1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:19,000 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. A while ago, long enough 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,120 Speaker 1: that I cannot find the message now, in spite of 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: a lot of looking, we got a request to do 6 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: an episode on someone called doctor Anna, and after a 7 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,480 Speaker 1: little bit of digging, I pieced together that the person 8 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:35,879 Speaker 1: being a referenced was Anna Pierce Hobbs Bigsby, which is 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: sometimes misspelled as Bixby with an X. She is often 10 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: credited with discovering the cause of milk sickness, but then 11 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: her discovery was totally overlooked by the medical community. She 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: came back to my attention recently after I read an 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: article on this that I found really frustrating, and we 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: will get to why I found it frustrating, But basically 15 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: I got real fired up about it, and I moved 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: her up to the top of the list. And then 17 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: during research I found a whole other layer of stuff 18 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: to be frustrated about, and we will get to that too. 19 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:13,960 Speaker 1: So today this episode is divided roughly into three acts. First, 20 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: we'll talk about what milk sickness was, since most people 21 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: are not likely to have had any experience with it today. 22 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: Then we'll take a look at how the medical understanding 23 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: of milk sickness progressed through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 24 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: and then we'll finish with a look at this woman 25 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:35,040 Speaker 1: who became known as doctor Anna, and that part is 26 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 1: going to go in a somewhat different direction from most 27 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: of our episodes. There are a lot of illnesses that 28 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: can be transmitted through milk, especially unpasteurized milk. Earlier this year, 29 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: we talked about outbreaks of scarlet fever that were connected 30 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: to milk. In the nineteenth century and prior to the 31 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: widespread use of pasturization, people contracted diseases like typhoid, diphtheria, 32 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: bovine tuberculosis, and various gastruintestinal illnesses all from milk. But 33 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: milk sickness doesn't come from a microorganism. It is a 34 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: type of poisoning. At least two different plants are believed 35 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: to cause this type of poisoning. One is white snake root, 36 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: which is also called rich weed and some older texts. 37 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: This is a perennial plant that grows to about five 38 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: feet or one and a half meters tall. It blooms 39 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: in the late summer and into the fall with clusters 40 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: of fluffy white flowers. This plant is native to the 41 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: eastern half of North America, like all the way to 42 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,800 Speaker 1: Texas is on the far western end. It likes the shade, 43 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: so a lot of the time it's found along the 44 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,920 Speaker 1: edges of woodlands. The other plant is rayless golden rod, 45 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:50,519 Speaker 1: and that's native to parts of the southwest United States. 46 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: This is another perennial. It produces bright yellow flowers, and 47 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 1: it also grows to a height of roughly five feet. 48 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: Each of these plants can contain varying amounts of a 49 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,920 Speaker 1: mixture of toxins known as trematol, and it's possible that 50 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,560 Speaker 1: they may produce other toxins as well. Cattle and other 51 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:12,679 Speaker 1: animals that eat these plants can develop a condition called trembles, 52 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: which is marked by trembling, refusal to eat, seizures, and 53 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,800 Speaker 1: ultimately death. It's generally believed that lactating animals are less 54 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: affected by these toxins because they excrete them in their 55 00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: milk before they can do a lot of damage, but 56 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,080 Speaker 1: that means that they're nursing young in just the toxins, 57 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: as do any humans who drink the milk or eat 58 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: butter or other foods made from it. There are also 59 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,400 Speaker 1: some reports of people and animals getting sick after eating 60 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: the meat of an animal that died of trembles or 61 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: was slaughtered after showing symptoms, but that is not as 62 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: clearly documented in humans. Milk sickness was known by a 63 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: lot of different names in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 64 00:03:54,240 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: that included milk sick sloughs staggers, swamp sickness, river fever, 65 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: and six stomach. The condition is a form of acidosis, 66 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: and it causes tremors, muscle pain, weakness, loss of appetite, vomiting, constipation, 67 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: and eventually coma and death. So very like the symptoms 68 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: of trembles, this also causes a person's breath to have 69 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:24,480 Speaker 1: a very distinctive actone like odor. These same symptoms can 70 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: also result from diabetic ketoacidosis, so, especially before insulin was 71 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,159 Speaker 1: isolated and used as a treatment for diabetes, doctors could 72 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 1: sometimes misdiagnose diabetes as milk sick or vice versa. But 73 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: unlike diabetes, milk sickness often struck entire families or even 74 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: whole communities all at once because everyone was getting milk 75 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: from the same cows. Numbers are really impossible to verify 76 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: at this point, but in some parts of the United States, 77 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: milk sickness was probably a leading cause of death in 78 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: the eighteenth and nineteen centuries. Sometimes milksickness was such a 79 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: recurring or traumatic issue in an area that places were 80 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: named after it, like Milksick Ridge and milk sick Cove. 81 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,080 Speaker 1: Whole communities sometimes broke up and moved because it wasn't 82 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: clear exactly what was going on, but something was killing 83 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 1: people and livestock, and there was no clear cause and 84 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,839 Speaker 1: no effective treatment. At the same time, it took a 85 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: while for milksickness to really get the attention of doctors 86 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: and medical researchers. A big reason was that it just 87 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: was not very common in more populated areas, and especially 88 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 1: not in major cities. Like cows living at a dairy farm, 89 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: grazing and cultivated pastures, or being fed hey or silage 90 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 1: were not likely to eat a bunch of snake root 91 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,040 Speaker 1: from the edge of a woodland. If one of them did, 92 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: her milk was mixed in with the milk from a 93 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: lot of other cows. Before it was sold, so any 94 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: toxin that it may have contained was diluted by the 95 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,599 Speaker 1: time the milk got to customers. So all that meant 96 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:04,839 Speaker 1: the people who were most likely to develop milk sickness 97 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: were the ones living in more remote, less affluent areas, 98 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: people whose cows had to forage whatever they could find 99 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: and weren't necessarily being kept in an enclosed, cultivated pasture. 