When did we get Wheelchairs?

Civil War Era Wheel Chair from Museum of Civil War Medicine

We should never for a moment take for granted the health and abilities that we enjoy. You may be reading today’s Tennessee Mountain Story from a wheelchair or in a hospital room. Maybe you can’t actually read the words because your vision is somehow impaired so your computer reads it to you.  If you are in any of those situations, my heart goes out to you, yet I rejoice that you have a wheelchair, medical care or technology to allow you to continue to function at a high level.

Technology for folks with handicaps hasn’t always been so advanced.

Fifty years ago it was not at all uncommon to see people with leg braces or special shoes because Polio had impacted their limbs. We barely beat that foe when a new war arose with IEDs that robbed so many of our freedom fighters of arms and legs. So now we see prosthetics on very young men and women. Again I say, my heart goes out to you and I am so thankful that technology allows you to still be very active and mobile.

Today more than 20% of America’s population is over 70. Now, age doesn’t automatically equal affliction, but we do know that things begin to wear out. According to a CBS article four out of ten women over 75 use a mobility aid.

If you’ve ever had a baby, accident or any kind of surgery, you’ve enjoyed a ride in a wheel chair.  What a blessing those big rubber wheels are to ferry unstable patients out to their cars. And in the nursing homes, healthcare workers would be lost without that tool.

Do you realize what a new thing a wheelchair is?

I thought the Sears and Roebuck catalog sold absolutely everything. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find a wheelchair in the 1920 catalog. So I started trying to figure out just why. It turns out they weren’t commercially available until the mid 1930’s.

To be certain, invalids have been carried around for centuries.  There’s a great missionary story about a Chinese woman who had bound feet and therefore could not walk long distances and certainly not across country. She married a Christian missionary and as he travelled across the country on foot, she had to be carried in a litter. She certainly wasn’t the only one around the world.

In the 1700’s in England a “Bath Chair” was invented – that’s Bath for the town, not for getting clean, by the way.

None of these are the kinds of chairs you can putter around the house in.

After the Civil War, when many men were left crippled or as amputees, wooden wheel chairs were often used. Since the technology was similar, bicycle manufacturers often built early wheelchairs. Many were probably made at home, or possibly commissioned from skilled individuals. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine has an example of such a custom chair, and I’ve included a picture of it at the top of the article.

Today, you can order a wheelchair from Walmart for a couple hundred dollars. Historically, only the wealthy or ingenious would have such a tool.

County Poor House

Photo courtesy of Josephine's Journal

Sometimes when I’m researching I make discoveries and I want to ask, “Does everyone else know about this?”  Those are often topics for these blogs.  And such is our subject today – The Poor House.

Of course, I’ve always known there were establishments such as a poor house or a work house.  However, I never realized they were so close to home – close as in Fentress County and Cumberland County and Overton County.  It turns out that just about every county had a poor house.

I made this discovery while perusing the census record – a name I was looking at was listed as “inmate” which of course let me to ask whether he was a prisoner.  That was just a term used by that particular county or maybe just by that census-taker.  The 1910 census record for Fentress County lists the residents as “dependent” and sadly the ages of those dependents range from 6 years old to 80 years old.  I am further saddened to see several ages entered as “unknown”.

The Fentress County Poor House was located on Taylor’s Turnpike.  The next road was Glenouby Road so I assume what we now call Taylor Place Road was originally this Taylor’s Turnpike.  In 1910 there were 13 dependents there along with the caretaker’s family which consisted of parents and 4 children.   Of personal interest to me, there are 3 children (one aged 6 years old and 2 with unknown ages) of the Stepp family.  That is my father’s family and we have no stories of any children being left at the poor house or raised there.  So there is a family mystery I must unravel!

I was reading some articles that many of the county poor houses had cemeteries on their property where residents would be buried in homemade caskets in graves dug by the caretakers.  Sadly, there are no grave markers or only unmarked field stones on these graves.

I’ve you’ve had a novel signed by me, you will no doubt have noticed that I tag them with Deuteronomy 32:7 “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.” We can’t ask the fathers or elders for those folks who died in the poor houses and were laid to rest in unmarked graves.  Isn’t it sad to think that we lost their stories?

Cold Slaw

We are really enjoying fresh garden vegetables this summer.  My husband has discovered cole slaw and tells everyone that “Beth is making a new thing.” I’ve blogged here before about the virtues of cabbage, but failed to mention cole slaw at that time.

As I’m writing, I want to paint a picture of daily life on the mountain.  In summertime, produce from the gardens is integral to farm life.  I wondered how long we’ve been enjoying cole slaw so I did a little research and thought I’d share it with you.

We often say “cold” slaw, and I think either cole or cold works just as well in the South.  It turns out that cole was the word for cabbage in Middle English. Of course salad was food eaten from the very beginning; the Etymology Dictionary dates the word to the 1300’s.  “Slaw” is another word for salad. 

In defense of my southern dialect, “cold” was substituted universally when the word “cole” fell out of use in reference to cabbage.

