-----Original Message----- From: Fleta [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 3:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ARCARROL] Newspaper clipping about {cir 1900} handling of sickness and death An item that some might find interesting from Virgie Gaddy Snyder [1893-1966] scrapebook given to Fleta Aday by Ann Walker April 2005. Newspaper clipping, undated, name of newspaper not noted, my guess on the date is about 1940. Mrs. Parthenia Gaddy Wilson {1891-1956} of Marionville {MO.} writes me some early facts about sickness and death in our pioneer times. There are two great changes and improvements we have which I often think about. One is the caring for the sick and the other is putting away the dead. Less than forty years ago we traveled in farm wagons over rough, dusty or muddy roads and through deep timber where we could not see our way on dark nights. There were no paved or smooth surfaced roads, no cars, telephones or electric lights. When anyone in the country was sick, a member of the family or neighbors rode on horseback after a doctor usually miles away, and then if they found the doctor at home, started the long journey back. If anyone was seriously ill, the neighbor in the community who had the fastest hours, made the trip for the doctor. People at that time knew more about giving first aid than we do now. It was something unusual to hear the clatter of horses' feet after ten at night; when we did we felt sure someone was sick. My father always got up and if they were passing he called: "Who rides there?! " Often the clatter of hoofs stopped and a voice would call-"Hello George!" My parents both helped care for the sick and if both went, often I went along. I remember riding in the front of my father's saddle with him over rough roads. There were no hospitals only in the city nearest us. None whatever in the small towns as they have sometimes now. The nearest us was at Springfield {MO} thirty miles away. If a sick person was taken to a hospital he had to ride in a wagon or hack. If a seriously sick person had to be moved for one two or three miles, he was carried on a cot. The neighbor men gathered in and took turns carrying the cot. Some went along and carried water and medicine. If the sun was hot, someone carried an umbrella over the patient. The old pioneer doctors and preachers are to be praised as much as the pioneer farmers. They all worked together shoulder to shoulder in building this country. When someone in the community died, a neighbor, sometimes t! wo started for town in a farm wagon carrying a hickory of hazel stick just the length of the dead. They brought back those old narrow coffins that tapered down form the shoulders. More often they made the coffins. Some of the neighbors washed and dressed the body, put nickels on the eyelids, tied a cloth around the head and under the chin, put a damp cloth over the face, and waited for the coffin to arrive. The body was hauled in a farm wagon or hack to the burial, often over terrible roads. Warm Regards, Fleta ==== ARCARROL Mailing List ==== Make the world a better place. When someone does you a favor, pass it on...by helping another, from where you are, with what you have, or what you can do. As payment for you helping hand, ask only that they, "Pass it on..." ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx