How sick were we?

December 1912

Diphtheria

Owing to the appearance of diphtheria, the schools at Fairfield were closed Monday and will remain closed until all danger is past.

Harry, the 13-year-old son of Mrs. and Mrs. Emmett Crawley, died Monday of the dread disease and two more of their children and three of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Omer Hudson are ill and it is feared may have contracted the disease. There have been two cases in Brookville, both patients having recovered.

May 1916

Measles

Up to Thursday noon, Dr. Squier, town health officer, informs us that exactly 50 cases of measles have been reported to him. The Connersville papers report that there have been mover 500 cases in that city this spring.

April 1925

Reily School Closed

The centralized school at Reily, Ohio, has been ordered to be closed bythe Board of Education (Butler Co.) of that township in an effort to check the spread of smallpox. There are 250 pupils in the school, and it is intended to have it remain closed for a week.

October 1918

Schools will reopen

The public and parochial schools of Brookville will reopen next Monday, Nov. 4, the influenza epidemic having subsided to such an extent as to make it safe for the schools to resume work, after being closed four weeks.

November 1921

Tuberculosis

It was pointed out here today that Indiana is woefully behind many other states in facilities to care for tuberculosis patients. Thee are but 500 beds for the care of the tuberculosis in the entire state, whereas at least 30,000 active cases of the disease exist in the state, causing more than 3,000 deaths annually.

December 1927

Scarlet fever

During the last month there were scarlet fever cases in four schools in this county -- Peppertown in Salt Creek Twp., Gap School in Laurel Twp., Little Cedar in Brookville Twp. and the Springfield Consolidated School. Wee it not for the control methods used, the disease might have become a serious menace for weeks to come.

February 1941

Measles, mumps reach epidemic proportion here

The Brookville public schools and schools in other communities of Franklin County, are being effected to a large extent by the epidemic of measures and mumps prevalent at this time. As of Wednesday, Porter Nesbit of the Lew Wallace school reported 93 pupils absent out of an enrollment of 145. He said the absences were directly contributed to the measles and mumps either directly or indirectly.

October 1941

Scarlet fever checked

No new cases of scarlet fever were reported in the county this week. There were three new cases of diphtheria reported in Laurel Township, but none in Salt Creek or Posey townships.

Some of those stricken with previously reported cases of both diseases are now being taken out of quarantine.

February 1943

Chicken pox, measles

Dr. E.M. Glaser, county health officer, stated this week that measles and chicken pox are prevalent in the county and warned parents to keep children out of school when the presence of either disease is suspected.

The period of isolation is from 10 to 14 days. Measles isolation is not less than seven days, scarlet fever not less than 21 days. 

October 1955

Second polio shots will be given here

Dr. Herbert N. Smith, Franklin County health officer, announces that the children who received their first polio shots last spring can receive their second shots now. 

March 1956

Health nurse warns

about diphtheria

Mrs. Marie Cooper, Franklin County health nurse, has issued the following warning to parents: 

"There have been cases of diphtheria reported in the northern part of Indiana. The State Board of Health has brought this to the attention of the physicians and urges immunization of all children with diphtheria toxoid. No child is safe until he (she) has been successfully immunized."

February 1901

How to cure the Grip

Remain quietly at home and take Chamberlain's Cough Remedy as diected and a quick recovery is sure to follow. That remedy counteracts any tendency of the grip to result in pneumonia, which is really the only serious danger. Among the tens of thousands who have use it for the grip not one case has ever reported that it did not recover. For sale at King's drug store.

NOTE: It's a wonder we lived long enough to realize that most of this stuff was preventable thanks to actual science.