Addie Hoyt Did *Not* Die of Diphtheria, Part II

Comments on the Addie Hoyt Fargo blog dated 4/19/2012

Some overarching thoughts about this particular blog: 

This seems to be an effort to regain lost credibility and reputation that has been put at risk. 

This appears to be ‘new’ but it’s really a different slant on the same old stuff, with the addition of the Jefferson Banner.

The Jefferson Banner and the LM Leader were competitors, collaborators and sometimes they poked at each other.  See the article printed in the Addie blog related to the baseball game fiasco.

The following is from a reporter acquaintance:

Why errors or misleading information? Pressure on deadline, assumptions, carelessness, the need to fill up space in the newspaper, and the need to take out words to fit the space. Lack of knowledge by the reporter and lack of attention to details.  Newpapers were/are a business. And love thy neighbor did not apply to papers in the same coverage area, (such as the Lake Mills Leader and the Jefferson Banner) they were competing for readership. And If they could get their licks in to the reader, they might do it. Believe me, editors and publishers could act just as juvenile as little kids. 

Anyone familiar with reading a 100+ year old publications knows that the prose was flowery, the superlatives were over the top.  Descriptions such as “ one of the most popular young couples will be wed,” were common. Young women were talented and beautiful. Men were successful in their career and had promising futures. And everyone was happy to have them in the community.  Newpapers are published on deadline, written, edited, by humans and in those days, type was set by hand. Editors have blank space to fill, hopefully with something that will attract readership. (Though it still had to be long enough to fill up the space.)

Newspapers are in the business to make money, not to be sworn testimony. Not to be picked apart and analyzed, not to be taken as gospel out of context – historical and otherwise. Read it, put it aside, line the canary cage, and go on to spend your time in more productive means rather than clinging to bits as though they were gospel. Old newspapers are fun to read and will provide information.

I think that old newspapers do provide information and are frequently the only artifacts of historical events.  I also agree with the rest of the context from my acquaintance.

On to the blog post….

Is Addie obit really a complete fabrication?  I don’t think so.  Rosemary used this article to support her murder conspiracy in her earlier blogs.  It was absolute factual proof that Addie was murdered when Rosemary needed to exploit it for that purpose.  The issue is that the obit doesn’t support Rosemary fabrication of murder.  Talk about complete fabrications……….

I would like to see the plethora of information that proves Addie did not die of diphtheria and/or that she was murdered.  Other than Rosemary’s manufacturing of fiction there isn’t any proof.  And the obituary clearly states death by diphtheria.  In one of the Addie blogs Rosemary says that documents more than 20 years old are observed as factual by courts.  Whether or not I believe that is not relevant.  The idea that the obituary is more than 20 years old fits the criteria Rosemary outlined.  Therefor, it’s factual proof that Addie died of diphtheria.

Looking at the two obituaries I agree one is longer than the other…..the Jeff Banner likely edited for space.  And I didn’t see the date of publication for the Jeff Banner obit but am guessing it was after the LM Leader obit and was not the product of someone working at the Jeff Banner.  The choice of words and phrasing and the omission of parts is solely up to the discretion of the editor.  No smoking gun.  It’s just another over the top reach for Rosemary.

The printing presses were powered by the equipment at the F B Fargo company.  No big deal….  Today there are is almost no printing being done by major newspapers.  That doesn’t mean the writing about Addie and E J was any more slanted than the writing about anybody else that operated in the same social group.  The idea that the press was under E J’s thumb makes for dramatic reading but means nothing.

Then Rosemary goes on to hammer about the difference in the description of Addie getting out of bed and falling back.  Editing for space?  Jeff Banner removed it for some reason?  Who knows….it was more than 110 years ago.  Rosemary doesn’t know why they are different but wants to exploit it if possible.  If Rosemary wants to pick apart each word and phrase to make a case she is looking for fly poop in pepper. 

So in 1901 the editor of the LM Leader chose a few words he that more dramatically described Addie’s struggle to stay alive, or maybe this is accurately reported based on the information provided to him.  Even if you are unable to ‘catch your breath’ you might be able to declare that you are choking.  Go with the Jeff Banner description.  That will suit the EMT reader that has an issue with choking. 

“Second or moments” makes little difference unless there is some context to work with.  When I tell someone I will ‘be there in a minute’ I certainly wouldn’t expect them to take that seriously.  I would say that by the time any professional help arrived it was way past time to save Addie’s life.  The rest is either editing by Hubbs for dramatic purposes (Rosemary knows all about editing for drama) or Addie’s caretaker described the scene in these terms.

Then the paragraph on diphtheria….again.  This is contradicted by the NIH documents (see my previous blogs on this subject).  In these documents the disease results in death within 4 – 6 days without care…..and  Addie did not seek or receive care for diphtheria because it wasn’t recognized.  That could be because there weren’t any cases currently active in Lake Mills .  Perhaps Addie contracted the disease in portage at a meeting of others that had traveled from around the state or while she was in transit.  The meeting attendees were predominantly women.  Think there were children there.....or on the train?

There’s a few more sentences about the treatment that Addie received.  I suggest Oatway did everything he knew how to do.  Whether that was enough may be questionable but he still did what he could based on his training.  One could argue he was a neophyte (as Rosemary pointed out previously) and that might be true.  Records indicate he did not become a eye, ear, nose and throat specialist until 2013.

As for the tracheotomy….Oatway probably didn’t know how to perform one and he likely wasn’t at her bedside.  The obit says the membrane was quite small when first examined.  Further he did not expect the disease to get that severe as quickly as it did.  Again, you can chalk that up to inexperience or carelessness……nothing intentional.

Once more, I read the obituaries and it looks like the same copy except the Jeff Banner edited it…..get it?  When carefully and thoughtfully read the only real conclusion shows the Jeff Banner took the obit from the LM Leader and changed some words and phrasing and shortened it for their own purpose.   If Rosemary had included the dates on the two obits then we would know how many days later the Jeff Banner published.

Then Rosemary tries, once again, to fictionalized Addie's death even further by suggesting Addie died prior to 2:00 AM.  I’ll write about this in a later blog.  Suffice to say there is absolutely no historical reference of any kind to support that assertion…..none whatsoever.  To even pursue that logic will further compromise Rosemary's credibility.

I think that’s about it for this version of the Addie blog…..on to part 3 later.