This post was planned before I was aware of the existence of COVID-19. I realized that Albert Kimball, the subject of the post, was possibly a victim of the influenza outbreak that affected millions across the world in 1918.
The influenza epidemic drew many parallels to today’s COVID-19 pandemic. Closures of schools, churches, restaurants, and other places where people worked or gathered were widespread. Notices from health officials were widely advertised.
A significant difference, though, is that World War I was going on at the same time. Many Maine inductees were sent to Camp Devens in Massachusetts, ground zero for influenza in the United States. Albert Kimball, a young man from Sweden, arrived at Camp Devens in 1918.
Returning to the subject of the post, Albert Kimball was the son of Oscar Kimball of Bridgton and Mary Belle Elliot of Lovell. He was born on 7 May 1896 in Lovell and moved as a young boy with his parents and siblings to Sweden on a farm located at the top of the hill where Pietree Orchard now is located.
In June 1918, Albert was inducted into the Army and left South Paris bound for Camp Devens in Massachusetts. He was transferred from Camp Devens to Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland on 27 August 1918. On 21 October 1918, he died at the base hospital of pneumonia. The cause of the pneumonia is not clear. In his stay at Camp Devens, he was likely exposed to influenza, which ran rampant through the Camp. He was then transferred to Edgewood, where chemical weapons, including chlorine and mustard agents, were produced. Exposures to these toxic materials were common. Such exposure may have been the cause of Albert’s illness. Regardless, Albert’s illness and ultimate death was not all that surprising given his experiences.
Albert is memorialized in Lovell’s Cemetery No. 4, located on Kimball Road north of Lovell Village.
Albert was engaged to Marion Ridlon, daughter of Samuel and Martha Ridlon of the Ridlonville neighborhood of Sweden. According to a local source, Albert and Marion were engaged prior to Albert’s induction into the Army, but Marion refused to wed until Albert returned from the war.
After Albert’s death, Marion Ridlon married Marcellus Durgin, an orphan raised by Vianna and Seth Brackett at their farm on what is now Plummer School Road in Sweden.
