Once So Common, TB Sanitariums Dotted the Landscape

Once So Common, TB Sanitariums Dotted the Landscape

Many of us find ancestors who died of Tuberculosis (TB), also often referred to as Consumption.  I know that I did – my paternal grandfather. Richard Alfred Acey died 17 May 1940 at the Essex Sanatorium, Middleton, MA of Pulmonary Tuberculosis at the age of 25 – he died so young.

I was reminded of the prevalence of TB and the treatment (many isolated at sanitariums) when I read She's consumed by the story of the state's sanatoriums.

Mary Krugerud admits she’s “a wee bit obsessed” — and her 15 three-ring binders prove it. For 25 years now, Krugerud’s meticulous research has made her the authority on a forgotten niche of state history: Minnesota’s long gone but once innovative network of tuberculosis sanatoriums.

From Worthington to Wabasha to Walker, 19 massive round-the-clock tuberculosis care buildings opened between 1905 and 1918 — isolating patients and, in turn, lowering the number of cases of what was commonly called the Consumption.

You can similarly read about TB in Alabama in The first Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Birmingham area was located where English Village in Mountain Brook exists today and this masters degree thesis is an interesting read, The Rise and Fall of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Response to the White Plague.

If you think you had a relative who died of TB, a great place to start is Medical & Medicine >> Hospitals, Asylums & Sanatoriums (Cyndi’s List).




Please remember your relative who died of TB; share their story with us.

Know a great resource to help those researching TB-afflicated ancestors?  Please share.

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