Smallpox in the Jury Box: Court Shut Down by a Newport Man's Illness
A five-day lumber trial in Colville collapses when George Perkins is diagnosed with smallpox, sending jurors home and raising fears the disease will spread across Stevens County.
COLVILLE, Wash., May 27.—After five days' engagement in the trial of the Dean Lumber and Fuel Company of Spokane against Kimball Brothers, involving right of possession to a number of teams and wagons, the jury was discharged and the case continued for the term because George Perkins, who resides near Newport, was found this morning to be suffering from a well-pronounced case of smallpox.
Mr. Perkins had been suffering with an illness of chills and fever for several days, but had been, except for a half day, staying on duty in the presence of the court, its officers, a large number of attorneys and an innumerable attendance, and it is feared that the exposed will scatter the disease into all parts of the county.
The entire panel of jurors called for the May jury session was discharged this morning, the case on trial being the last jury case for consideration.
“It is feared that the exposed will scatter the disease into all parts of the county.”
Before vaccines and modern public health, a single diagnosis could halt courts, schools, and business. The episode is a reminder of how quickly ordinary civic life once depended on quarantines and how contagious disease shaped public institutions.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.