Browse Items (0 total)
- Description is exactly "A series of Florence Herald and Florence Times articles from February of 1900 and May of 1901 chronicling smallpox epidemics. The articles featured here report on the impact of smallpox in Florence's African-American community.
On Tuesday, February 20, 1900, Hattie (ca. 1862-1924), husband of Pat Harraway (ca. 1848-1949). with their four children (they would have a total of eight children, four of whom had died by 1910) residents of Tuscaloosa Street, in Florence was diagnosed with smallpox by Dr. Percy I. Price. On Wednesday morning, February 21, three more cases were diagnosed in the family of Hilton P., Sr. (ca. 1852-aft. 1920) and Annie (ca. 1854-aft. 1920) Dunn, of "Walker's quarters" on Limestone St. By 1900 Annie had had seven sons, and all were still living.
Tuesday night, February 20, the Florence City Council opted to build a pesthouse or quarantine camp, near the north end of Wildwood Park, at the location of the original, January, 1866 pesthouse. Everyone with smallpox was sent to this quarantine camp and guards were placed by the city in charge of infected houses. While their relatives were quarantined in the pesthouse and they were quarantined at home, the city took care of the needs of families affected by smallpox.
By March 1, all four patients of the Harraway and Dunn families had recovered or were convalescing at the pesthouse, however one more case, that of an unnamed African-American man in East Florence, was diagnosed on March 22. The Harraways eventually moved to Oklahoma.
In May of 1901, African-American Robert Boyd (1878-1901), one of nine children (four of whom had died by 1900) of Jackson (1848-1900?) and Mary (1851-1901) Boyd of Stewart Springs, in West Florence, came home to Florence from Memphis, without realizing he was infected with smallpox. Robert unwittingly gave the disease to his mother Mary; both died at the pesthouse. By May 17, four members of the Boyd family had died, two were convalescing in the pesthouse, and one was never infected.
The Boyds were parishioners at St. Paul AME Church and their pastor, Rev. NL Edmondson (1856-1901) contracted smallpox after he visited the Boyds at their home to minister to them. Both he and his wife Alice (1873-1901) were infected and sent to the pesthouse where their congregation built a portable frame house for them on the grounds, but unfortunately both Rev. and Mrs. Edmondson died from smallpox.
On May 10, 1901 the Florence Herald reported 25 cases of smallpox up to that time, with three suspected smallpox patients currently in the pesthouse. On May 17, the Florence Times reported a total of 33 cases of smallpox and 15 deaths. On May 24 that paper reported two new cases--African-Americans Granville Parker of Handy Hill and Mrs. Berta A. Dismukes (1875-aft. 1900) the wife of Florence grocer William H Dismukes (1875-aft. 1900). It isn't known at this time whether they recovered or not.
"