Deadlier than War

Little Birdie Dawson died on 26 October 1918 at the age of 14 years, 2 months and 17 days of epidemic influenza, which claimed the lives of between 30 and 100 million people worldwide between 1918 and 1919. She was really just a blip in the statistics and died after being treated by a physician at home for two days. She was also my second cousin once removed.

Before the pandemic came to Virginia, people were focused on the war across the Atlantic. Young men and women were leaving to serve as soldiers and nurses and citizens at home made sacrifices for the war effort and bought Liberty bonds.

And then influenza came to Virginia. There were two main outbreaks in 1918 -- the fall outbreak between September and October and the second outbreak, in December. It attacked the most productive members of society, those between 20 and 40 years of age, tested all levels of government and a the medical community weakened by the war effort.

Women wearing masks to protect them from influenza; courtesy of Helena
as She Was, an open history resource

The first outbreak began in Virginia in Army camps set up to train recruits to fight in Europe. One 13 September a newly arrived soldier had an "acute respiratory infection." Three days later there were over 500 influenza cases at the camp. In total, 48,000 soldiers died in Camp Lee, about 130 east of Bedford County where Birdie lived. It didn't take long before the flu spread to the civilian population and Birdie was dead little more than a month after that first case at Camp Lee. She was one of 84 people who died in Bedford of Spanish influenza that year.

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Birdie Loren Dawson was born on 8 August 1904 in Bedford County to Whiston Robert Dawson and Ada Deliah Burks. She was their eldest child. Her father was the grandson of my two times great grandfather Powhatan Perrow Jennings.

Barlow Sanitarium

My third cousin twice removed, Florence C. (Garrison) English, descended from Rev. James Mitchell (1747-1841), as do I. The reverend was my four times great grandfather. Florence was born on 17 May 1917 in Warren County, Kentucky, to Frank Young Garrison and Lelah (or Lelia) Collins. Florence died on 27 April 1997. When the 1940 census was enumerated, she was a patient at the Barlow Sanitarium in Los Angeles. It was a tuberculosis hospital.

Barlow Sanitarium campus circa 1907; courtesy of the Barlow Foundation

Barlow Sanitarium was founded by Dr. Walter Jarvis Barlow, a doctor from New York, who was forced to move west in search of a warm, sunny, dry climate after contracting tuberculosis in 1895. It was built on a 25-acre property next door to Elysian Park on Chavez Ravine Road. He founded the facility two years before the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis was created. By 1944 effective treatments for tuberculosis had been developed, which was lucky for Florence Garrison as she went on to live for over 50 beyond her stay at the sanitarium.

During Dr. Barlow's lifetime the patients's care was governed by strict guidelines. One such document read as follows:

"Patients must not expectorate anywhere except in cups provided for that purpose. Cloths are to be used as handkerchiefs and burned morning and evening. Patients must not discuss their ailments or make unnecessary noise. Patients must not put anything hot on glass tables. Lights out by 9 p.m. Cold plunge every morning; hot baths Tuesday and Saturday. Patients are forbidden to throw water or refuse of any kind on the ground. When doctors think them able, every patient must do some work about the Sanatorium or go away. Patients disobeying these rules will be dismissed."

Barlow Respiratory Hospital; courtesy Wikipedia

Barlow still exists today on its 25-acre campus as the Barlow Respiratory Hospital.

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Tuberculosis: Greatest Killer in History

Diphtheria: The Plague Among Children

How many times has a family historian seen diphtheria as a cause of death on an ancestors' death certicate? One morning I saw it...yet again. This time for Pearl Ivy Muir, my first cousin twice removed, who died in 1922 at the age of 7, and thought when the heck did they develop a vaccine. I learned after a bit of research, had little Pearl been stricken with diphtheria just four years later, she may have lived.

The first reported diphtheria epidemic occurred in 1613 in Spain. That year became known as "The Year of Strangulations." The disease swept through New England in 1735. It wasn't until 1883 that the club-shaped bacterium was identified and named Klebs-Loeffler bacterium. In 1895 the M. K. Mulford Co. of Philadelphia began production and testing of an antitoxin. By 1905 scientific papers began to be published, which detailed the best known ways to treat diphtheria. However, several children died after being treated with antitoxin and the resulting fear slowed the progress in treating the disease. Bela Schick developed a test to detect preexisting immunity to diphtheria in an exposed person. He advocated only those who had not previously been exposed to the disease should be vaccinated, thereby reducing the number of people who needed the live vaccine. Dr. Schick, with the support of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., waged a 5-year campaign to educate parents about the dangers of diphtheria and why early diagnosis was important. A vaccine was developed in the 1920s and as early as 1924 deaths as a result of diphtheria began to decline.

Children were most vulnerable to diphtheria. In 1925 an outbreak in Nome, Alaska, made national news as the antitoxin was rushed to the remote city by dog sled. The event became known as The Great Race of Mercy. It is now celebrated annually by the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Balto, the lead sled dog became a famous canine celebrity and news coverage helped spur the inoculation campaign that dramatically reduced the threat of diphtheria.

Gunner Kaasen with Balto; courtesy of Wikipedia

Last year in the United States no cases of diphtheria were reported[1]; it is routinely prevented by vaccine and treated with antibiotics. However, it was once a major cause of illness among children. The year before Pearl's death, the U.S. recorded 206,000 cases, resulting in 15,520 deaths. Effective immunization against diphtheria became widely available in the 1920s, just a few years after Pearl died.

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A version of this post first appeared on the Robert Muir Family blog on 7 April 2016, which is the publishing platform for the multi-volume book, Descendants of Robert Muir (c1800-1869). The original version of this post will be published in an electronic book, Volume VII: James Muir (1848-1926) Descendants in June 2016.

