We know E.W.'s birthplace thanks to his World War I draft registration. Edward's parents, Henderson William Abernathy and Rachel M. Hemrich, were residing in Apple Creek Township, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri seven years before his birth. A June 1900 U.S. Federal census record places the teenaged Edward in Salem Township, Perry County, Missouri.
On 26 January 1909 in Perry County, Edward Abernathy married Mary L. Cox in Perry County. Mary was one of more than ten children born to Elizabeth Cotner and Rev. William Marion Cox. The younger couple would go on to have at least eight children of their own.
Although we can be certain that the Abernathy family experienced times of joy and sorrow in every decade, the 1930s proved to be especially challenging. While persevering through the throes of the Great Depression, the infectious disease of tuberculosis would exact its terrible toll on the family three times over seven years. Despite the fresh country air often prescribed as a cure, rural families were far from immune.
The tragedy began with their son, Ivan E. Born on 16 January 1916 at Crosstown, Perry County, Missouri, he was just a teenager when the sickness took hold—likely as early as 1931. His death certificate notes that influenza was a contributing factor to his demise; the double burden of two infectious diseases proved fatal, and Ivan died of Tuberculosis of Lungs on the morning of 3 April 1932.
Next, it came for the patriarch. About the time the Works Progress Administration was being created, the Rural Electrification Act was being implemented, and the United States was battling a near country-wide heat wave, Edward Abernathy was diagnosed with Pulmonary Tuberculosis. In St. Louis alone, the 1936 heat wave claimed over 400 lives, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees for weeks. For a tuberculosis patient like Edward, struggling for breath in a non-air-conditioned sanatorium, the oppressive heat would have been agonizing.
By April 1937, the prognosis was grim. The medical report reads like a litany of suffering: Tuberculous Meningitis, Enteritis, Emphysema, and Pericarditis. He was gone less than two months later, with Pulmonary Tuberculosis still being the official cause of death, not long before midnight on 6 June 1937. Edward breathed his last at Mt. St. Rose Sanitorium in St. Louis, a facility founded by the Sisters of St. Mary. It was a well-respected institution known for its cleanliness and for pioneering new treatments—it was actually the site of the world's first "collapsed lung" therapy in 1914. Notably, the sanatorium often operated on a "pay what you can" basis, a vital grace for families during the Depression.
The final blow struck their daughter, Alma Rachel. Born on 14 June 1918 in Perry County, Missouri, she had just stated her own life, marrying Edgar J. Rubel on 8 October 1938.
Six months later, Alma was dead. She died of T.B. of Lungs on 11 April 1939, leaving a young widower behind. Her death certificate indicates she had battled the disease for months—meaning she likely walked down the aisle already knowing she was ill.
According to "The Forgotten Plague," an American Experience documentary,
As the scientific knowledge of tuberculosis progressed, so too did the prejudice toward people with the disease. Once it was learned that TB was not in fact hereditary, but was transmitted through person-to-person contact, those who suffered from the disease were ostracized from society.
Beyond the profound grief, the surviving Abernathys likely carried the heavy, silent burden of the "White Plague's" stigma for years to come.
Recommended Reading:
- The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society* by René and Jean Dubos (*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
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