The 1883 Buckman Diphtheria Epidemic

Our good friend John was at the Morrison County Courthouse this week, looking at the record books stored there from the year 1883.  He was checking the cause of death of members of his family back then, when he realized that page 235 recorded TWELVE children in five families in Buckman who had died that year, of diphtheria. Doubtless, there were other kids who died of diphtheria in Buckman in those years, but two of the families John found were "ours":

• Joseph, the 4 year old son of Robert and Veronica HANISCH died in July, 1883;
• Anna (6) and Louisa (5), daughters of John And Amelia HODORFF died in November and December, 1883;
• Frances (6 months), and August (5), children of John and Marie JANSON died in November, 1883;
• Anna (5) and Angelica (6), daughters of JP and Magdalena SAND died in October that year;
• Henry (5), Herman (6), Charles (12), Daniel (3) and Caroline (1)--children of Jacob and Caroline KOWITZ died between the 4th and 20th of October that year. 

Oh my, five kids in one family had to break the Kowitz' hearts, and spirits.  According to the 1885 census, 3 Kowitz children survived (Julius, Louisa and Mary), and happily, another child, Christina, was born in 1885.

According to an article in Minnesota History Magazine that Larry found, a family named Hanson lost five children in Sleepy Eye four years earlier: " It was a sad sight to see Hanson driving up the road every day or two on his way to the cemetery, alone with his dead. The children died between August 26 and September 5. There were no funeral services or processions for the little ones—just simple interments with little or no ceremony".  This would be true all over the state--and it's why there are no monuments in the cemetery with their names.

The John Jansons, above, had just arrived from Germany that spring.  They'd traveled with the Joseph Janson family, my great-grandparents. The baby who died, Frances, was born in Buckman, but little August had made it all the way across the ocean, only to die of a horrible disease over here.

JP Sand was great-grandpa Mike Sand's brother.  We've written about him on HH because he became a Morrison Co sheriff's deputy. 

There are no family stories about the devastation of having children die so young.  I suspect it had something to do with the "scientific" attitude at the time: some authorities thought diphtheria was caused by unsanitary conditions. That article from the St Paul Globe newspaper, February 1881, uses words like filth and squalor, so besides loosing beloved babies and children, there would have been a pall cast on their home and its housekeeping. But then, as Larry added, maybe it was too horrible to remember, and simply couldn't be..

The first few Minnesota newspapers reporting diphtheria deaths were in 1879 or so.  By 1882, newspaper articles were definite about isolating and quarantining anyone with diphtheria.  Schools and churches were closed, and public funerals could not be held, meaning mourners couldn't come to the house of the victim, where they would traditionally have been laid out.  Early on, a paper would report local deaths, but later, it seemed only deaths in towns 50 miles away were mentioned.  I didn't find mention of any of the Buckman deaths, but the Library of Congress doesn't have every newspaper.

Next day: Larry found an article from the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, dated August 20, 1969 (Google has newspapers, too!) about a forgotten cemetery where a few diphtheria epidemic victims were buried in 1883. Such a sorrowful place...I hope it's been restored.
BTW, other stats I found in my research--Minnesota recorded 460 deaths from Diphtheria in 1879 alone, and Princeton closed all schools because there was one case in town. If only other towns had done the same.

Thank you to John L from Larry & me!

Dirty Thievin' Horse Thieves Part II

(BTW, here's Dirty Thieven' Horse Thieves Part I). 
Sorry we made you wait a whole year for this.  It's worth it just to see who JP Sand was.

I started to transcribe the article but figured anyone who's followed this story so far is incredibly patient and will ask if they really need it transcribed.  Those who are mildly interested probably already read English.  

We found out some previously unknown (to us) facts with this letter.  For one, the train didn't stop in Little Falls in 1883?  JP says he boarded at Rices (Rice, Mn--18 miles south of LF) and the telegram from Fargo came to him there. Ok, a little research tells me that the Great Northern depot in LF wasn't built till 1899...so they didn't stop unless there was a water tank, a building and a telegraph link, I suppose.

Another fact we've wondered about was whether the J.P.Sand in Buckman was the same as deputy J.P.Sand in Little Falls.  They were, and here JP says he's busy stacking grain (on his farm) in Buckman.  (He showed up in the 1885 census there).

