“A fatal disease prevails among the children at Chaumont. It terminates in death in a short time. The public schools have been closed on account of the terror existing among the people” -The Ogdensburg Journal, August 30, 1875 In “A History of Jefferson County, New York” (1878) Samuel W. Durant and Henry B. Peirce declared 1875 “A disheartening year” for Chaumont, stating, “During the space of 15 months, 50 deaths occurred within the limits of the corporation of Chaumont village.” They failed to mention that almost all of those deaths were among children, and the disease that struck them down was diphtheria. In March of 1875 Henry W. Jewett, Chaumont’s doctor at that time, realized that an infectious outbreak had begun. He first believed that the spreading illness was typhoid pneumonia and/or scarlet fever. However, by August 23rd Dr. Jewett told the Watertown Times that he had seen 58 cases of diphtheria, of which 6 people died. In the same article, undertaker S.E. Ballard told the Watertown Times that there had been nine deaths in Chaumont since July 1. (Ballard’s own daughter, Mina, would die of diphtheria a few months later.) Diphtheria is an acute bacterial infection. Sufferers experience a sore throat, fever, severely swollen lymph nodes, a barking cough, and difficulty breathing. A gray or white patch, resembling leather, develops in the throat (“diphtheria” comes from the Greek word for leather). Death can occur when the toxin enters the blood stream and damages organs, or when the throat swells shut, causing suffocation. (In Spain the year 1613 is known as “The Year of Strangulations” because of a devastating diphtheria epidemic.) Most fatalities from diphtheria occur in children under the age of 5. In 1875 little was known about transmission, prevention, or treatment of diphtheria. The idea of diseases spreading by germs was still a theory. Since diphtheria was so poorly understood, there was no standard treatment. In 1874, The New York Times printed an advertisement for a medicine that would cure not only diphtheria, but also corns, bunionsand back pain. Sometimes physicians would attempt to cure patients by scorching the leather-like patches in the throat with acidic compounds. A Dr. Grafton spoke to the Jefferson County Journal on September 8thand advised residents that “Sanitary precautions at Chaumont should be strictly observed; low places drained, door yards and outhouses kept perfectly clean; the various preparations of lime, chlorides and carbolities, freely used under the direction of the family physician.“ It is hard to imagine, in our age of vaccinations and antibiotics, helplessly watching a child strangle to death as their throat swells shut. In 1885 a doctor introduced the idea of putting a tube down the throat to prevent it swelling shut (he had mixed results). Before that some doctors performed tracheotomies (without anesthetic, of course). However, a tracheotomy was considered a last resort due to the agony it caused the patient, the high risk of infection, and its low success rate. It wasn’t until 1923 that a successful vaccine for diphtheria was widely available in the United States. Before that, 1 in every 10 children who became infected died of the disease. (Perhaps you have heard the famous story of Balto, the dog who led a sled team to deliver diphtheria antitoxin 600 miles to Nome, Alaska, which was in the grip of an outbreak in 1925.) In 1928 penicillin was discovered, and unvaccinated children could successfully be treated post-infection. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people in Lyme died from the outbreak. In the back of Dr. Jewett’s daybook for 1875 he made a list of 21 children who had died of diphtheria that year; however those were only from among his patients, and only for that particular period of time. As I noted above, “A History of Jefferson County, New York” put the figure at 50 deaths in a 15-month period. Following is a chronological list of the fatalities I could find using cemetery records, newspaper accounts, and Dr. Jewett’s daybook: 1874 (exact date unknown) - Sarah Dulmage, 7, daughter of Thomas and Lovina Dulmage (buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery) 1875 (exact date unknown) - Lucy L. Dulmage, 11 months, daughter of Thomas and Lovina Dulmage (Cedar Grove Cemetery) 1875 (exact date unknown) - William Lowe, 7, son of Oren and Chloe Lowe (Cedar Grove Cemetery) February 18 - Lewis J. Thompson, 7, son of Pembroke and Eunice Thompson (Cedar Grove Cemetery) July 16 - Helene J. Wilcox, 3, daughter of Oren S. and Mary Wilcox (Cedar Grove Cemetery) July 23 - Mary Persons, 6, daughter of Byron and Pewilla Persons. (Fox Creek Cemetery) July 26 - Katie May Soper, 4, only child of Sylvester and M. Ellen Soper (North Watertown Cemetery) August 3 - David Wilson, 5, son of John and Lodicea Wilson (Point Salubrious Cemetery) August 18 - LaFayette Wilcox, 8 months, son of Oren S. and Mary Wilcox (Cedar Grove Cemetery) August 19 - Alton Wilson, 7, son of John and Lodicea Wilson (Point Salubrious Cemetery) August 23 - Thomas Barron, 7, son of Richard and Anastasia Barron (Arsenal Street cemetery, Watertown) August 26 - George Barron, 2, son of Richard and Anastasia Barron. (Arsenal Street cemetery, Watertown) Week of August 23 - Child of James Herrick (exact name and date unknown) August 27 - sisters Ada M. Reed, 9, and Gertrude M. Reed, 6, daughters of D.D. and Mary W. Reed, died within 2 hours of one another (Three Mile Bay Cemetery) August 30 Jason E. Fisher, 2months, son of G.W. and Eliza Fisher (Point Salubrious Cemetery) August 30 - Marie (Mamie) Reed, 1, daughter of Delos D. and Mary W Reed (Three Mile Bay Cemetery) September 2 - Richard P. Barron, 9, son of Richard and Anastasia Barron (Arsenal Street Cemetery, Watertown) September 18 - Charles Royal Higgins, 6 months, son of Rosell and Libbie (Libbie died a month later) (Cedar Grove Cemetery) October 17 - Gertrude R. Fish, 4, daughter of D. and Louisa Beringer Fish (Louisa died 4 days later) (Episcopal Cemetery of Cape Vincent) October 19 - Mina Ballard, 5, daughter of S.E. and Betsey Ballard (Brookside Cemetery, Watertown) October 20 Libbie Higgins, 34, (Cedar Grove Cemetery) October 21 - Louisa Beringer Fish, 30, (Episcopal Cemetery of Cape Vincent) November 20 - Jennie Morehouse, 16 months, daughter of George and Martha Morehouse (Cedar Grove Cemetery) November 25 - Stephen Lowry, 1, son of Patrick and Hannah Lowry (burial place unknown) November 25 - Martha Williams, 4, daughter of Stephen and Jane Williams (Barnes Bay Cemetery) November 26 - Betsey Williams, 2, daughter of Stephen and Jane Williams (Barnes Bay Cemetery) December 19 - Willie Elliot, 4, son of John and Mary Elliot (Cedar Grove Cemetery) March 12, 1876 - Nelson M. Thompson, 7 months, son of Pembroke and Eunice Thompson (Cedar Grove Cemetery) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sources:
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