Diphtheria Closes School in Walla Walla
A local report highlights economic tension and a health crisis in Walla Walla, while a child in Waitsburg narrowly avoids a poisoning tragedy.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
We learn that the Sisters' school is about to be closed for the present on account of diphtheria. It's a little strange. Everything raised in the valley the past summer brought excellent price and yet we note a tightness in money matters which we have never noted before. Mrs. O. W. Loundauin, of Waitsburg, gave by mistake one day last week, to a nursing child, a dose of carbolic acid instead of castoria. Timely aid saved the little one from a cold, cold grave.
“We learn that the Sisters' school is about to be closed for the present on account of diphtheria.”
The closure of schools due to disease was as central to the 19th-century experience of community as it has been in the post-2020 landscape. The juxtaposition of economic anxiety and domestic accidents remains a hallmark of local reporting, framing the fragility of frontier life.
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