100 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: Milk sickness outbreaks tended to be worst in times of 101 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:25,159 Speaker 1: dryness or drought, when other plants died and cows had 102 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: to graze farther afield to get enough to eat. Although 103 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: dairy cows often survived after eating these plants because the 104 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: toxins were coming out in their milk, a lot of 105 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:39,720 Speaker 1: other livestock animals didn't, so it wasn't unheard of for 106 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,359 Speaker 1: outbreaks of milk sickness and trembles to strike at the 107 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: same time, sickening and killing members of the family and 108 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: the animals that were critical to their livelihood in the 109 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,159 Speaker 1: middle of a drought when food and water were already scarce. 110 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 1: This also means that milk sickness was a disease that 111 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,840 Speaker 1: was directly tied to the United's state's westward expansion and 112 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: the forced displacement of indigenous peoples from their ancestral homelands. 113 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:11,440 Speaker 1: Homesteaders and other new arrivals tried to turn forest into farmlands, 114 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: and their grazing animals eight plants that they would not 115 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: have encountered otherwise. In particular, milk sickness struck most often 116 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: in the Midwest and the Upper South. The first written 117 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: reports of what may have been milk sickness date back 118 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 1: to before the Revolutionary War in North Carolina. Then, in 119 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: eighteen o nine, physician Thomas Barbie published a description of 120 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: what sounds like milk sickness and a piece called Notes 121 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: from Cincinnati. An anonymous eighteen eleven report references Barbie's piece 122 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 1: and also the experiences of two people, Alexander Telford and 123 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: Arthur Stewart, both of whom lived in Miami County, Ohio. 124 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: According to this piece, Telford's family had been too sick 125 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: to milk the cows, leaving the calves to drink the 126 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: milk themselves. The calves, which had previously been healthy, all died. 127 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: The family recovered, and keeping the cows in a cultivated 128 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,000 Speaker 1: pasture seemed to solve the problem. Both Telford and Stuart's 129 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: children had also immediately vomited after drinking the milk, and 130 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 1: their subsequent illness had been less severe than their family members, 131 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,360 Speaker 1: who had drunk the same milk but had not thrown 132 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: it up. Telford's horses had also died after he left 133 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,400 Speaker 1: them to feed in the woods, but the two horses 134 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: he kept out of the woods were fine. The author 135 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: of this piece also noted that dogs seemed to be 136 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,440 Speaker 1: immune to this condition unless they ate the meat of 137 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: an animal that died of it, and also noted that, 138 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: unlike most other epidemic diseases, milk sickness didn't seem to 139 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: cause fever or chills. Based on all of these details, 140 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: the writer concluded that the culprit was a plant that 141 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: the cows were eating. The piece ended quote, Should the 142 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,720 Speaker 1: present opinion be confirmed, the discovery may be regarded as 143 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: one considerable importance. It will at least rob the disease 144 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: of half its terrors and render it no longer a 145 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:10,160 Speaker 1: stumbling block to emigration. It will point out a certain 146 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,760 Speaker 1: means of prevention and inspire a well grounded expectation of 147 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: a total extinction of the malady in a few years. 148 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: It would be an object of great curiosity and probably 149 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:24,680 Speaker 1: of utility also to discover the plant which possesses such 150 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:28,319 Speaker 1: active qualities. One of the modes in which this inquiry 151 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: might be conducted is an examination of the contents of 152 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,640 Speaker 1: the stomachs of those animals which die suddenly. Should such 153 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: a discovery be made, it is hoped that a specimen 154 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:41,200 Speaker 1: of the plant, with any information that may be collected 155 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: concerning it, will be put into the hands of a 156 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: proper person that physicians and botanists generally may become acquainted 157 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:53,280 Speaker 1: with it. This piece was titled Disease in Ohio, ascribed 158 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: to some deleterious quality in milk of cows. It was 159 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 1: printed in the Medical Repository, which was the first medical 160 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,320 Speaker 1: journal to be published in the United States. And while 161 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:08,359 Speaker 1: the author didn't know which specific plant was causing this poisoning, 162 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: otherwise this article was mostly correct. This apparently, though, did 163 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,839 Speaker 1: not spark a wide spread effort to try to identify 164 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: the plant that was causing this illness, and we'll get 165 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:32,440 Speaker 1: to that after a sponsor break. By the eighteen teens 166 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:37,040 Speaker 1: and twenties, observers and journalists were reporting large outbreaks of 167 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:41,119 Speaker 1: illness in people or animals which are either specifically described 168 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: as milk sickness or lined up with its symptoms. For example, 169 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighteen, a farmer named William Fox described hundreds 170 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:53,719 Speaker 1: of cows being sickened by an unidentified herb that had 171 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: been found growing in their pasture near Old Vincen's, Indiana. 172 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: Seven of these cows died, and Fox commented on the 173 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,560 Speaker 1: need for a medical botanist. While Fox was not the 174 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:09,280 Speaker 1: first or last person to connect this condition to a plant, 175 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:13,479 Speaker 1: other people also pointed to a range of other possible causes, 176 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: including miasmas or bad air, which were still being blamed 177 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: for causing illnesses before the development of the germ theory 178 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,560 Speaker 1: of disease. One of the most famous victims of milk 179 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: sickness died in eighteen eighteen Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of 180 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln, who died on October fifth of that year. 181 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,240 Speaker 1: There's some disagreement about this. Some sources conclude that she 182 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: died of tuberculosis or some other condition, but Nancy Hanks 183 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 1: Lincoln was one of several people in the area around 184 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: Pigeon Creek, Indiana, who died around the same time. This 185 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: is sometimes cited as one of the reasons the Lincoln 186 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:55,840 Speaker 1: family moved from Indiana to Illinois. In eighteen twenty three, 187 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 1: Stephen Harriman Long led an expedition up the Minnesota River 188 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:03,920 Speaker 1: and encountered several communities that had been stricken with an illness, 189 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: including some deaths that locals believed had been caused by milk. 190 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 1: Four years later, Thomas L. McKinny, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 191 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 1: tried to get milk for his camp on the Mississippi River, 192 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,680 Speaker 1: about eighteen miles north of Saint Louis. He was told 193 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: that people in that area stopped drinking milk after a 194 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,959 Speaker 1: certain point in the spring, and also tried to wean 195 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: their calves because later in the year something in the 196 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:34,200 Speaker 1: milk made people sick Edmund Flaggs, Far West or a 197 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,960 Speaker 1: tour beyond the Mountains, chronicled his travels in eighteen thirty 198 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:40,600 Speaker 1: six and eighteen thirty seven and had this to say, 199 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: quote A mysterious disease called the milk sickness, because it 200 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: was supposed to be communicated by that liquid, was once 201 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 1: alarmingly prevalent in certain isolated districts of Illinois. Whole villages 202 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:57,679 Speaker 1: were depopulated, and though the mystery was often and thoroughly investigated. 203 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: The cause of the disease was never discovered. By some. 204 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:03,439 Speaker 1: It was ascribed to the milk, or to the flesh 205 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:07,160 Speaker 1: of cows feeding upon a certain unknown poisonous plant found 206 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:11,240 Speaker 1: only in certain districts, by others, to certain springs of water, 207 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:15,600 Speaker 1: or to the exhalations of certain marshes. The mystery attending 208 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:19,680 Speaker 1: its operations and its terrible fatality at one period created 209 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,040 Speaker 1: a perfect panic in the settlers. Nor was this at 210 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:27,640 Speaker 1: all wonderful. The disease appears now to be vanishing. The 211 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:31,439 Speaker 1: idea that milk sickness was vanishing in the eighteen thirties 212 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,600 Speaker 1: was optimistic, But it was around this time that some 213 00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:40,080 Speaker 1: people might have identified the right plant, and Appierce Hobb's 214 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:44,200 Speaker 1: discovery was reportedly made in about eighteen thirty four. Will 215 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: have more on that later. And eighteen thirty eight a 216 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,320 Speaker 1: farmer named John Rowe published an article saying that white 217 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: snake root was the cause of trambles. He had confirmed 218 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: this by feeding some of it to calves, and the 219 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,640 Speaker 1: calves had died. But then in eighteen forty one, Daniel Drake, 220 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: who was a really well known doctor who wrote a 221 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 1: lot of influential medical works. He dismissed this conclusion basically 222 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: because Roe was a farmer and not a doctor, and 223 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,000 Speaker 1: Drake's words quote a professional scrutiny only can be relied 224 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: on in such cases. Drake actually agreed that a plant 225 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: was the cause of milk sickness, but he thought the 226 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:30,040 Speaker 1: plant was poison ivy. The medical community didn't unanimously agree 227 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,600 Speaker 1: that a plant was involved in milk sickness, though, and 228 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: people were still suggesting various possible causes. For example, also 229 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:41,200 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty one, J. S. Seton published treatise on 230 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: the Cause of the disease called by the people the 231 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,120 Speaker 1: milk sickness as it occurs in the Western and Southern States, 232 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 1: and that speculated that milksickness was caused by arsenic There 233 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 1: is some overlap in the symptoms of milk sickness and 234 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: arsenic poisoning, and Setan believed that milksickness was more common 235 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: during dry years because the arsenic was a lot more 236 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: concentrated in whatever water sources it had contaminated. This makes 237 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:09,119 Speaker 1: more sense than a lot of the things people suggested 238 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: besides plants. Doctor F. R. Wagoner also wrote on milk 239 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: sickness in eighteen fifty nine quote a certain species of vegetable, 240 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: it not being known, abounds in the woodland and is 241 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: matured by the later months of summer or first autumnal 242 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:27,640 Speaker 1: at which season of the year the grass of the 243 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:31,680 Speaker 1: prairies becomes dry and tough, when the cattle resort to 244 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: the timber for sustenance, feeding upon it, and as the 245 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: cow broot is very susceptible to its toxical influence, often 246 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:44,239 Speaker 1: sicken and die, while others, perhaps eating a less quantity 247 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: past the season without ever showing signs of being poisoned 248 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:52,200 Speaker 1: by it. From such careless and unsuspecting persons using from 249 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 1: day to day the milk, butter, and flesh of these 250 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: animals often fall victims to the disease. Other observers, equally 251 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: entitled to Creden's contend that it is as I intimated, 252 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: of a telluric origin rising from the earth in the 253 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,479 Speaker 1: form of a vapor, or the nocturnal vapors being conducting 254 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: mediums depositing during the night on the herbage, then communicated 255 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: as in the former cases. Wagoner also noted that there 256 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: wasn't much that could be done describing treatment for milk 257 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:27,280 Speaker 1: sickness as quote. One palliate the gastric irritability, a lay 258 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: vomiting and nausea. Two evacuate the bowels. Three support the patient. 