[1]A three-year-old girl died in March of this year in Belgium.

Killer Cabbage

Charles Dagutis was born on 12 February 1914 in West Hazleton, Pennsylvania, to Adam and Cecelia Daguts, who were my husband's paternal grandparents. According to my sister-in-law, Adam and Cecelia had thirteen children, including at least two sets of twins. To date, I have only found evidence of nine children. Little Charles died on 19 March 1920 at the family home on Winters Avenue. He had just celebrated his sixth birthday barely a month before.

411 Winters Avenue, West Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 2009; personal collection

I didn't know of Charles' existence until the Pennsylvania death certificates became available online a few years ago. From the death certificate, I discovered that Charles died of gastroenteritis and had suffered from the complaint for a month. While many call it a stomach flu, it really has nothing to do with the flu at all. Gastroenteritis is caused by a bacterial or viral infection. When caused by a viral infection the most common are the rotavirus or the norovirus. When caused by a bacterial infection, the most common causes are contact with another infected person, contaminated food or water, or unwashed hands after going to the bathroom or changing a diaper.

At the time Charles died, the Dagutis household was likely in a bit of upheaval. His mother gave birth the day before to the family's youngest known son, Albert Paul Dagutis. It's quite likely that Charles' older sister, twelve-year-old Anna, was responsible for his care during the final days of his illness.

Charles Dagutis 1920 Pennsylvania Death Certificate; courtesy of Ancestry.com

While I will never know for sure, an interesting notation on Charles' death certificate leads me to believe he died because he ate contaminated cabbage. It probably was not thoroughly cleaned before eating.

Simmonds Disease

Ruby James Graham was the second wife of my second cousin once removed, Wallace Edward Dawson. Wallace married Ruby on 11 May 1940 in Lynchburg, Virginia. She was the daughter of Roosevelt T. Graham and Thelma G. Moon. The couple were married 13 years before Ruby died at the age of 33 on 19 July 1953 at the Lynchburg General Hospital. The cause of death was malnutrition and the contributing cause of death was Simmonds Disease of which I had never heard.

Ruby James (Graham) Dawson death certificate; image courtesy of
Ancestry.com

I learned that Simmonds disease is extreme and progressive emaciation, loss of body hair, and premature aging caused by atrophy or destruction of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. It is also called hypophyseal cachexia, pituitary cachexia.

The first known report of Simmonds disease was made by German physician Dr. Morris Simmonds. According to Wikipedia, "He described the condition on autopsy in a 46-year-old woman who had suffered severe puerperal fever (postpartum infections) eleven years earlier, and subsequently suffered amenorrhea, weakness, signs of rapid aging and anemia." By the early 21st century doctors had no problems recognizing the disease.

A study conducted in Spain measured the prevalence of Simmonds Disease and concluded that 45.5 out of 100,000 people had been diagnosed, with 4.2 new cases per year. Most often the disease was a result of pituitary gland tumors or other types of lesions. More recently, studies show that people who have suffered from traumatic brain injury or brain hemorrhages or had radiation therapy in the cranial region are more likely to experience persistent pituitary hormone deficiencies.

Simmonds Disease is a permanent condition; it cannot be cured, only managed. And it must be managed for a lifetime. Today sufferers may experience a normal lifespan something not available to Ruby in 1953.

The Vanishing Mr. Hopkins

Richard Joseph Hopkins was born in 1897 in San Francisco, California. According to one of his marriage records, his parents were James Francis Hopkins and Philomena Cecelia Gleason. His father served on two different occasions in the U.S. Army as a musician. His mother's parents had immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Ireland sometime before Philomena's birth.

In 1900 Richard and his family lived at 226 -- 23rd Street, which borders the current day Warm Water Cove Park and dead ends at the San Francisco Bay. His father continued to work as a musician. By 1910 Richard's parents had divorced and his mother was married to Charles Hensley, who rented a farm in Cloverdale, California.

On 20 July 1916 Richard enlisted in the 1st U.S. Engineer Battalion. He achieved the rank of sergeant and, like his father, was a musician in the battalion's band. After the United States entered World War I, the battalion was expanded to regimental size and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, participating in the Lorraine and Meuse-Argonne campaigns. Engineer units were in charge of repairing the devastation of war to expedite troop movements, providing clean water, constructing or removing barbed wire, and launching gas attacks. Richard was discharged from the Army on 29 January 1920, likely at Camp Zachary Taylor in Kentucky.

Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky; image courtesy of Louisville
Historical Society

By 1924 Richard had relocated to Virginia and he married Annie Zeola (Brewer) Hamilton on 20 March 1924 in Fredericksburg. She was the daughter of Joel Alexander and Nancy Elvira (Shipwich) Brewer and had previously been married to a William Hamilton. Their marriage record indicated Richard had also been previously married but I have found no evidence of a first wife.

On 16 January 1928 Richard was admitted to one of the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soliders in Hampton, Virginia. His physical description was listed as 5 feet 9-3/4 inches tall with a ruddy complexion and brown eyes and hair. His suffered from an acute gonorrheal infection of the urethra. According to his record he was still married although I imagine his illness did not sit too well with his wife, Zeola, which may have been why he listed his mother as his nearest relative.

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Hampton, Virginia;
postcard courtesy of the Library of Virginia

He was discharged on 1 May 1928 but readmitted on 27 August 1929. By that time he was likely divorced as Zeola had married Frank Gindhart sometime before the 1930 census was enumerated and she was living in Ohio. Richard was discharged from his second stay in the soldiers' home on 8 May 1930.

