"Our great grandfather, John Oliver, was marshal and mayor at one time of Duck Hill, MS. and he and his wife are buried in the old cemetery there. At some point, his son, our grandfather, William Randolph Oliver moved to the site of the present farm ( about a section of land, 680 acres) and started farming cotton and corn, with limited beef cattle on the side. It was a completely independent operation and he was very progressive for his time. He married his first wife and had a girl, Gladys; his first wife died and he eventually married Momma Oliver (Addie Evans Oliver) and they had 7 children, Wade, Guy, Louise, Catherine, Frances, Randolph, Jr, and T.C.," says my cousin, Nick

And Nick continued, "Grandfather died 2 years before I was born. I have been told that he was moderate to heavy drinker who kept a large keg of whiskey in the blacksmith shop. He was known to be kind and generous and saved many of his neighbors' homes and farms in the Depression. He had his own blacksmith shop, gristmill (for cornmeal and flour), sawmill, molasses mill, a large orchard and garden and even graded his own roads with a mule grader.

He was an officer in the Bank Of Winona and went to church on a regular basis. I seem to recall that he was an extreme diabetic and went to Birmingham, Ala. for treatment, accompanied by your mother, Louise. "  "As I understand it, he was very stubborn and refused to stay on a diet."

"But he was allegedly very innovative and had electricity in his home before it was available elsewhere. He had a Delco battery powered plant and I can still remember seeing keys dragging through a trough of acid underneath the house when I was a little boy. The light bulbs were HUGE and when turned off, the filament would remain lit for at least 30 seconds."

I strongly suspect exposures to glycol ethers for the death of my grandfather in 1936. Mom's dad died at age 56 / Oct 24, 1936

He died 9 years before I was born.  He was a well-liked, progressive cotton farmer.

  My grandfather was a well-liked cotton farmer in Northern Mississippi. 

Comment from the newspaper, March 21, 1913:  "Randolph Oliver was one of Montgomery's progressive farmers.  He was in town one day.  A distinguishing feature about him is that he always wears a pleasant smile and has a progressive look about him not seen on every fellow's face these days."

I was told that after his death, people came from all around returning loans he had made to them.  Wife was unaware of many such instances.
 

The death certificate talks about liver and heart damage and unexplained fatigue

Death Certificate says:

 
Congestive Heart Failure
 
Cirrhosis of Liver (Even if he drank, some people 'self medicate' by drinking ... as they are in a lot of pain) *
 
Myocarditis sub acute
 
Myocarditis sub acute?  "A method for diagnosing subacute myocarditis is performed by electrocardiographically monitoring an ambulatory patient who has unexplainable fatigue and determining the frequency when the T-wave of the ambulatory patient is not positive. This monitoring is preferably performed by a portable monitor and the data is magnetically stored so as to permit subsequent analysis. A treatment is prescribed, preferably restricting activity and refraining from the intake of alcohol as well as antiviral chemotherapy and immunomodulators, when there is an excessively high frequency of the T-wave not being positive. Recovery is determined by further electrocardiographic monitoring of the ambulatory patient and noting when the normally positive T-waves are present all, or at least almost all, of the time."
  All I remember is that my mother said he had high blood sugar and refused to change his eating habits - so cause of his death.

For many, many years I believed that;
but now I think otherwise.  *

Now, I realize that the flu symptoms can lead to high blood sugar (as a side effect / autoimmune hypothalamus?)
NOT the cause of flu symptoms ... nothing more than a symptom of the root cause.

They say that EGBE (ethylene glycol butyl ether) was in widespread use since the 1930s
I suspect exposure to glycol ether in some new products:  fertilizers / cleaning products or whatever ... most probably some type of new pest control product ...  was the cause of my grandfather's premature death.

Cotton Farming uses chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, chemical herbicides, a toxic chemical defoliant at harvest time.  That's it! 12-31-09  Cotton farming is very health hazardous and would surely have exposure to glycol ether in this 'chemical' business. EGBE is technically a pesticide, also a poison, a solvent, a teratogen, a neurotoxin.

The boll weevil contributed to the economic woes of Southern farmers during the 1920s, a situation exacerbated by the Great Depression in the 1930s

The insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas to enter the United States from Mexico in 1892 and reached southeastern Alabama in 1915. By the mid 1920s it had entered all cotton growing regions in the U.S., travelling 40 to 160 miles per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Mississippi State University has estimated that since the boll weevil entered the United States it has cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year.
The cotton boll weevil: a) adult beetle; b) pupa; c) larva

I think when there is rapid heart beat & then collapse, it is often mistaken for a heart attack, when instead it may be collapse from not having enough of the right kind of red blood cells and resultant anemia

What would be of interest to cardiologists regarding a patient's exposure to glycol ether?  *

Cousin Nick also said that our grandfather strongly disliked his false teeth.  I suspect an autoimmune issues such as glycol ether would cause ... for autoimmune connective issues for teeth:  Periodontal Disease may be something other than modern science suspects.  http://www.valdezlink.com/re/teethautoimmune.htm

Often Degenerative Disk Disease starts up, too - Autoimmune !  *

Many things are autoimmune, even diabetes  *

More about these organic solvents, pesticides, neurotoxins, poisons, teratogens  *

 

What would be of interest to cardiologists regarding a patient's exposure to glycol ether?  *