Volume 41, number 7
April 2020
Grand River Times The Newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society
Inside this issue: Cover Story: Infant Plague
Letter from our President page 2
Online History Resources page 4
Scottish American History Month page 5
First Death Here From Infant Plague (headline from article in the Grand Rapids Press, September 20, 1916)
Gina Bivins, Trustee, GRHS Lawrence Heinbeck was born on June 13, 1894 and died September 19, 1916 at the tender age of 22, from what is today known as polio. Lawrence is my maternal great-uncle. The article follows here: Lawrence as a teenager with his sister Genevieve
Photo Sleuth page 7 First Death Here From Infant Plague Lawrence Heinbeck, Twenty-two, Dies Tuesday; Six Cases Now Pending. Search: Grand Rapids Historical Society
Grand River Times
Infantile paralysis has claimed its first victim here this year. Early Tuesday Lawrence Heinbeck, twenty-two years old, 711 Chatham street, N.W., succumbed. He was ill less than a week and his case was reported Monday. Heinbeck was a clerk in the Grand Trunk railway freight offices. He first complained of being sick Saturday morning, and Dr. Stephen A. Whinery was called. On Sunday Heinbeck’s left arm was paralyze and he had a pain in the back. Monday the paralysis spread to his legs. Monday night his lungs were so weak a pulmotor was used to assist breathing. Continued on page 3 1
