Peering at the Past Pioneers were defenseless against most formidable foe

Physically strong, self-sufficient men realized they were capable of taming the frontier but not always able to save the lives of their children and wives. During the last half of the 1800s, the first white settlers in southeast Minnesota had strategies for protection during Indian raids, but these hardy pioneers were defenseless against their most formidable enemy – disease. It was before antibiotics were available to treat bacterial infections, such as cholera, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever and tuberculosis. Nor were there yet vaccines to cure viral infections, such as yellow fever, measles, influenza and smallpox. All nine virulent diseases attacked the young and healthy when Minnesota was young.

During those early years, the steady stream of incoming settlers made the area especially susceptible to contagious diseases. Large families lived in one or two-room log cabins where airborne viruses and bacteria as well as bacteria from contaminated food and water spread easily. Before knowledge of germs and attention paid to hygiene and cleanliness, sanitary conditions were primitive on the frontier. The old-fashioned outhouse was a modern convenience, not yet common in 19th century (1800s) pioneer settlements.

And it was not just on the frontier. From 1820 to 1880, there was a worldwide pandemic of scarlet fever, which killed about one-third of those infected. It was the leading cause of childhood deaths in the late 1800s. Survivors could suffer with long-term complications that affected the kidney or heart, which could lead to premature death for adults. Scarlet fever took three of the four children of the Anthony Huyck family in Wilmington Township.

Occasionally, inhabitants fled a village to escape an epidemic. But those not yet exhibiting symptoms took the disease with them. Sanitary issues were not understood when the organizational township meetings of Black Hammer and Wilmington both unanimously approved hogs running loose – even though the Wilmington chairman was a doctor.

However, doctors and pastors heroically risked their own lives while caring for the infected. In 1863, when a virulent form of black measles broke out in the Norwegian settlement of Black Hammer, Reverend Roland Shelton made house calls, delivering medicine and support before he contracted the disease. After several days of fever and delirium, the pastor died.

In 1857, an epidemic of small pox resulted in 16 deaths in Brownsville. The world’s first vaccine was for smallpox, and the clergy were early volunteer vaccinators when epidemics swept through Minnesota in the early 1880s.

Cholera was feared for its sudden onset and quick progression. Starting in 1853, there were two-decades of death as cholera periodically plagued Houston County, especially along the Mississippi River, where the disease was known to accompany riverboats. Cholera was contracted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated by body waste – when its disposal was near the water supply and not followed by hand washing. In many cases, dehydrated victims died within 12 to 24 hours after the onset of diarrhea and vomiting. To avoid further spread, bodies were known to be buried before a coffin could be obtained.

In 1853, cholera claimed five lives (four wives, one child) within seven days – less than a year after a small flock of nine Baptists had settled in Swedes Bottom, east of Houston.

Accepted as an unavoidable evil were the annual autumn outbreaks of another bacterial disease, typhoid fever, which had a 20% death rate among children. It was not known until the 1900s that yellow fever resulted from mosquito bites.

Diphtheria, a serious threat from 1860 on, spread easily and quickly with coughs and sneezes, especially among children under age five. In 1880, Mound Prairie Township parents, Louis and Arvilla Vix, had three of their nine children die within 18 days – at ages one, two and three.

In the late 1890s, after a local young man died of diphtheria while working in Canada, five of his nine young siblings died after going through his diphtheria-infected trunk, which had been shipped back to his parents’ farm near Caledonia. People were said to drive miles out of their way to avoid passing the farm on Ridge Road where the children had been buried by a La Crosse undertaker. Caledonia undertakers had decided it was not worth the risk.

Lee Epps earned degrees in history from both Oklahoma State University and the University of Michigan.