The Mother Superior and the Smallpox Scandal
A Snohomish convent leader faces charges of concealing smallpox cases as she arrives in Seattle to tell her side of the story.
Elizabeth McCane, the mother superior of the Catholic convent at Snohomish, who is now under arrest in this city on a charge of concealing smallpox cases, was interviewed by a Post-Intelligencer reporter and denied the charges. She acknowledged concealing the cases, stating she did not know the law required her to report them to the health officer, and that she had nursed patients during her time at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburg. She flatly denied assisting patients to escape or digging a grave for secret burials, claiming the ground work was for other purposes. She insisted she was not a fugitive, having informed the county commissioners of her business travel before leaving Snohomish.
“I did not have a grave dug or a coffin placed beside it. I had an opening made in the front of the lot, but it was for another purpose.”
This incident highlights the intense public fear and rigid municipal control of contagious diseases in 1890s Washington. Even today, the tension between public health mandates and private or religious autonomy remains a volatile subject in civic life.
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