Chapter 14:  Green Flour and Graveyards

“Great dreams and plans even bigger, mountain valley country home.

Water, land and grass for cattle, pristine and left alone.

Cleared the sage and plowed the soil, turned the streams and did our toil.

But Mother Nature had other plans.

Green flour and graveyards; frost and a broken heart.”

(Lyrics, “Green Flour and Graveyards”, song by Jeff Chappell)

Having established a home in Loa, the Chappell family settled in to living. That life was still pretty tough in Rabbit Valley in the late 1800’s is probably an understatement. Science was making great headway in making life better. In New York on April 24, 1889, several companies working with electrical interests were combined to form Edison General Electric Company but it would be another 35 years before S.E. Tanner and D.W. Brian would use Spring Creek to create the first electric power in Wayne County. (Miriam B.Murphy, A History of Wayne County, Utah State Historical Society, 1999, p. 272).  In 1907, in cooperation with the National Forest Service, a telephone line was brought to Loa (Murphy, p. 277). But it would be another four decades until Scottish biologist Sir Alexander Fleming returned to his cluttered lab after a long weekend in 1928 to notice a halo of no bacterial growth around a contaminant blue-green mold on his bacteria petri dishes which led to his eventual discovery of penicillin. But as 1889 moved toward 1890, life for George and Aurilla was much more like the life of their ancestors 300 years previous than it would be for the life of their children only 50 years hence.

And then there was the weather. Growing season was short. The early settlers knew it would be difficult to grow much at such a high altitude. They initially came looking for new locations to graze their cattle. But there was land and water - they’d find something they could grow!  And they did have success, though it was not easy. As John Lorenzo Buchanan describes in his history:

“There were no ditches or canals on this project where they settled and only about 10 or 12 families there to construct them.  Oh, those next few years were very lean years; everyone nearly starved.  The men worked so hard and the growing seasons were short.  The grain would freeze before it got ripe.  The wheat was not fit for bread.  It was even poor feed to fatten pigs on.  Year after year wheat was taken over to Sevier County to exchange for flour.   A few times, an exchange was made and then the grain was so poor that the people in Sevier County got so they would not exchange flour for it.  This was very hard on the people in Wayne County.  They put up an old burr flour mill and ground the frozen wheat.  The flour was a light green color.  When made into bread, the color was a deeper shade of green and the bread was rather sticky and hard to bake.   However, the people had to live on it as it was the best they had. “(Life Story of John Lorenzo Buchanan, Lyman Town Centennial 1895-1995, p. 106-107)

They’d eat their green flour and do the best they could. This was home and they would make a go of it. Besides, while a person must meet life’s necessities, true joy comes from the association of loved ones. To that end, the fall of 1889 George and Aurilla welcomed George’s half-brother Peter Christensen and his wife Rhoda and family.  Good friends in Nephi, Peter and Rhoda and their 4 children – the youngest just recently born in August, decided to join the Chappell’s in Rabbit Valley.

(See Appendix A for a listing of the children of the two families on January 1, 1890)

Christmas 1889 must have been a joyful, delightful time for these two families.  Aurilla with her 6 children ranging in age from George Alvin age 11 to infant Charles,  and Rhoda with her 5 children from Zolo age 9 to 4 month old Alma Thomas would have so enjoyed each other’s company as they talked of friends and family in Nephi and contemplated their new home so far away. It would have been especially delightful for their little girls. Zolo, along with Amelia Christensen and Mary Leerolan Chappell, both age 6, would have enjoyed helping their mothers prepare yummy foods and treats for the holidays. Their little sisters, Lucy Christensen and Margaret Myra Chappell, both age 3, would not have been much help, but their eyes would have shined with delight at the decorations of Christmas.

 

Then, like now, winter time with people indoors and closely bunched, was the time for respiratory diseases.  Influenza with its body aches, cough and fever; strep throat with its fever, stomach ache and rash; and the barking cough of croup were  common then and common now.  But in addition to these generally benign infections, more sinister ailments also lurked such as whooping cough, or most feared of all, diphtheria.

(See Appendix B at end of this chapter for a detailed description of diphtheria and it’s symptoms)

As the holiday season came and passed, January brought more than just a new year.  Dreaded Diphtheria had shown its ugly presence in the communities along the upper Fremont River.  From the history of Elias H. Blackburn, the only doctor in the valley, we have the following:  “An epidemic of illness among the children struck early that same year (1889). By mid-January he was doctoring ten who were ill.  Two of them had died by February 1. By February 4, Elias wrote, “A very sickly time among the Children.  My time is nearly all taken up Seeing and Doctoring the Sick….Very alarming, So many Sick, some dying.” (Voyle L and Lillian Munson, A Gift of Faith – Elias H. Blackburn, Basin/Plateau Press, 1991, p. 223)

Spread from person to person, usually through respiratory droplets much like the common cold, the illness found its way into the Christensen house hold. Symptoms developing within a week of exposure, it’s not known what family initially contracted the illness. Most likely, one of the older children attending school was exposed and brought it home.  On Friday, January 17, 1890, little Lucy Christensen died.

