Celebrating History: Dealing with sanitation

By Emily Mayer

One of the unseemly facts about living 100 years ago was the lack of sanitation. It was not uncommon for communities to have piles of garbage in back yards, and water and wastewater treatment plants were in their infancy in the early 1900s in rural America. Havre was of no exception. Dangerous outbreaks were not unknown at the time, and this article found in the Editorial section of the Feb. 24, 1917, issue of The Havre Plaindealer reminds people of the dangers of disgusting habits:

LET HAVRE INVESTIGATE

Again the dread malady of typhoid has reared its hideous head in the M...