Individual Details

Death

THE MONTICELLO EXPRESS, MONTICELLO, IOWA, MAY 14 1885, PAGE 1
THE LANGWORTHY EPIDEMIC
The Disease Abating - Only Four Deaths
The fatal epidemic of Wayne township is abating. Up to the present time there have been but four deaths. About the first of April John Classen and family arrived from Germany, and after stopping a short time with the family of Dirk Collman who lives on the Stacy farm, they moved into a house near the Methodist church in Langworthy. Soon after, the member of this family were attacked by a disease which caused a breaking out similar to the measles or scarlet fever. This was accompanied by a sore throat and a swelling and blackening of the tongue. This disease soon caused the death of two of Claassen's children, a boy of four years and a girl of eleven. In the meantime, Collman's family became afflicted, and his wife, aged about twenty-five years, and his sister in-law, a young woman of eighteen, died. A number are yet sick but they have been quarantined by the township trustees, and every effort is being made to prevent the spread of what the physicians pronounce a contagious disease. The ravages of the epidemic have been confirmed to those places where the emigrant family visited. The physicians are not agreed as to the name of the disease, but whatever it is it has fortunately run its course. No new cases have been reported during the past few days.