Question: See if you can identify where the houses and barn are located. If you go to their location today you should notice something different. What is it?
Last week’s answer: Oswego Street neighbors Betty Campbell and Olivia Bigelow are seen in front of 1 E. Oneida St., the northeast corner of the Oswego/Oneida Street intersection. No. 3 E. Oneida St. is in the background. Its distinctive late Victorian Stick Style architecture remains evident yet today.
Brandishing a placard proclaiming “MEASLES,” the girls are standing across the street from the Voorhees home at 82 Oswego St. The sign gave notice that a highly contagious disease was present in the home. The residents were under quarantine; visitors should stay away.
Five-year-old Henry “Harry” Voorhees was ill with measles. Harry’s illness was also reported in the March 19, 1914, issue of the Gazette and Farmers’ Journal. Harry recovered and passed away 62 years later.
Measles was highly contagious and often deadly. The illness frequently opened the door to pneumonia. Young children and babies were especially vulnerable. Death was not uncommon. In 1913 over 1,000 children died of measles in New York State alone.
Baldwinsville health officials were ever vigilant. Public education and quarantine were their principle tools. Hygiene was stressed. Spittoons were outlawed. Events from school sessions to socials, ball games and church services were postponed or cancelled.
The Gazette & Farmers’ Journal carried poignant obituaries, stern cautions and weekly updates. On April 19, 1915, it reported: “An epidemic of measles has broken out in the village, the disease being scattered throughout all parts of the village. Many of the cases are severe.”
The paper’s Dec. 17, 1931 front page proclaimed the following: “ASKS SOUTH SIDE PARENTS FOR AID — Dr Sullivan Fears Epidemic of Measles”
And on March 24, 1932: “Baldwinsville Measles Epidemic Dies Hard Death at 247 Cases.”
Measles victims were contagious several days before symptoms began to appear and unknowingly spread the disease. Over the centuries measles had claimed tens of thousands of lives, decimating cultures and communities around the world. No one was exempt, from day old infants to royalty. King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu of Hawaii contracted and surrendered to the fatal illness while in London visiting King George IV.
During World War II, the incidence of cases and deaths began to decline as public education intensified and nutrition improved. In 1963 a vaccine became available and measles was on the run. Outbreaks in the U.S. today are so small and infrequent, that in 2000 the disease was classified as “eliminated.”
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