259 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty seven, according to a report in the 260 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 1: Missouri Republican, a man named William Jerry said that he 261 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: had discovered the cause of milk sickness after eating a 262 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,200 Speaker 1: plant that had made him ill, including causing him to 263 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:51,240 Speaker 1: tremble violently. According to this report, he had planned to 264 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: feed this same plant to cows to see if it 265 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,440 Speaker 1: had the same effect, with the hope of claiming a 266 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: reward that the legislature of Illinois had offered a few 267 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:03,680 Speaker 1: years pre Obviously, Illinois and Kentucky and possibly some other 268 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 1: states offered rewards to anybody who could really prove what 269 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: was causing milk sickness. Not clear if Jerry ever did 270 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: this experiment or tried to get the reward, though. As 271 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 1: the germ theory of disease became more widely accepted later 272 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century, some researchers concluded that milk sickness 273 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: must be caused by a microorganism, but eventually, in the 274 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:32,159 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, James F. Couch of the USDA documented the 275 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: connection between milk sickness and white snake root, including isolating 276 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,920 Speaker 1: toxins from the plant, in nineteen twenty seven. By this point, 277 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 1: it was becoming more common for milk to be pasteurized, 278 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:47,359 Speaker 1: and Couch confirmed that the heat of pasteurization was not 279 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: enough to neutralize the toxin that caused milk sickness. In 280 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,879 Speaker 1: about nineteen thirty, Couch also found the same toxins in 281 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: Raylis goldenrod. Although other people had made a connection between 282 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:04,280 Speaker 1: milk's sickness and white snakeery decades before, this was the 283 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: first time there was clear analysis to back it up. 284 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: The USDA started printing educational materials to inform farmers and 285 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,640 Speaker 1: ranchers of the dangers of these plants. Research also continued 286 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 1: in the decades that followed, with researchers establishing the toxins, 287 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:25,480 Speaker 1: lethal dose, and its toxic mechanisms within the body. By 288 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,680 Speaker 1: this point, milksickness really was on a decline, less because 289 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,479 Speaker 1: people knew to keep livestock away from these plants, and 290 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 1: more because dairy cows were generally not as likely to 291 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:40,359 Speaker 1: be grazing outside of cultivated pastures. Even so, the last 292 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: reported cases of milk sickness in the US were diagnosed. 293 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,679 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three, two babies living near Saint Louis 294 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,200 Speaker 1: had developed acidosis from an unknown cause, and they were 295 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: successfully treated with an intravenius by carbonate to lower the 296 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: acidity in their blood. They had already recovered when an 297 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: older dog who had seen cases of milk sickness many 298 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 1: years before, made the connection. It turned out that the 299 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: babies had been given milk from a farmer whose cows 300 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,840 Speaker 1: had been freely grazing in an area where snake root 301 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,399 Speaker 1: was growing. Reports of animals dying from eating snakeroot continued 302 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 1: up until at least the nineteen eighties. So what about 303 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,000 Speaker 1: this doctor Anna. We will get to her after a 304 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:36,800 Speaker 1: sponsor break. Pretty much all the articles you'll see today 305 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:41,440 Speaker 1: about doctor Anna Pierce Hobbs Bigsby, often just called doctor Anna, 306 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: hit the same basic points. They usually talk about. How 307 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 1: she was born Anna Pierce somewhere in the eastern United States, 308 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,400 Speaker 1: maybe Philadelphia, and her family later moved to Rock Creek, Illinois. 309 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:57,040 Speaker 1: Before her first marriage, she decided to go back east 310 00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: to study medicine in Philadelphia, but at that point medical 311 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:04,639 Speaker 1: education wasn't really accessible to women. The first woman to 312 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,959 Speaker 1: earn an MD in the United States was Elizabeth Blackwell, 313 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: who we have covered on the show before in eighteen 314 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:14,840 Speaker 1: forty nine. So, according to these articles, Anna Pierce studied 315 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:20,040 Speaker 1: what she could, reportedly taking courses in midwhiffery, dentistry, and nursing. 316 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: Although there aren't any written records of this. That makes 317 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:28,399 Speaker 1: doctor Anna an honorary title. But if she really did 318 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:33,119 Speaker 1: have training in midwhiffery and dentistry and nursing, she would 319 00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 1: have been at least as well trained as a lot 320 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,920 Speaker 1: of other people working as doctors in the eighteen thirties, 321 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,679 Speaker 1: if not more. The field of medicine was really not 322 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:48,680 Speaker 1: very standardized yet no u to continue the recent article recamp. 323 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: When Pierce returned to Rock Creek, she was the only 324 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 1: person in the area who had formal medical training. Not 325 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,199 Speaker 1: long after returning, she married Isaac Hobbs. She started trying 326 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 1: to figure out the cause of milk sickness after her 327 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,640 Speaker 1: mother and sister in law died of it. She thought 328 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,840 Speaker 1: it might be caused by something the cows were eating 329 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: that was showing up in their milk, so she started 330 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,199 Speaker 1: following them and collecting samples of what they grazed on. 331 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,440 Speaker 1: So those same points show up in a lot of articles. 332 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: In the words of missus Sidney Snook Hayman in History 333 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,520 Speaker 1: of Hardin County, Illinois, written for the Centennial, which was 334 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,840 Speaker 1: published in eighteen thirty nine. Quote, according to her carefully 335 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: kept diary, the source of the milks poisoning was finally 336 00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:41,600 Speaker 1: discovered after a strange fashion. That strange fashion was that 337 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: Hobbes met an indigenous woman in the woods who identified 338 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,400 Speaker 1: the plant for her. So this woman's name is not 339 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,280 Speaker 1: recorded anywhere, but some articles explain her presence in the 340 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,680 Speaker 1: woods by saying she had been displaced when the Shawnee 341 00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 1: were removed from Ohio following the Treaty of Wapacinetta, which 342 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,360 Speaker 1: the Shawnee living in Ohio were forced to sign on 343 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,440 Speaker 1: August eighth, eighteen thirty one. This treaty made it sound 344 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:11,199 Speaker 1: like this removal was the Shawneese idea, describing their quote 345 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 1: perfect ascent and quote willingness and anxiety to remove west 346 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:20,919 Speaker 1: of the Mississippi River. That was blatantly untrue. So Hayman's 347 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: account in the History of Hardin County went on to say, 348 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: quote doctor Hobbs took the woman into her home and 349 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,639 Speaker 1: learned from her the cause of the deadly milk plague. 