Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-02-28
Smallpox in Woodbury..

On the day of our publication last weel
there were two cases of smallpox in tn
city-the boys Redfield and Clark, ON Ger
man street and Railroad avenue. Sine
that date, and up to this morning, thre,
other cases have been reported, Julia Kee
gan, the 24-year-old daughter of Michae
Keegan, ON Lincoln street; Mrs. Krimm
.housekeeper for Amos Wills, whose grand
child, Redfeld, was one of the origina
patients and four-year-old son of VIM
Clark, on Railroad avenue, have beer
stricken. Miss Keegan had never beer
yaccinated, and her case was of most vir
ulent type, terminating fatally ON Monday
afternoon. The interment was at very
early hour Tuesday morning in Gloucester
cemetery.
WHAT is BEING DONE.
On Thursday afternoon last, as soon as
the case of Julia Keegan was reported, the
Board of Health met and addressed COM
munication to the Board of Education re-
questing that the public schools be closed
until danger from contagion was passed,
also to the private schools. Superintendent
of Sabbath-schools and pastors of the var
ious churches were requested to suspend
sessions in the churches and Sabbath-schools
on Sunday, and the inhabitants were re-
quested to refrain from congregating in
public or private places for the time being.
These requests were met in the spirit in
which they were made, and for the first
time in the history of Woodbury. there
were no church services ON Sunday. The
public schools were not re-opened ON Mon
day, and various social functions arranged
for this week were declared off for the
present. The public library has also been
closed
The Board of Health has been exceeding
ly active and attentive to its duties. The
infected houses are closely quarantined,
fumigation is scientifically performed, and
every precaution against the disease becom-
ing epidemic has been taken.
THE SOURCE OF INFECTION.
On the outbreak of contagious disease
the first step after the Inauguration of a
quarantine is to discover the source of in
lection. In the discovery of the source OF
this infection the Board has been baffled, as
neither of the two cases first reported
Redfield and .Clark-both students in the
second grade at the Academy-had been
away from home, nor in contact with
strangers.
When Julia Keegan was stricken new
line of investigation was instituted. She
was domestic in the family of Dr. Charles
Thomas, on Holroyd place. Their next
door neighbor is Capt. Robert johnson,
whose family consisted of himself when
on land J, wife and son, the latter pupil in
the second grade room at the Academy
The Captain arrived home from Savannah
the last week in January, i'll, and was
treated by his physician for grip. He
recovered and his wife was taken ILL and
she, too, was 1treated for grip by the same
physician. AS this family had no servant,
Julia Keegan assisted Mrs johnson when
her husband was ill, and also did the house
work during the illness of Mrs johnson.
She was taken i'll on Monday week, but
her disease did not develop smallpox until
Thursday. When questioned as to the i'll
ness of Captain and Mrs johnson, she said
they had sores on their faces and in their
hair. The physician strenuously denies the
truth of this statement and insists that the
Johnsons had only the grip. The Philadel-
phia authorities on Tuesday sent word to
the Woodbury. Board of Health that the
cook on Capt. Johnson's vessel is i'll with
smallpox in Philadelphia hospital
THE SITUATION IN WOODBURY..
With the public schools, Sabbath-schools
and churches and library closed, and sus-
pension of public and social functions, the
usual life and activity of the city is want
ing, but the writer in Mondays Philadel-
phia Bulletin, who described the city as
deserted, business at a standstill, neighbor
avoiding neighbor, persons obliged to come
here hurrying in and rushing out, avoiding
the few pedestrians on the street, was a
mere romancer and should be kicked off the
staff of that journal.
His story was simply a lie from beginning
to end. The idea that five cases of small
pox, all strictly quarantined, should make
the disease epidemic in city of four thou
sand persons is preposterous With two
exceptions the cases have been of very mild
type. In the serious cases the patients had
never been vaccinated
At this writing there are grounds for the
hope that the disease will not spread to
other families, but the precautions inaugur-
ated by the Board of Health last Friday
are to be continued until the last vestige of
the disease has disappeared.