Remedies

Medicine on the overland trails left something to be desired. Some of the remedies were common sensical. Others, while they may not have done much to help the patient, at least they wouldn’t have harmed or killed her.

Lucy Rutledge Cooke suffered greatly from ulcerations and swelling of her tongue and throat. This went on for weeks, while she tried various ineffective remedies. One of them involved drinking “sugar of lead,” or lead acetate. We know now that lead should not be ingested, but in the past it was used for everything from sweetener to face cream to–as seen below–sore throat remedy.

[May 29, 1852]

I was not able to eat any having got a very very bad mouth & throat my tongue is so swollen & in such ulcers that I m unable to speak much & can swallow nothing but liquids I never had my tongue in such a state

[June 6, 1852]

My throat continues very bad I used Suger of lead once, but it had such a curious taste & turned my teeth so black that I could not endure to use it again I now keep sucking alum which seems to cleanse my mouth but really I dont know if it does further good

[June 13, 1852]

I drink chocolate all the time since I’ve been sick. I’m thankful to say my mouth seems much better to day. I have been using a gargle made of sage tea, alum, borax & sugar & it seems to benefit

Cooke, Lucy Rutledge, 1827-1915, Letter from Lucy Rutledge Cooke to Marianne Rutledge Willis, May-June 10, 1852, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 4: 1952: The California Trail. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

We know now that cholera is spread by coming into contact with contaminated water. Bathing in water that could well be teeming with cholera bacteria seems now to be unwise at best. I’m not even sure how this cure was supposed, at the time, to have worked.

June 29 [1850]

We had the hardest thunder storm last night I have witnessed in some years. Started on this morning & soon came to a very bad road, low marshy land. A little before we stopt at noon there was a woman by the name of Beal died. She was buried on the banks of the Clearwater, a fine stream about 10 miles from where we came on the bottoms. They immersed 3 in this stream for the cholera. Travelled 14 miles & slept on a high spot on the marsh for the night. Met the Salt Lake mail, they said they met 8000 teams when they got to Fort Laramee. Since that they have not kept count. Wether very warm.

Parsons, Lucena Pfuffer, 1821-1905, Diary of Lucena Parsons, June, 1850, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 2: 1850. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 294.