Everything But Tuberculosis

The late summer of 1917 was a miserable time for Bertha Nolte Campbell. She spent much of two months dangerously ill.

She and Claude were living on his parents' farm at the southern border of Ross Township, almost due south of Ainsworth. It seems an inconvenient distance from the village for daily travel, so I'm guessing Claude had given up his job at Charles Goldman's general store and was now helping his father run the farm.

On August 5 Bertha underwent surgery at the Gary General Hospital for appendicitis and adhesions. She pulled through the operation, but remained hospitalized for nearly two weeks. She was finally able to go home on August 18.

By mid-September she had fallen ill with tonsillitis, which could potentially develop into a life-threatening infection — remember the sad case of Daisy Chester Scroggins.

Within a week she had gone from tonsillitis to typhoid fever, another potentially fatal disease, especially in this pre-antibiotic era. (Earlier that month a little Hobart girl had died of typhoid.)

I do wonder how fatalistic Bertha's outlook on life was, given her family's history. She had two teenage sisters, two baby brothers and two relatively young parents lying in the Ainsworth cemetery. And back at the old homestead, I expect 17-year-old Edward was by now beginning to show symptoms of the tuberculosis that would kill him within two years. Perhaps each time she fell ill, Bertha said to herself, "This is it."

Or perhaps not. She was, after all, the different Nolte.


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 10 Aug. 1917; 7 Sept. 1917.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 9 Aug. 1917; 13 Sept. 1917; 20 Sept. 1917.
♦ "South of Deepriver." Hobart News 9 Aug. 1917; 23 Aug. 1917.