He married Josephine Nelson Walker on 11 November 1933 in Charlottesville. She was my third cousin once removed and granddaughter of Alexander Miller and Ann Marie Jennings. It was her first marriage but it didn't last long. Josephine received a vinculo divorce decree, or total divorce, from the Corporation Court in Charlottesville on 14 January 1937. She accused Richard of desertion and abandonment and though he contested the case, she prevailed. She had been 16 years old at the time of her marriage, 20 years younger than Richard. Josephine went on to marry two more times before she died in 1973.

Richard Hopkins and Josephine Walker divorce decree; courtesy of
Ancestry.com

For a long time that divorce record was the last trace of Richard Joseph Hopkins I could find. Now, I believe he lived in Sharon, Pennsylvania, with a woman named Myrtle when the 1940 census was enumerated. Sharon is located 75 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and began as a coal mining town. By the time Richard and Myrtle lived there it had transitioned to steel making and other heavy industry.

While not 100 percent positive this is the correct Richard J. Hopkins, his age is correct; California was listed as his place of birth and his occupation was listed as musician, which are also correct. However, there is a woman named Charlotte Vaughn living in the home, too. She was 98 years old and her relationship was listed as mother. At first I thought she was Richard's mother-in-law, however Myrtle is 36 years, which meant Charlotte would have been 62 years old at the time of her birth.

State Street, Sharon, Pennsylvania; postcard courtesy of Family Old Photos

The best possibility for a death date is a U.S. Social Security Death Index record for a Richard Hopkins, who died in Nov 1968. He applied for Social Security insurance in Pennsylvania and his last benefit check was sent to Olean, New York. I could order his original application using a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request through the Social Security Administration (SSA). However, as he has not been dead for 75 years, his parents' names would redacted from the document. So not any help in proving this is "my" Richard Joseph Hopkins.

Any other thoughts on where or how to find Richard?

The Tragic Lives of Walter and Marie Hudson

Walter Duvall Hudson was born 29 February 1904 in Amherst County, Virginia, to Benjamin Shelton and Emma Littleton (Dawson) Hudson. He was the fifth of nine known children and my second cousin once removed. He was the grandson of my great grand aunt, Willie Ann Jennings. By 1930 he had moved to Covington, Virginia, and married Marie Iva Layne. They lived at 304 Hazle Street, a home they rented for $7 a month. Walter worked in a paper mill and Marie worked as a bookkeeper in a newspaper office.

On 17 April 1931 Marie died at the C&O Hospital in Clifton Forge of eclampsia, Eclampsia is a disorder which occurs when women are pregnant and includes sometimes violent seizures. Today, many women survive eclampsia, but when Marie was pregnant it was nearly always fatal. If you are a fan of the PBS hit miniseries, Downton Abbey, you will remember this is how the youngest daughter of the Earl of Grantham died. In addition to his wife, Walter lost the twin sons she had been carrying. The two unnamed boys and Marie were interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Covington.

Walter married again on 15 February 1937. His second wife was Hattie Mae Morris, daughter of John Andrew and Le Anna Morris. Walter continued to live at the Hazle Street address and work in the paper mill. Their marriage was destined to a short one.

Walter died the day after Christmas in 1938 at the C&O Hospital in Clifton Forge. He died of a carbuncle on his lip which had become infected. Penicillin had been discovered in 1928 but a way to mass produce it and make the antibiotic readily available for use in treating infections did not occur until 1940. In Walter's lifetime infection was a dreaded event. Walter was interred with his first wife and twin sons.

Headstone of Walter Hudson, his first wife Marie Iva (Layne) and unnamed
stillborn twin sons. Photograph courtesy of Find a Grave volunteer
j stockwell

Hattie Mae (Morris) Hudson died in 1994 at the age of 91. I can find no evidence that she ever married again.

Benjamin Jennings and the Eastern State Hospital

Benjamin T. Jennings was born on 20 February 1853 in Powhatan County, Virginia, to Benjamin and Julia Ann (Faudree) Jennings. He was the great grandson of Benjamin Jennings (c1740-1815), Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) patriot and my Jennings brick wall. Benjamin T. was the oldest of eleven children and his father was a farmer.

In 1870 Benjamin was enumerated twice. On 25 July, he lived at home and attended school. On 5 August, he was at The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane or Disordered Minds, in Williamsburg. It was established in 1773 and was the first mental hospital established in the colonies.

Eastern State Hospital, as the facility is now named as it looked in the 19th
century; image courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg

On the 1870 census document, Benjamin was listed as insane. The column about his right to vote being denied or abridged on other grounds than rebellion or crime was also checked even though he was not yet 21 years of age.

In 1880, Benjamin was back in Powhatan County. His occupation was listed as farmer and he lived at home with his parents and some of his siblings. He was also enumerated that year in the supplemental schedule for defective, dependent and delinquent classes. He had mania and had first exhibited symptoms of mental illness at the age of 14. He'd had two previous episodes and his present one had lasted six months. He occasionally needed to be restrained with handcuffs!

His mother died in 1883 and his father in 1892. Apparently, his siblings were unable to cope with Benjamin's illness because he was back at the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg in 1900 where he remained an "inmate," or patient until his death on 9 February 1916 of appendicitis. His death certificate indicated he had been committed almost 16 years previously.

World AIDS Day: Remembering Roxburgh Lyle Richmond (1952-1985)

Today is World AIDS Day, which was designated in 1988 to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and to mourn those who have died of the disease. It seems like an appropriate day to write about Roxburgh Lyle Richmond, my fourth cousin.

Roxburgh was born on 15 November 1952 in Port Alberni, British Columbia, to Roxburgh and Margaret Louise (Thomas) Richmond. 

All we know about Roxburgh Lyle is from his death certificate. He died on 7 June 1985 at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. Before his hospitalization, he lived at 78-1385 West 15th Avenue in Vancouver. He was 32 years old, single, and worked as a make-up artist in the entertainment industry.