350 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,359 Speaker 1: Aunt Shawnee, as the Indian woman became known in the community, 351 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:38,360 Speaker 1: went with doctor Hobbs into the woods and showed her 352 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,200 Speaker 1: the herb, the poisonous snake root, which they believed caused 353 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: the cattle disease. For many years after that, according to tradition, 354 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: every fall, the boys and men of the community, armed 355 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,440 Speaker 1: with hoes and knives, trooped through the forests to destroy 356 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: the route. It's eradication stopped the plague, but not before 357 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,440 Speaker 1: it had ruined, in large measure, one of the most 358 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: promising of the county's pioneer industries. Doctor Anna reportedly also 359 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:07,960 Speaker 1: kept a little patch of snake root in her own 360 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,439 Speaker 1: yard so that she could show other people what it 361 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:15,920 Speaker 1: looked like. Hobbs's diary reportedly said, quote, I am convinced 362 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,639 Speaker 1: now that the poison which kills the calves and people 363 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,400 Speaker 1: saves the cows by being daily discharged through the milk glands. 364 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: So I am writing a few letters this morning and 365 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: telling everyone I can to abstain wholly from milk and 366 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:32,639 Speaker 1: butter from June till after killing frosts. She went on 367 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,680 Speaker 1: to say, quote, sheep and goats are careful in selecting 368 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 1: their foods, and horses are what teachers call graminivorous, that is, 369 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: grass eaters, while cattle are herbivorous and not careful in selecting. 370 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,399 Speaker 1: These things prove to us that it is not a 371 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,440 Speaker 1: grass but an herb that is spreading sorrow and death 372 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:55,959 Speaker 1: among us. So these selections that are purportedly from doctor 373 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: Anna's diary, which I read in multiple recent articles about her, 374 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 1: just did not feel right to me. Like goats reputation 375 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,840 Speaker 1: for eating anything up to and including ten cans is 376 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,399 Speaker 1: not really accurate, but the idea that they were so 377 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,440 Speaker 1: picky that they would not eat snake root just seem 378 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,919 Speaker 1: like an odd thing to say, especially considering today you 379 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: can rent goats to eat unwanted plants like kudzu. We've 380 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:27,440 Speaker 1: talked about this in the show before. Horses also eat 381 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: more than just grass, and there are a lot of 382 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:33,880 Speaker 1: historical reports of horses dying of trembles or milk sick, 383 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: including things that were published in newspapers. The language just 384 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 1: felt a little off to me. And then, on top 385 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,359 Speaker 1: of all of that, while various sources quoted the same 386 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,560 Speaker 1: few passages, I just I couldn't find evidence of the 387 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:52,679 Speaker 1: diary itself anywhere. Doctor Anna's work doesn't seem to have 388 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,920 Speaker 1: been reported in medical literature until nineteen sixty six, when 389 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 1: doctor William D. Schneidley Junior and Luenna ferbeyublished an article 390 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:04,199 Speaker 1: titled Discoverer of the Cause of Milk Sickness in the 391 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:09,720 Speaker 1: Journal of the American Medical Association. Overwhelmingly more recent articles 392 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,040 Speaker 1: on doctor Anna trace back to this one, sometimes by 393 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: citing other articles that cited it first. According to the footnotes, 394 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,159 Speaker 1: their source was called Anna's War against River Pirates and 395 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,359 Speaker 1: Cave Bandits of John A. Merle's Northern Dive, unpublished prose 396 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:30,880 Speaker 1: manuscript revised as Ballads from the Bluffs, Elizabethtown, Illinois, published 397 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:36,160 Speaker 1: by the author nineteen forty eight. That author was Elihu N. Hall, 398 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 1: also called Judge Hall because he served as a judge 399 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: for Hardin County, Illinois. For reference, John A. Merle was 400 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:46,960 Speaker 1: an outlaw who lived from about eighteen oh six to 401 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: eighteen forty four, and his exploits were greatly embellished and 402 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:57,199 Speaker 1: sensationalized after his death, including in this book. This footnote 403 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: also struck me as odd, among other things, why I 404 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: would go so far as to say why in the 405 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:10,960 Speaker 1: world were they using an unpublished book called Anna's War 406 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:15,200 Speaker 1: against River Pirates and Cave Bandits of John A. Merle's 407 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: Northern Dive as the reliable source of historical information in 408 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 1: a JAMA article. Tracy could not find a scanned copy 409 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: of Ballads from the Bluffs, but she did get a 410 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:32,440 Speaker 1: scan of Anna's War thanks to Aaron Lysac, research specialist 411 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: at the Special Collections Research Center at Morris Library at 412 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: Southern Illinois University. The title page of Anna's War describes 413 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,679 Speaker 1: it as a romantic story, and its preface acknowledges that 414 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:48,960 Speaker 1: elements may seem superstitious or impossible. The Illinois State Historical 415 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 1: Society published a review of its successor, Ballads from the 416 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: Bluffs in nineteen forty eight, which describes that book as 417 00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:01,320 Speaker 1: quote adventure stories, romances, and folklore dealing principally with characters 418 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: in Ozark Bluff country of southern Illinois. According to rare 419 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,399 Speaker 1: book sites that previously had copies for sale, the title 420 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,399 Speaker 1: page of Ballads from the Bluffs reads, in part quote 421 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: a prehistoric and historic romance dealing with Aboriginal in later 422 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: races who lived in the Ozark Bluffs and mountains and 423 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 1: it is written down to the days of the bloody 424 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,679 Speaker 1: handed and wicked river pirates and cave bandits fought by brave, 425 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:33,480 Speaker 1: blue eyed Anna Si. So none of this suggests that 426 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,879 Speaker 1: either book should be uncritically read as any kind of 427 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:42,160 Speaker 1: straightforward fact. So if you're thinking, way, didn't y'all read 428 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,160 Speaker 1: from the History of Harden County, Illinois by Missus Sidney 429 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,480 Speaker 1: Snook Hayman a few minutes ago? That seems like maybe 430 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,040 Speaker 1: a more definitive source than a book of adventure stories 431 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,360 Speaker 1: and romances, And yes, we did read from that earlier. 