from the Orangeville Banner-

Thursday, March 29, 1906
A serious epidemic of fever has broken out on the Back Line, Melancthon. It appears that a lady came recently from Carman, Manitoba, where her husband had died of some kind of fever. Mrs. George Smith took the disease first and Miss Mary Smith assisted to wait on her. Miss Smith, who was 20 years of age, contracted the disease and died on March 21 and was buried on the 23rd. Ezra John Hamilton, son of Wm. Hurlburt, was the next victim. He died on Friday last and was buried Saturday in Shelburne cemetery. Deceased was 31 years of age. We understand that the local physician who has charge of the cases has pronounced the disease as typhoid pneumonia. Mrs. Geo. Smith is recovering but there are other members of the Smith, Hurlburt and Hamilton families who are ill with the same disease, and on Monday evening Mrs. Hamilton, wife of John Hamilton, also succumbed. The case is one that requires prompt action on the part of the authorities

Thursday, April 12, 1906
 Another victim of that dreadful disease prevalent on the Back Line of Melancthon died on Friday last and was buried the same day in Shelburne Cemetery. The deceased, Margaret A. Hurlburt, was the widow of Ezra John Hurlburt, who died March 24th, just two weeks previous to his wife's death. The deceased was in her 27th year. The dead couple leave a family of three children, two girls and a boy, the oldest being only four and the youngest a six-month old baby. A number of the Hurlburt Sr. and Hamilton families are still down with the same disease, which doctors have identified as typhoid pneumonia.