When National News Hits Home

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

In the spring of 1970, students from colleges and universities across the nation were protesting the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. On Monday, May 4, just after noon, reports of a deadly shooting suddenly hit the national news. In 13 seconds, the Ohio National Guard had fired 67 rounds of ammunition into a crowd of protesters at Kent State University. When it was over, four students were dead, nine others were seriously wounded, and hundreds of people had witnessed the event. In response, the university immediately shut down its campus, and for the next six weeks students had to meet off campus with faculty members to complete their semester.

Historians look at events like Kent State, through primary sources to build understanding and help provide context. In the case of Kent State, in addition to eyewitness accounts, numerous documentary films, dramatizations, writings, songs, music, and prize-winning photographs memorialize what happened fifty-five years ago.

Today it is accepted that what took place that Monday in north-eastern Ohio contributed to changing the trajectory of public opinion about American military involvement in the Vietnam War.

At the time, at least four students from Chemung County were attending the university: Mike Tacka, Jay Williams, William Leggiero, and Steve Saracene. These young men, all in their late teens and early twenties, were the same age as many of those being drafted and sent off to fight. They were also about the same age as many of the National Guardsmen who fired upon the protesters.

The Star-Gazette, May 6, 1970

College life in the 1970s looked very different than it does today. Students gathered information from radio broadcasts instead of social media. There were no cell phones with cameras or instantaneous access to the world stage. Newspapers were common, but campus newspapers were often not published on a regular basis.

Earlier that spring, there had been a call for college students to protest the country’s involvement in the war by organizing strikes to get attention. Many national papers covered this brewing unrest, including those printed on May 4. However, by that evening things had changed. Kent State had closed, and the Chemung County students had already returned home. Two days later they were interviewed by the Star-Gazette.

The young men shared their eyewitness and personal accounts. Imagine how brave they had to be to do this, since no one knew what kind of impact this incident would have, or if there would be backlash for or against anyone.

Mike Tacka declared, “it was just like a war zone.” Bill Leggiero said, “There was just a big pool of blood in the middle of the road.” And about the guardsmen, Jay Williams said that “some of them fired into the air. Others fired directly into the crowd.”

A fourth student, Steve Saracene, didn’t witness the shootings, but heard the gunfire. He noted that “the shootings alienated many students who previously had been middle-of-the-road and had taken no part in demonstrations.”

For anyone who experiences or witnesses events like Kent State, memories will persist. Making sense of what happened takes time. While in the middle of events, it is nearly impossible to see how things connect or contribute to the arc of history. For those brave enough to document their experiences to share with others, we are thankful.

A Case of Measles

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

Earlier in the year, I had a researcher who came every Friday for a month to look at our collection of reports of the Elmira Board of Health. I asked her what she was looking for. She explained that she was an ER nurse and was looking at historical records to see what the hospital might be in for if people stopped vaccinating their kids. “It’s going to be bad,” she said, looking over her notes. “It’s going to be really bad.”

At present, the State of New York requires that all students be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, and chickenpox in order to attend public schools (unless they have a medical exception). Additionally, students in grades 7 through 12 are required to have the meningococcal disease vaccine while kids in day care or pre-k must have haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Any one of these diseases can cause lasting debilitation or even death. Since the measles are in the news again after a series of deadly outbreaks, I’m going to focus on that one.

Measles is a highly-contagious disease which is spread through coughing, sneezing, etc. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, white spots in the mouth called Koplik spots, and a red rash which spreads from face to feet. The symptoms appear within 10 to 12 days after exposure and usually last about a week. Common complications include diarrhea, ear infection, and pneumonia, but some unlucky sufferers can get inflammation of the brain resulting in seizures, blindness, and lasting brain damage. The virus causes patients’ immune systems to reset, making them susceptible to other illnesses, even ones they’ve already had, for several years after. Approximately 2.5 of every 1,000 modern cases results in death.

Looking at the historical record, measles was consistently the most common communicable illness in Chemung County. The exact numbers fluctuated from year to year. In 1925, there were just 49 reported cases in the City of Elmira. In 1949, there were 2,395 cases resulting in 2 deaths. In the days before antibiotics, patients were more likely to die of complications, especially pneumonia. In October 1869, an outbreak of measles at the Southern Tier Orphan’s Home resulted in 14 cases. Two children died. In an interview with the newspaper, the home’s matron said, “It is a comfort to think that these little ones, whose early life had been so darkly shadowed, are now safely gathered in a permanent Home, where sickness never enters, where want and orphanage are unknown, and where they may enjoy all the privileges of heirship in that beautiful land on equal footing with the children of wealth and nobility.” 

 

Elmira Board of Health, Annual Report, 1949

When cases were reported to the local Board of Health, officials would placard and quarantine the homes of patients in hopes of stopping the spread. In June 1897, there was a bit of a mystery surrounding the removal of a health placard placed at the multi-family home at 604 East Water Street. Mrs. Martha Tuttle, originally of North Chemung, was renting rooms there so her 15-year-old son might attend Elmira Free Academy. When he contracted measles, the home was placarded and quarantined. Mrs. Tuttle took her son home to North Chemung to recover and someone at the house removed the sign so the other residents could go back to school and work. The removal of a health placard without the approval of the health department was technically a crime, but no one was ever charged. While it was rare for people to just remove signs, it was apparently not uncommon for people to not report cases so as to avoid being placarded in the first place.

Elmira Gazette, June 30, 1897

The measles vaccine was first approved for use in the United States in 1963. There were subsequent improvements to the vaccine in 1968. A few years later in 1971, it was combined with vaccines for mumps and rubella to form the MMR vaccine. Children must receive two doses to be fully immunized. Thanks to the vaccine, measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but, since then, it has made a resurgence thanks to vaccine hesitancy among certain groups. According to the CDC, as of May 22, there were 1,046 confirmed cases of measles in 2025 across 31 states. 96% of those patients were unvaccinated, 12% required hospitalization, and three have died.

Knowledge of the past is essential for understanding the present. It’s also important for predicting possible future outcomes of our decisions. Most American’s Gen X and younger have never had measles, let alone known someone who died from it. And yet, a quick look at the historical record proves my researcher is right. Stopping vaccination will result in more infections and more death. The good news is, by arming ourselves with that knowledge, we still have time to make better choices.