J.O. Thompson's first family

I asked my mom's cousin Rita (my 1st cousin once removed) about J.O.'s first wife, Lula J. Hanson. Lula was only 13 when they married (J.O. was a few days away from his 22nd birthday), and she died when she was only 17. While looking at her information, I noticed that she and their two children all died around 1915, and I wondered if there was some sort of tragedy associated with their deaths. This is what Rita told me:

"Their children were Emma and then Leonard. Then in 1919 the great flu epidemic came along and got all three of his little family. Granddaddy about lost his mind. He was studying to be a preacher like his grandfather David Nolan. He took to hoboing on trains back and forth across the country and reading the bible as he went. He read it over and over. I believe that's why our granddaddy had the power to heal. He could stop blood and fire. He told God he couldn't go on and start another family if he might loose them like he lost his first. He asked for the power to heal and God gave it to him. And that is the story of J.O.'s first family."

Amazing story, right? Also definitely a tragedy. I had wondered what had taken J.O. away from his home in Georgia that made him end up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and now I know.

EDIT: Lula, Emma, and Leonard died of measles (source: Grandma Izzy); the flu epidemic came a few years after they had already passed away. When Grandma told me about it, she said, "Isn't it ridiculous that someone died from something as easy to cure [now] as measles?" She seemed to still feel the pain of their deaths, even though she had never met them.