Everyone gets hiccups from time to time. Maybe you ate too much, got overly excited, or swallowed air while chewing.
Hiccups originate in the diaphragm, the muscle that separates the chest from the stomach area and helps us breathe. When the diaphragm suddenly spasms, it causes the vocal cords to close abruptly, producing that familiar, repetitive “hic” sound. Usually, hiccups are harmless and go away almost as quickly as they came. However, they can sometimes last for hours or even days, possibly because of nerve damage or irritation, diabetes, or an electrolyte imbalance.
For Vincent Baltulis of Fargo, the hiccups started on a December day in 1936, and they wouldn’t go away. Vincent tried every home remedy he knew. First, he tried holding his breath. Then he tried taking “nine swallows of water in rapid succession.” Nothing worked for the 74-year-old, who had worked as a highly skilled tailor for many years.
Vincent’s friends tried to help by giving him “sudden frights.” However, even a loud “BOO!” couldn’t scare away the unending hiccups.
After eight days of hiccupping, Mr. Baltulis went to the hospital because he couldn’t sleep or eat. A Fargo doctor gave him medicine that calmed the “contractions of his diaphragm,” but the relief lasted only a “short while” before the hiccups returned.
Finally, after ten days, the right dose of medicine cured his hiccups, and Vincent went home from St. John’s Hospital. Vincent Baltulis lived another 13 years, dying at age 87 in 1950. He had never married and had no known relatives in the United States. He was born in Lithuania in 1863 and immigrated to New York City in 1890. After graduating from New York Cutting School for tailors in 1905, he eventually moved to Hettinger, North Dakota, arriving in 1915. There, he became a naturalized citizen. After some time, he established his tailoring business in Fargo.
Baltulis’s bad spell of hiccups reminds us of the term onomatopoeia, in which a word imitates a sound. On this date in 1916, the Dickinson Press printed a story explaining that the word “hiccup” was sometimes said to combine “hic” and “cough,” giving us the alternative spelling “hiccough.”
Whatever the spelling, hiccup or hiccough, Vincent Baltulis was thankful that his ten-day ordeal had ended, thanks to the proper medical treatment provided by a wise Fargo physician.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Hoffbeck
Sources:
- “The Word ‘Hiccough,’” Dickinson Press, October 28, 1916, p. 15.
- Scott C. Litin, ed., Mayo Clinic Family Health Book (NY: Harper Collins, 2003), p. 854.
- “Hiccups,” mayoclinic.org, accessed October 10, 2026.
- “Baltulis’ Hic Under Control,” Fargo Forum, December 15, 1936, p. 1.
- “Fargoan Goes to Hospital After 8 Days of Hiccuping,” Fargo Forum, December 16, 1936, p. 1.
- “Hiccups Over,” Fargo Forum, December 18, 1936, p. 16.
- “Vincent Baltulis Dies,” Fargo Forum, August 21, 1950, p. 9.
- “New Tailor Shop,” Adams County Record [Hettinger, ND], July 1, 1915, p. 2.
- “V.K. Baltulis,” August 14, 1916, N.D., U.S. Naturalizations, 1873-1952, ancestry.com, accessed July 28, 2026.
