Diphtheria Shuts Newport’s Schools and Churches
City health officer orders classrooms, congregations and public gatherings closed as ten homes are quarantined; a teacher is among the sick.
Owing to the prevalence of diphtheria and the laxity in observance of quarantine regulations in the past few weeks, Dr. Phillips, city health officer, on Wednesday morning ordered the public schools of the city closed and all churches and other public gatherings discontinued until the spread of the disease is checked.
There are ten homes in this city quarantined with about the same number of cases. None of the cases have assumed a serious aspect, but in order to check the disease it was thought best to take radical steps to exterminate it. Several of the cases are children from the sixth and seventh grades of the school and the teacher in charge of those grades, Miss Bergland, is also afflicted. During the time the school is closed the rooms will be thoroughly fumigated.
No new cases are reported today, and with the precautions now being taken it is likely that there will be no further spread of the contagion. Quarantine will be strictly enforced in all cases.
“Dr. Phillips, city health officer, on Wednesday morning ordered the public schools of the city closed and all churches and other public gatherings discontinued until the spread of the disease is checked.”
When Newport’s health officer closed schools and churches in 1909, he reached for the same blunt tools—quarantine, isolation and disinfection—that communities would use in later epidemics. The episode shows how quickly a local outbreak can turn school calendars and public worship into a civic emergency.
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