including six staff members. The campus was forced into lock down, and the girls’ residence was converted into an infirmary. The only students and staff who were completely immune to the illness were those who had been vaccinated while serving in World War I.
These sick students ranged in age from 14 to 28 years old, some of them away from home for the first time in their lives. Nine people would die from this outbreak, with eight of them being students. Their bodies were returned home, and are buried throughout the province. Darcy Donovan of Ghosts of College Avenue Campus has spent years finding and locating these graves, including the one teacher's grave that's in Regina.
Roy Renwick (76-P20-LC) would contract the illness in early December, but by his second week, doctor's determined he wasn't going to make it. They contacted Renwick's father from Ontario and told him the news. His father would board a train and come across the country in the dead of winter, arriving on December 23. Roy Renwick would pass away 36 hours later on Christmas Day, 1920.
Following this outbreak of typhoid, a new bylaw was introduced to enforce milk pasteurization in the city.
The Spanish Influenza
I understand this article is very long, and you're probably just skimming paragraphs at this point. I've been writing about the Spanish Influenza for nearly eight years, long before it regained popularity during COVID-19 and everybody became a Spanish Influenza expert. So, although this one is a passion of mine, I'll try to keep it short.
The Spanish Influenza was from 1918 - 1920, but the peak of it occurred in October and November of 1918. There was another spike in February of 1919, and some mild flareups in the fall of 1919, and the spring of 1920. However, over 80% of illness and death occurred in October and November of 1918.
The Spanish Influenza would kill 330 Regina citizens, and infect around 3,000 people throughout the city. There were many other deaths here, but these were from people from out of town. Across the province, 5,018 people would die from the Spanish Flu, with 50% of them being Indigenous. It would take the lives of between 50,000 - 55,000 people across Canada.
In Regina, there are many connections to the Spanish Influenza.
One of these is Minnie Scythes (410-P49-LC), aka Sarah Ramsland (, who was Saskatchewan's first female MLA. After the death of her husband from the Spanish Influential in 1918, Sarah was encouraged by her family to take his place. Election laws had been changed in 1917, so she was free to run, and she would win that and the subsequent 1921 election. She would serve the Pelly area until 1925. There wouldn't be another female MLA in Saskatchewan until 1944.
Another is that of Pauline Konoff (502-P19-LC), who immigrated to Canada with her husband Sam in 1909 from Saratov, Russia. They would settle on a plot of land near Winnipeg Street, and start to grow their family. However, in 1918, Pauline would lose two of her sons to the Spanish Flu. Sam would also be diagnosed with diabetes that same year, and would be one of the first people to talk insulin in Canada.
Pauline would become the main source of income for the family, starting first with a sewing business, then moving onto small farming, and then to opening up East End Grocery on 10th Avenue and Toronto Street. Her surviving children would help at the grocery, and take deliveries by bike around the city. Pauline would also lease out the space for local or travelling Ukrainian musicians.
Another story is of Tony "Tokujyu" Ashio (Row 159), who came from Japan to Regina in 1915. He opened the Sun Rooming House and assumed ownership of the Pacific Cafe in 1916, the first Japanese restaurant in the city. In 1917, he opened a new barbershop with Sojiro Yanagawa. The two men entered this venture with high hopes, but the business closed less than one year later when Ashio would contract the Spanish Influenza. He fought the illness for a week under the care of Yanagawa, until he was eventually hospitalized and died four days later. He would be the first Japanese person buried in the Regina Cemetery.
The personal stories from the Spanish Flu in Regina are too many to count. From war bride Elizabeth Murphy (112-P12-LN), to mother and daughter Paraschiva and Amelia McRadu (170-P08-LC), to Cordia Wildman (219-P04-LC), to The Kerr Family (150-P04), the cemetery is filled with victims of the Spanish Flu, both that died from the illness, and those who survived it.
The Spanish Influenza lead to the closure of schools, churches and stores, and outlawed public gatherings. Teachers became nurses, and boy scouts patrolled the streets. Extra city workers were brought in to dig graves, as piles of corpses, 25-deep, were stacked up at Speers Funeral Home. When a vaccine became available, it was a botched process, with only one of the three vaccine variants actually helping. It may have only been two months, but it was a city-wide tragedy with generational trauma. Regina didn't get the cool monicor that Saskatoon did during the time like "The City of the Dead", but we did get the quote from one of the local doctors which sums up the situation pretty good: "If the devil and all his angels were behind me, I could never reach all these people tonight."
But Why Are We Talking About This?
We are fortunate to live in the time period that we do now. Many of these illnesses listed here are no longer a threat to our health. We have other problems now, certainly, and future illness are bound to appear as well. COVID-19 was one of these. It was a new illness, never seen before, and we had no idea how to handle it. From past illnesses, like the ones mentioned in this article but also throughout history, it was pretty on par with proper protocol. Mass vaccinations, quarantine, ban on public gatherings, the list is pretty identical. To hear people say it was "unprecedented times" is an insult to history books. These times have come again and again, and sometimes as recent as one generation ago. Edwin Spooner was quarantined in a pest house in 1917, and died as recent as 1996. We shouldn't be so far removed from history to forget these lessons, yet we seem to be.
Photo taken by Jessica Nuttall during the 2025 True Crime Cemetery Tours, featuring an actor from Handsome Bevel Improv Group.
Today, one of the big concerns parents have are vaccines, and the great number of vaccines a child has to get, and if those vaccines may cause long-term health problems. This concern is understandable, as a mother only wants what is best for their child. But between a vaccine and death, this article is riddled with people who would rather get the vaccine. Between the unfounded claims of vaccine-caused autism and death, everybody would prefer autism over a headstone.
I understand the health system doesn't have a spotless track record. It's very easy to find examples of medications or vaccinations that have caused deadly side effects, or that have been administered and caused extreme harm. I even know some people who were hospitalized from the COVID-19 vaccine. But to ignore all vaccines is a mistake. The cemetery is a record of people who died before they had a choice. Maybe it is humanity's fate to reject vaccines, and fall back into a time like a century ago when preventable and deadly illnesses plagued our schools and homes. Maybe we are venturing into a medical Dark Age, where lessons once learned are now forgotten. Maybe everything is meant to fall into entropy. Or maybe it's just another chapter of medical science, another challenge, and hopefully a solution, before it's too late and something else happens that shapes our city.
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Categories: Canada, History, Regina, Saskatchewan, Spanish Influenza
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