Back before isoniazid, it really was a "wait it out" proposition. I'm glad your daddy beat it before it beat him.
Exhaustion is one of the first symptoms - can't lift your head off the pillow type exhaustion.
gut it out is as good a description as any- he was so poor, he had to keep working as a lineman for Stone & Webster. The only "treatment" back then was moving to a warm, dry climate, like Arizona!