Elmer Scarff died 1913

SCARFF

Posted By: CHERYL MOONEN (email)
Date: 5/3/2022 at 12:17:29

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, March 24, 1913

GERMS LIBERATED
FROM WALL PAPER
~
UNUSUAL THEORY OFFERED IN
EXPLANATION OF DEATH
FROM DIPHTHERIA
~
Mount Pleasant, Ia., March 24. – Diphtheria germs set at liberty when old wallpaper was torn from the walls may have caused the death of Elmer Scraff, 11 years old son of Mrs. and Mrs. Thomas Scraff of Salem, Ia., according to a theory formed to account for the outbreak of the -disease in the home. Three other young children are ill with the disease and the mother is suffering from rheumatism.

Two older sons, Harold and Everett, recently were released from quarantine for diphtheria here, proper fumigation being made after the expiration of the isolation. It Is stated that before they were home long enough for any disease they might have carried to develop, several members of the family were stricken.

Six years ago the Scarff’s moved into their present home, the family preceding them having suffered a siege of diphtheria, the walls being freshly papered before the Scarff’s moved in. A few months ago, some of the rooms were repapered, which fact, it is held may have given opportunity for the captive germs to escape and work injury among the family.