On September 18, 1914, a 10-year-old child died from diphtheria at his family’s home on Catherine Street in Walhalla. Within days, several additional cases had appeared, another child in the same family was recovering from the disease, and Walhalla High School had closed its doors.

The brief account, published in the September 23, 1914, edition of the Keowee Courier, captures a frightening moment in Oconee County history. Long before modern vaccines made diphtheria rare in the United States, the disease could move quickly through a household, classroom, or community. A sore throat or fever could become a medical emergency, particularly for children.

A Death on Catherine Street

The Keowee Courier did not provide the child’s first name. It identified him only as the 10-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Emslie. According to the newspaper, he died on Friday morning, September 18, at the family’s home on Catherine Street after an illness lasting only a few days. He was buried that afternoon at Wolf Stake Baptist Church.

Another child in the family had also contracted diphtheria but was described as recovering. The newspaper reported that several cases had developed locally, prompting officials to close Walhalla High School temporarily.

The entire school was expected to remain closed until the following Monday. Students in the sixth grade and below were not expected to return until October 5 unless conditions improved enough to justify reopening earlier.

For local families, the closure was more than a change in the school calendar. It was a warning that a dangerous disease was circulating in their community.

What Was Diphtheria?

Diphtheria is a bacterial disease that commonly spreads through respiratory droplets or direct contact with infected secretions. It often begins with symptoms resembling an ordinary respiratory illness, including a sore throat, weakness, and fever. In serious cases, the bacteria produce a toxin that can create a thick coating in the throat, obstruct breathing, and damage the heart and nervous system.

That danger made diphtheria one of the most feared childhood diseases of the period. By 1914, diphtheria antitoxin was available, but getting it quickly could be difficult, especially outside larger cities. Antibiotics had not yet become part of routine medical care.

Most importantly, families in Walhalla did not have access to the routine diphtheria vaccination that protects children today. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diphtheria toxoid was developed during the early 1920s and did not become widely used until the 1930s. It later became part of the combined childhood vaccines that also protect against tetanus and pertussis.

The scale of the disease in the years that followed illustrates the danger facing families in 1914. The United States recorded approximately 206,000 diphtheria cases and more than 15,000 deaths in 1921. Children accounted for many of those cases and deaths.

Closing the School

Although the newspaper devoted only a short paragraph to the closure, the decision shows that local leaders understood the danger of allowing children to gather while cases were spreading. Closing the school interrupted one of the primary places where children came into close contact with one another.

The report did not explain who ordered the closure, how many students attended the school, or how many diphtheria cases had been confirmed. It also did not describe whether the building was disinfected before students returned. Those unanswered questions are reminders of the limits of short newspaper reports, which often recorded major community developments without preserving every detail.

Still, the basic sequence is clear. A child died after only a few days of illness. Another child in the household became sick. Additional cases appeared in the community. Walhalla High School then closed to keep the disease from spreading further.

A Familiar Response From Another Era

To modern readers, a school closure prompted by contagious illness may feel familiar. However, Walhalla families in 1914 faced the outbreak without the vaccines, antibiotics, hospital resources, and public-health communication systems available today.

News traveled through physicians, churches, neighbors, and weekly newspapers. The Keowee Courier became part of that network when it told readers the school was closed and that younger pupils might stay home for nearly two weeks.

The newspaper’s placement of the announcement is also revealing. It appeared among ordinary local notices concerning travel, college enrollment, business openings, weddings, and visitors. The death of a child and the closing of a school stood beside the routine movement of community life. For the people reading the paper in 1914, disease was not a distant historical subject. It was part of everyday life.

Remembering a Child Whose Name Was Not Printed

The short report leaves us without the child’s first name, his interests, or any description of his life. We know only his age, his parents, the street where the family lived, the illness that took his life, and the place where he was buried.

More than a century later, that small newspaper notice preserves something important. It records the loss experienced by one Walhalla family, and the moment an entire school changed course because of a disease that few Americans encounter today.

The closing of Walhalla High School in September 1914 was not merely an administrative decision. It was a community responding to a child’s death, several new infections, and the possibility that more families could soon face the same tragedy.

Sources

• Keowee Courier, September 23, 1914, page 8.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Chapter 7: Diphtheria,” Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Chapter 1: Diphtheria,” Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.