Medicine in 1845 in Texas

While reading through the letters of Mary Augusta Polley to her father-in-law about the death of her husband, I noticed quite a few medical references of which I was not familiar. After looking them up, it started to paint a much clearer picture about the illness, treatment, and death of Joseph Egbert Polley in 1845. (If you have not yet read the letters of Mary Augusta Polley to her father-in-law, I recommend that you begin with reading them here.)

To begin with, I think it is important to point out that Mary Augusta Polley and Joseph Egbert Polley had been married for only 3 years at this point, and Mary is 17 years old at the time of her husband's illness, with one toddler at her feet, and she is heavily pregnant with the couple's second child. They are living with or very near to Mary's family, and they have the advice and assistance of Joseph Henry and Mary Bailey Polley, as well as the best doctors that the area affords.

In October of 1845, The Republic of Texas as an independent nation was coming to a close. By December the vote would solidify its future as the 28th state to join the United States of America. The family is living on the banks of the Brazos River in Southeast Texas, which is a land that gets about 50 inches of rain per year on average. The river is prone to flooding, the terrain is flat grassland dotted with pecan and live oak Trees thick with Spanish moss, cut through by many streams lined with more oak and bald cypress trees. The area has abundant wildlife, but yet more abundant mosquitos. Many comforts are now available to the original settlers of the area that they had done without for so many years. Yet, this is still the frontier lands and resources are not in abundance.

With this in mind, let's look at Mary's letter...

Brazoria Jan 16th 1846

My Dear Father_

              It is with a bleeding heart that I take pen in hand to inform you of the death of my Husband.  Joseph is gone, he died happy, he said that he was willing to die, he departed this life the 1st of Oct of the congestive fever[1], after five days and a half sickness. 

1 This may have been malaria, which was not yet understood to be a mosquito-borne illness.  Often there was swelling in the brain and spleen (which would explain the intense side pain he felt).  Malaria was thought to come from “bad air,” and many treatments aimed to purge the body of toxins, ironically through many toxic medicines and practices. It was so common in the early settlement of Texas that many considered it a rite of passage to have battled the illness and overcome it. Stephen F. Austin dealt with lingering bouts of malaria for most of his time in Texas.

He was taken Friday morning with a very severe pain in his side which lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes, and then it went away, he did not eat breakfast of any account, or dinner; he drank a little tea and a little corn bread with it for his dinner, after a little while, he laid down a few minutes, and got up and walked out threw up his tea, went about most of the evening, that night he took a couple of blue mass pills[2]. 

2 Blue Mass Pills were a “cure-all” in the 1800’s that contained high amounts of mercury, mixed with licorice, honey, or rose water.  Because they were usually mixed by a local pharmacist, dosing varied wildly, and dangerously.

Saturday morning he said he felt well and as he had been promising a year and better to go after a yoke of oxen of his own he thought it was as good a chance as he had, he started early in the morning, rode eighteen miles before dinner, eat his dinner got on his horse and rode 10 miles back on the hunt of the oxen, penned one roped him and tied him to a tree that night, it was to late to pen the other one that night, he could not sleep much he felt so uneasy and bad, next morning he rode out to look for the other ox, he felt a little sick but thought it would wear off, penned the other one and was trying to rope him, he was taken with a vomiting and then a chill came on, the ox jumped the fence and got away, he was too sick to attend to them any more that day.  In the night sometime his horse got away out of the lot.  Monday morning he walked a mile or two in the wet prairie, found his tracks got himself wet up to the knees, still felt sick a little, borrowed a horse followed his own half way home, caught him, waited half an hour for the gentleman that was with him to go up in a field after a plough he had, when the man came back he told him that he was too sick to go back home with him, said he had a very high fever and thought he had better come home.  Come home put up his horse came in the house went to bed, his fever was very high but after a while it appeared to cool off, laughed and talked with me that evening I did not think him dangerous gave him a dose of calomel[3] that night, and in the night he was taken with a vomiting which lasted until about nine o’clock Tuesday morning we got it stopped,

3 Calomel was another 19^th Century “cure-all” that contained high amounts of mercury.

sent for Dr. Collins[4], he gave him some medicine, told my Father he was dangerous,

4 The famous Dr. Richard Montgomery Collins, who settled on Bailey’s Prairie in Brazoria County in the 1840’s.  A frequently told local legend tells that the doctor halted a Mr. Bill Bradley on a journey to the town of Brazoria. Knowing his own physical unattractiveness, Dr. Collins presented Bradley with a pocket knife, stating it had been given to him with the stipulation that if he ever met an uglier man, the knife must be passed on to him.  So he passed the knife on to Mr. Bradley.  Characters abounded in early Texas.

had him send for Dr. Angier[5]

5 Dr. Angier was a prominent physician in Brazoria and one of Stephen F. Austin’s Old 300. Find out more about him here.

he came gave him calomel and Dover’s powders[6] in broken doses,

6 Dover’s Powder was a medicine that contained ipecac and opium. 

sat up with him all night giving him medicine blistered him[7],

7 Blistering was a treatment in which powders would be applied to the skin to irritate the skin and induce blisters in an attempt to draw toxins out of the body toward the blister.

done all we could, in the night we sent for Dr. Collins again, but it had been to late mortification had taken place that Doctor said he ought to have been called Friday when he had the pain in his side, they think he could not have been saved even then.  Joseph told them if he had went to catch the oxen again he would not have seen home again he thought that he would die, felt willing to die.  Wednesday evening at two o’clock he died, before he died he talked about his Mother, sisters and brother and yourself in the morning we sent for my sisters and Aunt knew them shook hands with her told her that he was prepared to meet his maker asked me to bring Adelia to him kissed her told my Father to take care of her, said a prayer for me, it was the last.  Oh he has gone to heaven and I shall try to meet him as he said.  He was in his senses to the last and I ought to say the Lords will be done not mine.  He was the kindest of husbands but we have parted for a little while.  It is a happy thing to think and know he was prepared.  I wish he could have lived to see his boy if no longer.  He was born the 31^st of Oct.  I named him after his Father Joseph Egbert Polley but he his happier where he is in heaven. It is an awful feeling for a person to be kept from those they love dearer than themselves, but it is a consolation to know that they are parted forever.  Last spring he had the rheumatism in his feet and hip but he got over it, he has never had a days sickness since, very healthy until his last, I must bid Adieu.  Please to write to me.  My parents and sisters send their love to all.  My love to Mother and Sisters and yourself.  Adieu.

                                           From your affectionate daughter,

                                                          Mary Augusta Polley

So Joseph likely died of Malaria, and was given treatments that would have been the best available at the time, but would have done nothing to help his condition, and only made him expire that much faster. It is quite a heartbreaking outcome, especially when Mary and her two young children were left behind without their husband and father. A fascinating look into another time and place that helps us to appreciate the hardships of our ancestors.