The Smallpox Siege: Seattle’s Health Officer Declares War on a Deadly Visitor
As a British immigrant arrives with the plague and a neighbor falls ill, Dr. Eames orders quarantine guards to seal off infected homes in an attempt to stamp out the 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.
DEATH AT THE LAST HOUR.—Mr. John Bali of Skagit county, 50 years of age, died at an early hour yesterday morning of smallpox at the pest house. Mr. Bali was brought over on the steamer last Saturday evening. By order of Health Officer Dr. Eames the crew was vaccinated and the steamer thoroughly fumigated.
Another case of smallpox is reported on Ninth street between Yesler avenue and Washington. The victim is Mrs. Foreman, a lady who arrived here a few days time from England with her husband and children.
Health Officer Eames, it is said, will endeavor to have all houses in which are located smallpox patients guarded. This will be done to prevent all from going into or coming out of the infected houses. In this way Dr. Eames hopes to stamp out the disease.
This 1896 report captures the terrifying reality of infectious disease control before modern antibiotics and vaccines were widely available. The use of 'pest houses' and armed guards to enforce quarantine mirrors the extreme measures seen in Seattle during the 1918 Influenza pandemic and, more recently, during COVID-19, highlighting how civic authority over private property has long been a tool for public health survival.
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