April 17, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when you stop and think about it, we've come a long way in the past 100 years...especially when it comes to medicine. Joy Neal Kidney tells the story of a time not far removed from our own, but drastically different. A story of heartbreaking loss - and how much we depend on modern inoculations.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American Stories. Up next, a
story from our regular contributor, recipient of our Great American
Storytelling Award and Contest, and a friend of our show,
Joy Neil Kidney Joy is the author of Leora's Letters
and Leora's Dexter Stories, two phenomenal books about her family's history. Today,
(00:31):
she shares with us a story entitled Dreaded Diseases of
the Great Depression? Take it away, Joy?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Have you ever heard of anyone dying? From the monks?
Or whooping cough? Both profoundly affected Iowa's Goff and Wilson
families during the nineteen twenties. They had already suffered through
severe cases of the so called Spanish influenza. Early in
(00:59):
the day, Leora, the oldest of Sheridan and Laura Goff's
big family, was married to Clay Wilson. They had three children.
By then. Her brother Jennings had returned from the Great
War and married Tess, a local Guthrie County girl. In
nineteen twenty one. Jennings and Tess had a daughter, Maxine,
(01:21):
who was born the same spring as the Wilson twins.
Three years later, Tess gave birth to a son, Both
Tess and baby Merrill came down with the mumps. Merrill
was just four days old when his mother died. Jennings
and his two small children began to make their home
(01:42):
with his parents, Sherd and Laura. When the Wilson family
moved to Dexter, the Goths moved there as well, along
with many others. Both families had lost their farms after
the Great War, having been encouraged to go into debt
for land. They were shocked that farm prices severely slumped.
Clay Wilson hired out as a tenant farmer, but when
(02:03):
that soured, the family moved to the edge of Dexter,
where they could at least keep their cow. By nineteen
twenty eight, farm jobs had dried up, along with the
Wilson's cow. Klag sold the cow for seventy five dollars.
By then they had seven children. They made out a
(02:26):
large order to Sears, Roebuck and Company for food in bulk,
including oatmeal, gallons of sorghum, large jars of peanut butter, clothes, boots,
winter coats, and one Christmas present for each youngster. Bleak
days of winter were upon them. Leora was in her
family way again with a baby do soon. In January
(02:50):
of nineteen twenty nine, twins Jack and Jean were born.
The babies were about three weeks old when the family
moved from the outskirts of Dexter into a drabbed green
house on the street just south of the home of
the extended Gough family. The Wilson youngsters looked forward to
having cousins Maxine and Merrill as their neighbors. Right away,
(03:14):
Clay set up a stove in the new house and
laid a fire so it would be warm when the
youngest ones arrived. A few kids at a time rode
in the model tea with their mother's stickery, asparagus, fern
and other house plants, and dozens of masonjars filled with
whatever Leora had been able to preserve from the garden.
(03:35):
All nine children, even the babies, came down with colds.
It was not long before their coughs grew serious, with
a deep, telltale croup. A doctor confirmed indeed they had
all come down with whooping cough. A quarantine sign was
(03:57):
posted on the front door, as the disease these spreads
very easily. Clay and Leora, who both had whooping cough
as children strewed newspapers upstairs on the wooden floors beside
the children's beds, with ashes in the center to catch
the phlegm that they spit up. Short of breath after
deep coughing, the kids would fold their knees and gasp
(04:20):
for air. Donald fainted during a coughing episode. Newspapers covered
the downstairs floors as well. What a miserable time for
the entire family. Every morning, Clay gathered up those stench
(04:41):
field newspapers to burn in the stove and arranged fresh
ones on the floors. Every few days, Leora sent the
children upstairs to snuggle under blankets in bed to stay
warm while she aired out the house, scoured everything, and
mopped the floors with disinfectant. When the stove warmed up
(05:01):
the kitchen again, she called the youngsters come down. The
room smelled so clean and medicine Darling remembered that decades later,
the seven year old felt warm and safe crouched behind
the wood stove. One night, Clay heard scuffling and squeaking
of bedsprings overhead. Dale was nearly unconscious in the disheveled bed,
(05:25):
with his head caught in the curves of the wrought
iron headboard. The boy was too weak to free himself.
Clay went for the doctor, who prescribed medicine for Dale,
who had developed pneumonia, and also checked Doris's bloodshot eye.
She had coughed so hard that her blood vessel broke.
(05:46):
The doctor said to use eye drops, probably borick acid.
