Name: __________________________________
Date: ________________________
Using Historical Sources – EOP Activity
After discussing primary and secondary sources in class, answer the following questions
about this source
This source is a photograph
b. Is this a primary or a secondary source? ______________________________________________
c. What activity is going on in the photograph and how do you know this? ____________________
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d. There is no date on the photo. Can you guess when this photo was taken? How do you know?
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e. In which country might this photo have been taken? _____________________________________
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NAT11225/11225017/TPC History B/EOP/SUTH/GH
July 2024
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Now, read the article below and answer the questions that follow
Typhoid fever once gripped Minot
M.L. Berg, Minot, 2020
Before there was the coronavirus in 2020, and even before there was the Spanish flu in 1918, Minot
and Ward County residents had had to grapple with typhoid fever, or “mountain fever”, for several
years in a row in the late 1880s and in the early 1890s.
Unsanitary living conditions and impure drinking water are often associated with this disease.
Our area was beset by a drought that lasted from 1886 until the spring of 1891, when heavy snows
in March 1891, helped to fill up dry riverbeds and to provide much needed water for crops.
One observer noted that, because of all this welcome moisture, “That summer [of 1891], there were
wonderful crops. Vegetables looked like the pictures from seed catalogues.”
But up until that time, potable water had been in short supply for many area residents, who often
had to drink river water instead of well water. Minot residents were able to drink water from the
three city wells, and to use river water “for washing and household purposes”; it was sold for 25
cents a barrel.
But those living in rural areas, “too far away to go to the wells, used (river water) for drinking”. Such
untreated river water might easily have been the root cause of many local cases of typhoid fever.
Typhoid fever burst upon the scene in September 1888, in one of those rural areas. In that month, a
family in Burlington lost a daughter to the disease. And a Catholic priest who had ministered to this
family was subsequently infected himself and passed away.
From that time forward, local cases were reported each year. Since the city population was still
modest during those years – Minot’s population was around 600 then – there were a limited
number of deaths, but many households were laid low by the disease for weeks at a time.
Since there were no hospitals in town before 1896, doctors and nurses had had to make house calls,
and families had, of necessity, “to shelter in place”.
In 1890, Belle Oen and her sister contracted typhoid after somehow drinking river water used by
Charles Robbins at his Commercial Hotel, located on the east side of what is now First Street… Belle
herself worked at the hotel.
There was an especially severe outbreak of typhoid in the fall of 1891. It was mentioned by Gertrude
Davis in a letter she wrote in December 1938, several decades later. Gertrude Morgan Davis was the
wife of Thomas Davis. Thomas was a Baptist minister…
They moved to Minot in the spring of 1890. But in the fall of 1891, their daughter Margurette had
grown seriously ill. Gertrude recalled that “The epidemic of typhoid was just getting a good start”
then. Her husband was also falling ill, but still found the strength to conduct a funeral for a young
lady who had died of typhoid
NAT11225/11225017/TPC History B/EOP/SUTH/GH
July 2024
Gertrude went on, “The young lady had taken care of her family, and they seemed perfectly helpless
after her death.” Despite a cold, fall rain, Thomas Davis conducted her funeral at Rosehill Cemetery,
which had only opened that year…
Advances in sanitation and in the treatment of the city’s water supply, coupled with advances in
medical treatments, put an end to the scourge of typhoid fever, which claimed victims and afflicted
local residents from at least 1888 until 1909.
Let’s hope that the current coronavirus epidemic can be similarly reined in both by social distancing
and by advances in medical treatments, before it, too, affects a large number of local families.
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1. Is this news article a primary or a secondary source?
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2. Who wrote the article and when (context)?
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3. What event (or events) are being discussed here
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4. Could you make a link between the previous source (photograph) and this article?
Explain your answer.
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5. How are both sources useful to an historian? What topic areas might they be
researching?
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NAT11225/11225017/TPC History B/EOP/SUTH/GH
July 2024