USA > Iowa > Poweshiek County > History of Poweshiek County, Iowa: a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume 1 > Part 19
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"As the west building fell, seven students, all there were in it, came down with the ruins. One, B. H. Burgett, of Deep River, Iowa, severely injured and paralyzed, though unconscious, died before morning. The others, although fall- ing from the third story, escaped with slight bruises.
"Just east of the college campus stood a freight train on the Iowa Central railroad. The engine was lifted from the track, coming down, however, in its proper position. The cars were overturned and demolished, those at the south end of the train being thrown to the east, and the others to the west.
"Further on in town, toward the southeast, a few houses were destroyed, and one person was killed, but no other great damage was done until a freight train was struck on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, about two miles east of Grinnell. The train was overturned, two men were killed, and others injured. The rotary motion of the storm, opposite to the movement of the hands of a watch was also manifest here by the overturning of the cars at the west end of the train to the south, while the cars at the east end of the train were taken north of the track. Numerous so-called freaks of the storm are due to the same cause. In one instance a picture nail was driven fully an inch into the northeast side of an elm tree which was left standing. At another point, a nail was driven through a tree, remaining firmly imbedded, and at such an angle as to show that it came from the northeast. Such cases might be mul- tiplied, but these are sufficient.
"The destructive whirlwind continued on its course, veering somewhat to the east, and doing considerable harm in the country. An eye-witness to the storm six miles southeast of Grinnell states that two funnel-shaped clouds were visi- ble, not far apart, alternately rising and falling, and sweeping everything away as they struck the ground. One of these clouds soon disappeared, while the other, still keeping more to the east, struck the town of Malcom, destroying several buildings in town and doing great havoc a short distance south of town, where buldings were demolished and a dozen or more lives were lost. South of Brooklyn a more nearly southeast course was taken, going through Lincoln township on the extreme eastern border of Poweshiek county. Thence it passed over Sigourney and struck the southeast corner of Keokuk county near Rich- land. Thence in a direct line it crossed the corners of Washington and Jefferson counties, and hitting Henry county passed through diagonally, doing much dam- age at Mount Pleasant, but at this time and later, having lost its cyclonic power, it manifested itself as a straight gusty wind-storm of a breadth of two miles
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or more. Passing into Des Moines county, it crossed the Mississippi river about two miles south of Burlington.
"A few days after the cyclone a letter was received at the Grinnell postoffice directed to the postmaster. A lady employee of the office opened the letter, and was surprised to find a photograph of herself enclosed, with the statement that the photograph was found in a field near Belle Plaine, twenty-five or thirty miles northeast of Grinnell. As it bore the imprint of a Grinnell photographer, the finder sent it to Grinnell, thinking'it might have been carried by the cyclone. The house in which the young lady had lived was demolished by the storm and many things, including this photograph, blown away. The house was in the center of the storm, and at the meeting place of the two clouds.
"Soon after this, a gentleman whose house was destroyed and two members of his family killed, received from Belle Plaine a certificate of membership in a beneficiary society, which certificate was in his house when it was destroyed. This was also found near Belle Plaine. Another photograph was found soon after and was not returned to Grinnell until the present year, when it was rec- ognized as the likeness of a lady whose house was crushed and scattered far to the northeast.
"Relics of the storm were picked up even as far to the northeast as Wisconsin. It is plainly evident that at the collision of the two clouds the one from the south- west was lifted up, and from that point went on its way high in air, spending its strength and dropping its burdens along its northeast course; but its destruc- tive power was not felt beyond Grinnell. Hail began to fall soon after the clouds had passed. One person who was severely injured, testifies that his return to consciousness was when the hail was beating on his face, and he began to won- der what had happened.
"Soon the extent of the disaster was realized and willing hands were at work. The city hall was turned into a morgue and the high-school building into a hos- pital. Most of the bodies of the dead were taken, as found, to the city hall, where, by the early Sabbath morning light, might have been seen more than a score of sheeted forms ready for burial. Seventy-three houses were completely demolished at Grinnell, and several others were badly damaged. The dead at Grinnell and vicinity numbered thirty-nine. It is a wonder that more were not killed. Fully three hundred persons were in the buildings destroyed, and the escape of nearly the entire number was largely due to the protection which cellars afforded. I can learn of but a single instance where a person was fa- tally injured who had fled to the cellar. The property loss at Grinnell was not far from a quarter of a million dollars, about one-third of which was the college loss. Just about a minute passed from the time the first houses in town were struck until the college buildings were reached-three-fourths of a mile distant- thus showing the velocity of the storm to be about forty-five miles an hour at Grinnell."