Those baby twins gasped and cried. They gagged when Leora
tried to nurse them. The harried parents held them upside down,
using fingers to work phlegm from their tiny mouths so
that Clay and Leora could get some rest. Jenningscoff, who
(06:07):
had had diseases a child, stayed with the Wilsons at
night to help. Pertussis or whooping cough, is most dangerous
in infants. The doctor suggested spooning a little whiskey down
their throats to try to clear them, but it didn't
do any good. Baby Jack died then two days later,
(06:28):
so did Jeanne. They were five weeks old. The local
newspaper noted that the school had sent a bouquet, and
so had the Rebecca Lodge, of which grandmother was a member.
(06:50):
Neighbors had taken up a collection for flowers carnations. The
spicy scent of carnations forever after would take Door back
to when she was ten years old, and the funeral
for the baby twins called the one hundred day cough.
The miserable disease can last weeks. Delbert and Donald were
(07:12):
in the eighth grade and ended up missing a whole
grating period at school. There was talk about holding them
back a year, but they wanted to graduate with their classmates.
The teachers agreed that if the boys would double down
on their studies and take a special test, they could graduate,
which they did. These days, most of us have gotten
(07:35):
the DTP vaccination, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough.
A month's vaccine wasn't developed until nineteen sixty seven. These days,
it's hard to imagine the loss of a young mother
to momps, or to imagine the hardship of caring for
nine children with such a dreadful disease as whooping cough,
(07:58):
then losing infants because of it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And a beautiful job on the production by Monte Montgomery,
and a special thanks to joy Neil Kidney for sharing
so many of the stories of her family, and it's
hard to remember what life was like before we were here.
As a comedian recently said, there was life before us
and before you, and my goodness, my dad and I
would travel around the country, would always go to Civil
(08:25):
War battlefields and on the graveyards and cemeteries, and always
there will be these little plots, little baby plots. Every
family losing a three year old, a one year old, miscarriages,
the amount of death experienced by families, and right here
in this one family losing two five week olds, the
whooping cough and having to bury those little babies. A
(08:46):
remarkable story about America living through hard times, farming life,
falling prices, the Great Depression, no jobs, bleak winter months, mation, jars,
and my goodness, a stoone that warmed the house and
reminding us what America was and still is. Family still loved,
(09:06):
and family still lived and thrived. The story of America,
the story of des Moines, And join Neil Kidney's family
here on now American Story
And we returned to our American Stories. Up next, a
story from our regular contributor, recipient of our Great American
Storytelling Award and Contest, and a friend of our show,
Joy Neil Kidney Joy is the author of Leora's Letters
and Leora's Dexter Stories, two phenomenal books about her family's history. Today,
(00:31):
she shares with us a story entitled Dreaded Diseases of
the Great Depression? Take it away, Joy?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Have you ever heard of anyone dying? From the monks?
Or whooping cough? Both profoundly affected Iowa's Goff and Wilson
families during the nineteen twenties. They had already suffered through
severe cases of the so called Spanish influenza. Early in
(00:59):
the day, Leora, the oldest of Sheridan and Laura Goff's
big family, was married to Clay Wilson. They had three children.
By then. Her brother Jennings had returned from the Great
War and married Tess, a local Guthrie County girl. In
nineteen twenty one. Jennings and Tess had a daughter, Maxine,
(01:21):
who was born the same spring as the Wilson twins.
Three years later, Tess gave birth to a son, Both
Tess and baby Merrill came down with the mumps. Merrill
was just four days old when his mother died. Jennings
and his two small children began to make their home
(01:42):
with his parents, Sherd and Laura. When the Wilson family
moved to Dexter, the Goths moved there as well, along
with many others. Both families had lost their farms after
the Great War, having been encouraged to go into debt
for land. They were shocked that farm prices severely slumped.
Clay Wilson hired out as a tenant farmer, but when
(02:03):
that soured, the family moved to the edge of Dexter,
where they could at least keep their cow. By nineteen
twenty eight, farm jobs had dried up, along with the
Wilson's cow. Klag sold the cow for seventy five dollars.
By then they had seven children. They made out a
(02:26):
large order to Sears, Roebuck and Company for food in bulk,
including oatmeal, gallons of sorghum, large jars of peanut butter, clothes, boots,
winter coats, and one Christmas present for each youngster. Bleak
days of winter were upon them. Leora was in her
family way again with a baby do soon. In January
(02:50):
of nineteen twenty nine, twins Jack and Jean were born.
