Ask AI: "Was Typhoid Fever Prevalent In 1874 In Ontario?"

 The Artificial Intelligence tools (like ChatGPT4, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Meta, CoPilot, GenSpark, and Perplexity) can provide much useful and nearly instant information about subjects in a concise (or verbose) format, especially when they have been pre-trained on a large volume of information about the subjects.

1)  I wondered if the FREE AI tools could provide me with information about the prevalence of typhoid fever, since my 2nd great-grandmother Mary Jane (Sovereen) Kemp died at age 33 of it in 1874 in Norfolk County, Ontario.

(image generated by Grok 3)

Here is my prompt: "Was typhoid fever prevalent in 1874 in Ontario?  How does a person catch it, what are the symptoms and how did people die from it?

NOTE:  In this case, I asked these questions at the end of my request for a poem and song about Mary Jane (Sovereen) Kemp, which was based on my genealogical sketch for her.  The AI tool "personalized" the response to Mary Jane's case.  

2)  The Grok 3  response to the request was:

In 1874, when Mary Jane died of typhoid fever in Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario, it aligns with a period when the disease was still a significant public health issue. 

Was Typhoid Fever Prevalent in 1874 in Ontario?

Yes, typhoid fever was prevalent in Ontario during the 19th century, including 1874. At that time, Canada, like much of the industrialized world, lacked modern sanitation systems. Typhoid fever, caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi, thrived in areas with poor water quality and inadequate waste disposal—conditions common in rural and small-town Ontario, such as Norfolk County, during the 1870s. Historical records show that typhoid was a leading cause of death in North America in the pre-antibiotic era, with mortality rates ranging from 10–20% without treatment. In rural communities like Delhi, contaminated wells or streams, often polluted by human waste from outhouses or improper sewage management, were likely sources of outbreaks. While exact statistics for Ontario in 1874 are scarce, the disease’s prevalence is well-documented in similar settings, such as Chicago, where mortality rates reached 65–174 per 100,000 people annually in the late 19th century. Given Delhi’s small size and rural nature, even a handful of cases would have been significant locally, making Mary Jane’s death at 33 a plausible reflection of typhoid’s impact.

How Does a Person Catch Typhoid Fever?

Typhoid fever spreads through the fecal-oral route, primarily via contaminated food or water. The Salmonella Typhi bacterium, exclusive to humans, is shed in the feces or urine of infected individuals, including asymptomatic carriers who show no symptoms but harbor the bacteria (e.g., the infamous “Typhoid Mary”). In 1874 Ontario, someone like Mary Jane could have caught it by:

• Drinking water from a well or stream contaminated by sewage.
• Eating food (e.g., vegetables or dairy) tainted by unwashed hands or flies carrying the bacteria from feces.
• Direct contact with an infected person or carrier in the household or community, especially in close-knit rural settings like Norfolk County.

Poor hygiene practices, lack of chlorination, and limited understanding of germ theory at the time amplified the risk. Flies, abundant in farming areas, were also vectors, transferring bacteria from waste to food.

What Are the Symptoms?

Typhoid fever’s symptoms emerge gradually, typically 6–30 days after exposure, and worsen over weeks if untreated. They include:

• Fever: Starts low and rises daily, often peaking at 102–104°F (38–40°C), worse in the afternoons or evenings.
• Weakness and Fatigue: A profound tiredness sets in early.
• Abdominal Pain: Discomfort or cramping, often with bloating.
• Constipation or Diarrhea: Constipation is more common in adults initially, though diarrhea can follow, especially in children or later stages.
• Headache: Persistent and debilitating.
• Loss of Appetite: Accompanied by nausea in some cases.
• Rose Spots: Faint, pinkish rash on the chest or abdomen in some patients (less common but notable).
• Confusion or Delirium: In severe cases, as the infection progresses.

In 1874, Mary Jane likely experienced a combination of these, with fever and weakness dominating as her condition deteriorated. Without antibiotics, symptoms could persist for weeks, exhausting the body.

How Did People Die from Typhoid Fever?

Typhoid fever killed through complications that overwhelmed the body, especially in the absence of modern treatment. In 1874, death often resulted from:

• Intestinal Perforation: The bacteria erode the intestinal wall, particularly in the small intestine, causing perforations (holes) after 2–3 weeks. This led to peritonitis—severe abdominal infection—as gut contents leaked into the body cavity. It was agonizing and often fatal.
• Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage: Erosion of blood vessels in the gut caused internal bleeding, leading to shock or death if severe.
• Septicemia: The bacteria spread through the bloodstream, triggering systemic infection and organ failure.
• Exhaustion and Dehydration: Prolonged fever, lack of nutrition, and fluid loss (from diarrhea or sweating) weakened patients, sometimes fatally.
• Encephalopathy: Brain inflammation from toxins or high fever could cause coma or death.

Mary Jane died on May 20, 1874, likely after weeks of illness, as typhoid’s course was slow but relentless without intervention. At 33, with five young children, her body may have been strained by prior pregnancies or household demands, hastening her decline. In the pre-antibiotic era, up to 1 in 5 untreated cases ended in death, and rural Ontario lacked the medical resources—like clean IV fluids or surgery—to mitigate complications.

This reflects typhoid’s grim reality in 1874 Ontario: a preventable disease by today’s standards, but a merciless killer then, striking even young, otherwise healthy individuals like Mary Jane. 