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
CHAPTER XV.
EPIDEMICS.
ILLS OF THE FLESH OF MAN AND BEAST-EPIZOOTIC-"SPOTTED FEVER" IN GRIN- NELL FROM WHICH MANY DIE.
This county has not been subject many times to an epidemic, indeed, we deem it and the state unusually healthful. Men have come here with con- sumption, tuberculosis, clearly defined and firmly fixed, who believed that their residence in Iowa had lengthened their lives by several years. Winds from the north may freeze us in winter or chill us to the very marrow of our bones, yet coal keeps our homes warm, and Galloway overcoats keep the Arctic breezes from our persons while we inhale their inspiring ozone and keep our mouths closed. True it is not wise to take very active exercise in our sharpest weather, or to talk very much when the thermometer in the open air is thirty degrees below zero, nevertheless healthy lungs may be even healthier for a few sniffs of such on early morning.
But it did seem too cold fifty or sixty years ago on the bare prairie when the falling snow obliterated every track, and the zero wind met no obstruc- tion from the spot reached, or not reached, by Cook or Peary. It was not safe to venture far from the fire then. Men froze to death within a few rods of their own blazing hearths, but even Esquimaux weather caused no epidemic of freezing.
EPIZOOIC, i. e. EP-I-ZO-Ó-IC.
This disease, so Greek in name, and so rare in its appearance, has had a hard time among us. It has had a special name only once, probably, although it has attacked the lower animals, especially horses, in the country several times very noticeably. It has been called by the people "Ep-i-zoó-tic," or "Ep- i-zoí-tic," instead of the straight Ep-i-zo-ó-ic, or Ep-i-zo-ót-ic, using the adjective as a noun.
The epizootic influenza of 1871-3 was most noteworthy in Canada and the United States in recent times; it was certainly most annoying and dangerous among the horses here about 1873. It was death to one horse in twenty in New York city. It is said to have reached Chicago October 29, 1873, and St.
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Louis, December ist of that year. Horse owners about here were very careful to save their horses from exposure and from colds, and kept medicines ready for use when occasion should require.
Few horses or mules were lost although scarcely one escaped its attack.
Epidemics among horses have been rare in this county, although some are clearly remembered.
We have had only one epidemic among white men here and in one part of the county, the "Spotted Fever," at Grinnell in 1862. The best account of that time has been written by Dr. W. H. Newman for the Old Settlers Assocation of Grinnell, as follows :
"SPOTTED FEVER" IN GRINNELL IN 1862.
During the winter and spring of 1862 a very malignant type of cerebro-spinal fever made its appearance in Grinnell and surrounding country. During the months of February and March there were only a few sporadic cases, but to- ward the latter part of April and in the beginning of May the disease became epidemic. At that time, and particularly in the west, this disease was not well understood, and, in fact, even at this late day (1900) there is much to learn concerning the cause, treatment and prevention of this dread malady. Cerebro- spinal fever was not recognized in Europe as a distinct disease until 1801, and in America the first cases occurred in Medfield, Massachusetts, in 1806. From this date up to 1816 there were local epidemics in several localities in the United States. In 1822 an epidemic occurred in Middletown, Connecticut. After 1837 epidemics were frequent in various parts of the world, but from 1850 to 1854 it was unheard of anywhere. In 1864, at Carbondale, Pennsylvania, four hun- dred persons died of the disease out of a population of 6,000. From 1863 to 1891, 2,575 such deaths occurred in Philadelphia. These facts show something of the capriciousness as well as the malignancy of this disease. The epidemic in Grinnell in 1862 was the first instance of the disease in the west so far as can be ascertained from the medical literature at hand.
