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.

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.

Too Much To Swaller

From 'Pon my Honor by Callie Myers Melton

One time there was this here preacher holding a meetin’ down in the Modock Bottom.  He was sure some preacher, and everbody from far and near was going to hear him preach.

Back in them days the men and women never set together at meetin’.  The men would always set on the left side facing the preacher, and the women would set on the right.  Up in the corner on the men’s side was called tha A-Men Corner.  This was where the old men and the leading lights in the church would always set, then when the preacher would say something that they agreedwith him on, they’d say “A-MEN!” real loud.  The more they believed, the louder would be the A-men.

This time the meetin’ house was full, and the A-men Corner as well.  And Uncle Bill Sidwell, who was might nigh deaf, was setting on the very front seat.  He was plumb feeble now, and had to walk with two walking sticks.  But he was a mighty religious old man, and as crippled up as he was, he come to meetin’ ever time.

Now this time the preacher really got wound up, and he done some old timey preaching.  Being a Hard-Shelled Baptist, he hollered and he yelled, and he pounded the pulpit and he stomped his feet to drive home his points.  But this was just the kind of preaching the folks was hungering and thirsting to hear, for it was the kind of preaching they had been brung up on.  They were plumb enjoying it, for the more noise he made the better they liked it.

Now Uncle Bill set there on the front seat with both eyes on ever move the preacher made, and his hand cupped up behind his ear so as not to miss a single word.

“Brothers and Sister, ah!” the preacher thundered, “I’m a-preachin’ the pure gospel to you’ens, ah! And iffen I throw out anything, ah! That you’ens, ah! Can’t swaller, ah! Jest hand it back to me, ah!”

“A-MEN! A-MEN!” Uncle Bill said.

Now the preacher was plumb bad to chew tobacco, and he’d clean forgot and got up to preach with a big cud of it in his mouth.  Then when he got in such a big way preaching, that wad of tobacco got in his way, so he just up and spit it out.  It landed in front of the pulpit and rolled right down to Uncle Bill’s feet, and there it layed.  Uncle Bill never could abide the weed in any form, so he set there a minute and looked at it.  Then he got up and took his walking stick and rolled that cud of tobacco right up to the edge of the pulpit.

“Here, Preacher,” he said waving his stick in front of the preacher to get his attention.  “Here’s one thing that you throwed out that I shore can’t swaller!”

Christmas Fruit Bag

One of my Christmas memories is the goody bag the church always gave out after their Christmas program.  Handed to each guest, it was an unexpected and exciting little brown paper bag.  We’ve stopped handing these out at my church and while fruit is readily available to me and I eat way too much candy, I found that I missed the little bag this Sunday.  And it got me to thinking about where that tradition may have originated.

Fruit at Christmas time is a deep tradition for our family, and I think for most folks on the mountain.  My Grandpa, who had little input to the regular grocery shopping, would always make a point as the holiday season approached to go buy a big box of apples and another of oranges.  There would be peppermint candy and chocolate drops in the house at this time as well.  Now, it’s not hard to theorize that this man, whose childhood held few treats and for whom poverty had been a constant companion, reveled in the relative wealth of having a whole box of fruit both to enjoy and to share. 

I imagine the church’s bags had very similar origins.  Since our picturesque mountain home won’t grow anything citrus and even apples have to be harvested and safely stored pretty early in the fall, fruit at Christmastime has to come from far away and would be rather a luxury in horse-drawn days.

Transportation has changed so much in the past seventy-five years, and now trucks arrive at grocery stores all over the country filled with fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world.  We can have anything from bananas or mangos to strawberries and apples anytime we want.  And we know that transportation greatly affects the cost of everything.  So imagine how valuable an exotic fruit like pineapple would have been a few years ago.

Of course the church’s goody bag was generally filled with good ole American goodies but even that wouldn’t be easy to come by in the remote mountain communities.  How hard is it to get a load of oranges to a store that is served only by mule team?  How often would poor children in those areas see foods that were harvested hundreds of miles away when they might live their whole lives and never travel more than fifty miles from home?

