In an earlier day cattle raising was an extensive: industry in Hardin County. Most of the pioneer settlers moving into the region brought with them a few head of stock which were corralled near the cabins as a precautionary move against roving wolves and cattle thieves. Soon it was discovered that abundant herbs and grasses, as well as an adequate water supply, provided excellent cattle ranges; and the livestock industry grew apace. Many an early cattle man realized a neat fortune from the ranges of Hardin County hillsides.
But an ill wind blew the way of that pioneer industry in the form of a plague, described in old records as the "milk sick plague." Great herds of young stock died in Illinois and Kentucky and as far south as Tennessee. The loss was tremendous. It also took a heavy toll in human life in the community. Probably the most complete account of the disaster is found in a diary left by Dr. Anna Hobbs Bigsby, a pioneer woman doctor. She came into Hardin County with her parents in a covered wagon from Philadelphia. Later, her family sent her back to Philadelphia for medical and muse's training. Completing her course of study, she returned to the frontier settlement and practiced her profession. Her's was an active part in the life of the community as she visited the sick, taught, and participated in church work. Her maiden name was Anna Pierce. She was married twice; first to Isaac Hobbs and later to Eson Bigsby.
At the time the "milk sick plague" struck the community she plunged immediately into the fight against the malady. Because of her training, she felt the responsibility of doing all she could. Days and nights she spent with the sick. She read medical books, and she communicated with eminent doctors back East in an effort to find a clue to the devastating disease. It seemed as though her efforts were futile. Many deaths occurred, even among members of her own family, and the tragedy rested crushingly upon her.
With tears in her eyes this young woman cried, "There is no one to be blamed for this awful scourge unless it is Anna Hobbs. The people have looked to me to meet and treat such epidemics, but in this I have failed, helplessly failed."
As the number of deaths increased alarmingly and as whole herds of young cattle were destroyed, many people, losing their normal sense of balance, came to believe that it w.;s a deliberate plot on the part of some lawless element in the community to poison the cattle, and indirectly the people. An uprising was threatened with murmurs of taking the law into their own hands and dealing with the suspected persons in the summary manner of frontier justice.
But this thirty-year-old woman intervened successfully. She continued her investigation and finally reached the conclusion that the poisoning was through the mill: supply, reasoning that the milk cows gave off enough through the mammary glands to escape death themselves in most instances, but that those who drank the milk fell victim of the malady. She spread word of warning far and near to refrain from use of milk until after frost in the autumn. This measure saved many human lives, but did not save the young cattle upon which many settlers were dependent for their livelihood.
According to her carefully kept diary, the source of the milk's poisoning was finally discovered after a strange fashion. She chanced to meet in the woods an old Indian squaw, once a herb doctor or "medicine squaw" of the Shawnees. Dr. Hobbs took the woman into her home and learned from her the cause of the deadly "milk sick plague." "Aunt Shawnee", as the Indian woman became known in the community, went with Dr. Hobbs into the woods and showed her the herb, the poisonous snakeroot, which they believed caused the cattle disease.
For many years after that, according to tradition, every fall the boys and men of the community, armed with hoes and knives, trooped through the forests to destroy the root. Its eradication stopped the plague, but not before it had ruined in large measure one of the most promising of the county's pioneer industries.
Since that time the livestock industry has not attained premier rank in the county's agricultural life although, farm leaders say, the section is potentially excellent for cattle raising.
Extracted 28 Aug 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Hardin County, Illinois, written in 1939 by the Committee for the Centennial, pages 49-51.
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