To the Editor,

I’ve been doing what many others have likely been doing during the pandemic – projects that I’ve been meaning to turn my attention to. One of them is working through a box of old pictures and other memorabilia that were left at our cottage when my Mom died.
In this assortment, there was a brochure put out by the Stanhope Heritage Discovery Museum (year unknown) entitled, Stanhope Heritage Driving Tour. The mid-section of this brochure contains a section, “Did You Know?”.
And no, I did not know (and think many others would not know) that, “In 1896, Stanhope suffered a diphtheria epidemic during which schools were closed and all public gatherings including church services, were forbidden. Stanhope council passed a motion Minden pay $60 as compensation for the stamping out of the diphtheria epidemic caused by the negligence of the Minden Board of Health in handling their own epidemic … And in 1904, smallpox swept through the township and the same curfews were imposed.”
And we think with this pandemic we are hard done by. Imagine the hardships experienced by many families 120 years ago!

Heather Konefat
Maple Lake