Giant Potatoes and Typhoid Fever

Both the message and the card itself are a little unusual. Viola sent it from Dixie, Washington (current population about 220) to her friend Edith McKinzey in Portland, Oregon.

The message scrawled on the front says:

Has S. and E.B. made up and got married again - we will surely pull old Daddy by leg. best Regards to Carl from John.

Here's the back of the card.

The message reads:

Dixie Wash

Ans soon

Dear Edith, can't write much as I have the Typhoid Fever, been down in bed 15 days all ready, don't know when I'll be able to sit up. John is getting awful then gives me dope all night and works all day - Viola.

Typhoid Fever in Altoona

Besse sent this card of the Altoona Hospital and Nurses' Home in 1908.

On the front she writes:

Sept. 6. 08

Hello Cousin Kathryn and Jim. We got home O.K. and had a nice time. Would enjoy some more ice cream.

On the back, she continues:

We are having a very bad epidemic of typhoid fever, about 8 cases died since we are home, there are more than a hundred cases now. We are all much alarmed.

The outbreak of typhoid fever she described was written up in the Pennsylvania Medical Journal in 1917. It turns out that a local dairyman was a carrier and the disease was being spread to people who drank milk from his dairy. The dairyman eventually gave up the dairy business and went into railroad work.