Roxburgh died of respiratory failure and pneumocystis carinii herpes pneumonia, which is a condition often seen in people with compromised immune systems. The contributing cause of death was acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

I was surprised to see AIDS listed as a cause on a death certificate in 1985. The first AIDS diagnosis was made in 1981 and the first case was reported in Canada the next year. In Vancouver the year Roxburgh died, 63 cases were reported, AIDS Vancouver opened its first office, the Red Cross began testing their blood products, and Rock Hudson openly admitted to having AIDS. 1985 was an early time in our fight against the disease. The Pasteur Institute did not isolate the HIV virus until 1983.

Vancouver had become a mecca for gay young men, who left the plains of Canada and headed for the city by the sea because they knew they were "different." In Vancouver, they found an alternative life style more suited to their sexual orientation and sense of community in a diverse group of men like themselves. I have often wondered if that is the reason Roxburgh moved from his parent's home in nearby Nanaimo to Vancouver. His father was a typical hardworking man who had been a plumber, owned a saw mill and worked for a local water board. He loved motorcycles, hunting, fishing and camping. How different Roxburgh must have felt as a young man among his family. I hope he found peace in his life before he died.

Guest Blog: Leber’s Optic Atrophy

By Sarah Semple

My dad came from good working class stock.  He was the fourth child of five and there was nearly a six year gap between him and his next older sibling. His mother decided to hold him back from going to school until his younger brother was old enough, so that the two siblings could keep each other company.  Dad had very little in common with his youngest sibling who was always getting into strife.  But being dad, he just went with the flow and didn’t question the decision.

Dad was a good sportsman, an average performer at school and had decided to become a teacher. He was 19 years of age, in his second year of teacher training when something extraordinary happened to him.  He lost his eye-sight.  He lost the sight in one eye in January 1954 and then the other in May 1954.  The medical system couldn’t explain it.  He could see nothing in front of him, and just shapes in his peripheral vision.  He spent 10 weeks in hospital and was told that his eyesight was bad but it wouldn’t get any worse.

Life was turned on its head.  He had to withdraw from teacher training and his beloved sport.  He lay in the hospital bed feeling very sorry for himself.  To cut a long story short, he heard a girl come in to his ward and tell people to breathe in and out.  He thought that this sounded like an easy job and enquired about it.  She was a physiotherapist, and he found out that there was a School for the Blind for Physiotherapy in London.  He got sponsorship from the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind and off he went -- alone on a six week boat trip, first time out of New Zealand with minimal eyesight. He had a fabulous three years training in London, establishing friendships with other blind physiotherapists that lasted a life time.

John "Jack" Alexander Semple in England, 1958; photograph courtesy of
Sarah Semple

So how does this relate to genealogy? Well, it all comes back to the rare eye disease called Leber’s Optic Atrophy.  When researching this disease, I found out that it is genetic, but that it is only passed on from the female.  So a male can inherit it (like my dad), but his children can never get it.  His sister however could both inherit the gene and develop the disease, as could her children.

So with this information, I approached a renowned Opthamologist who confirmed that as far as he knew there were only two families in New Zealand with this disease.  He had studied the other family to understand the heredity patterns of the disease.  

Jack Semple playing bowls; photograph courtesy of
Sarah Semple

I found that one of my dad’s aunts had also inherited the disease and had died after accidentally drinking a bottle of poison that she thought was a soft drink.  I also found women in dad’s family with poor eyesight that people had attributed to old age, however may well have been the same eye condition.

So when I come across or hear about people (especially young men) who lose their eyesight at an early age to Leber’s, I always ask the question… what was their mother and grandmother’s maiden names?  Chances are, we could be related.

Catawba Sanatorium

Jeanette Brown Witt married my third cousin once removed, Albert Hugh Burt, between 1946 and 1948. They lived in Roanoke their entire married lives. Jeanette worked as a stenographer and Albert worked his way up to district supervisor at the State Board of Education. He died in 1969 and Jeanette, in 1992. They are both buried in Evergreen Burial Park.

In 1940, before her marriage, Jeanette was a patient at the Catawba Sanatorium, which was established on the site of the Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, located seven miles from Salem and southwest of Roanoke. The facility was founded in 1908 as a public institution for the treatment of tuberculosis. It was known as one of the most organized and best equipped institutions of its kind.

W. W. Baker began the sanatorium after he experienced the disease himself. He introduced a bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly that made the sanatorium a possibility. Visitors commented on the cheerful atmosphere and smiling faces. The facility stayed open until the 1950s when better methods were found for the treatment of tuberculosis. Then the sanatorium became the Catawba Hospital, which is still being used today.

Dining Room at the Catawba Sanatorium near Roanoke, Virginia;
photo courtesy of NewRiverNotes.com

The Infirmary at the Catawba Sanatorium; image courtesy of
AsylumProjects.org

Jack L. Wood, once the acting director and CEO of Catawba Hospital said in a 2001 interview with Cooperative Living that the sanatorium was "a premiere facility in the early 1900s. We had the first X-ray machine in Roanoke valley."

52 Ancestors #52: Tuberculosis: Greatest Killer in History

Dr. Frank Ryan in his book, Tuberculosis: The Greatest Story Never Told, called tuberculosis "the greatest infectious killer in history."

Tuberculosis, or TB (short for tubercle bacillus), has also been called phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, or consumption. It is in many cases a fatal, infectious disease, which attacks the lungs as well as other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people who have an active tuberculosis cough, sneeze or transmit respiratory fluids through the air. In the middle of the 19th century tuberculosis accounted for approximately one in eight of all deaths in Scotland.

