The Town Council Declares War on Contagion
A newly passed health ordinance mandates house quarantines, mandatory vaccination, and strict reporting protocols for residents of Kennewick.
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.
An ordinance to protect the public health, to prevent the spread of contagious disease and prescribing rules and regulations for the Board of Health of the town of Kennewick and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof. A Board of Health is hereby established, consisting of two members of the city council and the city marshal. The health officer must be a reputable physician. Every physician or householder is required to give immediate notice to the health officer of any case of diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever, or other contagious disease. The health officer is authorized to remove infected persons to a pest house, or, if that is impractical, to mark the premises with color-coded flags: green for diphtheria, scarlet for scarlet fever, and yellow for smallpox. The health officer is further empowered to order mandatory vaccination, and any person refusing for three days to comply shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
“Whenever it is unsafe and impracticable to remove such person to the pest house, it shall be his duty forthwith... to give notice of the existence of said disease in such place by placing a green flag and a green card in case of diphtheria.”
This 1905 ordinance offers a fascinating look at the early civic machinery of Kennewick as it grew. It mirrors the modern tension between individual liberty and public safety, showing that the debates we saw during recent global health crises regarding mandated reporting and movement restrictions have deep, century-old roots in our local administrative history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.