The spread of influenza and the number of deaths rose quickly when the 1918 epidemic started in New Jersey. And as health officials began to implement a statewide quarantine, The City of Newark’s Health Officer had his hands tied by Mayor Charles Gillan. “Dr. Charles Kraster is not making much of this sickness and is basically having to take a back seat,” said Jennifer Harmsen, an expert on the influenza pandemic of 1918. “It is Mayor Gillan that would end up taking control of Newark’s Health