The Smallpox Panic Reaches Seattle
Health officials in Seattle rigorously screen travelers from British Columbia to prevent a cross-border outbreak.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SEATTLE, July 18.—Although no smallpox has appeared in Seattle, the health board continues a strict quarantine against British Columbia. Health officers regularly board incoming trains from the north, and any passenger unable to show a vaccination scar less than five years old is forcibly revaccinated. The steamer North Pacific arrived from Victoria yesterday morning, and fourteen passengers from Port Townsend and Port Angeles were vaccinated before being permitted to disembark.
“all persons who could not show a vaccination scar under five years old were revaccinated.”
This 1892 public health effort echoes the quarantine and screening protocols seen during modern pandemics, highlighting the historic tension between municipal border control and commerce in the Puget Sound region.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.