The babies were about three weeks old when the family
moved from the outskirts of Dexter into a drabbed green
house on the street just south of the home of
the extended Gough family. The Wilson youngsters looked forward to
having cousins Maxine and Merrill as their neighbors. Right away,
(03:14):
Clay set up a stove in the new house and
laid a fire so it would be warm when the
youngest ones arrived. A few kids at a time rode
in the model tea with their mother's stickery, asparagus, fern
and other house plants, and dozens of masonjars filled with
whatever Leora had been able to preserve from the garden.
(03:35):
All nine children, even the babies, came down with colds.
It was not long before their coughs grew serious, with
a deep, telltale croup. A doctor confirmed indeed they had
all come down with whooping cough. A quarantine sign was
(03:57):
posted on the front door, as the disease these spreads
very easily. Clay and Leora, who both had whooping cough
as children strewed newspapers upstairs on the wooden floors beside
the children's beds, with ashes in the center to catch
the phlegm that they spit up. Short of breath after
deep coughing, the kids would fold their knees and gasp
(04:20):
for air. Donald fainted during a coughing episode. Newspapers covered
the downstairs floors as well. What a miserable time for
the entire family. Every morning, Clay gathered up those stench
(04:41):
field newspapers to burn in the stove and arranged fresh
ones on the floors. Every few days, Leora sent the
children upstairs to snuggle under blankets in bed to stay
warm while she aired out the house, scoured everything, and
mopped the floors with disinfectant. When the stove warmed up
(05:01):
the kitchen again, she called the youngsters come down. The
room smelled so clean and medicine Darling remembered that decades later,
the seven year old felt warm and safe crouched behind
the wood stove. One night, Clay heard scuffling and squeaking
of bedsprings overhead. Dale was nearly unconscious in the disheveled bed,
(05:25):
with his head caught in the curves of the wrought
iron headboard. The boy was too weak to free himself.
Clay went for the doctor, who prescribed medicine for Dale,
who had developed pneumonia, and also checked Doris's bloodshot eye.
She had coughed so hard that her blood vessel broke.
(05:46):
The doctor said to use eye drops, probably borick acid.
Those baby twins gasped and cried. They gagged when Leora
tried to nurse them. The harried parents held them upside down,
using fingers to work phlegm from their tiny mouths so
that Clay and Leora could get some rest. Jenningscoff, who
(06:07):
had had diseases a child, stayed with the Wilsons at
night to help. Pertussis or whooping cough, is most dangerous
in infants. The doctor suggested spooning a little whiskey down
their throats to try to clear them, but it didn't
do any good. Baby Jack died then two days later,
(06:28):
so did Jeanne. They were five weeks old. The local
newspaper noted that the school had sent a bouquet, and
so had the Rebecca Lodge, of which grandmother was a member.
(06:50):
Neighbors had taken up a collection for flowers carnations. The
spicy scent of carnations forever after would take Door back
to when she was ten years old, and the funeral
for the baby twins called the one hundred day cough.
The miserable disease can last weeks. Delbert and Donald were
(07:12):
in the eighth grade and ended up missing a whole
grating period at school. There was talk about holding them
back a year, but they wanted to graduate with their classmates.
The teachers agreed that if the boys would double down
on their studies and take a special test, they could graduate,
which they did. These days, most of us have gotten
(07:35):
the DTP vaccination, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough.
A month's vaccine wasn't developed until nineteen sixty seven. These days,
it's hard to imagine the loss of a young mother
to momps, or to imagine the hardship of caring for
nine children with such a dreadful disease as whooping cough,
(07:58):
then losing infants because of it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And a beautiful job on the production by Monte Montgomery,
and a special thanks to joy Neil Kidney for sharing
so many of the stories of her family, and it's
hard to remember what life was like before we were here.
As a comedian recently said, there was life before us
and before you, and my goodness, my dad and I
would travel around the country, would always go to Civil
(08:25):
War battlefields and on the graveyards and cemeteries, and always
there will be these little plots, little baby plots. Every
family losing a three year old, a one year old, miscarriages,
the amount of death experienced by families, and right here
in this one family losing two five week olds, the
whooping cough and having to bury those little babies. A
(08:46):
remarkable story about America living through hard times, farming life,
falling prices, the Great Depression, no jobs, bleak winter months, mation, jars,
and my goodness, a stoone that warmed the house and
reminding us what America was and still is. Family still loved,
(09:06):
and family still lived and thrived. The story of America,
the story of des Moines, And join Neil Kidney's family
here on now American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.