History Notes

History Notes is a biweekly entry in the Sun Rise that features a passage from the Johnston Historical Society. This week’s story comes from April 1998.

Among the many hardships facing our forbears in the early history of the town was the threat of disease. One of the worst was smallpox, once one of the most contagious of diseases. During severe epidemics as many as 30 out of 100 people afflicted with the disease would die; during mild epidemics as few as one in 100 would succumb. Smallpox was caused by a virus and could be transmitted by coughing, sneezing, or even talking. It could also be passed along indirectly through infected clothing, utensils and bedding.

Among the symptoms were red spots that appeared on the skin about three or four days after the disease took hold. These spots became raised and in a few days developed into blisters that filled with pus. Fevers also accompanied the disease. If the patient survived, the blisters eventually dried up, the fever dropped and the patient improved. Scales formed where the blisters fell off, but in severe cases pockmarks remained in the skin.

The seriousness of smallpox to the community was reflected in the fact that reports of its outbreak merited action by town authorities. There are several references to it in the Town Council records of 200 years ago. At a Town Council meeting on Sept. 30, 1776, we can read the following minutes – “Whereas it is represented unto this Council that Mrs. Hope Hawkings [sic] is now sick with Small Pox at her house in this Town – It is therefore voted and resolved that the said Hope Hawkins remain in the House where she now is and that any of the family as have not had the Small Pox removed Immediately into the new house of Job Smith which is taken by this council for that purpose…”

On Oct. 1, the vote to remove Mr. Hawkins’ family was rescinded, but there was another resolution passed.

“Resolved that Richard Eddy Esq., Joshua Greene, Josiah King Esq., Richard Thornton, Joseph Harris Esq., and Nehemiah Sheldon be and they are hereby appointed a Committee to set proper guards Round the House of Mrs. Hope Hawkins who is infected with the Small Pox and that the said Richard Eddy be and is herby directed to go to the said House to examine and Inspect the rest of the Family and see if they or any other of the have taken the Inflection by Inoculation or otherwise and further to inform them (if they have not taken the Infection) that they or either of them may remove Tomorrow by nine o’clock of the forenoon after which time any Persons to pass or repass to and from said House without an order of two or more of the Committee be further directed to block up the Road by Nehemiah Sheldon’s and also above Ephraim Pierce’s House and at such other Places as they or the major part of them shall think necessary.”

The house in question would seem to be the one located in the vicinity of the Killingly Street – Greenville Avenue intersection. On Oct. 6, 1776, there was one final action regarding this case – “Resolved that no Person be Inoculated in the House of Mr. Hawkins without Leave from this Council or from this Town.” Mrs. Hawkins survived her bout with smallpox, for she died some 27 years later, on July 20, 1803, at 86 years of age (as a note of interest, Hope Hawkins was the sister of Stephen Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence).

The Town Council resolution of Oct. 6, 1776, is quite interesting and directly relates to a similar account almost a year later. It seems that Mr. Benjamin Carpenter’s house was infected with smallpox. The usual precautions were taken to prevent spread of the disease, such as setting guards to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the premises. But on Aug. 8, 1777, there is the following entry in the Town Council records – “Resolved that Ebenezer Sprague Esq. be permitted to Carry into the House of Benjamin Carpenter Esq. his youngest Child to have the Small Pox in Lieu of his Eldest Daughter who was permitted to go in by this Council.” It was common knowledge that a person could catch smallpox only once during their life. A widespread practice at the time was for individuals to attempt to inoculate themselves or their family by taking pus from a pox-infected person’s blister and inserting it into an open wound or cut in an uninfected person. Presumably, this was done during a mild outbreak of the disease. If the recipient was successfully infected and overcame the smallpox, he or she would now be immune. However, this method, introduced in England in 1718, could still be highly dangerous.

We can see from the records that this method of inoculation was being practiced in Johnston and may have been quite common. On account of the danger of a widespread outbreak, these inoculations, however, were well-regulated by the Town Council.

Soon, however, there was to be a better answer. It was noted that milkmaids rarely, if ever, contracted the smallpox if they had been previously infected with cowpox, which was a minor disease that rarely caused death or disfigurement. In 1796, Edward Jenner, a British physician, took matter from the hands of a milkmaid infected with cowpox. He then inserted the matter into two cuts made on the arm of a healthy 8-year-old boy. The boy caught cowpox. Six weeks later, Jenner inserted the smallpox matter into the arm of the same boy, but the boy remained unaffected by the deadly disease. The experiment proved successful. This was the first vaccination ever given. After 1800, vaccinations became accepted as a means to prevent smallpox.

The new method, however, took time to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, for a smallpox outbreak in 1800 in Johnston also saw the risky old method of inoculation being practiced. At a Town Council meeting on June 29, 1800, a committee of three citizens was appointed “…to visit Rush Spears, wife to Capt. William Spears who is suspected of being sick at Jeremiah Manton’s with the Small Pox…” The committee, along with a Doctor Wheaton, visited Mrs. Spears and determined she was in fact infected, and that the families of Jeremiah Manton and part of the family of Valentine Sweet were greatly exposed to the disease. The council, determining that it was impractical to move Manton’s family out of their house, voted “…the said Ruth Spears be removed to the aforesaid Jeremiah Manton’s Cyder House or Barn Immediately and that the said Jeremiah Manton and Valentine Sweet have liberty to Inoculate their families and also that the aforesaid Building be made use of for the aforesaid purpose and no others – It is further voted and resolved that the Highway be fenced up at the Westernmost corner of Col. Daniel Manton’s Pasture and also at the East corner of the same, the Passing be through said Pasture in the Convenientest and most safe Way.” Another committee was formed “…to establish the lines and to report such regulations as they shall think necessary for the Hospital and also to prevent the Spreading of the said Infection.”

The Town Council reconvened the next day, June 30, 1800. “Whereas Abraham Belknap jun., Major Valentine Sweet and Col. Edward Manton who were appointed a Committee to report such Regulation respecting the Small Pox at the new Hospital as to them Shall Seem Necessary – Report that they have visited the same and Agreeable to the Resolve of this Council have fenced out the ground and removed the said Ruth Spears into the said Hospital and it is their Opinion that there ought to be some measures taken to Stop the repassing and repeating of persons to and from the aforesaid place with liberty.”

What is rather strange here is the concept or meaning of the word, “hospital.” A hospital at that time seems to have been merely a place to quarantine infected people and to inoculate others who had yet to contract the disease. Presumably those who had previously survived a bout with smallpox and were thus now immune, would have cared for the sick patient in the “hospital.”

The fear of smallpox no longer troubles us, for through the advances of modern medicine the disease has been totally eradicated worldwide.