Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Typhoid Fever Quarantined Homes in Union County, 1917

“County Must Fight Infectious Diseases,” from the Monroe Journal, Oct. 5, 1917. To help control contagious diseases, the State of North Carolina passed a law that required quarantining homes of patients with certain diseases. The following is the first monthly report from the Union County quarantine officer. The homes under quarantine are listed by the name of the homeowner, not the name of the patient in the home.

New State Law Requires Physicians and Householders to Report Cases to Dr. S.A. Stevens, County Quarantine Officer…Law Now in Force

To reduce the number of infectious diseases in the county and thereby prevent numbers of deaths and save thousands of dollars, is the task that has recently been set before the people of this county. The new State Quarantine law imposes this task, but with it, it does not impose any hardship or impossibility. It requires only that every citizen shall do his duty in reference to any contagious disease in his household or community. It presupposes that every citizen wants to see his country rid of disease as far as possible and will do all in his power to bring this about. ….

Diseases to be reported are whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, smallpox, infantile paralysis, typhoid fever and cerebralspinal meningitis. Any home having a case of any of these diseases, when it has been reported, will have placed on the front of it a large yellow placard bearing the name of the disease.  ….

The names of those reported to the quarantine officer as having a contagious disease last month are:

Scarlet Fever

Robert Clark, Monroe, Route 5

Hoyle Hinson, Monroe, Route 5

Chattie N. Cason, Monroe

Janie Clark, Monroe, Route 5

Mrs. A.M. Secrest, Monroe

Earl Curlee, Monroe

Willie Hilton, Monroe

Ward McGinnis, Monroe

J.A. Griffin, Monroe

Geo. Porterfield, Monroe

Walter Bartons, Monroe

Maude Trull, Monroe

Wyatt Whitley, Monroe

W.L. Griffin, Monroe

--- McGinnis, Monroe

J.A. Griffin, three cases, Monroe

David Williams, Vance Township

Flossie Hillian, Monroe

Rossie Hargett, Monroe

---- Hargett, Monroe

John Baucom, Monroe

Kenneith Lemmond, Monroe

Diphtheria

Leanna Boyd, Vance Township

M.H. Rowell, Goose Creek

Typhoid Fever

W.E. Baucom, Goose Creek

Fred Stevens, Monroe

J.P. Spencer, Monroe

Mrs. J.P. Spencer, Monroe

Moore Bay, Monroe

---- Baucom, Monroe

Mrs. T.B. Young, Monroe

J.S. Stearns, 2 cases, Monroe

Arthur Helms, Monroe

Three cases at Hasty’s, Monroe

Vance Simpson, Monroe

Lula Griffin, Monroe

Easter Griffin, Monroe.

A placard placed on a house not only requires the patient and children of the household to stay within certain bounds, but it also prohibits outsiders from entering the house in question or allowing their children to enter or go beyond certain limits. Whether you are afraid of the disease or not, has nothing to do with it—the law says for you to keep away except under certain conditions and a failure to obey will render you liable to indictment. In conclusion, I wish again to ask the co-operation of everybody in carrying out the provisions of this law to the end that you may have healthier children and better schools.

                --Very respectfully, S.A. Stevens, Quarantine Officer, Union County, N.C.