Few of us of the younger generation can in any degree realize the terrible- ness of the epidemic in Grinnell in 1862, or the feelings with which the inhab- itants of the town were overwhelmed when it was first announced that an epidemic of "spotted fever" was at hand. Here was a little prairie town, a New England village of some 400 souls, living at peace with God and man. They were without the conveniences and facilities of civilization. The physicians, although well up to the standard of the average practitioner of that day, were as yet with- out the hypodermic syringe, the clinical thermometer, the hot water bag. The most common disinfectants were then practically unknown, carbolic acid was not in use, and the many perfect products of the chemists' and pharmacists' art, now considered indispensable to the armamentarium of the medical practitioner, were then absolutely unknown. Even the bath tub, the sinequa non in the treat- ment of cerebro-spinal fever, was wanting in Grinnell at that time.
Cerebro-spinal fever is usually ushered in with a severe chill, followed by more or less fever. Vertigo, headache, nausea and vomiting are usually present. Soreness and stiffness of the muscles of the neck and back are almost invariably
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observed and frequently tetanic contractions of these muscles occur. The head is frequently drawn back and fixed rigidly. Swallowing is painful. In some cases the intellect remains clear to the last; in others there is complete stupor from the start. In the epidemic form blotches or spots as large as a half dollar and varying in color from a light pink to a dark red appear over the body. These spots are not a true eruption. They are more like a mottling of the skin and are due to disturbance of circulation in the skin. These spots, when present, form the surest sign in the disease, and it is from the occurrence of these spots that the name "spotted fever" arose.
Early in the '6os the medical profession in the west was just beginning to accept the now universal belief that all disease should be treated on general medical principles. This was in opposition to the then quite prevalent practice of having a remedy or a set of remedies for each individual disease. This prin- ciple of treating conditions rather than names was applied to the cases in the epidemic in Grinnell, and although a correct diagnosis was not made until after several cases of the fever had occurred, still patients fared about as well as before their disease was christened "spotted fever" as they did afterwards. Dr. E. H. Harris deserves a great deal of credit for his advanced convictions on this subject and his courage in putting them into practice. His views were quite at variance with the theories as taught then, but the infallible test of time has shown that he had apprehended the truth.
The first case of cerebro-spinal fever in Grinnell was that of Rollin W. Ford, in March, 1862. He was taken suddenly with chills, followed by fever and se- vere pain in the head, neck and back. The muscles were sore and stiff, and finally became so rigid that in lifting him out of the bed on to his feet, the hip and knee joints did not bend in the least. There was complete loss of voice and inability to swallow, due to the tonic contraction of the muscles of the throat. Dr. Harris called Dr. Holyoke and Dr. Sears of Brooklyn in consultation in this case. Rollin died on or about the ninth day of his sickness.
The next case occurred in April in the person of Mrs. Norman Whitney. Her illness was ushered in with chills, fever and severe pain in the head, with great restlessness and nausea, but entire freedom from muscular stiffness. Mrs. Whitney was living at that time in the first house south of Woodward's, near the corner of Spring street and Fifth avenue. Mrs. Theodore Worthington has- tened to tender her services and found Mrs. Whitney rolling and tossing on the bed, wild and crazy and in such a condition that no medicine or nourishment could be administered to her. Drs. Harris and Holyoke, and Dr. William Pat- ton, of Jasper county, were in attendance and it is safe to say that she was not deprived of anything that medical skill could furnish at that time. Shortly after Mrs. Whitney was taken sick, a young lady named Melvina Sears, fourteen or fifteen years of age, who was living with Mrs. Whitney, was attacked sud- denly. She was at once removed to the home of Fred Taylor in the old Gilmore House and was attended by Drs. Harris, Holyoke and Patton. Mrs. Whitney died April 27th and Miss Sears on the following Sunday evening. Both these cases were accorded a public funeral in the Congregational church, the funerals occurring together. Mrs. Worthington remembers distinctly that the body of Miss Sears turned absolutely black. She thinks that up to this time the doctors
