Typhoid Fever in Whiting

Anthony Borgo June 2020

Typhoid fever has infected many people over the course of history and Whiting, Indiana was no exception. Worldwide, it was commonly transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person or animal. Typhoid fever in many cases was a fatal disease. However, it was a disease that could also be prevented.

With Whiting surrounded by half a dozen cities, as well as, being a portal to Chicago, the burden of protecting the public’s health was very challenging. Whiting’s early doctors worked diligently to safeguard the community from a multitude of infectious and contagious diseases. During the early part of the 1890s typhoid fever spread throughout the area. According to Dr. Lauer in the 1939 historical edition of the Whiting Times between 1893 and 1903, there were on average 50-75 cases of typhoid fever per year, with a death rate of approximately 25 per cent. “Doctors in Whiting during this period seldom had less than three to five cases of typhoid fever under their care.”

According to a June 17, 1899 Whiting Sun article Dr. Hurty of Indiana Board of Health stated that pollution and sewerage was endangering the health of Hammond, Whiting and other Indiana towns. Hurty implored Calumet region municipalities to begin taking steps to prevent their city’s from continuing to allow their water supplies to be contaminated. “If interested towns will do the same thing (as Chicago) the water may be preserved in a state of comparative purity, but a continuance of the present system of contaminating the lake with sewage will in a few years, as population increases, render its waters unfit for domestic purposes.”

Unfortunately for Whiting’s early residents, the city’s leaders did not heed Dr. Hurty’s warning. According to a Whiting Saturday Sun article dated November 16, 1907 typhoid fever prevailed in Whiting to an intolerable state for a series of years. “It is no sudden and violent epidemic, but a continuous plague which has existed for so long that the people of the city have come to look upon it as a matter of course.” The Sun asked readers to help the newspaper to compile a list of those affected by the disease in order to determine the “magnitude of the evil in Whiting.”

Typhoid fever was always considered to be a water-carried disease due to polluted water supply and nothing else. At this time Whiting was experiencing a high death rate as a result typhoid fever. “Twenty years ago Chicago’s conditions were very similar to those prevailing in Whiting now. The sewers emptied into the lake and the water intakes were close inshore.” The city of Chicago decided to extend the water tunnel four miles into Lake Michigan where the water was purer. The four-mile tunnel saw almost immediate results, new cases and deaths dropped at a steady rate, saving the lives of thousands.

After years of apathy, Whiting’s citizenry finally had enough of this totally preventable disease and began to demand change. According to a November 30, 1907 Whiting Saturday Sun article, “The best posted citizens are beginning to understand that a purifying plant must be installed at an early date.” Filtration plants were being erected to purify water using a slow sand filtration method or the ozone method.

Dr. Hurty proclaimed that the fact that typhoid prevails in Whiting at all was a disgrace. “The people who do not believe that typhoid fever is caused by taking the germs into the intestinal tract are of course ignorant, and to be pitied. Those who think that typhoid fever and other preventable diseases are acts of Providence are sacrilegious and profane.”

The Whiting Board of Health reported that from 1902-1907, twenty-three people succumbed to typhoid fever. This was about equal, proportionately, to Chicago at its worst before building its four-mile tunnel. However, the Whiting Saturday Sun said this number was not accurate since many people from Whiting passed away in neighboring city’s hospitals. “It is even more difficult to determine the number of cases of the disease, but the estimate of 500 for five years is probably near the truth.”

Dr. Hurty said that until Whiting’s city officials started to improve the community’s water supply residents must boil their water. The Whiting Saturday Sun reported, “The typhoid germ and other bacteria are killed by boiling. This is the only safe and practical way of sterilizing water. It is some trouble to do this but it is not so much trouble as a case of typhoid fever.” Hurty provided instructions to properly purify your drinking water: “It should be boiled in considerable quantities, five gallons if possible. It should be made to boil violently (for fifteen mintues) and should be poured into a clean stone jar and covered with two thickness of clean toweling, muslin or canton flannel. It would be equally well to cover the jar with a galvanized iron cover with flange.”

Although public health officials decreed that Whiting’s water supply was poisonous to its residents, it took the city of Whiting several years to do anything drastically to alter the problem. City officials in June 1908 formed a committee to address the water problem. Six years later, as a temporary measure the introduction of calcium chloride was adopted as a cheap alternative to a filtration plant. According to a May 29, 1914 Whiting Call article, “At times the odor and taste of the chemical became so strong as to be thoroughly disagreeable, and render the water practically worthless, although safe.”

Mayor Walter Schrage made it his mission to solve the water crisis in the most economic and efficient way as possible. “It has been found that the average cost for filtration is about $7.50 per million gallons; and in cities that have been using these (filtration) plants, the death rate from typhoid fever has fallen off 74 per cent, showing a saving of six lives for every 10,000.” This would put the value of a human life at $5,000.

Two years later the cost of calcium chloride increased, so city officials stopped introducing it into the water supply again creating dangerous drinking water. According to a March 31, 1916 Whiting Call article, “Although warnings to boil the water were sent out broadcast, it seems that the disease germs have nonetheless gained a considerable foothold, and family after family has been obliged to witness the battle for life of one or more of its members.”

So, another committee was formed in April 1916 to study which method of filtration plant would work best for the city of Whiting. However, not everyone was in favor of a filtration plant. According to the Whiting Call in an article dated December 22, 1916, “Filtration is but a makeshift, removing solids, but not by any means destroying the dangerous germs of disease. They cite folly of contaminating the water and then trying to purify it again, and they speak of the expense of installing and maintaining, which will be considerable.”

After many years of braving the demon which was typhoid, the Whiting School Board established a well. For several years the well had been all that stood between the people of Whiting and the sewage that was pumped into the lake. The well, which had a drinking fountain attached, was located at the corner of 119th and Oliver Street. The naysayers said that instead of building a filtration plants more wells should be dug.

Walter Schrage campaigned in 1917 on a filtration platform. He guaranteed pure water for every purpose to the Whiting community. By April 26, 1918 the city council finally voted to issue bonds for the construction of a filtration plant. After nearly twenty-five years, the citizens of Whiting finally had water they could drink without worrying that it might kill them.