A Smallpox Case Checks Into the Newport Hotel
A woman arriving from the Lewiston country was found to have smallpox after visiting stores in both Newport and Old Town. She and her husband were quarantined, and a Sandpoint doctor took charge.
A case of smallpox was located in the Newport Hotel. The victim is a woman who arrived in the city on Monday night from the vicinity of Lewiston. The woman and her husband, Henry Noel, formerly a resident of Old Town, have been quarantined in their room, and Dr. Page, of Sandpoint, arrived Wednesday morning to take charge of the case. The woman was around both towns Tuesday and visited various stores.
Later it was reported that the case of smallpox at the Newport Hotel had been isolated and the quarantine against the house raised.
“The woman was around both towns Tuesday and visited various stores.”
In 1908, a single diagnosis could shut down a hotel and send a doctor across county lines. The episode shows how quickly a contagious disease became a civic emergency in a railroad and river town. Modern contact tracing and quarantine debates are not so far from the health officer’s dilemma here: how to protect the public without turning a patient into a pariah.
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