Note: The children were buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery all except
Joseph the oldest son. George and Elizabeth were also buried here after their
deaths. A single red sandstone headstone with four sides lists each of the
children and the dates of their deaths. The headstone is very weathered now
and is difficutl to read. Many years ago Gary Stay made a rubbing of the
stone and preserved the text thta has been put on a new flat stone in front
of the original sandstone monument.
See also the letters from joseph where he begged his father to move out of
the house and go to Sevier County and start over. He indicated that the disease
permeated the very walls of the house and they should move out. He then visited
his family and contracted the disease and sson died leaving his young wife
in Sevier County pregnant with their first child. It also should be noted
tht some of the children who died were Elsie's, Georges plural wife.
Diphtheria, one of the most deadly of childhood diseases,
brought suffering and heartache to many families. One
of the families sorely afflicted was that of George B. Bailey of Mill Creek,. We are apprised of their situation in the following announcement
taken from the Deseret News of February 27. The children were buried in the
Salt Lake Cemetery and later George and Elizabeth were buried there. The headstone was four sided and listed each child and
the date of their death. The headstone is now weathered
and difficult to read. Gary Stay made a rubbing of
the stone many years ago and captured the text. We
have now placed a new stone in front of the headstone that is flat and lists
what is written.
“Three more children
of Brother George B. Bailey have died of that dreadful malady, diphtheria,
in three successive days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These
make seven in the same family within the short space of one month that have
succumbed to the fearful disease, the demise of five of them having occurred
within one week.”
“Everything that could be thought of to arrest the progress of the
disease was done for the suffering little ones, but all of no avail.”
Responding to the above announcement, the Quarantine Physician, S.
B. Young, M. D., made the following statement that was printed in the Deseret
News on March 9th.
“Permit me through your column to state for the information of Mr.
Bailey and others that we have no board of health nor health officers for
Salt Lake City or County, but the duties of the quarantine physician have
so far been confined to the quarantining of the contagion of smallpox. The medical profession are unanimous in regarding diphtheria
and scarlet fever as equally infectious and more malignant than smallpox,
and when the community at large come to view them in the same light and guard
against them with equally stringent measures, then, and not till then, can
we hope to be free from these terrible maladies and epidemics.
“There are many able medical men in Salt Lake hat Mr. Bailey could
undoubtedly have called to his aid if he had so desired.
When I learned that he had not done so and he had no professional
help through all the terrible scourge to which his family had been subjected,
then from feelings of humanity, I called at his home and inquired what course
of treatment they had pursued for hose that had died, and what was done for
the safety of the living.
“I left the family what medicine I had carried with me and instructions to procure more, and to disinfect their house and family and suggested precautionary measures to be adopted by the neighbors who were compelled to visit at the house as nurses and helps, etc.”