I published Open Window: The Lake Julia TB Sanatorium, a Community Created by Tuberculosis in March, 2020. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with several people about the Sanatorium. One is Peggy Ann Vigoren. She wrote, The Adoption of Charlie Keenan. Vigoren’s book is about her family and prohibition in the Ranier, MN area. Great-Grandmother and TB: Peggy Ann Vigoren’s great-grandmother operated a home for consumptives in the 1890s in Cokato, MN. Much like selling Christmas Seals, which began in 1907, she sold pins to raise money to fight TB. The woman lost her first husband to TB only three years after their marriage. Author’s Mother Has Health Issues as Child: Vigoren’s mother, Blanche Jespersen, was born in 1913. Two years later, Dr. Mary Ghostley found that Blanche was blind in her right eye. Dr. Mary wondered whether the child had been born without sight in that eye or if she had injured it. She believed the eye should be removed and scheduled surgery in Minneapolis. Blanche’s parents couldn’t afford the trip. The compassionate Dr. Mary took the child 300 miles by train to the hospital. The story had a happy ending: Blanche’s eye was saved! In 1918, the family lived on a homestead in Loman. Five-year-old Blanche, along with her mother and her brother, Harold, all contracted the flu. Dr. Mary Ghostley cared for them, and they all survived. Tragedy Just as Flu Pandemic Concludes Blanche Jespersen’s mother died of the “1918 flu” in Ranier in the spring of 1920. Hers was one of the last cases in the area. Books on Minnesota History: The Adoption of Charlie Keenan Open Window: The Lake Julia TB Sanatorium, a Community Created by Tuberculosis by Peggy Ann Vigoren by Pat Nelson Available on Amazon.com Available on Amazon.com, Koochiching County Museum, & Beltrami County History Center https://amzn.to/2JY53C5 https://amzn.to/2WLjnSs SUBSCRIBE TO PAT NELSON’S BLOG AT HTTPS://OPENWINDOWTB.COM/ TO GET NOTICE OF THE LATEST POSTS ABOUT THE LAKE JULIA TB SANATORIUM, ITS DOCTORS, PATIENTS, EMPLOYEES, AND NEIGHBORS.Pins Sold to Fight TB
Blanche Jespersen at Age Four
Tuberculosis
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