One can only imagine their grief as Peter and Rhoda buried their sweet, little, three year old daughter, Lucy, in the cold frozen earth west of Loa in the desolate, wind-swept cemetery.  In the Chappell home, Aurilla must have hugged her little Maggie close that night as she thought of her dear friend Rhoda’s broken heart.  Dear, little, Maggie. The same age as little Lucy. She could hardly bare the thought of what it might be like to lose her.

Once the disease was in the home, all the children were at risk. Within a few days, Rhoda’s little Amelia, age 6, was also complaining of a sore throat, loss of appetite and difficulty swallowing. At about the same time in the Chappell home, Leerolan, also age 6, was having similar symptoms. The same age, cousins and dear friends, one can only imagine the two little girls hand in hand at school and at home – sharing games, fun, food and the terrible plague that was to afflict both families. On Thursday, February 13, Peter and Rhoda lost little Amelia. Just three days later, on Sunday, February 16, George and Aurillia lost their dear Leerolan.

  

With death haunting the cold, frozen valley, it’s unlikely any public funeral services were held. Amalia was laid next to her little sister – the two sharing death together as they had shared life.  Not far away another grave for little Leerolan – the small mounds of earth catching the blowing snow and forming small drifts alongside.  Like Lucy, Leerolan did not have to remain alone in this lonely place long. Just 4 days later, her little sister Maggie passed away and joined her older sister in the cold winter ground. In the Christensen home, the nightmare continued to play out.  Within just a few days, David Perry, age 4, was becoming ill. Each day was a trial as they hoped and prayed for warmer days, spring and a reprieve from the awful stalker that was decimating their family.  February insisted on staying and on the 29^th, David Perry died.

   

Peter and Rhoda, having started the year with 5 children were now left with two –  their daughter Zolo age 9 and six month old Alma Thomas.  George and Aurilla, while not being hit quite as hard, had lost both of their daughters. Amazingly, all of their sons survived.

Lacking the modern day technologies of immunizations, antibiotics and hospital intensive care, at that time experiencing the death of a child was not unexpected. While not unique, it was non-the-less every bit as heart breaking in 1890 as it would be in our modern day. One can only imagine the pain shared by these two families.  The tragic family loss of both these little girls has reverberated through the generations and to this day descendants of George and Aurilla speak with sadness of this event.

Appendix A: Children of George and Arilla, January 1, 1890: George Alvin-11, William-9, Leerolon-7, Ted-5, Maggie-3, Charles-10 months.  Children of Peter and Rhoda, January 1, 1890: Zolo-9, Amelia-6, David Perry-4, Lucy-3, Alma Thomas-5 months (As found on familysearch.org)

Appendix B: Up through the 1920’s there were between 100,000 and 200,000 cases of diphtheria a year in the United States. Largely a disease of children, it accounted for between 15,000 and 20,000 deaths a year.  An antitoxin was developed in the late 1890’s and in conjunction with aggressive vaccination efforts, deaths from this disease are in our day rare. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphtheria)

At its onset, diphtheria is similar in symptoms to strep or viral pharyngitis, or even influenza.  Fever and sore throat, body aches and malaise would come on over a few hours. The flushed child would not feel well and a concerned mother would likely put them to bed and begin encouraging cool liquids or broth along with cool compresses to the forehead. Often a poultice would be applied to the neck.  Unlike more benign forms of sore throat, children with diphtheria would often develop increasingly difficulty with swallowing and within 2-3 days a characteric whitish-gray covering would be noted over the tonsils often spreading out over the soft palate in the back of the throat.  As this covering thickened and spread, it could result in increasing difficulty breathing and ultimately, airway obstruction and death. While appearing very ill, most did not run a high fever (usually less than 101 degrees). Many, avoiding complete airway obstruction, would recover from this stage while others would progress on to severe disease. 

Severe disease was a terrible thing to watch.  They would often develop severe swelling in their neck below their jaw creating a “bullneck” appears.  Large lymph nodes would also develop. As the toxins poisoned the body often what would follow was severe prostration, extreme paleness, rapid pulse, stupor, coma and eventual death – usually with about 6-10 days. (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/dip.pdf)