A Life Cut Short

    He was 29 years old. He left a wife, three children under the age of 6 and a child that would be born eight months after his death. My great grandfather, William Parsons Owens died of typhoid fever in 1894. If he had contracted this disease a few years later, his life might have been saved.   
    It wasn't until 1897 that an effective vaccine was developed. (1)
    My grandfather, William W. Owens (oldest son of William Parsons Owens) stated in his history, "We secured our drinking water from a ditch that ran down the street in front of the house." There were many who died each year in Willard from typhoid fever. Owens Family History, by William W. Owens 
    Medical practice in the late 19th century in Utah was mainly from practitioners who, for $20.00, could buy a book and a “license” from Samuel Thomson. An American herbalist and founder of “Thomsonian Medicine”. (2) 

    This obituary appeared in The Deseret Weekly, Vol. 49, p. 544

WM. PARSONS OWENS
   At Willard City, Box Elder county, Utah, Sept. 25, 1894, of typhoid fever, Willaim Parsons Owens. Deceased was the son of Owen Owens and Jane Parsons born at Willard, Nov. 16, 1864, hence he was nearly thirty years of age. He has resided at Willard nearly all his life, a few years recently having been spent at Deweyville, where he labored as section forman on the U. P. railway. Unassuming, strictly honorable, a loving son, husband and father, and a true Latter-day Saint, he was greatly respected and his apparently untimely departure is deeply mourned by many friends. In his sickness he and his wife and parents clung tenaciously to life and earnestly sought the blessings of the Lord through faith and the prayers of those holding the holy Priesthood, but He who doeth all things well ruled otherwise, and a bereaved wife and three small children are left to mourn the absence of their natural protector.

   William's wife, Agnes Mary White Owens, was 28 at the time of her husband's death. She remained a widow for 43 years, until her death in 1938.

(1) http://www.news-medical.net/health/Typhoid-Fever-History.aspx
(2) http://www.onlineutah.com/medicinehistory.shtml