Evidently, JP and Sheriff Rasicot weren't best buddies.  The problem had to be more than this, but still,  it was less than politic to call your boss a liar and a boasting beer-swilling saloon loud-mouth in the paper.  Whew. How did JP expect no retaliation over this?  But it sounds like he'd already had his reputation besmirched and his ego wounded--that'd piss off just about anybody.

I expect people were hollering about nepotism, too, since this whole episode had to do with a matched team of JP's brothers' horses (belonging to Mike Sand, our great grandfather).  Even if he would have proceeded the very same way for any other citizens' horses, people can be awfully small-minded.

This kerfluffle took place well before the Bulow trial (five years in the future), but JP and Henry Rasicot were still working together as sheriff and deputy then.  Must have had some kind of truce, but it had to be galling for both.

At the time, there were two newspapers in LF, as JP mentions here: The Sun and the Transcript.  The Sun isn't online, so we have to trust JP's version of events ☺. 

Later:  Wow, Larry found some intriguing news clips from the late 1880s.  Watch for another post ☺

Iffy career moves by Deputy Sheriff J P Sand

Two interesting newspaper articles, one BY J P Sand, and the other about him.  The first had to do with horses stolen from J P's brother Mike Sand (yup, our great grandpa).  Evidently, JP's nose was out of joint because of an article in the Little Falls "Sun" newspaper, which we don't have and probably don't need.  Thing is, it's kind of amazing that he remained deputy when he was so publically  snarky here about Rasicot.  This was in the Little Falls Transcript on September 21, 1883:

Evidently, JP was a better (or at least more trusted) deputy four years later, when this account appeared in the Little Falls Herald  (September 23, 1887).  Now he was a hero--cool!

Dirty thievin' horse thieves

...stealing Mike Sand's horses  (1883):





















BTW: A span of horses, consists of two of nearly the same color, and otherwise nearly alike, which are usually harnessed side by side.  

The following was learned from Mr Illingsworth who is engaged in buying cattle for a firm who have suffered from the thieving operations of the gang.  For some time past a small but expert gang of cattle thieves have been operating in the northern part of this state.  One of their first depredations was the theft of a carload of cattle at Moorhead on the 16th of last July.  The stolen property was conveyed to places at a distance and there, disposed of.  In one instance, some oxen that had been stolen were found by their owners in the pasture of the different farmers who had been innocent purchasers.  On the 9th of August, one of the gang varied the performance by stealing a span of horses from Michael Sands, of Little Falls, Morrison County.  While offering them for sale he was pounced on by a deputy sheriff and arrested, just about as the bargain was being closed.  But the rogue made good his escape by jumping through the car window a short distance west of Brainerd.  One of the parties engaged in these rascally transactions formerly resided in south Stillwater.  A reward of $200 is offered for the arrest of either one of the roguish two.

"How To" books on Farming

In the FARMER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA from 1905, potential field or garden crops were listed with what soils were best and what the crop was good for.  Produced by the J.I.Case Plow Works in Racine, Wisconsin, it was probably distributed as a premium or given with the purchase of a piece of equipment--nine pages of which precede the first chapter. ☺ ( For anyone intending to move to a farm in the near future, this book might be helpful, cuz there's a section on Livestock as well as one on Poultry).

(Not Faverolles, BTW)

Some of the strange crops included in the handbook are SALSIFY  and DANDELION (as a salad green) and MARTYNIA (a real head-scratcher), and GINSENG before it was discovered by hippies.

But for really in-depth info and VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS ON AGRICULTURE-GENERAL AND SPECIAL, HORTICULTURE, STOCK  RAISING, GARDENING, FARM LAW AND BUSINESS, FARM ARCHITECTURE, HOUSEHOLD  MANAGEMENT, HOME TREATMENT OF THE SICK AND CASES OF ACCIDENTAL  INJURIES, HOME OCCUPATIONS FOR YOUTH, FIELD SPORTS, ETC.,  WITH NUMEROUS TABLES RELATING TO FARM PRODUCTS,  FERTILIZERS, LIVE STOCK, FRUIT, POULTRY, WAGES, INTEREST, ETC., ETC.,  [plus] TWO THOUSAND ILLUSTRATIONS NEARLY ALL PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK.....

let me recommend the American Farm and Home Cyclopedia from 1883.  When you click the link, you'll notice "contents", which is also clickable.  Even if you're firmly entrenched in your house in town, try a random page, and realize that that was the general state of enlightened farming the year grandpa Anton August Hesch was born.

You're welcome!