Top off those juicy fruits with a few pieces of peppermint and maybe even a bit of chocolate and you’ve got a treat that makes a lasting memory.  I don’t know who made the decision not to hand out goody bags at church anymore, and maybe they won’t be missed by many – but I may have to make one for myself, or better yet revive the tradition by handing out my own bags next year.

Don’t Fence Me In

Lots of us love old things and we often try to re-create them.  Split rail fences seem to be one of the most popular of these things but so many of us are just bad at building them.  I see them with fence posts holding them up, I see them in nearly a straight line.  Then, I saw this lovely split rail fence at Bledsoe Creek State Park in Gallatin, Tennessee and was thrilled to see one built halfway correctly so it got me to thinking about fences in general.

Fully fenced farmstead

So just how was I to go about researching fences on the plateau?  Sure, I can ask questions but if everyone remembered how to build the things we wouldn’t see so many bad examples.  And, we’ve well established that photography was a luxury item not widely enjoyed by our ancestors on the Plateau so no one was wasting film on their fences.  Yet most of the old pictures I have were snapped out of doors so guess what’s in the background?  I found this pretty exciting to pour over my collection looking behind the main subject.  And I learned so much about the different fences of yesteryear.

This picture is labelled 1907.  The horizontal fence may be boards but very likely palings which could be produced on the farm without a sawmill.

Fences on both sides of the dirt road.

First of all let’s establish that these days we fence animals IN.  In fact, if your stock is roaming and does damage (like wandering into the path of a moving vehicle) you are liable for that damage.  And that was true in the earliest days of the United States.  However, between the years of 1858 and 1947 the law required crops to be fenced in and allowed the animals access to ‘open range’.  That just sounds like something from a Western movie where cowboys rode out to round up the cattle and brand them so they could be differentiated from the neighbors’ herds.  But this is Tennessee Code. 

So if all the animals are gonna’ be roaming, anything you don’t want eaten or trampled had better be surrounded by a fence.  Are you going to go buy a few rolls of barbed wire?  Well it was available, having been patented as early as 1867 and with 150 companies producing it in the last quarter of the 19th century.  And there was some barbed wire in use on the mountain.  But we’ve established here many times that cash flow was always at a minimum in Appalachia and therefore our farmers used whatever materials they had in abundance. 

Paling Fence

Trees.  That’s what the mountain had to offer in abundance for many, many years.  Hence the famous split rail fence.  But the more industrious land owner could split out flat palings to make something more like a board fence, or a picket fence. 

Rail fence built with Saplings

Every young boy knew how to split rails.  My grandpa told me at one point he could sell them for a penny apiece.  If you really put your head down you could make a dollar in a day – big money!  But notice the group picture here – that zig-zagging fence is made of saplings.  Do you get the idea that they were clearing out some land that had lain fallow for a few years and was taken by saplings so they just used what they were cutting?  I tell you what, the resourcefulness of these folks awes me.

So once you’ve got the barrier between you and the wild hoards, you’re going to need a gate.  Gates are expensive.  It’s not too hard to build a gate but a gate made out of palings would get heavy pretty quickly.  So the common gate was the draw bar.  Simply put four posts in the ground and lay more posts horizontally between them.  It might take a minute or two to get it open but it will certainly serve the purpose. 

Photo courtesy of Farm Hand's Companion

Again the more industrious fencer could build wooden gates then find a way to hang them.  Any ironware meant money so they made wooden hinges with three boards mounted two on one side and the third on the other side and joined by a dowel in the center.  Pa Mac from Farm Hand's Companion shared with me some examples of these hinges he photographed in the Smokies and I'm pretty amazed by them.  He also reports he's saving special wood to try his hand at making them so we'll have to be watching his blog for a report on that.

Horizontal posts are a Draw Bar Gate

I'd love to hear if any of you have seen these hinges in use on the Plateau, or if you've experienced opening a draw bar gate!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the backgrounds of these family pictures.  Maybe this little exercise will lead us to see more detail in all of our old pictures.