By RAY WYCHE

How people died in the first quarter of the last century in Columbus County makes for interesting, if somewhat bizarre, reading.

Beginning in 1913, North Carolina required county registers of deeds to keep records of all deaths occurring in their counties, but Columbus County’s records of deaths includes some as early as 1908. These death certificates are on standard forms and the blanks were filled in with pen and ink.

Information on the certificates lists name, race, sex, occupation, marital status, names of mother and father, “educational attainments,” time and place of death and the most interesting part, cause of death and “contributing factors.”

The certificates also have a line space for identifying the person reporting the death and a block for the signature of the attending physician, if any. A surprising number of death certificates for that period bear doctors’ signatures but a majority of the certificates state, “no physician in attendance” and “don’t know” (one reads, “don’t no”) or “unknown.” In these cases, most of the information was supplied by family members.

The cause of death entries are somewhat less than scientifically accurate, according to today’s medical standards. The death in January 1914 of a 100-year-old man was recorded simply as “died with old age.” The same notation, “old age,” is shown as cause of death in a 1917 record for a 62-year-old woman. In the same year, a man whose occupation is listed as “gambler” (he could have been a farmer) met his end by “gunshot wound,” leaving us to wonder if perhaps his card game opponents noticed a fifth ace up his sleeve.

A January 1920 certificate lists the occupation of a suicide victim as “farmer—illicit dealer.” What less-than-legal product he was dealing in is not specified but chances are it was related to a “value-added” project involving his corn crop.

In March 1917, the cause of death of a 63-year-old woman is listed as “female weakness.” Another record in the same year shows that a “washerwoman,” age 38, expired of “exhaustion.” The notation in the “cause of death” block on another certificate states: “He was burnt to death in a fire.”

A 1914 certificate lists the cause of a man’s demise with, “He was shot by (name omitted here since his descendants are still around but spelled out on the certificate)...murdered.”

Some entries in the cause of death space are forthright as to cause, as reported by a family member. A 64-year old female’s death is explained: “She dropped dead in the field at work.” Another 1914 certificate has only a man’s name—no spouse’s name or, no age or race or address—but does tell how he met his end: “He was burnt to death in a burning building.”

Heart failure, along with tuberculosis, is high on the list as causes of death. A certificate in 1912 says the deceased died of “a suden (sic) heart failure,” and several list “dropsy” (congestive heart failure) as the cause of death. Another in 1913 died of “suposed (sic) to be typhoid—no physician.”

A real puzzler is found in a February 1914 certificate. The cause of death blank carries the following: “The deceased thinks kidney trouble was the cause of death.”

A 1914 certificate for a 28-year-old farm laborer reports he died of “spinal trouble.” A blank for listing contributing factors reads: “gun shot wound.” Another farm laborer, with “about 16” written in the age blank, died in a “homicide—neck broken by an unknown instrument.”

There are many piteous death certificates involving infants and children, deaths that today would be preventable. A 1913 certificate lists cause of death of a 3-month old child as “malnutrition.” Numerous children, usually under the age of 10, are listed as “burned to death,” understandable as most homes of the period were heated by open fireplaces.

Many certificates for children show they died of whooping cough but the predominant entry for infants by far is, “unknown—no physician in attendance.”

Many note the cause as “stillborn,” and premature (one certificate notes, “come too soon,”) while many others for infants list “bowel trouble” or “stomach trouble.” In 1915, two infants are reported as having died of “inherited syphilis,” and probably the most heart-breaking is the record of five siblings, ages 2 to 11 years, in Welches Creek Township who died in a fire in 1919.

In the “educational attainments” blanks, several certificates show “reads and writes” and some read “common school” or “some school.” But sadly, many have the word, “illiterate.”

Local historian and writer Bob High has done a lengthy and tedious job of tabulating the number and causes of deaths for some years, starting in 1915. In that year, High’s research shows that of 462 deaths recorded in the county, 177 were those of children aged 5 years and younger. Seventy of these were stillborns or premature. Many infants throughout the early 1900s died of pneumonia, High’s research shows.

Three years later in 1918, 571 deaths were recorded, and 232 of these certificates—more than 46 percent—were for people under 20 years of age, according to High’s study.

High’s figures show that the infamous Spanish influenza epidemic that swept the world in the 1916-1919 period did not spare Columbus County. In the 1915 total of 462 deaths, the cause of 30 of these was listed as pneumonia. In 1916, 406 people in Columbus County died, 18 of them from pneumonia with no deaths being attributed to influenza. In the following year, 415 death certificates were filed, with 19 causes being listed as pneumonia and two from bronchitis. Again, no influenza is indicated on any records.

But in 1918, the cause of death blanks added a new word: influenza. In that year, of 571 deaths reported, 120 (21 percent) certificates list causes as influenza, pneumonia, or “influenza developing into pneumonia,” High’s research reveals.

During 1919, the ravages of the flu epidemic remained in the county; that year, 423 death certificates were filed with 30 listing influenza as the cause of death, 34 claiming pneumonia, and 16 listing pneumonia-influenza.

By1920, deaths from influenza had declined; of 443 deaths, 46 were reportedly caused by influenza and/or pneumonia, and more people obviously were treated by physicians in terminal illnesses as fewer “unknowns—no physician in attendance” are noted on the death certificates.