While the coal mines and textile factories provided work for our Muir ancestors, the industrial developments in many areas of Scotland were so rapid that provisions for public health did not keep pace. Ten to fourteen people lived in single-room homes with rudimentary facilities for hygiene made for unhealthy living conditions. Until the late 1800s most health care was provided by local authorities and was haphazard at best. Homes and workplaces were incubators for disease, especially tuberculosis.

It was not until 1882 that doctors and scientists understood tuberculosis was caused by an infectious agent. The invention of the X-Ray machine in 1895 enabled doctors to diagnose and track the progress of the disease. The United Kingdom considered tuberculosis its most pressing health problem at the turn of the 20th century. An international health conference was convened Berlin in 1902. Among the proposals arising from the conference was using the Cross of Lorraine as the international symbol of the fight against the disease.

Famous poster designed by Ernest Hamlin Baker; image courtesy of
U.S. National Library of Medicine

National campaigns swept across Europe and North American to try to curb the rise of tuberculosis. Many of these campaigns incorporated the Cross of Lorraine. In Great Britain there were campaigns to stop spitting in public places and the infected poor were pressured to enter sanatoria that often resembled prisons. Surgical interventions were also conducted with doctors collapsing an infected person's lungs in order to allow it to rest.

It was not until 1944 when streptomycin was isolated and an antibiotic developed that tuberculosis was brought under some sort of control. In 1948, George Orwell wrote about the drug while in Hairmyres Hospital, Scotland, being treated for tuberculosis:

"This disease isn't dangerous at my age, and they say the cure is going on quite well, though slowly...We are now sending for some new American drug called streptomycin which they say will speed up the cure."

But streptomycin wasn't the total cure. Tuberculosis frequently mutated and became resistant to it so the search continued for new drugs. Eventually, combination therapy began to work and while tuberculosis was never totally eradicated in the western world, it was brought under some sort of control. However, it continues to rage in Africa and other parts of the world.

Researching my Scottish ancestors made me aware of how frequently an early death was caused by this cruel disease.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.

Curing Syphillis: Camp Garraday

I can tell you I never thought I'd be writing about venereal disease on a family history blog. But when I found an ancestor's Young Man's WWII draft card and it said his address was Camp Garraday, Hot Springs, Arkansas, well, it made me wonder. What kind of camp was it; after all, he wasn't yet in the Army? A Google search revealed the very interesting history of Camp Garraday.

The practice of bathing in hot or cold baths to cure diseases dates from prehistoric times. The U.S. government first acquired title to the hot springs in Arkansas in 1818 when the Quapaw Indians ceded the land to them. Fourteen years later the federal government declared the hot springs a reservation for public use.

Hot Springs became known as the place to go to "take the baths" while receiving mercury treatments for syphilis, including Al Capone. Physicians at Hot Springs prescribed ten times the amount of mercury for bathers, which may have had more to do with the cure success ratio than the baths.

When the Public Health Service examined the World War I draft cards, they were astounded by the levels of venereal disease revealed during medical examinations. In response the Chamberlain-Kahn Act was passed and the Public Health Service added a new Division of Venereal Disease. The new division was to work in cooperation with states' to help prevent and gain control of the disease as well as prevent interstate transmission.

A new bathhouse and clinic were planned at Hot Springs, which was to serve as a model for the treatment of venereal disease. Treatment of syphilis changed over time at the clinic. Arsenical compounds, such as arsphenamine, were used in the 1920s, and sulfa drugs in the 1930s.

Administering arsphenamine circa 1925; photograph courtesy of the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

The Depression brought new challenges as many who came to Hot Springs to be treated were indigent. The Arkansas Transient Bureau was created in 1933, and the bureau quickly built Camp Garraday to handle the influx of people coming to be treated. Under an agreement between the bureau and the Public Health Service, people housed at Camp Garraday could be treated for venereal disease at the clinic. In 1935, 14,946 applicants were examined at the venereal disease clinic.

Lobby of Public Health Service Venereal Disease Clinic in Hot Springs
where patients were registered; photograph courtesy of the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences

With the advent of penicillin, patients began to be treated locally and the Free Government Bathhouse closed in 1953. Camp Garraday, which provided domicile for many indigent patients, is now within the boundaries of the Hot Springs National Park and houses the administrative offices of the Hot Springs school district.

I hope you found the history of Camp Garraday as interesting as I did.

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Because I discovered the ancestor, who was living at Camp Garraday when he was drafted through an AncestryDNA match, who is obviously still living, I am not including his name or biographical details.

1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic

My sister-in-law's 3rd cousin six times removed was St. George Tucker (1752-1827). He married Frances (Bland) Randolph, the widow of John Randolph. One of Tucker's step-sons, John Randolph of Roanoke, and his friend and distant relative, Joseph Bryan, were living together in Philadelphia in 1793 where they studied law under Edmund Randolph. St. George Tucker felt it was important for his children and step-children to have careers in either law or medicine as he did not believe the great plantations of Virginia would be economically viable much longer.

John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833)

While John Randolph of Roanoke was in Philadelphia the first major yellow fever epidemic hit the city in July 1793, a hot and humid summer with more than the usual number of mosquitos. The disease tore through the city like wildfire, claiming the lives of one-sixth of the population. An estimated 20,000 people fled the city, including President George Washington, who left on September 10 on his previously scheduled vacation. Children often suffered a milder case of the fever while their parents died, leaving many orphans which the city was unprepared to handle.

Arch Street Wharf and Ferry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The first cluster of cases appeared at the Arch Street wharf, leading many, including Dr. Benjamin Rush[1], to conclude yellow fever was caused by unsanitary conditions around the docks, open sewers, and rotting vegetables. He also recognized weather played a part in the epidemic. The stagnant water, where mosquitos bred, froze over in mid- to late October, and greatly decreased incidence of the disease. Dr. Rush treated his yellow fever patients by blood leeching and purging, using a mercury compound. Later, he wrote an account of the 1793 epidemic, and described the symptoms and course of the disease. He also posited his thoughts on cures and causes.

