Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bad Water Kills People.

Here is a letter from a woman during the Civil War, talking of a number of her family who died, presumably from "bad water." Today, people still die from drinking "bad water."

Like many residents of Searcy County [Arkansas] during the Civil War, the family of Hannah Horton Gray fled their home to take refuge in a northern state in search of safety and protection. Upon her arrival, she wrote to her sons who were serving the Union. Her correspondence describes the perils of the 470 mile voyage from Arkansas to Mattoon, Illinois on the Mississippi River.

"Matoon, Ill. August 19, 1864

Dear Children,

On the 10th of July, we left Little Rock to go on north and arrived at DeValls Bluff, where on the 14th day of the same month, Benjamin, your little girl, Susan Franklin died and was buried on the following day. And Thomas, your dear little sister, Rebecca, died the 16th and was buried the 17th. And on the same day our uncle's child, Frances C., died, but the boats left and we buried her on the 19th at the mouth of the White River.

Then several days' boat ride, about the 24th of July, we arrived in Matoon, Illinois all sick but Poke. My trouble then began to increase greatly and on the 6th of August in the evening your dear father died leaving us all alone in a strange land.

And, Benjamin, the same night at 11:00, your little boy, Samuel, died and on the next day both buried. And, Samuel Parks, your little girl, Martha, died the 17th of August and buried beside your father and little Samuel. Your grandmother is lying low now at the point of death. And Sarah and Betsy are very low.

Tomorrow morning we will leave this place and go to a farm about 15 miles from here. I think we have found a good country here. I don't think it has ever been settled, there is plenty of everything here and many kind friends.

I want you, as soon as you can, to get a furlough and come up here to see us. We haven't been able to do a bit of work since we got here. I have found the kindest people here I ever met with. I don't lay our sickness to the country since we came here but to the water on the boats, and now when we go to the country we hope all will get well. We have had the diarrhea but your father must have had typhoid also.

Since I wrote this your grandmother died last night. Tell Jacob Shipman that his father and mother have both been sick and that his daughter is nothing but skin and bones. When you write, name all who have left there, where they may have gone and if any of them have been killed by the Jayhawkers. Tell me, also, if your Uncle Warren is still with the Rebels and if he does get out, tell Sarah Ann to come here, for there's plenty of everything, for there is no want here, and very good friends.

Tell Wilson Gray, Aaron, and Willie Gray that I have not forgotten them and I want them to write. Tell Mary that I should like to see her. And Samuel, little May is very weak yet, but they say she is getting better. Write soon if you can and direct to Matoon, Coles County, Illinois.

Our love to all, Your affectionate Mother, Hannah H. Gray"

by -Tina Lewis Johnson


Kinda shows you how today, we take for granted the water coming from the tap is "good."

L.W.

With the millions of plastic bottles that go to landfills every day, there's no need to have bad water. Fill a clear bottle and lay it in the sun all day. By dark the UV from the sun will purify it. If the water's murky, give it an extra day. They're doing this in remote villages in Africa now and cutting way down on deaths due to impure water.
During the Civil war, they didn't have plastic of course, but they did have clear glass bottles and jars. They just didn't know how to use them.

Glass cuts out a lot more UV than plastic water bottles...

That’s why we have licensed plumbers and water protection specialists.

Distilleries aren't only for booze.

Was a big problem on The Oregon and California trails wagon trains , until they learned to boil the water.

An aside, my mother was born in a log cabin in Searcy Co Arkansas Jan 3, 1919. That caught my eye. Back to regular programing.

One of the primary steps towards becoming a first world society is providing clean drinking water to all. Population explosions worldwide are creating a nonsustainable demand for water. We have not begun to see the refugee crisis and conflict that will arise as a result of water shortages.

Water is second only to air as a basic need. Living in a desert vastly overpopulated and dependent on a dam makes one conscious of water issues.


mike r

old hannah wrote a real cheery letter. wtf, how about some weather or something?

The American west has thousands of square miles of what could be good farm land but there's no water. You don't grow much with 5 or 6" of water a year.
How long will it be before they start looking at the Columbia and dozens of other rivers dumping all that water into the oceans and say screw the power production, the fish, and the sea lions. We need it to live on.

You hit that out of the park.

Amen! Proper sanitation saves lives.

Not to be trite, but it ain’t so much the water as it is what’s in it.

I was obliged to get my water three dry seasons in a row from a small stream in West Africa that came out of the forest. Peace Corps policy was, of course, always boil your water except in the usual absence of fuel or readily available wood this proved impractical.

Out of the kazillions of micro flora in a natural water source only a small handful are human pathogens, almost invariably put there by other humans.

Short of a cholera outbreak I was living in close proximity to virtually every water-borne disease there is, the schistosomiasis infection rate in my village was nearly 100%

At times in the dry season my water would be cloudy with little critters swimming around in it. Because I chose a source with no humans or livestock (guinea worm) drinking from it upstream, other than malaria and giardia I never did get sick.

Malaria ain’t water-borne and EVERYBODY gets giardia, it’s like the common cold, and I suffered less than most. You get somewhat resistant over time.

Peace Corps woulda pulled me from my site and put me somewhere else if they woulda known, so I never told them.

So have I drunk water straight from a stream in the last 36 years since Africa? No of course not.

The point is tho people act like you’re gonna keel over and die if you do. Absent certain specific pathogens, no you won’t.

UV may kill bacteria but I'm not sure how long to render cysts inactive. I would not say purified because of dioxin, BPA and other toxins released from the plastic of heated or frozen bottles. Just put an unopened new gallon of drinking water in the back of the truck exposed to the sun and get a good taste of that crap after a couple of weeks, RC.

Some just get kinda strange, huh, Birdy?

If most of America knew the chemistry cocktail in their drinking water few politicians would survive a week after that epiphany bloomed.

Hey, if I can tolerate easily life with no A/C in South Texas in August no hot water, no indoor furniture, no bed, no “hand sanitizer” and go through life without a paranoid fear of “germs”....

,....do all that and still present a professional appearance in the workplace then I’ll take “kinds strange” any day.