Ironically, that same year, a German researcher named Emil von Behring developed a vaccine against diptheria. By 1914, the Connaught Antitoxin Laboratory in Toronto began production of the vaccine, and it became available in Prince Edward Island by 1915. The disease is now virtually eliminated.

Somehow, the Keefe family carried on. They were sustained by their sense of family and community and their faith. Religion had always been an integral part of their lives. Regular attendance at mass was accompanied by a daily ritual of saying the rosary. The Keefes also had the support of family, friends and neighbours. Still, they were faced with the unremitting task of running a farm and raising a family.

Life was difficult in Prince Edward Island in the first decades of the 20th century. Since the early 1900s, farmers were losing ground economically as agriculture went into a long and slow decline. Except for a brief interlude during World War I, rising prices and lower returns squeezed many farmers out of business. At the turn of the century, there were approximately 14,000 farms in the province. Over 85 percent of the population was rural. By 1921, there were 3000 fewer farms. Most of them were semi—subsistence; what was produced on the farm was used on the farm, and any surpluses were marketed for cash.

Accompanying the decline in farming was the decline in population. There were 109,000 people in Prince Edward Island in 1891. By 1901, that number had dropped to 103,000. The first decades of the new century would see that drop continue — and accelerate as Islanders left in droves for most corners of North America. The most popular destinations were the Prairie provinces and New England (the “Boston states.”) By the middle of the 1920s, the Island’s population would bottom out at 86,000 people. The landscape was littered with vacant farms and fields that were returning to Spruce bush.

Against this background of economic and social changes, the Keefes worked hard to provide a good living for themselves and their family. There were many lean years; even in better times, there was never enough money. John and Angelina had a good marriage and were deeply attached

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