SMALLPOX EPIDEMICS

 SMALLPOX EPIDEMICS 

          In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there were several national alarms about smallpox and from time-to-time epidemic levels of the disease were reported throughout the entire nation. Kentucky suffered an epidemic level of smallpox in 1900 with hundreds of people stricken. The mortality rate was 20% and health authorities demanded that every person in the state be vaccinated.  On Feb 3, 1900, newspapers reported that smallpox was at an epidemic level in thirty-five counties in Kentucky.  By December 21, 1900, the news was that smallpox was at epidemic level in only sixteen counties in the State.  Smallpox continued to be an annual problem in Kentucky for roughly ten years.  

          By 1903, anyone in the Commonwealth of Kentucky who had been exposed to smallpox and was liable to take the disease and refused to seclude himself was subject to be taken to any justice of the peace of the county and confined in some secluded place (at the time these places of confinement were called "pest houses"), at his own expense, until such time that the disease has passed through or until the person was released by the Board of Health. Every person in Kentucky counties, including children over the age of three months, who has not been inoculated with the smallpox vaccine was required to be vaccinated immediately. If families were unable to pay the fee for the smallpox vaccination then families were encouraged to inform their physician who would inform that county who would pay the fee(s) for the vaccination. Any person who had smallpox and went upon the streets, highways, or elsewhere, so as to expose others to the disease, was subject to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars. Anyone who refused to obey any of the rules and regulations of the Board of Health was to be fined not less than ten dollars and not more than one hundred dollars.

    In February 1913 the following was published:

Source: Taliaferro Clark. (1913). Smallpox in Kentucky: A Report of an Investigation of the Prevalence of the Disease at Points on the Green River. Public Health Reports (1896-1970), 28(8), 340-345. doi:10.2307/4569272

Clips from the Hartford Herald from 1900: 

March 21 – Miss Hatler, daughter of Mr. Martin Hatler, living near Rosine, has been stricken with smallpox. We understand there are only four cases of this disease in Beaver Dam at present. 

March 21 – Central City is having a smallpox scare. There are now 17 cases in town. 

March 22 – Mr. Sam Lake has the small-pox. 

April 11 - Mrs. Shelby Taylor and little son High Edwin have recovered from smallpox and there are no signs of the disease in Hartford, except Mr. Taylor himself.  However, there is a case in Hayti, the colored settlement one mile north-east of Hartford. Quarantine measures will at once be taken by the town trustees and the disease stamped out.