Diphtheria in Brown County, MN
“Fred Gerboth and his wife, who lived two and one half miles east of Sleepy Eye, had a family of six children, a boy and five very pretty and intelligent girls. The boy was about sixteen years old; the girls ranged from thirteen or fourteen down to three or four. The Gerboths were very neat and intelligent people. Gerboth was a candidate for the state legislature. The diphtheria suddenly came into the home of the Gerboths. In a matter of days they had laid away all five girls, one at time. Only the boy was left to them. The tragedy so affected Gerboth’s mind that he was obligated to withdraw from the campaign. So far is known, he never entirely recovered from the shock”.1
“Louis Hanson lived southeast of town about five miles. He and his wife had five children. The scourge came and took all five. It was a sad sight to see Hanson driving up the road every day or two on his way to the cemetery, alone with his dead. The children died between August 26 and September 5. There were not funeral services or processions for little ones-just simple interments with little or no ceremony. By this time people were thoroughly frightened and were wondering how the epidemic would end, and when”.2
Disease is a constant fear among the human population. Every generation has their own struggle, from the black plague to the diphtheria epidemic to the flu pandemic, to polio, and then on to the current day struggles of AIDS, SARS, and the Avian “bird” Flu. Emerging illnesses and diseases are always around. Once we conquer a disease with a cure or vaccine, we have another one to battle. Diphtheria was that battle from 1876-1882. This essay includes a list of almost five hundred Brown County victims, a historical and current discussion of diphtheria, a pictorial view of New Ulm in 1880, and gravestone photographs of diphtheria victims.
Life in the late 19th century was dramatically different from our current day lives. Sanitation was poor, food storage was poor, and the health benefits of bathing were not understood at this time. In addition, knowledge about the cause and effects of infectious disease was inadequate. With very little to no medical care available, these pioneers relied on ineffective home remedies. Unfortunately, these remedies did not prevent deaths. Children were the most affected by disease; “nearly a third of deaths annually throughout the nineteenth century were to children under the age of five.”3 “Babies as old as two years were still unnamed. Speculation indicates that delaying naming was that people feared their children wouldn’t survive the era’s terrifying epidemics, such as diphtheria”.4 Parents lost two, three, four, five or six children within days to diphtheria. It is no surprise that diphtheria was feared. From 1876-1905, diphtheria occurred either sporadically or in epidemic proportions in Minnesota. Brown County was no exception.
From 1876-1877, the people of Sleepy Eye and Brown County did not take diphtheria seriously. They continued to live their daily lives like normal, executing no quarantine measures even though “black diphtheria” was around. When children had symptoms, they were downplayed, and no one thought twice.
By 1878/1879 more cases appeared, therefore leading people to take a more serious look at this illness called diphtheria. Children who were infected were unable to be treated and/or saved by doctors. Fear and dismay caused the people of Brown County to become more informed about this illness.
Diphtheria reached epidemic proportions in 1880. People were fearful of the disease, for they had no knowledge of how to treat, much less cure it. It was the luck of the draw if your case would be minor or severe. Victims died within four to seven days, and if they were lucky enough to survive the initial illness, they could die of heart failure or paralysis days or weeks later. This later death devastated parents who thought their child was through the woods and on their way to recovery.
Early stage of the disease were blamed on unsanitary condition of the homes, but after examining the victim’s lifestyles it was found out that all walks of life were affected. Victims could live in town, in the country, be neat and clean, or sloppy and dirty. This disease did not discriminate. Even though most of the victims were children, adults were not immune from the diphtheria epidemic.
Doctors of the time were working with limited knowledge. They tried to help the victims, however, they couldn’t offer much more than support and sympathy. The doctors and nurses traveled around to visit the victim’s homes endlessly, but their success rate was very few to none. Few families escaped the devastation of diphtheria. Over a period of three to five years, immunity started prevent new cases of diphtheria due to exposure of the illness. Those that had a strong enough immune system survived when exposed, and those who were weak, died. Along with the death, their weak gene pool with their weak immune system also died. Your only hope in combating this epidemic, as with any other, laid within the strength of your immune system.
By 1883, diphtheria was almost non-existent. Later cases were few and far between, and did not spread into epidemic proportions. Please see the graph attached which shows the number of deaths each year from diphtheria. People had learned a valuable lesson: to heed the dangerous nature of germs and prevent their spread.
Part 2 - A Comparison of Knowledge in 1880 and 2004:
Children needed to be protected, and the state of Minnesota knew it. In March of 1873, it was made into law that every town, city, village must have a board of health. The board of health needed to meet once a month and protect the health of its citizens. Every three months, a health officer was required to make their rounds, do their inspection of the places where people reside and meet, and present a written report of their findings at the next meeting. This report then needed to be forwarded to the state of Minnesota.
In order for the state board of health to try to prevent diphtheria from spreading in 1880, they published a report including the causes, the contagion, disinfecting preparations, and the preventive measures of diphtheria. A comparison of what we know now with what they knew then about diphtheria follows:
The Causes
1880: Diphtheria was caused by filth. Filth in homes, cellars, cess pools, privy-vaults, drains, sewers, backyard slop, food, water and on clothes. In personal locales, filth could be disinfected thorough sunlight and pure air. On the town/city level, sanitary regulations were recommended to be enforced by the Local board of health. The local board of health was to perform the following duties; one, to properly instruct the people in the observance of sanitary rules , two, to carefully inspect all premises , and three, to remove all causes of disease.5
2004: Diphtheria is an illness caused by the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheria which attacks the upper respiratory system or skin. The bacteria lives in the mouth, nose, throat, skin, tonsils, and/or pharynx. Diphtheria is Greek for “leather” because of the thick, gray, tough membrane that covers the surface of tonsils and pharynx.6 The membrane could extend into the windpipe and lungs, causing problems with breathing and swallowing. Removal of this membrane would cause a bloody mess.7 Not only does the diphtheria bacteria affect the tissues of the respiratory tract, but the bacteria can release a toxin to circulate around the body. The toxin causes heart inflammation(acute myocarditis), and/or circulates into the nervous system to cause paralysis in the throat, lungs, eyes, and breathing muscles. If a person is lucky enough to survive the initial respiratory infection, they could die weeks later from the poisonous effects of the toxin in the blood stream. Croup could result from the infection if the bacteria enters the larynx first.
been an epidemic of the disease, showing itself now and then in a new outbreak is that the contagion is allowed to live for many months in a portion of the houses, and is there ready to develop into the disease, when a child or other person comes in contact with it who is capable of contracting the disease.”8

2004: For two to five days, initial symptoms of diphtheria are common cold symptoms, a mild sore throat and low grade fever. During this time, the diphtheria bacteria is considered to be highly contagious, and easily spread through sneezing, coughing, laughing, talking, drinking glasses, and used tissues with body fluids on them.9 After a white or gray membrane appears in the back of the throat, the swelling of the soft tissues of the neck. Diphtheria is sometimes called “bull neck” because the neck fluids build up and make the neck features disappear. Communicability may last up to 4 weeks. Coma and death can occur within a week of infection. Crowded and unsanitary conditions do contribute to the spread of diphtheria, however diphtheria was not exclusive to poor and undernourished people of Brown County. The diphtheria bacteria can survive up to six months in dust and formites.10