Part two, 1800s epidemics
From the 1850s through the 1870s, the first three decades of Anglo settlement of Houston County, settlers – especially children and women – were ravaged by contagious diseases. In the 1880s, township and county officials attempted to prevent uncontrollable epidemics of small pox, diphtheria, cholera, measles, influenza, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever and yellow fever. Infection came by contact with other people, but no one knew the causes. There was not yet understanding of germs, viruses and bacteria.
There was no distinguishable middle class; most were either wealthy or impoverished. And there was no affordable health care for the poor. The survival of early communities necessitated a form of social medicine. By the early 1880s, every township in Houston County had a Board of Health with no fewer than three community members plus a doctor, who sometimes served more than one township.
The primary objective was to quarantine any family that contracted a contagious disease and prevent no one else coming into contact with the infected family. But some contact could not be avoided – even for the board members themselves, since the board was responsible for providing the family with food, medical supplies, medicine, a nurse if required – and too often with grave diggers. Township officers handled quarantine expenses by passing the bills on to the county government. Bills the county did not approve would revert back to the township or not be paid at all.
Photo courtesy of the Houston County Historical Society
Following an outbreak of diphtheria in 1888, the Crooked Creek Township Board submitted these expenses for the John Schaller family: $5 for Blexrud & Reierson druggists for medicine, $7.50 for Philip Elshiemer for provisions and coffins, $33 for 11 days and nights of nursing by Anna Cordes, $16.50 for three medical-assistance visits by A. J. Christiansen, $28 more for Blexrud & Reierson for medicine, $5 for Jacob Cordes’ grave digging and burial of four children and $5 for John Meutes for grave digging and burial assistance.
The county did not approve $34.85 of the $55 bill for eight medical visits and treatment by Dr. J. W. King. Payments for two township board members for quarantine services were not approved until they both submitted reduced bills.
Saving lives was the immediate concern, but there were also residual worries. Before science supplied the answers, settlers were superstitious. Deadly disease was thought to haunt the infected dwelling and maybe the property – nearly destroying its market value. Surviving residents, unable to sell their homesteads, often abandoned them to be auctioned to cover back taxes. Townships could suffer severe revenue shortages.
Physicians attempted to disinfect the premises. One method was to close up the house as tight as possible and fumigate with a coal fire, covering a pan of hot coals with green bark or small fresh tree branches. Sumac wood could leave a pleasant aroma, but other wood could leave an odor that reduced the property value even further.
About 1880, the State Board of Health issued a warning about a possible small pox epidemic. It read, “The statistics of the seaboard cities and of the quarantine stations indicate that small pox may be introduced into our state by eastern or foreign immigrants during the coming summer and fall. We are not prepared to meet it, because we have had no general outbreak of the disease for many years, and parents have neglected vaccination. Vaccination and revaccination are our only real protection against smallpox – a protection so easy and safe that parents incur a fearful responsibility in neglecting it.”
From November 1881 through March 1882, there were 25 cases of smallpox in La Crescent and Union Townships. One family had 11 cases with three deaths. Fear and disputes followed with Houston Village residents petitioning the State Board of Health to quarantine Hokah and adjoining townships. The chairman of the Hokah Village Council asked the State Board to intervene because township health officials were not addressing the small pox outbreak.
Small pox would be the first contagion to be curbed by vaccination. Science would eventually provide medical progress. Health care would evolve from house calls to doctor’s offices to hospitals. Two Caledonia physicians converted a residence into a hospital in 1903. A Caledonia hospital was constructed in 1910.
Julia H Gray says
Enjoyed and appreciated this column. It addresses a timely topic. I was in elementary school in the late 1940’s, when my hometown experienced a polio epidemic. Many children were afflicted, and the community seemed to be especially touched by the death of one young boy. Then in the mid 1950’s after my family had moved to a different town, the entire town suffered a epidemic, which seemed to effect women of child-bearing, child-raising ages, causing the women to commit suicide. Everyone was so relieved and thankful when the polio vaccines were developed and approved for use among the general public.