432 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: Missus Sidney Snook Hayman was a member of the Harden 433 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:05,440 Speaker 1: count Historical Committee, and another historical committee member was Elihu 434 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: En Hall, author of Anna's Boar Against River Pirates and 435 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,560 Speaker 1: Ballads from the Bluffs. Hayman was assigned to write the 436 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 1: agriculture section of history of Hardin County, and that was 437 00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:20,199 Speaker 1: not something that she knew anything about. She included the 438 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: story of doctor Anna based on information that Hall gave 439 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: to her, and he gave her that information with the 440 00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: express hope that it would be part of her write up. 441 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: Elihu N. Hall also lived in Rock Creek. He was 442 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,399 Speaker 1: born in eighteen seventy, which was the year after doctor 443 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: Anna died, and he died in nineteen fifty seven. He 444 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,560 Speaker 1: claimed to have her journal and the journals of at 445 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: least two of her relatives, and to have heard stories 446 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: about her from people in the area, which he used 447 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: to write these books. So Anna Pierce Hobbes as she 448 00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:00,600 Speaker 1: was in this story later, Anna Pierce Hobbs Bigsby was 449 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: definitely a real person. Among other things, she and her 450 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: relatives and descendants show up in various census records. I 451 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,800 Speaker 1: think there are descendants living today. I'm so sorry if 452 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,880 Speaker 1: I have offended you. It is likely that at least 453 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,600 Speaker 1: some of this story about her is true, like that 454 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,719 Speaker 1: she was a midwife and was really dedicated to helping 455 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: her community. It is also possible that an indigenous woman 456 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: told her about white snake root and that she took 457 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:33,640 Speaker 1: steps to try it to eradicate it from around Rock Creek, 458 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,920 Speaker 1: decades before the USDA confirmed the cause of milk sickness. 459 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: But a lot of Hall's writing about doctor Anna is 460 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:49,360 Speaker 1: incredibly dramatic. The title of Anna's War against River pirates 461 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 1: and cave bandits of John A. Merle's Northern Dive Kind 462 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: of speaks for itself. Doctor Anna is written as a 463 00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:00,240 Speaker 1: larger than life, full hero angel of the Ozarks, a 464 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: praying doctor, and a teacher who worked miracles, evading outlaws 465 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: at some points and converting them to upstanding Christians at others. 466 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,480 Speaker 1: There is a cave of hidden treasure. There is a 467 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 1: daring leap from a cliff to escape her murderous second husband, 468 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 1: Ason Bigsby, who she married in eighteen forty seven. In 469 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: this story, Bigsby starts a fire to try to flush 470 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: her out, but the fire is extinguished by a very 471 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: well timed storm. Basically, this manuscript reads like a sensational novel, 472 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 1: and the milk sickness story is part of one of 473 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: its thirty eight chapters. So I decided to do this 474 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,440 Speaker 1: episode because I was really frustrated by an article I 475 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: read recently that was titled how an eighteen hundred's midwife 476 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: solved a poisonous mystery. This article acknowledges that, according to 477 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: this story, a Shawnee woman showed doctor Anna what plant 478 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: was causing milk sickness, But it still really makes it 479 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 1: sound like doctor Anna was the one who solved the mystery, 480 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,080 Speaker 1: and this is no unique to this one article. It's 481 00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,360 Speaker 1: why I didn't do this episode earlier on. There are 482 00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: a lot of pieces over the last few years that 483 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,240 Speaker 1: really give doctor Anna the vast majority of the credit, 484 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:17,200 Speaker 1: while including this indigenous woman's knowledge almost as an aside. 485 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,760 Speaker 1: Maybe doctor Anna could have worked out the cause of 486 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: milksickness on her own without this woman's help. But while 487 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,840 Speaker 1: there was disagreement about the cause of milksickness, people had 488 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,640 Speaker 1: been connecting it to plants almost all the way back 489 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: to its first descriptions in writing, and according to this story, 490 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,720 Speaker 1: it was the woman known as Aunt Shawnee, not Doctor Anna, 491 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 1: who made the connection to which specific plant. So I 492 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: expected to be focused in this episode on the way 493 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:55,600 Speaker 1: this indigenous woman's involvement has really been minimized and overlooked 494 00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:59,440 Speaker 1: and erased in so many articles. I did not expect 495 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: that I would want up questioning whether this entire account 496 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:06,200 Speaker 1: was genuine. And we want to stress that it is 497 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:11,080 Speaker 1: completely understandable that people, especially non historians, have used this 498 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:15,360 Speaker 1: JAMA article as a source and taken its accuracy for granted, 499 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:18,960 Speaker 1: or have taken for granted that article citing it are accurate. 500 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 1: It is a peer reviewed medical journal. That's the kind 501 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: of thing we would normally point to and say that's 502 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,640 Speaker 1: a good source, right, But once you start looking deeper 503 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: into this, it really starts to unravel. When I was 504 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: trying to find the original manuscript this story came from, 505 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: I emailed the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois 506 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,840 Speaker 1: University to ask if they really did have it, since 507 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:45,720 Speaker 1: some of my sources suggested that they did, but I 508 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:49,480 Speaker 1: couldn't find it in their online search tools. The first 509 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: person who got back to me was university archivist Matt Gorzowski, 510 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,600 Speaker 1: who sent a PDFs of some papers from the collection 511 00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: of historian John w. Allen. This pdf included research compiled 512 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,720 Speaker 1: by a man named Norman Ferrell in nineteen sixty seven, 513 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:09,560 Speaker 1: and this research echoed a whole lot of my questions 514 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,560 Speaker 1: about this manuscript and doctor Anna and her diary. Based 515 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: on his own research, Ferrell had concluded that there was 516 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: no diary and that Hall had made it up. Over 517 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,400 Speaker 1: the course of ten exhibits, Ferrell's report presented a lot 518 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:29,920 Speaker 1: of information that calls Hall's account into question in one 519 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:35,360 Speaker 1: way or another. Like the eighteen eighty census noted whether 520 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,280 Speaker 1: people could read or write, and according to those census records, 521 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: several of Anna Hobbes's children and grandchildren and other relatives 522 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,280 Speaker 1: could not. I also found reference elsewhere to an eighteen 523 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 1: sixty six legal document that described her as a midwife, 524 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 1: which she signed with an ex rather than signing her name, 525 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:58,440 Speaker 1: which would suggest that maybe she couldn't read or write. 