Tuberculosis and the Nolte Family

Earlier I mentioned the tragic history of the Nolte family. Let me lay it out for you simply:

Name	Cause of Death	Age at Death
Henry R. (father)	Tuberculosis	59 yrs.
Mary (mother)	Tuberculosis*	42 yrs.
William	Unknown	1 day
Louisa	Tuberculosis**	16 yrs.
Alvena	Tuberculosis	15 yrs.
Otto	Unknown	1.5 mos.
Henry T.	Gunshot wound (murder)	45 yrs.
Bertha	Unknown	Unknown, but more than 28 yrs.
Louis	Kidney disease	33 yrs.
Edward	Tuberculosis	20 yrs.

_______________________
*"Lung trouble."
**"Consumption."

I still haven't been able to trace Bertha beyond 1920; she may have lived to a ripe old age. The infant or child whose name is unknown died in January 1897. The newspaper notice of the burial did not give a name — a practice you sometimes see in the case of an infant or very young child. (I have not found a grave marker for this child, but I will have to go and look again when the weather gets better.)

No cause of death is given in Alvena's obituary. In a family so infected with the disease, it may well have been tuberculosis, but we just don't know. 6/28/10 update — I have come across an obituary of Henry R. Nolte that states, "All the deaths in this family have been from tuburculosis [sic]." I hesitate to accept that as a cause of the two infant deaths, but in Alvena's case it is probably true.

So that's five who died of tuberculosis in a family of ten. This brings home how real a threat it was, this disease that nobody around here gives a second thought to these days.