An Account of Bilious remitting Yellow Fever as It Appeared in the City of Philadelphia in the Year 1793 by Dr. Benjamin Rush.

Philadelphia mayor, Matthew Clarkson, organized the city's response and established a committee to deal with the chaotic situation. They reorganized the fever hospitals, arranged to visit the sick, fed those unable to care for themselves, arranged wagons to carry the sick to hospitals and the dead to Potter's field, and they identified shelters for orphans. Aggressive attempts were made to improve the city's sanitary condition. In 1799, Benjamin Latrobe was hired to design and construct the first water system in the United States. Ironically, Latrobe died of yellow fever in 1820 while constructing a waterworks for New Orleans.

Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor, first proposed yellow fever might be transmitted by mosquitos in 1881. Since the losses from yellow fever were extremely high during the Spanish-American War in the 1890s, Army doctors began to experiment with a team led by Walter Reed. They were able to successfully prove Dr. Finlay's "mosquito hypothesis." Using methods first suggested by Dr. Finlay, the U.S. government was able to eradicate yellow fever from Cuba and later Panama, which allowed the completion of the Panama Canal after the French had abandoned the project in large part due to the decimation of their workers by yellow fever.

________________
[1] Benjamin Rush was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, the surgeon general of the Continental Army, founder of Dickinson College, doctor, writer, educator, and humanitarian.

For more information about the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, Penn State University has made this article available online. This post was a joy to write as I was able to pull out some of my old micro-history books on Yellow Fever and the building of the Panama Canal. Yes, my tastes in reading material are a bit quirky!

Wordless Wednesday: Lincoln State School and Colony

In 1930 the Lincoln State School and Colony raised a lot of its own food on the 1,100 acres it farmed. Male patients helped farm and with the livestock.

Photo courtesy of www.prairieyears.com

The idea for this post came from Geneabloggers.com.

Experimental School for Idiots and Feeble-minded Children

In 1865 the Experimental School for Idiots and Feeble-minded Children opened in Jacksonville, Illinois. According to the asylum's circular, the institution successfully taught "children who were moderately or mildly retarded but not epileptic, insane, or greatly deformed." In 1877 a new Victorian Gothic Revival building was erected on 40 acres of land and the first residents moved into the new facility. In 1910 the institution was renamed the Lincoln State School and Colony. The Commitment Act of 1915 gave responsibility for admissions and discharges to the courts, which could commit anyone who was feebleminded but not insane.

Main building of Illinois Asylum for Feeble-minded Children constructed in 1877

As a result, a large influx of people arrived at the school. Some were dangerous. Cook County judges classified juvenile delinquents as "criminal morons," sending them to the school instead of to overcrowded reformatories. In 1937, Smith Cottage was built as a detention building for incorrigible residents. In 1944, two riots broke out in Smith Cottage.

Cottage at Lincoln State School and Colony

A number of residents were only poor, but if the community in which they lived didn't want to help them, judges could commit them. In 1949 the Mental Deficiency Law gave the power to discharge residents back to superintendents of these facilities. In 1954 the institution's name was changed again to the Lincoln State School and funding was increased for resident care. However, the facility was still severely overcrowded.

In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled residents working in charitable institutions had to be paid like employees. The superintendent of the Lincoln State School ordered an end to the practice of having residents work. By 1975 the institution had undergone another name change and became the Lincoln Development Center. Most of the residents had been moved to smaller institutions, group homes or nursing homes. By 2000 the facility had 383 patients and a staff of 698.

Over the years, the people who were cared for at the school have been called pupils, students, patients, inmates, resident, clients, kids, and boys and girls. Today they are referred to as individuals. However, in 1940, when my  cousin Charles Riggin was there, he was referred on the Census form as an inmate.

Charles was born in 1908, never married and lived with his mother until her death. After her husband's death Charles and his mother lived with his sister and her husband. When his mother died, it appears, his sister had Charles institutionalized.

For more information on the history of this institution, check out the "Our Times" Winter 2000 issue.

Every Family Has One

The first time you find one, it's a bit of a shock. But once I researched the state of mental health treatment in the 1800 and 1900s and realized how many people were institutionalized in hospitals, I surmised I would likely find more than one in my family tree...and I have. This was during the time when doctors basically had three classifications for every type of eccentricity:  idiot, lunatic, and epileptic. The epilepsy category didn't mean the patient, or inmate as they were called at the time, had epilepsy as we think of the disease, but rather they were prone to fits and seizures.

So, with that, let me introduce you to Charles J. Riggin, my first cousin twice removed. Charles was born in 1908 and his parents were Harrison Riggin and Frederica (Kohlenberg) De Ford. Frederica, or Reka as she was called by friends and family, was Harrison's second wife. She had been married before and had two sons by her first husband.  It was also Harrison's second marriage. He had five children already when he and Reka married. His children were parceled out to various relatives. During the 19 years before Harrison's death, he and Reka had four more children, including Charles.

Harrison and his new family lived mainly in Madison County, Illinois, which is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Harrison seems to have been a laborer working at odd jobs throughout his adult life.  In 1910 his step-son, Harvey, was already working in the coal mines. When Harrison died in 1922. Reka and Charles went to live her daughter, Harriet, and her husband. I assume Reka died sometime in the 1930s because she did not appear in the 1940 census and that's how I found out Charles must have had something about him that wasn't quite "normal."

It times like these in your research to keep my favorite ancestor's sage advice at the ready.