526 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,960 Speaker 1: So did she really formal training in Philadelphia? If she did, 527 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: doesn't it seem like she would have made sure her 528 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 1: children learned to read. Farrell's exhibits also made the connection 529 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,840 Speaker 1: between Hall's work and the passages on doctor Anna that 530 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:17,879 Speaker 1: were included in History of Hardin County, including correspondence which 531 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,280 Speaker 1: it made it clear that Hall wanted her to include 532 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,560 Speaker 1: that story in her agriculture section. Farrell also pointed out 533 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:29,400 Speaker 1: a number of factual discrepancies within Hall's account as well, 534 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: and traced multiple parallels between doctor Anna and doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, 535 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,040 Speaker 1: concluding that Hall may actually have based his description of 536 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:41,360 Speaker 1: Anna on Blackwell. To be fair, though you could point 537 00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:45,160 Speaker 1: out similar parallels to a number of other nineteenth century 538 00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:49,239 Speaker 1: women we have covered on the show. Some examples of 539 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,880 Speaker 1: discrepancies between Hall's work and what we can substantiate about 540 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,520 Speaker 1: doctor Anna from other sources. Hall makes it sound like 541 00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:59,320 Speaker 1: she and her family came to the area from Virginia 542 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,480 Speaker 1: when she was a teen, but according to marriage and 543 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,800 Speaker 1: birth records, she was born in Tennessee, got married there, 544 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,480 Speaker 1: and had children before moving to Illinois as an adult. 545 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,880 Speaker 1: Hall also makes it sound like her first husband died 546 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:16,080 Speaker 1: the winter after the source of milk sickness was discovered, 547 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,840 Speaker 1: but Isaac Hobbs seems to have died in eighteen forty five. 548 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,680 Speaker 1: Hall claims that doctor Anna coined the word milk sick 549 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:25,879 Speaker 1: but it had been in use for at least two 550 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: decades before this could have happened, and he describes her 551 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,440 Speaker 1: children as school aged when her first husband died, so 552 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 1: after his death she kept herself busy teaching them, But 553 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,839 Speaker 1: according to various birth and death records, those children would 554 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,200 Speaker 1: have been between the ages of fourteen and twenty five 555 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,640 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty five. That also circles back to that 556 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,799 Speaker 1: question of whether or not they were literate. So those 557 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,760 Speaker 1: are just a few examples, and you may have noticed 558 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,920 Speaker 1: that some of these contradictions also contradict our description of 559 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,239 Speaker 1: recent articles on doctor Anna. From the beginning of this 560 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: part of the episode. On top of all of that, 561 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:08,880 Speaker 1: introducing Norman Ferrell's report was a letter written to historian 562 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,839 Speaker 1: Lowell Aide Derringer in nineteen sixty seven recommending that this 563 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:19,240 Speaker 1: report be presented to readers of Outdoor Illinois, where Derringer worked. 564 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: This letter recommending that Norman Ferrell's work be published in 565 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:28,800 Speaker 1: Outdoor Illinois is by doctor William Sniveley, junior, co author 566 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,040 Speaker 1: of the Journal of the American Medical Association article on 567 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:36,200 Speaker 1: doctor Anna that had been published the year before. In 568 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: this letter, Snivelly says he's not ready to rule out 569 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:44,360 Speaker 1: his previously expressed conviction that Anna Pierce Hobbes discovered milk sickness, 570 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:47,880 Speaker 1: but quote, there are so many assertions in Hall's writings 571 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: that have proved to be false that one is justified 572 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: in looking with suspicion upon everything he wrote. In this letter, 573 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:59,200 Speaker 1: Snivey also mentioned an effort to seek out descendants of 574 00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:02,680 Speaker 1: Anna Pierce High to see if anybody had any stories 575 00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: about her that did not come from reading the work 576 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: of Elihugh Hall. I don't know what the results of 577 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:14,239 Speaker 1: those efforts were, or what other correspondence there may have 578 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:16,920 Speaker 1: been around this whole subject in the late nineteen sixties, 579 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: but there are just some really big question marks here, 580 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,120 Speaker 1: and we should also take a moment to note that 581 00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,799 Speaker 1: the idea that doctor Anna's search for the cause of 582 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:29,560 Speaker 1: milk sickness happened around eighteen thirty four, making her the 583 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:34,040 Speaker 1: first to identify it, came from Snivey in Ferby's nineteen 584 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:38,720 Speaker 1: sixty six Jamma article. In Snivey's own words, that year 585 00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:42,360 Speaker 1: is his contention based on the quoted diary passages and 586 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:48,239 Speaker 1: quote various contemporary events that year isn't actually documented in 587 00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,480 Speaker 1: primary sources, making the idea that doctor Anna was the 588 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 1: first person to pinpoint the cause of milk sickness even shakier. Also, 589 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:01,280 Speaker 1: Snivee and Ferby published another article in in nineteen sixty 590 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:05,120 Speaker 1: nine about the research that went into their book Satan's Ferryman, 591 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: A True Tale of the Old Frontier, in which they 592 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:13,200 Speaker 1: specifically describe Anna's war against River pirates as mixing fact 593 00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,600 Speaker 1: and fancy, with no indication of which is which, making 594 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,960 Speaker 1: it not reliable as a factual source. They don't really 595 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,840 Speaker 1: acknowledge there that they cited it as a factual source 596 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 1: in a different article three years before. Also, Southern Illinois 597 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:33,200 Speaker 1: historian John w. Allen, whose papers this correspondence came from. 598 00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,080 Speaker 1: Wrote a column about doctor Anna in nineteen fifty seven 599 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:39,759 