Published February 7, 2021
By Arlis Dittmer
Incurable contagious diseases in our
tri-state area have been a problem for all our history. In the late 1800’s
newspapers routinely tracked and reported cases and deaths. Cures were
non-existent, and medical care was sporadic, especially for smallpox, a highly
feared and contagious disease. One outbreak involved a most unusual method of
transmission in nearby Iowa.
Two people died in Keokuk in January
of 1882. The president of their board of health replied to an inquiry from Hannibal,
reassuring his counterpart that the smallpox outbreak seemed to be contained among
the students at a medical college. There were nine cases reported, all
contracted from a contaminated corpse dissected at the school. The medical
school was closed, four students sent to the pest house, two died and the
remaining three were being treated in the city. A further two deaths were
reported within the week, setting the mortality rate at nearly fifty percent.
In March of 1882, four cases of
smallpox were reported in Quincy. Doctors at this time could simply refuse to
treat such a communicable disease. The names and localities of the afflicted
were published in the paper as a warning to others living in the area. Those named in 1882 lived near Vine and Elm
around Second and Third streets. Another outbreak appeared on North Fourth. Dr.
Nickerson requested a council meeting when it became known that none of these
people, including several children, had received any medical care after the
initial diagnosis.
Three separate doctors had each
diagnosed one of the patients and then refused to visit again. Dr. Nickerson,
who himself refused to treat a smallpox victim, proposed that Dr. Hinton, who
was new to Quincy, be asked to take over all the cases. A message was
dispatched to his home, but it was not delivered as the good doctor was away.
The problem was tabled with no further action or remedy.
Later it was proposed that the old
City Hospital located just south of Woodland Cemetery be used as a pest house,
which was the name given to a treatment location for contagious diseases. This
suggestion was abandoned after arguments that area residents would protest,
especially since the vicinity had undergone an increase in population since the
time when City Hospital was used during the Civil War. People worried that any
breeze blowing from the south would carry the plague into the city proper. The
proposal finally was abandoned as the laws said a pest house must be located
outside of the city limits. Quincy had extended its boundaries to include the
old City Hospital, making it ineligible.
Three years later in 1885, the city
was still searching for a pest house and again concerned about where to confine
contagious people when smallpox returned. The Council had determined to condemn
a property if only it could find a suitable one. The old City Hospital south of
Woodland still belonged to the city but served to house three indigent
families.
That year a case of pox was diagnosed,
but no treatment place was available. A black woman living near Fifth and Oak agreed
to care for the patient. The board of health then determined that the City
Physician could NOT be required to treat the sick man because it would endanger
his other patients. Dr. McDavitt assured the city the pox would not spread, but
he could not say how many others had been exposed or who was treating the man.
Contact tracing was a thing of the future.
The Quincy Daily Journal, June 9,
1885, criticized the city for not devoting time nor money to the problem. “The
board [of health] depends on the city physician, and the city physician falls
back on the board and both of then depend more or less upon the sanitary
officers who get about the salary of a small boy each for their services. It is
little wonder that the health interests of Quincy are not taken care of. Quincy
opens its arms to every disease that comes this way.”
By 1892 the problem was no better. A
different daily newspaper complained that the city had still no hospital or
place where people with a contagious disease could be housed and treated. The
old Civil War era brick building was still owned by the city, but not used. In
1893 Smallpox was found in Chicago, Rockford and Burlington, Ia. The Iowa case
was a vagrant who had been riding the rails until he got too sick. It was not
known where he came from.
Things in Quincy had degenerated into
bickering between city departments. The
sanitary commissioners wanted the city hospital back from the workhouse
inspectors who used it to house their guard. In a contentious city council
meeting in January of 1894 arguments were heard and a vote taken.
In reply to citizen’s protests, one
councilman said, “…I don’t know why at the last minute people down there should
kick. It must be a case of the last straw breaking the camel’s back. They have
four slaughterhouses, a pork factory, Emery’s paper mill, a city dump, 47 acres
of grave yard, a work house, the “stink” factory, and a mausoleum. All these
and not a church or Sunday School.”
After two votes the pest house was
allowed to be located, at least for a time, in the old City Hospital.
In 1895, smallpox came to a Quincy
boarding house on N. Fourth, carried by a St. Louis musician. The Pest House was
not ready, so the proprietress of the boarding house was quarantined in place
with her sick eight-year-old daughter. Provisions were delivered and three
policemen were stationed around the property to enforce the quarantine.
The Board of Health reported in
November of 1895, a monthly total of 197 cases of contagious diseases: 71
people died that month from Typhoid, diphtheria measles, bronchitis, and
scarlet fever.
Quincy has lived through viruses, and
contagious diseases before. We prevailed and we will again.
Sources
“All About
the Pest House.”
Quincy Daily Whig
, 24 December 1893.
“Big Eight,
Little Four.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 9 January 1894.
“Small Pox.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 22 March 1882.
“Small Pox
at Keokuk.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 6 January 1882.
“Small Pox
in the City.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 7 January 1895.
“Suggests
Two Needs.”
Quincy Daily Journal
, 23 February 1892.
“The Board
of Health.
Quincy Daily Herald
, 25 November 1895.
“That Case
of “Chicken Pox.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 9 June 1885.
“That Great
Discovery.”
Quincy Daily Journal
, 9 February 1889.
“The Prowler.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 9 June 1885.
“What’s In A
Name?”
Quincy Daily Herald
, 23 December 1893.
“What Would
We Do?”
Quincy Daily Journal
, 9 June 1893.
