McGuffey Moments Epidemics, Contagions & the Oxford Experience STEVE GORDON, ADMINISTRATOR
The past six months have been a somber reminder that public health awareness is a worldwide priority. Covid-19 alerted all populations that pandemics and plagues are not extinct, indeed they lurk wherever people live. Human history is littered with pestilence. During the second quarter of the 19th century, cholera outbreaks, manifested by poor sanitation and waterborne bacteria, killed thousands in Cincinnati. Over the summer of 1849, nearly 10 percent of Oxford’s citizens succumbed to cholera. In 1851, Charles McGuffey, the McGuffey’s only living son, died suddenly from tuberculosis at age 16. In 1918, as a result of the influenza epidemic on campus, all women students and those men not in military training were sent home. Still, eight Miami students died from the flu pandemic. William and Martha Beard, then living in the McGuffey house, lost their son Donald to influenza. After World War II polio, a virus that infected the spine,
afflicted many in Oxford until vaccines were distributed. All told, tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza and polio killed and afflicted nearly a million Americans. Infections from seemingly minor injuries also proved deadly. In 1935, Pat Roudebush, a four-sport letterman and Miami Class of 1934, died of septicemia, or blood poisoning, as a result of a minor injury sustained during a tennis match. Despite the ravages of these contagions, families and communities endured. Each generation confronted life’s fragility, and braced itself for the unexpected. Life was not taken for granted as it could be snuffed out unexpectedly. For many, family, friends and faith were the supportive fabric that enabled people to continue on with their lives. Equally important, especially after WWI, were medical advances that improved life expectancy and overall health. One response to the influenza pandemic of 1918 was when Miami opened its first campus hospital in 1923. About the same
Top right clipping from Hamilton Daily Republican News, October 4, 1918. Bottom left to right: Miami University Hospital, renamed MacMillan Hospital in 1948. Frank Snyder Collection, Miami University Library. Wallace “Pat” Roudebush at the McGuffey House, ca. 1934.
time, the upper floor of the McGuffey side porch was enclosed, most likely in response to a tuberculosis outbreak. Interest in public health prompted Daisy McCullough and her sister to establish Oxford’s first hospital. Out of the carnage of WWII came the wider availability of penicillin, antibiotics such as streptomycin and flu vaccines. Had penicillin and McCullough-Hyde hospital been available a decade earlier, Pat Roudebush would likely have recovered from septicemia. The harsh reality is that threats posed by new strains of viruses will always be present. Each outbreak teaches us that improvements in public health care, sanitation, and development of vaccines can ameliorate the spread of contagions. Oxford’s improved water treatment, better public sanitation, and access to improved health care at a local hospital and Student Health Center all are tangible responses to pandemic threats.
McGuffey House & Museum Email gordonsc@miamioh.edu to reserve a time for your visit. 401 E. Spring St. Oxford, OH 45056 (513) 529-8380 McGuffeyMuseum@MiamiOH.edu MiamiOH.edu/McGuffey-Museum
Volume 8, Issue 2 | Spring 2020
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