Scarlet Fever

Adding to the miseries of the winter of 1919-20 — on top of influenza and smallpox — we now find scarlet fever. By early March, it had caused the quarantine of three homes in Hobart: those of Albert Witt, Henry Ittel and Alvin Shafer.

The miseries of the approaching spring threatened to include Albert Halsted, a Ross Township farmer, running for Lake County sheriff.

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This little item caught my eye, as it concerns two of our acquaintances — William Schavey (Hattie's husband and Mable's uncle) and John Harms.


(Click on image to enlarge)

According to the 1930 census, the address where William and Hattie Schavey were living was 750 Lincoln Street. (I can't find them in the 1920 census.)


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 11 Mar. 1920.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 12 Mar. 1920.

Merry and Not-So-Merry

The first newspapers of the new year reported on how the holidays had gone for some of our friends.

For George and Mabel Sauter, who had not yet celebrated their first wedding anniversary, Christmas Day was … well, stressful, I suppose, but ultimately joyful — for unto them a child was born, unto them a son was given; and his name would be called George Jr.

The same day, the Grinch paid a visit to Charles Chester's farm:



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On a farm in southern Ross Township, the new year came in miserably for Richard and Pearl Doepping — their four-year-old son sick with scarlet fever, their home under quarantine.


(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "$50 Reward." Hobart Gazette 2 Jan. 1920.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 1 Jan. 1920.
♦ "South of Deepriver." Hobart News 1 Jan. 1920.

Scarlet Fever

We've heard nothing from the John Chester family since they moved to Gary.

When we finally do get news of them, it is sad:

Eddie, the 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. John Chester of Glen Park, formerly of Hobart, died Saturday [March 22, 1919] after an illness of a few days from scarlet fever. The funeral was held at the home Sunday afternoon, burial being in Crown Hill cemetery.

The Chesters had four children surviving, three daughters and a son.

Eddie rests beside Otto, the infant brother he never knew.


(Click on images to enlarge)




Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 27 Mar. 1919.

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.