Fighting epidemics in North Dakota’s early years involved difficult and sometimes heavy-handed measures. Such was the case when diphtheria hit the old Missouri River village of Winona in the summer and fall of 1891.
Winona was on the east bank of the Missouri, across from Fort Yates. The townsite now lies under Lake Oahe. The town had the nickname of the “Devil’s Colony” due to its reputation for drunken debauchery. It was a stopping point between Bismarck and Pierre, and could be reached by stagecoach and steamboat. The town had a fair share of businesses, including a newspaper, hotels and freight outfits.
On this date in 1891, Winona was in the midst of the diphtheria outbreak. A Fort Yates surgeon and a visiting specialist from New York investigated. The town was quarantined, and the ferry to Fort Yates was closed. The daily mail was fumigated at the Fort Yates’ hospital before distribution. The surgeon also fumigated the whole town of Winona. It’s unclear how many people had died, but a 7-year-old girl who died was buried the same day.
The Winona Times reported on residents affected by the outbreak. One man “was compelled to remain in town for a week on account of the sickness.” A woman was reported as “out of danger.”
The quarantine was lifted in early September, after no further cases were reported, but two weeks later, diphtheria was again reported as “very bad at Winona.” Guards were posted on the banks of the Fort Yates side of the river to keep people from crossing.
A few years later, diphtheria killed 99 people in one parish near Zeeland, North Dakota. Children were quite susceptible. One couple there lost six of their eight children—ages 4 to 13—in a period of 26 days. The children are buried in a row, their graves marked with cast-iron crosses. Also, in the spring of 1898, an Emmons County couple lost all three of their children, ages 4, 2 and 10 months, all within a day and a half. The children were buried at night to avoid spreading disease at a funeral. Their children’s 13-year-old uncle also took ill, dying two days later.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
31151 Fort Yates Medical History, 1878-1903. (1r. #04286)
Winona Times, 1891, Aug. 6, page 1
Winona Times, 1891, Sept. 3, page 1
Winona Times, 1891, Sept. 24
The Washburn Leader, 1891, Sept. 19, page 3
Bismarck Weekly Tribune, 1891, Oct. 9, page 7
Bismarck Weekly Tribune, 1898, May 6, page 6
Emmons County Record, 1898, April 1, page 1
Iseminger, G.L. (2007). The quartzite border: Surveying and marking the North Dakota-South Dakota boundary 1891-1892 (2nd ed.). The Center for Western Studies: Sioux Falls, SD
library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/town_county/stjohn.html
A History of Emmons County, 1976
