Chickenpox and Scarlet Fever

I haven't done a Gernenz news summary for a long time because there hasn't been much Gernenz news for a long time. All I've encountered since October 1911 is one little item in mid-February 1913: "Chas. Gernenz's three children are sick with chickenpox."

Chickenpox isn't fun (I remember), but it's rarely fatal. Scarlet fever, on the other hand, could be dangerous in those pre-antibiotic days, and from late autumn 1912 to early 1913, scarlet fever was causing trouble in the area.

By late November 1912, after three Hobart schoolchildren had come down with scarlet fever and many other had been exposed to it, Drs. R.C. and Dwight Mackey (the town and school health inspectors, respectively), had closed down all of Hobart's schools for a week. Workers were set to disinfecting the school buildings. Likewise, all theaters and "public places of amusement" were closed the last week of November. So were the churches, where Thanksgiving services had to be postponed.

The three Hobart children whose illness started the scare apparently recovered. Others were not so fortunate. Over the Porter County line just east of the village of Deep River, scarlet fever devastated at least two families.

In mid-December, all four of Thomas and Sarah Keene's children came down with it. On December 17, four-year-old Irene died; her twin sister, Ada, died on the 22nd. Susan, the baby of the family at one-and-a-half, died five days later. The only child to survive was the Keene's son, six-year-old Thomas Jr.

The family of Edward Hardesty lost a seven-year-old daughter to scarlet fever on December 6. On the 21st, Edward himself died of inflammatory rheumatism. On the following Tuesday night, two of his sons, aged six and three, died of scarlet fever. By the end of the year, the Hardesty family had been reduced to one widow and one baby.

So if the worst that the Gernenz children had was chickenpox, their parents must have counted themselves blessed.


Sources:
♦ "Death in Union Township." Hobart Gazette 27 Dec. 1912.
♦ "Hobart Schools Are Closed For the Week." Hobart News 28 Nov. 1912.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 26 Dec. 1912; 2 Jan. 1913.
♦ "Ross Township." Hobart News 13 Feb. 1913.