Public Feeling Quieted

In many respects there has been much progress in Tell City in regard to control of epidemics and the feeling of the public in general regarding them. There is still some fear felt when such dread diseases as polio or spinal meningitis strike, but with the advance of science and discovery of inoculations such as the Salk vaccine Tell City along with the rest of the world has had some of its qualm quieted.

In early epidemics, the small pox epidemic and scare in 1895 and 1901, wild rumors were rampant; the newspapers of the adjoining towns of Tell City and Cannelton carried on a running battle for several weeks because of the quarantines placed on one or the other of the towns during these time.

Polio Strikes Hard In 1928

Tell City experienced a polio epidemic as severe as any place in the country in the summer of 1928. In some families several children were stricken with the dread disease. While no quarantine was placed on public meeting places, parents were advised to keep their children at home as much as possible. Other health measures such as getting plenty of rest, eating sensibly, and avoiding excessive tiring, were advocated by the doctors. Another bad year for polio in Tell City, as throughout the country, was in 1932.