
Published March 19, 2024
By Jan Leimbach
This photo of White Snakeroot was taken in the gardens of the
Governor John Wood Mansion.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
This photo of White Snakeroot was taken in the gardens of the
Governor John Wood Mansion.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
The August 23rd 1925, Quincy Daily Herald announced the launch of a statewide campaign by Illinois Governor Len Small for the control and extermination of the pasture weed, White Snakeroot. A bulletin, available at the Adams County Farm Bureau office, described the weed “…which poisons cattle and produces “milk sickness” in users of milk from the affected animals… Several deaths have resulted from this poisoning in different parts of the state and authorities have thought it advisable to instruct the people in the nature and control of the weed.” Farmers sent plant samples to the University of Illinois Agriculture Department for identification. An exhibit at the Illinois State Museum on White Snakeroot, with wax and glass replicas of the plant, was an effort to spread the word and accurate identification throughout the farming community.
The attention being paid to this weed was justified. It had caused great fear among the early settlers. Milk Sickness had wiped out entire families, decimated villages and caused regional economic collapse as people abandoned their farms and homes to escape whatever was causing this wave of death. This caused so much fear that it kept settlers out of areas where there was a high incidence of Milk Sickness. The esteemed physician and scientist from Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Daniel Drake, described the symptoms in 1810 and said, “to escape it, whole communities [died} before they could have escaped it. Many fruitful tracts of country stood long unoccupied because of it.” It changed the course of Illinois and national history.
The White Snakeroot is a non-descript weed growing one to four feet tall in the shade and woodlands during the spring and summer. The leaves are toothy with 3 prominent veins. In September and October, it is still green as other plants have turned brown from summer drought, making it attractive to grazing livestock. It blooms in late August to October with clusters of fluffy white flowers.
When the settlers were moving west, they drove their livestock across the Appalachian Mountains and let them graze wherever they could find food. Then, people, calves, and foals began dying. One Illinoisan described the death toll as worse than the plague. Worse yet, they had no idea what was causing these terrible deaths.
Animals would display a general weakness or trembles. They would be unable to hold their head up, walk clumsily, collapse and not be able to get back up, have a rapid heart rate and difficulty breathing. Typically, a cow would not show signs until long after its nursing calf had died or a person drinking its milk or eating butte made from tainted milk had become sick. People showed similar symptoms, along with nausea and vomiting, which progressed to coma and death within 2-10 days from the onset of symptoms. A person might recover, but relapse and die after even minimal exertion or remain weak for months or years.
In 1818, Milk Sickness claimed its most famous victim in the worst recorded incidence in Pigeon Creek, Indiana, where almost everyone in the village died. Thomas Lincoln and his wife, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, with their two children, had left Kentucky in 1816 to settle in the wilderness of southern Indiana. As people in the village started getting sick, Nancy cared for them. Her aunt and uncle died of Milk Sickness in September. On October 5, at the age of 34, Nancy died as well. Her husband, a cabinet maker made her coffin and her 9 year old son, Abraham Lincoln, whittled the pegs to hold the planks together. Years later, one of Nancy’s cousins, who had moved to Illinois, wrote to Thomas and said the land here was fertile, didn’t require much back breaking work to clear and the Milk Sickness was not so bad. In 1830, Thomas Lincoln moved his family to Illinois and settled near present day Charleston. Abraham eventually left his father’s home and settled in New Salem. He began his law and political career in Springfield, making many friends in Quincy, who helped him become America’s 16th president.
The settlers were on their own to figure out what was happening, since this was an unknown illness in the east. Many theories were made ranging from a gas in the soil seeping into the air and being absorbed in the dew on the plants, a poisonous mineral in the soil, contaminated water, insects, and even potions scattered by witches. But most likely, a plant was the culprit, but which one?
The first investigation on this strange new illness was described in 1809, but the connection to cow’s milk was not made. With the isolation of people on the frontier and lack of newspapers, articles being written about it in the cities were not making it into the hands of the people who needed information.
In the mid 1830’s, Dr. Anna Pierce Bixby Hobbs of Rock Creek, Illinois, saw many in her community die from Milk Sickness and the people were looking to her for help. She made careful observations and followed the animals where they grazed to see what they were eating. While in the woods, she met an elderly Shawnee Indian woman who showed her the plant that was to blame. The Indians had known about its toxic properties and thought a paste of its roots could cure snakebites. Dr. Anna fed the White Snakeroot to a calf. It developed the “Trembles” and died. Other calves that did not eat it remained healthy. She initiated White Snakeroot eradication in the pastures. As word spread, Milk Sickness was virtually eliminated in southern Illinois. She wrote letters to other physicians, but communication was unreliable, and the information did not get out.
Over the following decades, agriculture became more scientific with farm bureaus passing on the pasture management research coming out of the land grant colleges. Milk Sickness was disappearing as milk came from cows kept in larger and cleaner pastures. Dairies pooled the milk from several farms so that people were no longer drinking milk from a single cow.
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