A scarlet fever scare at Chariton High School

Burton Seward was a student at Chariton High School and just a week short of his 17th birthday when he died at home of scarlet fever on Saturday morning, Jan. 8, 1910, after becoming ill at school on the preceding Thursday.

Burton's parents were John C. and Florence Seward and he was near the middle of their family of 10 children and had been working as a delivery boy for the Curtis Grocery Store when not in school.

He was, according to The Chariton Leader of Jan. 13, "a bright, energetic young man, loved by all who knew him, always polite and courteous."

Scarlet fever was a communicable disease, so funeral services before burial in the Chariton Cemetery were private and the family home was placed under quarantine immediately.

Although a few cases of scarlet fever had been reported previously in Chariton after the new year, none had proven fatal and two other families remained quarantined in the hope of preventing its spread. 

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Although Chariton's physicians believed Burton had not been suffering from the fever long enough to be contagious while attending school, extraordinary precautions were taken --- as described in this report from The Herald-Patriot of Jan. 13:

"As Burton was a student at the high school, the rooms were thoroughly fumigated on Saturday, and on Monday Dr. John Stanton, who is both city and county physician, went to the high school, accompanied by Drs. J.A. McKlveen and Albert Yocom and members of the city council and school board, and every student underwent a strict medical examination for any indication of sore throat or fever.

"Several were sent home to recover from bad colds, but they have all returned, and with Supt. Roberts and the high school faculty closely watching the situation, the high school is probably a safer place for the students than some of the poorly ventilated homes in Chariton.

"There is no need for alarm over the situation, it would seem, as no other cases have been reported and the families where the disease originated --- the Logsdon and Wright families --- are quarantined and all the children are getting along well."

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There seem to have been no other cases of scarlet fever in Chariton during January and February, although a few were reported in and near Russell.

There is no anti-scarlet fever vaccine still, but efficient tests and the development of antibiotics have for the most part made it a disease that parents in Lucas County need not worry about. So this January we can for the most part focus our attention on the flu.