Speaker 1: that was reprinted in a book called It Happened in 600 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 1: Southern Illinois in nineteen sixty eight. I had actually found 601 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,440 Speaker 1: that collection before getting in touch with the folks at 602 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:51,640 Speaker 1: Southern Illinois University. Like Snivey and Ferby, Alan draws from 603 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,840 Speaker 1: Elihu Hall's work, but he uses a lot of language 604 00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 1: like story and legend and tradition tells us. He doesn't 605 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,840 Speaker 1: specify a year or try to claim that doctor Anna 606 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,439 Speaker 1: was the first person to make the connection between milk 607 00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:11,120 Speaker 1: sickness and white snakeroot. And he also ends by saying, 608 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,920 Speaker 1: of all the lore around doctor Anna quote, there is 609 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:18,759 Speaker 1: enough of the imaginary to create a supernatural air. I 610 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:22,400 Speaker 1: feel this is the more appropriate way to discuss material 611 00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:25,720 Speaker 1: that came from this book than to have a glowing 612 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,080 Speaker 1: article saying this is the person who definitively discovered a thing. 613 00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,400 Speaker 1: And just as one final note, if you happen to 614 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,960 Speaker 1: have white snakeroot growing in your yard, you do not 615 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,400 Speaker 1: need to go pull it all up unless you have 616 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:41,520 Speaker 1: grazing animals that could eat it. Among other things, in 617 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,520 Speaker 1: eastern North America, it is a native plant that blooms 618 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:47,799 Speaker 1: later than many other flowers, so it's an important late 619 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:51,399 Speaker 1: season food source for bees and other pollinators. Just do 620 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,520 Speaker 1: not eat it or feed it to livestock. It does 621 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,239 Speaker 1: spread its seeds similarly to dandelions, though, so keep an 622 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:02,000 Speaker 1: eye on that. We'll have a lot more to say 623 00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:06,800 Speaker 1: the behind the scenes. I think, do you have a 624 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:11,120 Speaker 1: listener mail in the meantime? We do so, yes, So 625 00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:15,680 Speaker 1: first a quick note from Christy. In our Unearthed Part 626 00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:21,800 Speaker 1: one July seventeenth episode, we talked about carousel being restored 627 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 1: by Carousel Works in Mansfield, Ohio, and I could not 628 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: remember who sent us. Someone had sent us a letter 629 00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,880 Speaker 1: previously talked to us about working restoring carousels, and I 630 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:38,839 Speaker 1: could not put my hands on that email. And so 631 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:42,279 Speaker 1: in this note Christie noted, yes, indeed, that is where 632 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 1: that person worked. We actually included their email in the 633 00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,920 Speaker 1: Saturday Classic on Carousels that we ran in January of 634 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,440 Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. As soon as Christy said this in 635 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,680 Speaker 1: this email, I was like, oh, yeah, obviously I remember that. Now. 636 00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,000 Speaker 1: That was not the full email, but I wanted to 637 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: note that part. Thank you so much, and thank you 638 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:07,279 Speaker 1: for a very adorable dog picture. Two little dogs who 639 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,480 Speaker 1: are crying because they want to go for a walk. 640 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:11,920 Speaker 1: They're so so sad that they are not yet on 641 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,520 Speaker 1: their walk. I mean the way they're tortured by the 642 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:19,759 Speaker 1: withholding of walk, the withholding of walk. I also got 643 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:24,360 Speaker 1: a note from Linda who wrote to say hi, Holly 644 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,239 Speaker 1: and Tracy. While visiting family in Michigan, we decided to 645 00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:29,960 Speaker 1: go to Greenfield Village. In case you're not aware, the 646 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,800 Speaker 1: village is comprised of historical buildings and homes. Henry Ford 647 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,680 Speaker 1: moved into one property and is now a museum. Exploring 648 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: the grounds, we saw many connections to past episode subjects, 649 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,920 Speaker 1: from Henry Ford himself and the Rubber episodes, to the 650 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,960 Speaker 1: Right Brothers in the History of Flight, to Thomas Edison 651 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,400 Speaker 1: and the current Wars. However, the reason I'm writing is 652 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:55,480 Speaker 1: that Noah Webster's house is on the grounds. I messily 653 00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: recapped the Dictionary Wars for my husband and even caught 654 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,440 Speaker 1: the interest of my daughter momentterily distracting her from the 655 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,320 Speaker 1: search for ice cream. Attached our pictures with my daughter 656 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,400 Speaker 1: in front of the house, Webster's library and a copy 657 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: of his famous Dictionary. I look forward to every episode 658 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,480 Speaker 1: and an additional benefit of being on vacation is knowing 659 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: I'll have several episodes in the queue to catch up on. 660 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 1: Thanks for all the years of entertainment, Linda. Thank you 661 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 1: Linda for this email. In these pictures, I don't think 662 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,360 Speaker 1: I knew that Henry Ford moved a bunch of historical 663 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:29,000 Speaker 1: homes to one property. Why. That's fascinating. I definitely did 664 00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:32,160 Speaker 1: not know that there was a Noah Webster house in Michigan, 665 00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,160 Speaker 1: because there is also a Noah Webster House which is 666 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:39,880 Speaker 1: his birthplace in Connecticut. Yeah, so it's like, this is 667 00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,080 Speaker 1: the house that he lived in later on and wrote 668 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:45,200 Speaker 1: the dictionary in the Connecticut one is the one he 669 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,520 Speaker 1: was born in. So thank you so much, Linda. If 670 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:51,480 Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about this or 671 00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:55,200 Speaker 1: any other podcast or a history podcast, aiheartradio dot com. 672 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,920 Speaker 1: And we're all over social media at mist in History. 673 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:01,440 Speaker 1: I keep saying that, but now there's more social media 674 00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:04,319 Speaker 1: than there were before, and we're not on any of 675 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:07,280 Speaker 1: the new ones yet, so you can still find us 676 00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,800 Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, slash missed Inistory, and I guess 677 00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,879 Speaker 1: on the website formerly known as Twitter, and you can 678 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,400 Speaker 1: send us an email if you like it history podcasts 679 00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:25,520 Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff you Missed in History Class 680 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:29,600 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 681 00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:33,360 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 682 00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:34,400 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.