The Devastation of Diphtheria and the Heartbreak of a Mother

Eliza Jane Maidment Poole

Although my grandfather Will Poole was called the oldest child in his family, I had always known that this was not the case.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, Pop was a quiet man and did not like to talk about certain things.  In particular, he did not like to discuss family matters.  Any information I gathered about his family came from my grandmother.

She told me how my grandfather had had an older brother but that he had died as a child.  To be honest, I couldn't remember how old he was or how he had passed away.

So as I was doing the Poole genealogical research at the Provincial Archives, I came across his older brother Ernest's birth record from 1889 and a surprise; the birth record of an older sister.   Her name was Susanna, born in 1887, and I am assuming that she was named for her grandmother Susannah Short Poole.  Now I knew Ernest had died as a child but what had happened to her?

A few years later, I was researching through the Newfoundland Vital Statistics Death Records.  I came across some of the most devastating news I had ever seen.  I had found out the fate of both Susanna and Ernest and so many other little children in Hant's Harbour, Newfoundland.


Susanna died on April 22, 1892 at the tender age of 4 1/2 years.  Four days later, Ernest who was just two months shy of his third birthday also passed away.  They both had succumbed to diphtheria.  As shocking as this revelation was, so too was the fact that between March 24th and the end of April, sixteen of Hant's Harbour's children had died from the disease.  Their ages ranged from 2 months to 19 years.  Seven of them, including Ernest, all died on the same day.

My first thought was how did my grandfather Will, who was just 10 months old, survive?  Did he even get the disease or did he recover from it unlike his older siblings?  Was it because he still had his mother's immune system that he was saved?   I guess we will never know.

How quickly my thoughts turned to my great-grandmother Eliza Jane.  It must have been the most devastating time in her life.  She was experiencing what her relatives, neighbours and friends were: losing their little ones.  Her precious little angels were leaving her forever.  The pain must have been unbearable but how fortunate she was that she still had her littlest baby.  Through all that pain there was a blessing.

While conducting further research, I came across similar instances of children who had died that year as a result of having been afflicted with diphtheria.  There were pockets all across the island; Harbour Main, Twillingate, just about everywhere.  It was obvious that there had been a diphtheria epidemic.

From 1888 to 1891 , 3,183 cases were documented resulting in 624 deaths.  The harrowing experience continued into 1892 but better reporting of the disease by families and the availability of treatments lessened the disease's impact in later years..  Had doctors been given the tools and medication that they needed earlier perhaps Susanna and Ernest would have been spared.

A diphtheria vaccine was introduced in 1924 but oddly, diphtheria still exists in the western world.  Unfortunately, there are parents who choose not to vaccinate their children against many childhood diseases.  If they only knew what it was really like to experience something so painful, so horrible, I wonder if they would change their minds.