"If any family tree is shaken hard enough I am sure it will produce stories of heroes and horse thieves. Lives to be proud of, lives to imitate and some to regret. Your family tree, no doubt will be the same, so I think it is wise to remember that we are totally responsible for ourselves and our lives but we owe no debt to the past." -- Edith Mary Madeline (Ternes) Reynolds

The 1940 census indicates Charles was an inmate (yes, they were still called inmates in 1940!) at the Lincoln State School and Colony Farm. The institution first opened in 1865 as the Experimental School for Idiots and Feeble-minded Children.

Cottage I Lincoln State School and Colony Farm

Main Building, Lincoln State School and Colony Farm

The history of the institution is fascinating and I'll tell you about it in a future post.

Polio -- The Summer Scourge

Polio, or poliomyelitis, was one of the most feared and studied diseases of the first half of the 20th Century. It appeared unpredictably, striking its victims, mostly children, with frightening randomness that resulted in near panic during the epidemics in the 1940s and 1950s.

My paternal grandfather, Marvin Edward Jennings (1901-1961), was one of the unfortunate children who contracted polio. For the rest of his life, he wore a leg brace and believed the disease caused his widowed father to commit him to an orphanage, which I've written about here.

One of the enduring memories of my childhood, is the entire family waiting in long lines at local schools in order to take the polio vaccine, which was delivered in the form of a sugar cube. It's a memory that many of my younger friends don't have. Thank goodness!

Waiting in line for the polio vaccine

The polio timeline in the U.S. is a testament to a dedicated medical research effort:

1894 -- The first major polio epidemic reported in the United States occurs in Vermont, consisting of 132 total cases, including some adults.

1909 - Massachusetts begins counting polio cases.

1916 - There is a large outbreak of polio in the United States. Though the total number of affected individuals is unknown, over 9,000 cases are reported in New York City along. Attempts at controlling the disease largely involve the use of isolation and quarantine, neither of which is successful.

1928 - Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw develop the iron lung, a large metal tank equipped with a pump that assists respiration, is field tested and goes into commercial production three years later.

Photo courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania

1934 - There is a major outbreak of poliio in Los Angeles. Nearly 2,500 polio cases are treated from May through November of that year at the Los Angeles County General Hospital alone.

1935 - Physicians Maurice Brodie and John Kollmer compete against each other, trying to be the first to develop a successful polio vaccine. Field trials fail with disastrous results as vaccines are blamed for causing many cases of polio, some of which are fatal.

1937 - Franklin Roosevelt announces the creation of the National Foundation for Infantile paralysis.

1938 - Entertainer Eddie Canter coins the name "March of Dimes" as he urges radio listeners to send their spare change to the White House to be used by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in the fight against polio. The name sticks.

1940 - Sister Elizabeth Kenny travels from her native Australia to California where she is virtually ignored by the medical community. She then travels to Minnesota where she give the first presentation in the United States to members of the Mayo Clinic staff regarding her procedures for treating polio patients by means of hot-packing and stretching affected limbs.

1942 -- The first Sister Kenny Institute opens in Minneapolis.

1943 - The Sister Kenny Foundation is formed, and Kenny's procedures become the standard treatment for polio patients in the United States, replacing the ineffective traditional approaches of "convalescent serum" and immobilization.

1945 - Large epidemics of polio in the United States occur immediately after the war with an average of more than 20,000 cases a year from 1945 to 1949.

1947 - Jonas Salk accepts a position in Pittsburgh at the new medical laboratory funded b y the Sarah Mellon Scientific Foundation.

1948 - Salk's laboratory is one of four awarded research grants for the polio virus typing project. Salk decides to use the newly developed tissue culture method of cultivating and working with the polio virus. Other researches, including Albert Sabin, who would later develop the oral polio vaccine, contiue to do their work with monkeys infected with the polio virus, a more difficult and time-consuming process.

Doctors Salk and Younger
Photo courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh

1952 - There are 58,000 cases of polio in the United States -- the most ever. Early versions of the Salk vaccine, using killed polio virus, are successful with small samples of patients at the Watson Home for Crippled Children and the Polk State School, a Pennsylvania facility for individuals with mental illness.

1953 - Amid continued "polio hysteria," there are 35,000 cases of polio in the United States.

A physical therapist works with two polio-strickened children
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1954 - Massive field trials of the Salk vaccine are sponsored by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

1955 - News of the successful vaccine trials is announced and a nationwide vaccination program is quickly started.

1957 - After a mass immunization campaign promoted by the March of Dimes, there are only about 5,600 cases of polio in the United States.

1958 and 1959 - Field trials prove the Sabin oral vaccine, which uses live, attenuated (weakened) virus, to be effective.

1962 - The Salk vaccine is replaced by the Sabin oral vaccine, which is not only superior in terms of ease of administration, but also provides longer-lasting immunization.

Children taking the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the early 1960s

1964 - Only 121 cases of polio are reported nationally.

1979 - The last indigenous transmission of wild polio virus occures in the United States. All future cases are either imported or vaccine-related.

Most of the information in this post comes from Dr. Edmund Sass's book, Polio's Legacy: An Oral History.

Meet the Caloriemeter -- It's Not What You Think

Columbus Berry Bailiff was the first cousin four times removed of my nephew's wife. He was born in September 1879 in Tennessee and died in Nashville of typhoid fever in 1915, suffering for three weeks before death. He was 35 years old and known as Lum to family and friends.

Lum married Beulah Grooms sometime after 1900. They lived on 1305 Greenwood Avenue in Nashville, Tennesse. Their marriage produced no known children. Beulah never remarried and lived with her mother, who was also widowed young, the rest of her life.

Lum was working for Harvester Company of the Americas in the Collections Department as a commercial trader when he died. Typhoid is a bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person.