A second prompt:  "When did typhoid become a non-issue?"

The Grok 3 response was:

Typhoid fever ceased to be a widespread public health issue in developed countries like Canada (including Ontario) over the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its decline tied to specific advancements in sanitation, public health, and medicine. While there’s no single “end date” when typhoid vanished entirely, it became a non-issue—meaning rare and no longer a significant cause of death—by the mid-20th century in places like Ontario. Here’s how and when that happened:

Key Milestones in Typhoid’s Decline

Improved Sanitation (Late 19th to Early 20th Century)  

• When: Starting in the 1880s–1900s, with major progress by the 1920s–1930s.  
• Why: Typhoid spreads through contaminated water and food, so the introduction of clean water systems (e.g., piped water, chlorination) and proper sewage disposal was transformative. In Ontario, urban centers like Toronto began installing water treatment and sewage systems in the late 19th century, though rural areas like Norfolk County lagged. By the 1920s, chlorination became widespread in Canadian municipalities, drastically reducing waterborne diseases. For example, Toronto’s typhoid death rate dropped from 36.5 per 100,000 in 1900 to under 1 by 1930 due to these measures. Rural adoption was slower, but by the 1930s, most of Ontario benefited from better infrastructure.

Public Health Awareness (Early 20th Century)  

• When: 1890s–1920s.  
• Why: The acceptance of germ theory (thanks to scientists like Robert Koch, who identified Salmonella Typhi in 1880) led to hygiene campaigns. Health boards educated people on boiling water, washing hands, and isolating the sick. In Canada, provincial health acts (e.g., Ontario’s Public Health Act of 1884, strengthened over decades) enforced sanitation standards and tracked outbreaks, reducing typhoid’s spread.

Vaccination (Early 20th Century)  

• When: Introduced in the 1890s, widely used by the 1910s–1920s, especially in military and high-risk areas.  
• Why: A typhoid vaccine, developed by Almroth Wright in 1896, was initially used for soldiers (e.g., during the Boer War and World War I). In Canada, civilian use grew in the early 20th century, though it wasn’t universal. It offered temporary protection, cutting infection rates in vulnerable populations, but sanitation improvements outpaced its impact.

Antibiotics (Mid-20th Century)  

• When: 1940s–1950s, with chloramphenicol introduced in 1948.  
• Why: Before antibiotics, typhoid’s mortality rate was 10–20%; treatment relied on rest and luck. Chloramphenicol, the first effective antibiotic against typhoid, slashed mortality to under 1% and shortened recovery time. In Canada, its availability by the late 1940s meant even sporadic cases were treatable, rendering typhoid a minor threat.

When Did It Become a “Non-Issue” in Ontario?

• By the 1930s: Sanitation and water treatment had reduced typhoid incidence to negligible levels in most of Ontario. Annual deaths fell from hundreds in the early 1900s to dozens province-wide. For context, Canada as a whole reported 1,500 typhoid deaths in 1909 (population ~7 million), but by 1931 (population ~10 million), this was under 200—a fraction of its former toll.
• By the 1950s: With antibiotics widely available, typhoid was effectively eradicated as a public health concern. Cases became rare, linked to travel or isolated sanitation failures, and deaths were almost nonexistent. Ontario’s health records from the 1950s onward show typhoid as a statistical blip, not a population threat.

Why 1874 Was Different

In 1874, when Mary Jane died, none of these solutions existed in Ontario. Delhi, a small rural community, likely relied on wells or streams prone to contamination. No germ theory was widely applied, no vaccines or antibiotics existed, and sanitation was rudimentary. Her death at 33 reflects typhoid’s peak danger—by contrast, a case in 1950s Ontario would’ve been a treatable anomaly.

Globally and Today

Typhoid remains a problem in developing regions with poor sanitation (e.g., parts of South Asia, Africa), with 11–21 million cases annually per the WHO. In Canada, it’s now a travel-related rarity, with fewer than 100 cases yearly, managed by vaccines and antibiotics. For Ontario, typhoid became a “non-issue” functionally by the 1930s and definitively by the 1950s—a triumph of public health that Mary Jane’s era couldn’t imagine.

 3)  This appears to be a pretty good summary!  I know very little about pre-1950 health issues, and Grok 3 (and other free AI tools) can provide a one or two page summary in a matter of seconds based on their pre-trained "reading." I can't judge the accuracy, but I could find many documents about the subject.  

Asking questions like this of the AI tools helps family historians to add context to their family stories and genealogical sketches.  A skilled writer (which I am not!) could craft a short story about Mary Jane's suffering and the effect of her death on the family.  One month she was a married housewife with five small children, and then she catches typhoid somehow, and during the next month she suffers and dies.  

Surely, her husband and older children remembered this for the rest of their lives.  It was a significant event and a life lesson for her parents and siblings too.  My great-grandmother Geoegianna (Kemp) Auble (1868-1952) was five years old when her mother died.  My guess is that she was very careful for her own life, and very protective of only child, my grandmother.

Health issues caused by disease and injury are a fact of human life.  Things happen and a person's life changes dramatically, and the family suffers with them.  Our pre-1950 ancestors were very susceptible to infectious diseases. 

                              ==============================================

My blog posts, and those of other genealogists, using Artificial Intelligence tools are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/03/ask-ai-was-typhoid-fever-prevalent-in.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.