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had not decided that the disease was spotted fever, otherwise no public funeral would have been allowed. Drs. Harris and Holyoke held a post mortem exam- ination on the body of Miss Sears on Monday morning. At this examination Dr. Pulsifer, a dentist, was present at his own request. Nothing of any impor- tance was discovered at the autopsy. The brain and spinal cord were not ex- posed, suitable instruments for the purpose not being available. Mrs. Dr. Harris was at this time sick of this disease in a mild form. Dr. Harris' mother had the care of her and the instructions were to keep her quiet and the room darkened. On the next day after the autopsy on Miss Sears (Tuesday), Dr. Harris en- tered Dr. Holyoke's drug store, which stood where V. G. Preston's clothing store is now situated. It was between three and- four in the afternoon. Dr. Pulsifer and others were in the store engaged in a heated political discussion. Having finished his errand, Dr. Harris at once left for home. He had been in the house but a few minutes when there was a rap at the door. Dr. Pulsifer was standing there. He said: "Doctor, I am sick." Dr. Harris urged him to go to his room at the hotel and promised to come and attend him at once. But Dr. Pulsifer, without ceremony, crowded past him, sat down in the first chair and began to chill and shake violently. Mrs. Harris was sick in the next room and fearing for her safety Dr. Harris thought that the best way out of the difficulty would be to get Dr. Pulsifer upstairs, which he did at once. He was put to bed and Dr. Harris remained with him until he appeared more comfort- able. After supper that evening (Tuesday) Dr. Harris made a call on High street and on returning to town he stopped a few moments by a window of the church and stood listening to the proceedings of the local Congregational Asso- ciation, then in session here. "While thus engaged," says Dr. Harris, "I was called to the house of a family named Schoonover at the north end of the church lot. I found Mrs. Schoonover apparently in her usual health, ironing clothes. Her little boy. eight or nine years of age, lay on a bed on the floor. At the time I was there he was having some fever. It was not high. Mrs. Schoonover did what she was instructed to do for the child and had returned to her iron- ing when I left. There was not a word of complaint in regard to herself. On reaching home I found Dr. Pulsifer asleep. On entering his room with a light he immediately awoke and sat up in bed. His pulse was soft and regular, skin moist. He was free from headache and looked bright. He said he was feeling much better. He referred to the political discussion in the afternoon and was inclined to resume it. He then asked for a pitcher of water, and taking a drink, bade me good-night. The next morning at five o'clock I was called to go to Schoonover's. I found the child in a comatose condition. The mother was on a bed near by, pulseless, skin cold and clammy, the "spots" all over face and body. Dr. Holyoke was at once sent for and we did what we could. The child died about eight o'clock and the mother about nine. I had been at Schoonover's but a short time when I felt impelled to return home and see Dr. Pulsifer. I found him in a semi-unconscious condition. He gradually grew worse and died about noon. He was about thirty-five years of age. The news of these cases spread rapidly. The next morning physicians arrived from Newton, Monte- zuma and Brooklyn. I met them at the hotel. While there I received a message from Dr. Holyoke to come at once to the home of Mr. Dickey. The visiting doc-
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tors accompanied me. We found Mr. Dickey, who had been seen on the streets that morning, in a convulsion, breathing heavily and frothing at the mouth. He died about eleven o'clock that morning. C. W. E. Hurd says: "As I was stand- ing in a store one afternoon with Elbridge Dickey some one announced Dr. Pul- sifer is dead. Elbridge went home and was buried at four P. M. the next day."
None of the cases after Miss Sears were given a funeral. The bodies were buried as soon as the graves and coffin could be gotten ready. William Reynolds dug the graves for all the victims of this epidemic, for which work it may be said, he has not as yet received any compensation.
Now let us return to another case which is the more inviting because this life was spared for a long and useful ministry in this and other communities. Fortunately we have the recollections of the case of Mrs. Parker in Professor L. F. Parker's own words, as follows: "During the night after the burial of Dr. Pulsifer, my wife was wakened by her babe. She raised herself upon her elbow but was unable to remain there. A slight chill and a trembling which increased rapidly forced her to lie down at once. We instantly suspected it was an attack of the deadly fever. Fortunately I had just learned that it was necessary at the outset to keep the blood circulating at the surface of the body and at the extremi- ties. That day I had been told that Church Meigs of Malcom had had some ex- perience with that disease in New England, and the best thing done there was to pile ears of corn just out of boiling water around the person and thus arrest the chill and excite perspiration. We had no such corn. I kindled a quick fire and as soon as the stove wood was well coaled I took the sticks, wrapped them in wet woolens and piled them around Mrs. Parker, giving her a vigorous steaming. She was quickly quite comfortable, though strangely weak. I then hastened to Dr. Holyoke's. He said I had done the best thing possible, and, as he was al- most exhausted, he gave me brandy and quinine for her, and delayed his call till morning. My wife was unable to sit up for two days and then finally recovered through a kind of nervous prostration for some six months. This was an ex- perience without an approach to a parallel in her history ;- so free from pain and yet so powerless."
