With the COVID-19 pandemic reaching peak spread, Rock County Historical Society President Betty Mann has been drawing parallels to the polio epidemic of the 1930s and ’40s.
At a recent Luverne Rotary Club meeting, she presented findings from her research in local medical records and in the Star Herald headlines.
She said word got out slowly, with the first information appearing Aug. 1, 1930, in a medical article about polio.
She said it mentioned three cases.
Harold Rud, 19, son of Olaf Rud by Hills, was the first fatality on Aug. 15, 1930.
“He was threshing and it was very hot, and within two days he had passed away. He went very quickly,” Mann said.
The other two cases were 5-year-old John Bode in Luverne and 3 1/2-year-old Janice Thistlewood.
Later in the year Owen Winkler, 4, son of Wesley Winkler, also had polio.
Mann said her research was extensive.
“I have spent close to 15 hours paging through the Star Herald, she told the Rotary Club during their November meeting via Zoom .
“In looking through past Star Heralds, I found many cases of things that happened, but people weren’t sure what it was. So there wasn’t too much mentioned until 1938.”
Funding the iron lung
She said that’s when Minnesota started forming county committees for polio to raise money.
“Half of the money went to the national organization and half stayed in the county,” Mann said.
Often fund drives supported the purchase of iron lungs, which could help polio victims stay alive.
Mann ticked off her findings:
In the 1930s everybody who got polio had a sign on the door, which is what they often did for any disease … small pox, measles …
In 1930 they thought it was from over-exercising, and they banned kids from riding bicycles when it was too hot.
In 1941 they started raising money for an iron lung. It cost $1,350. We had one here in Rock County at the hospital. There were nine in the Twin Cities.
“You can see what a monstrosity this was,” Mann said, holding up a black-and-white photograph. “It was really quite large. People had to lie in it very flat. Of course it was to aid their breathing. It was a very ugly thing to have to be in.”
In 1941 the Luverne outdoor swimming pool was closed, which Mann said was a big disappointment since it had just been built.
“In 1939 they had built this new outdoor swimming pool down by the river, and in 1941 they closed the swimming pool because they thought everyone who was getting sick was caused by the chlorine and the chemicals they were using in the swimming pool. But they didn’t know for sure,” Mann said.
She said she also remembers getting ill.
“I remember this distinctly, I was 11 years old at that time, and I remember lying in bed with a very high fever,” she said.
“My mother for two to three days was at my bedside. She sponged me down with cold cloths for 24 hours trying to get my temperature down.”
In the fall of 1941, Mann said a group of people from the University of Minnesota drew her blood and her mother’s blood and also from the other polio children and their parents.
“And the strange thing about this whole process is we never ever heard another thing about it,” Mann said. “We never heard whether it was polio or wasn’t polio.”
She said when the United States became involved in World War II in December of 1941, she assumed that the war became more important than polio.”
Also, by the winter months, the disease wasn’t striking as often.
“Polio was only during the summertime when it was very hot,” Mann said.
“At that time, if you stayed out in the sun too long, you would get it. They recommended that everybody wear a hat.”
She also recalled that fresh fruit and vegetables were linked to polio.
“Everything had to be cooked, because they thought maybe there was something in those fresh fruits and vegetables,” Mann said.
‘A shock to the whole community’
By 1946 the general consensus was that one out of every 10 cases involving minors, one died. “It was a tragic thing all over the United States,” Mann said.
Then, in August of 1946, Mann lost her good friend Audrey Schlapkohl to polio.
“She was just a year ahead of me in school,” Mann recalled.
“She had spent her first year at USD, and then in the summer she was at home in Luverne working at the coffee house. … Very suddenly she got sick and died. It was a shock to the whole community.”
Following that, 13 more people died in 1946 and 66 became ill, many of them children and young adults, and often both children and their mothers were ill at the same time.
By the 1950s polio was striking more than 40,000 people per year nationwide.
“In 1951 there were no cases in Rock County and everyone was very encouraged that year,” Mann said. “But all the poster children were wearing leg braces and crutches.”
By March of 1953, they were very close to finding a vaccine, and “Mothers’ Marches” were organized.
“The mothers would ring doorbells,” Mann said. “If you left your light on, the mothers marched around Luverne and asked for donations. Then they canvassed businesses downtown.”
Story of survival
Mann told the story of Maurice Fitzer, who survived a close call with polio.
He was 26 years old, and he and his wife, Helen, had a son.
That summer he had been working on the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hills with the Hills Electric crew.
“It was very, very hot, over 96 degrees, and Maurice wasn’t feeling well,” Mann said “They discovered he had polio.”
Incidentally, his brother-in-law Leonard Stine also had polio, as did Mrs. Curt Maxwell, Margaret Winter and Ray Husen.
As Mann told the story of Fitzer’s polio, she said he got sick the day of the church dedication in Hills.
“His back started hurting him, so he went to Dr. Martin, who sent him to McKennan where they took a spinal tap,” Mann said. “There was no doubt that it was polio.”
Fitzer remembered that he was wrapped in hot, moist blankets to keep his muscles from tightening up, but ended up being paralyzed, all but his arms.
He was able to go home from the hospital for Christmas but continued physical therapy three days a week. Insurance helped with medical expenses.
“He hired help for the chores, and neighbors helped them,” Mann said. “
After three summers he finally got stronger and was finally able to work on his own. … He wore braces all the rest of his life. At the end of his life, he suffered from what they call post-polio syndrome.”
To add insult to injury, Mann said the Fitzer family was avoided like the plague.
“I thought this was so interesting,” Mann said. “People walked on the other side of the street when they saw him coming. They were afraid they might get it.”
Raising money for a cure
Mann said in1953 there was a rabbit hunt that brought in 40 cents apiece.
“Jack rabbits were quite prevalent at this time,” she said. “We don’t ever see them anymore. They had very large back feet and were doing a lot of damage to the crops.”
School children made cards with little slots that a dime would fit into.
“When you got all the little holes filled with dimes, you donated it to the polio fund,” Mann said.
In 1954 there were Mothers Marches and many fundraising events, and in 1954 the polio vaccine was discovered.
“In 1955 students were given shots in schools,” Mann said. “The national foundation funded the first shots in schools. The shots were given in the upper arm. A second was given a week later followed by a third shot later.”
Mann said her research ended in January 1957 with an article that said they hoped that “… this was likely the last time raising money for the March of Dimes.”