1900-1904 — May-Feb, Bubonic Plague, San Francisco, CA –~112-113

— 113 (1901-04) Markel. When Germs Travel. 2004, p. 74.
–~112 (1901-04) Bollet. Plagues & Poxes. 2004m p. 26.
— 105 (1900-03) Foster. “In Retrospect,” Weekly Report, CA Board of Health, 11-25-1922.
— >90 (1901) Shah. Contagious Divides. Epidemics and Race in [S.F.]… 2001, p. 146.

Narrative Information

Foster: “I have been asked to give an account, for record purposes, of the formation of the California Public Health Association. Such an account to be of any historical value, must deal authentically with the conditions, events an incidents that led up to and made desirable and necessary the formation of such an association. If I were limited to one word in stating the necessity, I should, without hesitation, say ‘Plague,’ for in many ways the breaking out of that disease focused attention on our lax health organization and made imperative a radical improvement, or have California cut off by quarantine from communication with other states.

“Plague was first recognized in San Francisco in March, 1900, and of course caused a great deal of comment. Many strongly believed that it did not and could not exist. The State Board of Health, however, admitted its existence. Many leading newspapers and public men thought otherwise and believed that even if it did exist any publicity would hurt the state. They strenuously denied its existence and the State Board of Health was induced to, or did, reverse itself and also declared the disease was not plague. This aroused the ire of the eastern health officers, and exaggerated stories were published there of its ravages — people were dropping dead on the streets, it was said. They were so wrought up that the health authorities of twenty-one states requested Surgeon-General Walter Wyman to call a conference of the State Boards of Health with the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, for the purpose of dealing with the situation. The conference was called and met in January, 1903. California was represented by Dr. Mathew Gardner, a member of our State Board of Health. He was given a very unhappy half-hour by the thoroughly angered and possibly frightened health officers — and a quarantine resolution against California was introduces. Through the influence of General Wyman, it was left an unfinished business for a conference to be called later.

“Meanwhile, ‘things were doing’ in California. During the years 1900-1-2-3 there had been 110 cases of plague, authenticated with 105 deaths, and some people were beginning to be alarmed.

“At the general election, Dr. Geo. C. Pardee was elected Governor, and at once interested himself in the situation. The California State Board of Health was organized by the Governor nominating the members, and the Senate ratifying the nominations. Governor Gage had nominated the Board that denied the existence of plague, but the Senate had neglected to ratify — so they were acting only at the pleasure of the Governor. Governor Pardee, feeling deeply the gravity of the situation — with a quarantine hanging over us — withdrew the nominations and appointed a new Board, with the exception of Dr. Mathew Gardner. He, however, died in two weeks, and we were deprived of his splendid ability. This was in February or March, 1903. On April 1st, the new Board met with the old, and after the old had closed up their business, the new one organized and I had the honor to be elected secretary and executive officer.

“After adjournment, I called on my predecessor, who had his desk in the office of the State Lunacy Commission, and asked for the property of the Board. With a quizzical look, he said: ‘Property of the Board? It has no property. That desk is mine and every scrap of paper in it.’ He did, however, give me a bunch of letterheads, and pointing to the bay window, said” ‘Those old reports of other State Boards are at your disposal.’ He sat between his desk and the steel safe…and said: ‘Sit down, and I’ll give you some advice.’ I was receptive, thinking to get some pointers on the work. Instead: ‘You have a good practice — stay with it, have someone open your mail and attend to it — come once a month and draw your pay and show yourself, and let me show you how to make out your expense account for the trip.’ He proceeded to put down items, some of which I had, some not — ‘Dinner, $5.00,’ and everything in proportion. I said, ‘but, Doctor, it didn’t cost that much.’ ‘Oh! That doesn’t matter, you have $1500 a year to spend on the expenses of the Board, and you have to get rid of it. You might as well have it as anybody.’ Not a bright outlook, and I went to my room in none too happy a mood. No desk, no chair, and no place to put them if I had them.

“Next morning I interviewed Mr. Mellich, Secretary of the State Board of Examiners. He had large offices, but personally, he was using, during the interim of the legislative session, the Lieutenant Governor’s room. He kindly let me have desk room there, also. The janitor rustled me a desk and chair, and I turned to that pile of old State reports. With them I found many unopened letters, and this gave me a start to work. Some were months old, and some had in them stamps to insure a reply. I didn’t blame one doctor, who was acting as best he could as Health Officer in his village, for using some pretty powerful language. He said ‘this is the third time I have written, and have no reply, and by G__ it is the last.’ I replied that a new deal was ordered, and then in future, he would get some sort of reply by return mail.

“Do you blame me for feeling ‘lonely and blue’? I had given up my practice and broken up my home, believing I was to fill, or try to fill, an office of honor — and I found nothing but disgrace abroad, and contempt at home, and right there the seed of this Association was planted.

“The need of work, and organized work, was forced on me in those hours of discouragement. I saw the futility of my working without the aid and co-operation of others throughout the state. An account of the June 3d Plague Conference in Washington, where we fought it out — and instead of a quarantine, got a resolution of confidence — has no place here….

