Journey into Health History: Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service

“It has long been known that it COSTS LESS TO PREVENT ILLNESS than it does to treat or cure it.”

This week I continued my journey into the health history of Dunn County by taking a closer look at the Annual Reports created by the Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service, ranging from 1941-1975, which I discovered while searching through the UW-Stout University Archives. The above quote written in the 1943 annual report by the Dunn County Public Health Nurse is as prevalent today as it was 77 years ago. The Dunn County Nurse would write an annual report at the end of each year to the Board of Supervisors of Dunn County. The nurse usually reported about: classes and health centers held; number of children being examined and immunized, and what immunized for (such as smallpox, diphtheria, polio); prevalent diseases in Dunn County (most prevalent during 1940s-1950s were mumps, chicken pox, measles and whooping cough); showing teachers and student teachers at the Dunn County Normal School how to weigh, measure, and test vision and hearing of their students; teaching about preventing the spread of communicable diseases; crippled children’s service; giving rural school children cards for free dental exams; different community groups the nurse worked with during the year, etc. Some groups the nurse worked with that contributed to Dunn County’s Health program over the years, with providing money, free examinations, transportation, etc., were the Salvation Army, Menomonie Legion Auxiliary, the Dunn County Infantile Paralysis Organization, and the Menomonie Rotary and Lions Club. There was also a Lay Advisory Committee organized in 1947 of health minded women from different townships and villages that met once a month and helped connect the County Nurse’s Office to the Dunn County Communities. They provided health educational programs, provided the nurse with help during special programs, and directed people to the Dunn County nurse.

1953 Annual Report

The 1953 annual report provides an overview of what the county nurse does. The nurse needs to have training in Public Health Nursing and knowledge of community health problems so she knows what to look for in the community (by studying community statistics and available records, etc.), how to organize the community in response to health problems, and to teach individuals about improving their health. The nurse created a tentative schedule each month for visiting families and schools in each part of Dunn County, but in the city of Menomonie the School Health Program was directed by a school nurse. The nurse also needs support from the Dunn County medical profession (doctors at Memorial Hospital), and getting their help with immunization centers.

The Dunn County Nurse states in the 1951 annual report that “The Health Program of Dunn County is a community wide project aimed to not only reach the above mentioned groups [the sick and school health problems], but to provide health education for the entire family and community.”  The United States Public Health Service recommended 1 nurse for every 5,000 individuals, so Dunn County could have used 5 nurses for its roughly 27,000 people during the 1950s. The nurse had to be strategic with scheduling visits to homes, schools, and clinics. There was also a Dunn County Public Health Secretary, who dictated and typed letters to parents and teachers, records, reports, postcards, and rescheduled tests, etc., so the nurse had more time to make her rounds in Dunn County.

1951 Annual Report

I found many articles in the Dunn County News from over the years naming who was hired for the position of the Dunn County Public Health Nurse, and when immunization clinics and screenings were being held. Here is an example ad for a Free Blood Pressure screening in the April 11, 1984, p. 9, Dunn County News.

Public health services are also mentioned in the Stoutonia student newspaper over the years. The 1959 annual nurse’s report mentions Stout State College and how it will not be included in the State Board of Health Mobile Health X-Ray Unit.

On the official website for Dunn County, under the Public Health Department, I discovered there is still a Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service. It looks like they provide a lot of the same types of services as in the 1940s-1950s: Home visits, immunizations, screenings, oral dental health education, newborn and family health education, to promote health equity, etc.  An annual report is still created by the Dunn County Health Department. In the 2018 annual report it states that the County Health Department was created in 1935. “The Primary work of the nurse included: an infant and maternal health program, prevention and control of  communicable diseases, building up the health of school children, tuberculosis control and crippled children’s follow up program” (2018 annual report, p. 2). The Dunn County website is a great place to learn about the Public Health services provided in Dunn County, as well as other county resources. During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic they are providing updates and information on their main website page:  https://www.co.dunn.wi.us/index.asp?SEC={C8A480A6-E321-468A-8920-705855D2E445}

By: Julie Hatfield, Archives Assistant, UW-Stout Archives

Sources:

Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service Annual Reports, 1941-. Manuscript 41. University of Wisconsin-Stout, Archives Department

Dunn County News. April 11, 1984, p.9. Menomonie Public Library Dunn County News Archive, 1862-2020.   https://menomoniepubliclibrary.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&query=%22dunn+county+public+health+nurse%22&dr_year=1935-2000&silo=456&p_county=Dunn+County%2C+Wisconsin  (accessed 3/25/2020)

Dunn County Website, Public Health Department, Public Health Nursing.  https://www.co.dunn.wi.us/index.asp?SEC=D8F35BA2-EFA5-43FE-B3B3-A588ABF40865&Type=B_BASIC

_______.  2018 Annual Report. https://www.co.dunn.wi.us/vertical/Sites/%7BD750D8EC-F485-41AF-8057-2CE69E2B175A%7D/uploads/Health_Dept_Annual_Report_2018.pdf

_______. COVID-19 information: https://www.co.dunn.wi.us/index.asp?SEC={C8A480A6-E321-468A-8920-705855D2E445}   (accessed 3/25/2020)

