Sentence:  "...I mind the year after we came, my father <WSD>took down</WSD> with the ague, and things looked dark enough for a while; but, when old Billy Slater, on the Clear Fork killed a fat cow, he loaded a lot of the choicest on to a horse and brought it to us;nb..." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To collapse or become incapacitated from illness or fatigue.