Historical Lehi
Lehi History: The meningitis outbreak of 1929
Lee Anderson | Lehi Historical Society
In 1928, newspapers throughout Utah reported dozens of deaths from meningitis. In December, the dreaded disease reached Lehi when Mildred Walker, who had just graduated from Lehi High School, contracted meningitis and was rushed to the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she died on December 23, 1928.
Meningitis is an infection that causes inflammation and swelling of the fluids and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Left untreated, it can cause severe risks such as brain damage, hearing loss, seizures and even death.
Five days after Mildred Davis’s death, seven-month-old Paul Richard Gaisford also passed away from the disease. On January 3, 1929, seven-year-old John Chilton died unexpectantly from unknown causes. When his older sister Bethel died five days later from meningitis, John’s cause of death was suspected to be meningitis as well.
This was a horrific time for the Chilton family. Mrs. Mina Chilton missed her daughter Bethel’s graveside service because she was delivering her seventh child, Vivian. Unfortunately, Vivian only lived for two days. A few hours after losing Vivian, their four-year-old son Frank began complaining of dizziness. By 9 p.m., he was in convulsions, and his father rushed him to the LDS Hospital, where he died from meningitis the next morning. A day later, Frank’s nine-month-old cousin, Gerald Varney, contracted meningitis and died after only four hours of suffering.
This tragic string of deaths was very troubling for the citizens of Lehi. The January 9, 1929, edition of the Salt Lake Tribune reported: “Panic seized patrons of the [Lehi] schools…the school buildings were besieged throughout the day by parents demanding their children be sent home at once. Before the afternoon session began, the primary building had been practically depopulated, with only 20 per cent of the normal enrollment reporting for schoolwork. In the grammar grades, a loss of about 50 per cent was sustained, while in the high school, only 20 per cent of the students were absent.”
On January 17, Lehi public schools, as well as all gathering places for entertainment and churches, were closed for a time. The ban was lifted as the cases slowed down, but it was reinstated several times during the following months. Some of the events that were canceled were: Lehi Poultry Day, the First Ward Reunion and the Tri-Stake Road Show. The high school basketball game between Lehi and American Fork was played behind closed doors, with no audience in attendance. Funerals for meningitis victims were also banned.
Those lucky enough to survive their bout with meningitis did so at a cost. Many suffered the rest of their lives from the effects of the disease. Lehi Junior High School teacher, Elwood Hunt, contracted the disease around that time and wrote about his experience. “My oldest sister, Florence and I contracted spinal meningitis. This was a dreaded disease. Of course, I was too young to really understand how serious and dreaded it was. I am not sure how old I was, but I am sure I was not more than three or four years old. My sister must have been about nine or ten years of age.”
Hunt continued, “Many diseases at that time required a quarantine period. As I recall, Mother, Florence, and I were quarantined to the front room and one of the front bedrooms. The rest of the family occupied the kitchen and the upstairs section of the house. We could talk to each other through the doors and see each other through the windows, but we were not to be together at all. I do not recall being very sick, but I know Florence was.”
“The painful part of the whole thing I remember most was when they had to take a spinal tap. I never knew why, but I vividly remember the doctor coming every few days and doing this. I recall that at this time, they would lie us face down on the front room table, and Dad and someone else would have to forcibly hold us down as the doctor would stick a long needle attached to a syringe into our spine and draw off some of the spinal fluid that had accumulated. I can still feel the excruciating pain and hear myself and Florence scream as he did this.”
“To this day, I cringe whenever I recall this occurrence. I do not recall how many times they had to do this, but it was several times. Had it only been once, it would have been once too many. The real tragedy of this illness came when, because of extreme fever, Florence’s hearing nerves were destroyed, resulting in her becoming completely deaf.”
During the 1929 meningitis outbreak, 13 people from Lehi died. At the time, Lehi’s population was about 3,000. Thankfully, due to advancements in medicine, deaths from meningitis are not as common as they were in the past.