In the same year Lum died, the Alumnae Association of Bellevue, Pension Fund Committee, published a short history of Bellevue Hospital and of the training schools, which included information about treating various diseases.  The guide had this to say about the new, "modern" methods of treating typhoid:

The old treatment of typhoid fever was to supply food very sparingly to the patient, leaving him weak and emaciated at the end of the fever. Fatal results were feared if the patient was given much nourishment. The most modern treatment, however, is that with extreme care and expert knowledge in the selection and administration of food, it is safe to provide enough nourishment to keep up the patient's weight and strengh. Scientific knowledge of foods, combined with understanding the bodily requirements, is essential.

The respiration calorimeter was invented to monitor the heat the typhoid  patient's body produced.

Coloriemeter

The respiration caloriemeter consists of a big box, in which a patient is placed for two or three hours, with a set of instruments that will record every vestige of heat produced inside the box. Arrangements are made to keep it at an even and comfortable temperature and to supply good ventilation. The record will show the heat production at the rate of a certain number a calories a day, weight and size making much difference between normal individuals.

Thankfully, the incidence of typhoid fever in the United States has markedly decreased since the early 1900s and is no longer treated using the respiration caloriemeter!

Norman Baker -- Quack, Killer and All Around Scum

On 8 Oct 1938, Jonathan Hiller and his 8-year-old son, John Ian Hiller, crossed the border from Canada into the U.S.

Jonathan Hiller

The border crossing form said they were going to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to visit Jean Hiller at the Baker Hospital. I figured there had to be a story behind that as Jean (Schultz) Hiller died on 20 Oct 1938.

1938 Border Crossing Manifest

And what a story it turned out to be!

Jonathan and Jean (Schultz) Hiller's wedding
photo; they were married in 1923

Norman Baker was the founder of the Baker Institute in Muscatine, Iowa. He was a flamboyant, medical maverick with a new cure for cancer. Always dressed in a white suit and a lavender tie, he owned a radio station in Muscatine, Iowa, with the call letters KTNT, which stood for Know the Naked Truth. He took to the airwaves and declared war on big business, and the American Medical Association. He believed that organized medicine was corrupt and chose profits over patients. He preached the Gospel of alternative medicine. He was the self proclaimed champion of the common man against the ownership class.

He was a former vaudeville magician, turned inventor, turned millionaire business man, turned populist radio host, turned Cancer doctor without a day of medical training in his life. His magic elixir was nothing more than a useless mix of watermelon seed, brown corn silk, alcohol, and carbolic acid. Baker had cancer hospitals in Muscatine and Eureka Springs.

In the introduction of Norman’s bought-and-paid-for biography, “Doctors, Dynamiters and Gunmen” author Alvin Winston wrote:

 “This is an inspiration book for young and old. A fact story of how a man fought his enemies-how he faced Gunmen, Dynamiters and enemy Doctors -- how he fought the medical racket, the radio trust, the aluminum trust and others. He did it for you….There has never been a book prepared so carefully. This makes it the most important book ever written. Read the life story of Norman Baker the greatest one man battle ever fought.” 

 That was how Norman Baker wanted the world to see him. As a crusader who fought to protect the common man against exploitation. But behind the mask of humanitarianism was a man who leeched off the sick and dying to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Having been run out of his Iowa, Norman moved to Arkansas. This time to the Ozarks and the town of Eureka Springs. There he bought a majestic Victorian hotel that had fallen on hard times. The Crescent hotel sat on a hill 2,000 feet above sea level overlooking the town nestled below. He called it a “Castle in the Air” and made it the new location of the Baker Hospital. Norman picked up where he had left off in Iowa. Running the same medical scams in the Ozarks that had made him hundreds of thousands of dollars in Iowa. According to one U.S. Postal Inspector Norman was pulling in $500,000 a year in Eureka Springs.

Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

For two years, He thrived in there, but the clock was ticking on Norman. He was now a marked man by federal authorities. They quietly investigated him and in 1939 they closed in.

After ten years of being hounded by the authorities and the AMA all it took to bring Baker down was seven letters placed in the United States mail advertising his services. Norman Baker was arrested by federal authorities and charged with using the mails to defraud. The trial was held in January of 1940 in Little Rock and Norman was found guilty on all seven counts. He appealed the decision, but was denied. The opinion handed down by the court of appeals said that Norman’s cancer cure was “pure hoax.”

In January of 1940 Norman arrived at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary to serve a 4-year sentence. One investigator wrote:

 “Our investigation indicates that Baker and his associates defrauded Cancer sufferers out of approximately $4,000,000. Our investigation further shows that a great majority of the people who were actually suffering with cancer who took the treatment lived but a short while after returning to their homes from the hospital. We believe that the treatment hastened the death of the sufferers in most cases. It appears to us that the sentence of four years which Baker received and the fine of $4000 was an extremely light penalty under the circumstances.” 

 He was no longer Norman Baker, millionaire business man, and cancer maverick. Now he was simply known as inmate 58197. In a statement in the Warden’s report Norman said, “I am not guilty. They have never proved anything in the indictment. We figure this was a railroading proposition. It is my opinion that the jury was fixed and influenced. We have hired private detectives to look into the matter. It is believed that whiskey and women were made available to the jurors. We were railroaded by the American Medical Association who have been after me for years.”

Norman was released from Leavenworth on July 19, 1944. He retired to Florida and lived comfortably until his death in 1958.

This fascinating story was written by Stephen Spence and excerpted by me. The complete story can be found on the Crescent Hotel website.

In 1948 Jonathan married Jean's sister, Velma Jean Schultz:

Jonathan and Velma Jean (Schultz) Hiller and the witnesses to their wedding