Then there’s the question of recipes…I don’t care for vinegar slaw.  It’s too much like eating a pickle.  I want creamy mayonnaise in my cabbage salad.  Any by the way, mayonnaise is a form of salad dressing – we’ll have to talk about that one day I suppose.  Mayonnaise was invented in 1756 by a French chef.  Of course, the French were already in the colonies at that time and making their mark on American cuisine.  When I asked ole’ Google when Mayonnaise was first used in America; I learned it was 1838 in New York.  However, I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t around a little earlier than that, and maybe not incorporated in restaurant menus.

Grass String and Duct Tape

For a lot of years – probably my whole life, actually – we’ve joked about the farm being held together with grass string and duct tape.  There was a time that I was certain when I had control, nothing would be tied up, wired together or taped.  Like so many youthful declarations, I have now changed my tune.

With the addition of 3 little goats, a new lot had to be fenced – and goats can get through a mouse hole, so the fencing that held satisfied old cows in had to get an upgrade.  Then, as they found or created escape routes, another panel needed to be added.  A gate was re-purposed and you saw this one coming, it sure was fast and easy to tie that thing up!

I started out securing woven-wire with a spool of aluminum wire but realized I didn’t have the wire pliers handy.  They were just down at the other shed, but that grass string was looped within arms reach right there in the barn. 

Then there was the plastic watering trough which had lost its drain cap.  The every-ready duct tape plugged that right up and it’s still holding water.

My daddy has long said that as he aged, it was amazing how smart Grandpa got – of course nothing was changing in Grandpa, just growing wisdom in Daddy.  I suppose I’m experiencing the same thing as I gain a little wisdom and Daddy’s intelligence quickly rises.

Please comment (and maybe attach a picture) and share how you have recently used grass string, fence wire or duct tape.

Historical method of: Restoration of Drowning Persons

You know that I’m always very interested in historical medical procedures.  It just amazes me how much we’ve learned about caring for the human body – and still we know so little!

[SPOILER ALERT: In my next book someone is very sick.]
In researching for my next book, I was reading the Inglenook Cook Book (Brethren Press, Elgin, IL, 1974).  This book describes itself as “A bounty of time-tested recipes from the old-fashioned kitchens of rural America”.  I talked about this cookbook here a couple of years ago, but today I ran upon a Simplified Method for the Restoration of Drowning Persons and I simply had to share it with you.  Now, my copy was printed in 1974, but the Cookbook was originally copywritten in 1911.  Our modern method of CPR is from the 1950’s. 

Following is the method verbatim:

The following simplified method for the restoration of drowning person, and of those who have lost consciousness through asphyxia or any other cause, was developed by Dr. J.V. Laborde, of the School of Anthropology, in Paris.  It has proved efficacious in many cases.  In one cited, of a child who had been submerged for nearly fifteen minutes, the return of breathing was accomplished in ten minutes.  The translation here given is from a leaflet which Dr. Laborde distributes among his pupils:

1.       As soon as the drowning man has been taken from the water, force open his mouth.  If the teeth are clinched, separate them with the fingers, or by means of any hard object – e.g. a piece of wood, the end of a can, the handle of a knife, of a  spoon, of a fork.

2.       Firmly seize between the thumb and the first finger of the right hand the end of the tongue, using your handkerchief, or any piece of linen, to prevent the tongue from slipping; then repeatedly, rhythmically, and with decision, pull it from the mouth, and relax it alternately – at the rate of at least twenty times a minute, imitating the cadenced movements of expiration and inspiration.

3.       At the same time, introduce, far back into the throat, the first finger of the left hand, pressing upon the base of the tongue, so as to induce vomiting, and thus free the stomach of the water or food which encumbers it.

4.       This treatment, the most efficacious known method of bringing back the respiration, must be begun without the slightest delay, and persistently continued for a half hour, an hour, or more.  At the same time all the usual remedies must be applied.  Most important are the removal of the clothing, friction over the whole body, pressure upon the anterior part of the chest, the restoration of the bodily heart, and where it is possible, the application upon the region of the heart of compresses of very hot water.
The same method may and should be applied, in the same manner, in all cases of asphyxia and of syncope (loss of consciousness), from whatever cause.
When a person has been taken from the water in an unconscious condition, the old Howard system of resuscitation [should] be used.  It consists of kneeling over the lower part of the chest and relaxing the pressure.  This simple operation should be repeated nine or ten times during a minute.  The treatment should not be applied in a harsh manner.  The Howard system is in vogue in most of the navies of the world.  The Sylvester system is another good method.  To get the water from the stomach and chest the patient is stripped to the waist and placed face downward with the pit of the stomach raised above the level of the mouth by a roll of clothing or other material placed transversely beneath the trunk.  The tongue must be held out, the larynx kept open, and the mouth and throat cleared of mucus.  Efforts to resuscitate should be continued and hour, for apparently inanimate individuals have been brought to life at the end of that time, after having been in the water an half hour or longer.  Attempts to restore respiration should be accompanied by friction, such as the administration of stimulants and the application of heat to the abdomen and lower extremities.

Howard, Benjamin. Plain Rules for the Restoration of Persons Apparently Dead from Drowning: As Taught Under the Auspices of the Metropolitan Board of Health of the City of New York. Treat, 1869.

NOTES from Beth: 

Do I even need to say, Please don’t try this at home; we understand a much better method now and here’s a link to instructions for it, in case you’re wondering.

The Sylvester system mentioned in the article is from 1857 and the Howard method from 1871.