Stoutonia. University of Wisconsin-Stout, Archives Department. https://archive.org/details/stoutonia?&sort=date   (accessed 3/25/2020)

Journey into health history: Polio epidemic of the 1940s-1950s

1941 Dunn County Public Health Service Annual Report, cover page

During this time of uncertainty of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic affecting the world, and now close to home, it brings to mind other health epidemics that have occurred during the last century. One that effected many people, including the 32^nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was Polio, also know as Poliomyelitis and Infantile Paralysis. Polio is caused by poliovirus and is usually spread from person to person by infected fecal matter entering the mouth. It causes muscle weakness, usually in the legs, but also in the head, neck, and diaphragm. There was a wide spread of Polio in the United States during the 1940s-1950s, and national and local organizations were created to help in the effort to eradicate it, such as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes. Jonas Salk created a polio vaccine in 1952, which became available for widespread vaccinations between 1954-1956.

Polio affected many people in Wisconsin, whether by directly contracting Polio, or knowing someone who was affected, or helping organizations by donating money and blood. One famous Wisconsin author who contracted Polio in 1947 at the age of 12 is Jerry Apps. He writes about his personal experience in his 2013 book Limping Through Life: A Farm Boy’s Polio Memoir.  He writes about his experience feeling the symptoms set in and his right leg not working quite right, and how this affected his life as a farm boy then and his decisions later in life.

Apps lived in Wild Rose, in Waushara County, near the middle of the state, while my grandmother, Betty Pilgrim (later Betty Grohn) lived in Stanley, in Chippewa/Clark Counties, 1 hour east of Menomonie. She was diagnosed with Polio in 1949 at the age of eighteen. Her story is similar to many others with the course of treatment she received. She traveled from Stanley to Madison in the back of a hearse so she could lay down, because Stanley did not have an ambulance at the time. She stayed at the Madison’s Children’s Hospital for four months of therapy to regain the use of her legs. Much of her therapy included hot packs (wool blankets soaked in boiling water and placed on her legs) and muscle training to reeducate her muscles. My grandmother never regained 100% use of her legs, and used crutches, canes, and walkers to help her walk at various times in her life, and was permanently in a wheelchair the last five years she was alive. She lived a full life and did not let Polio define her, with getting married, having 4 children, working outside the home and being a great cook and knitter.

Betty Grohn with children, 1959

The Polio epidemic also affected the health of Dunn County residents and operations at the Stout Institute. Searching through the UW-Stout University Archives, I discovered a collection of Annual Reports created by the Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service, ranging from 1941-1975. The Dunn County Nurse’s annual reports refer many times to the polio issue and protecting the health of children in Dunn County. In 1941, there were 4 cases of infantile paralysis reported in Dunn County, and there was an orthopedic school available in Eau Claire. Throughout the 1950s, the nurse reported on the number of handi-capped children documented, orthopedic programs and orthopedic clinics held by the Bureau for Handicapped Children, organizations contributing to the Health Program of Dunn County such as the Dunn County Infantile Paralysis Organization who “provided care for all new polio cases and continued help for many previous cases,” and polio clinics administering the Salk Polio vaccine during the second half of the 1950s, such as administered by the Dunn County Polio Chapter (1951 annual report). 

1959 Dunn County Public Health Service Annual Report, 

The effects of the Polio epidemic on the Stout Institute are mentioned many times in the Stoutonia student newspaper, from the 1940s onwards. For example, at the beginning of the 1949 school year, Polio was the cause for the late opening of the pool, to help prevent the spread of Polio. “…Fear of heat, crowds, swimming pools, and movie theaters became common in the summer months. Parents under the advice of the Foundation kept their children isolated at home throughout the summer. Schools openings were commonly delayed in times of epidemics and fears persisted as polio ravaged more and more children and young adults” (Smith, 2003. p.34). There are many articles and ads at the beginning of the 1950s about donating blood for blood drives on campus with the Blood Mobile in Dunn County, editorials from the editors desk, projects that fraternities and sororities undertook to help those effected by Polio, and even ads for the March of Dimes. 

Stoutonia, Feb. 6, 1953, p. 1

Stoutonia May 15, 1953, p. 2

Stoutonia, Jan. 23, 1953, p. 2

Today, the Coronavirus is once again affecting our community and university with moving to alternative methods of instruction, moving of students out of residence halls, cancellation of an in-person Spring commencement ceremony, and many faculty and staff working remotely from home. We are all in this together, just as during other times of health crisis in our country’s history.

By: Julie Hatfield, Archives Assistant, UW-Stout Archives

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio  (accessed 3/20/2020)

Dunn County Public Health Nursing Service Annual Reports, 1941-. Manuscript 41. University of Wisconsin-Stout, Archives Department

Stoutonia. Volume 39. 1949-1950. Volume 42. 1952-1953. University of Wisconsin-Stout, Archives Department. https://archive.org/details/stoutonia?&sort=date   (accessed 3/20/2020)

Apps, Jerry. Limping Through Life: A Farm Boy’s Polio Memoir. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2013

Oshinsky, David M. Polio: An American Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Smith, Stacy Lynn. “Perceptions of Polio in the United States: 1890 to 1960.” Master’s Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2003.