You should really read Mornings on horseback. It's a biography of Teddy Roosevelt by David McCullough and large sections of the book takes up that subject since Teddy had quite a big problem with asthma in his youth. Granted Teddy was born in 1850 but it really shows you how horrible untreated asthma really is and that was probably the fate for many children from a poor family before the medicine eventually became more accessible. From what I remember in his book the doctors at the time didn't really have a good idea on how asthma worked (remember the Roosevelts were very wealthy so they had access to the best doctors) and usually when Teddy got a particularly bad episode his father would take him with him and travel somewhere to see if a change in enviroment helped. It also mentions letting him inhale cigar smoke but there really wasnt any real medications for it at the time.

The first medications came in the late 1800s and consisted of rubbing clorophorm on the chest. Epinephrine started being administred in the early 1900 and we have been using oral inhalors for about 60 years. Source: I'm currently in medschool.

My aunt who was born around 1920, had sever asthma and was not predicted to live to adulthood. One of her many failed treatments during her teenage years, was a daily dose of burning incense and breathing the smoke! My Grandfather ended the harmful treatment when she accidently set the bedroom curtains on fire and almost burned down the house. She lived to age 75.