website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
America’s First Quintuplets
Mrs. Edna Kanouse of Watertown gave birth to America’s first quintuplets.
February 13, 1875
The quintuplets born here were five boys, born to Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Kanouse.
The mother, Mrs. Edna Beecham Kanouse, was 22
years old at the time. The attending
physician was Dr. T. H. Vesty, but the babies were
delivered without his presence, because the father of the quintuplets went to
bring him to the Kanouse home and the two were
delayed by an extremely heavy snowstorm.
When they arrived, the five boys had been born with several of the
neighbor women providing assistance.
The five boys appeared normally developed. One baby was stillborn, three died a few
minutes following delivery, and the remaining one survived only a few
hours. The total weight of the five was
10 pounds, two ounces.
The story was also told in a special bulletin which the Wisconsin State
Board of Health issued in 1942. The
story was based on the doctor's record and old Watertown newspaper files.
Mrs. Kanouse had another child several years
after the quintuplets were born. The
mother died a few months later of a contagious disease which she contracted
while caring for a sick friend. Her husband studied medicine after her death
and practiced in Columbus, Appleton and Wausau with his father who was a
prominent physician.
The Watertown Historical Society files at the Octagon House include a
picture of the quintuplets.
History of Watertown, Wisconsin