It is only just to add to what Professor Parker has said that it was beyond doubt his quick foresight and prompt action which saved this invaluable life. Perhaps, also, the information he had received that very day was not after all a coincidence, but what we are accustomed to call one of the mysterious dispensa- tions of Providence.
Now let us resume the narrative of Dr. Harris in his own words: "Dr. William Patton, who lived in Jasper county, near where Kellogg now stands, also died of this desease, and his memory is worthy of more than a passing notice. As already stated, Dr. Patton was in Grinnell several times in consultation. But after the death of the Schoonovers and Dr. Pulsifer, Dr. Patton came to Grin- nell and remained ten days without returning home. Dr. Holyoke was not in good health and asked to be relieved from attendance on severe and trying cases, as well as all night work. Besides Dr. Holyoke, I was the only resident physi- cian in Grinnell at that time. The sickness was so extensive that it was im- possible for one physician to attend to all and do them justice. Under these cir- cumstances Dr. Patton volunteered to leave home, family and practice and come
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to Grinnell and take his chances with the rest of us. He did his full share of the work. On the evening of the Ioth he called at my door. I asked him to come in and tarry for the night. He said: 'No, I am very tired and almost sick. I shall go to the hotel and ask not to be disturbed until morning.' The next morning (Sunday) about dawn, he was again at my door. A messenger had come for him to go home-his daughter was sick. 'You must look after my pa- tients,' he said, 'until I return. I shall be back Monday morning.' Monday morning came and I was called to the home of Jolin Hiatt on Rock Creek to see his wife. This was in the neighborhood of Dr. Patton's home practice, and the messenger said that Dr. Patton had been sent for also. Soon after arriving at Mr. Hiatt's the messenger returned and said that. Dr. Patton was sick and had sent to Newton for his brother, Dr. Andrew Patton. The next morning (Tues- day) on arriving at the home of Mr. Hiatt I learned that Dr. Patton had died during the night. His remains were laid to rest the same afternoon in Hazel- wood cemetery. Within a few weeks his oldest son, J. Milton Patton, died of the same disease and his remains were placed beside his father's. Dr. Pat- ton's heroic and untiring services during these trying times for which he received no compensation and which doubtless cost him his life, are worthy of a tribute of praise and respect to which I feel my inability to do justice. Dr. Patton de- frayed his own expenses during his ten days' arduous sojourn in Grinnell. A monument should be erected to his memory."
Of the other fatal cases are to be. mentioned Mrs. John M. Carson, who lived four miles northwest of town ja young son of O. B. Watrous and a man named Cobert. Of these cases I can find no particulars.
About a week after Mrs, Whitney's death, Florence Worthington was taken sick with the fever. Mrs. Worthington had been in frequent attendance on Mrs. Whitney and Florence 'had also been there. Florence was sick in bed about a week. She had the characteristic "spots." She finally recovered with the loss of one eye, but her death some years ago was said to be ultimately due to the ef- fects of the fever in 1862.
We cannot now note the cases of others who had the spotted fever in March or April of 1862 and recovered. They were not so serious as those already re- ported.
THE NEW WOW
SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR-REUNION OF THE TENTH, TWENTY-EIGHTH AND FORTIETH REGIMENTS AT MONTEZUMA, OCTOBER 13, 1910
CHAPTER XVI.
CIVIL WAR.
THE BLOODY CONFLICT AND THOSE WHO TOOK PART IN IT-STEPS THAT LED UP TO THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES-POWESHIEK SENDS HER SONS TO THE FRONT- ORGANIZATIONS IN WHICH THEY SERVED.
We may say that the Civil war began when the Missouri Compromise was repealed. The opposition to slavery began much earlier, but there was no note of a bloody conflict in it. In Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence there was a clause attacking the king of England for encouraging the slave trade which was stricken out, because it was deemed disingenuous to complain, and to censure George the III for not interfering with a trade car- ried on by New England shipowners and pleasing to southern slave buyers. Such men of Revolutionary service as Washington, Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin said and did strong things against slavery. Washington emancipated his slaves and gave some of them farms. He said to Jefferson that it was "among his first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country should be abolished by law." Jefferson said when he considered slavery, "he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just and his justice would not sleep forever." These last were slaveholders.
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