“In July, I began writing to different health officers and doctors to ask their views of an association. The response was favorable, and we called the first meeting for September 8, 1903, at San Francisco…. [Goes on to note that the name California Public Health Association was landed on at the third or fourth meeting.]

PBS: “Bubonic plague, or “the black death,” had raged throughout Europe and Asia over the past centuries. In the twentieth century, it came to America.

“In the summer of 1899, a ship sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco had had two cases of plague on board. Because of this, although no passengers were ill when the ship reached San Francisco, it was to be quarantined on Angel Island. When the boat was searched, 11 stowaways were found — the next day two were missing. Their bodies were later found in the Bay, and autopsy showed they contained plague bacilli. Despite this scare, there was no immediate outbreak of disease. But rats from the ship probably had something to do with the epidemic that hit San Francisco nine months later.

“On March 6, 1900, a city health officer autopsied a deceased Chinese man and found organisms in the body that looked like plague….” (PBS, People and Discoveries…1998.)

“…in San Francisco…political issues vied with scientific efforts. Anti-Chinese feeling ran strong in the city then, and the first step taken was to quarantine Chinatown. The Chinese objected, and so did the business community. Not because they wanted to protect the rights of the Chinese, but it was bad for business to have people thinking there was plague in their city or state. The quarantine was lifted but health officials ran house-to-house inspections of Chinatown. People resisted, hiding their dead and locking their doors.” (PBS, People and Discoveries…1998.)

Markel: One of those who took the quickly took the threat seriously was Dr. Walter Wyman, “the surgeon general of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service (the forerunner of today’s U.S. Public Health Service), [who] dispatched assistant surgeon Joseph Kinyoun to help the San Francisco Health Department in their efforts to scientifically decipher Chick Gin’s cause of death.” (Markel 2004, 61)

PBS: “…two more plague victims turned up. The city Board of Health officially announced that plague was present in the city. The governor refused to believe it or to do anything to help in the antiplague effort. The Surgeon General got permission from President McKinley to pass antiplague regulations. Others still denied the existence of plague, although more and more states in the country were stopping trade with California. Commissions and boards formed, fought with the governor, and were disbanded, underfunded, and reformed. Meanwhile, more plague cases were found.” (PBS, People and Discoveries. “Bubonic plague hits San Francisco…” 1998.)

Markel: “…between May 11 and 13…four new deaths occurred in Chinatown, all of them thought to be due to bubonic plague. Across the continent, Surgeon General Wyman was monitoring these events from his office in Washington. Kept informed both by press reports and by daily telegraphic communication from his assistants, Drs. Joseph Kinyoun and James Gassaway, Wyman decided that he could no longer trust the local authorities to successfully manage the epidemic. It was time, he declared, for the U.S. Marine Hospital Service to seize control of the situation. As of May 15, the Chinatown ‘plague problem’ became a federal case.” (Markel 2004, 67)

PBS: “In April 1901, a clean-up campaign of Chinatown was undertaken, scouring almost 1,200 houses and 14,000 rooms. In 1903, a new governor took office and vowed to help the boards of health in every way. On February 29, 1904, a woman in the town of Concord, California, died of plague, its last victim — for a while. There had been 121 cases in San Francisco and 5 outside, with 122 deaths…. (PBS, People and Discoveries. “Bubonic plague…” 1998.)

Markel: “Between March 1, 1099 and February 29, 1904, 121 cases of plague were diagnosed in San Francisco with 113 resulting in death. Of these deaths, 107 were Chinese, 4 were Japanese, and 2 were white.” (Markel 2004, 67)

PBS: “In 1906, an earthquake of record proportions devastated San Francisco. The ruin of the city’s buildings made not just people, but rats, homeless. The subsequent year or two of living in refugee camps while rebuilding was highly conducive to rat and flea infestations. In 1907, cases of plague were reported. But with hindsight on the last epidemic and new knowledge from research, officials launched a new kind of campaign. They offered a bounty on rats. A similar rat-catching campaign had been used successfully to fight plague in New Orleans. It worked as well in San Francisco, and though this second epidemic was stronger than the first, it was brought to halt in 1909.” (PBS, People and Discoveries. “Bubonic plague hits…” 1998.)

Sources

Bollet, Alfred Jay, M.D. Plagues & Poxes. The Impact of Human History on Epidemic Disease (second edition). NY, NY: Demos Medical Publishing, Inc., 2004.

Foster, N. K. (M.D.). “In Retrospect,” Weekly Report, California State Board of Health, Vol. 1, No. 41, 11-25-1922, pp. 1-3. Google digitized. Accessed 9-18-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Markel, Howard. When Germs Travel – Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed. New York: Pantheon, 2004.

PBS. People and Discoveries. “Bubonic plague hits San Francisco 1900-1909.” 1998. Accessed 3-9-2021 at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm00bu.html

Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides. Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. University of California Press, October 2001.