Medicine and Sickness

Mendon is 17 miles from Logan, which is where physicians and clinics were housed in the early days. Thus, it was important for Mendonites to be able to treat the sick for minor injuries and aid in major emergencies. Midwives and home recipes were used to care for these minor ailments.

Mothers made medicine from herbs, including canker medicine, bowel remedies, diphtheria remedies, and cures for other ailments. Using a combination of garden sage, alum, mountain grape root, peach bark, barberry bark, borax, goldenseal, and honey, Mendon midwives cared for the sick. Artice Bird remembers how her mother, Sarah Bird, would use herbs and other home remedies to care for the neighborhood children when they were sick. Such remedies are described in the two transcripts below.

In the video below, longtime resident Carolyn Baker remembers how medical needs were handled in her youth when professional medical care was outside of town. She recalls her household being quarantined when she got scarlet fever. An example of a quarantine sign is displayed below.