Posted by Peter Ceresole on October 05, 2004 at 08:01:35 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Grandpa Turner posted by Ed Kiser on October 04, 2004 at 19:31:42:
Apparently the elder Turner and his wife (unidentified in the stories) died while Jim and Molly were still children, as they were raised by Maria Turner, their aunt. Don't remember any evidence as to what happened to them to cause what can be guessed as being an untimely death.
I seem to remember us discussing this here some time ago. It was before antibiotics and there are plenty of candidate diseases. For instance, although the 'flu pandemic of 1918 (which famously killed more people than the first World War) is a couple of decades too late to have been the cause, it shows what a precarious business life could be. TB was rife and incurable- and much more infectious than AIDS is now.
As for the presence of old people like the Billies and Slater Bob, the very fact that they worked in isolated places, in the woods or under the mountain, would preserve them from infection. Not only that, but genetics- good immune systems- counted for a lot. If you survived childhood and young adulthood, there was then every chance of living to a considerable age.