Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-06-18
PLAGUE OF A CENTURY AGO.
yellow W. at Georgetown in 1906
Threw the People of the Town
Into u Panic.

The comparative immunity which
Washington has experienced in late
years from visitations of contagious
diseases recalls the fact, says the
Washington Post, that the first out
break of plague here was coincident
with the establishment of the seat of
national government in the District Of
Columbia. The first case of yellow
fever was discovered in Georgetown in
1900, when Washington was a desert
waste of woods and marshes and the
sister city across Rock creek was
ranked as one of the most considerable
towns in the country. The small out
break of yellow fever occurred during
the summer of 1900, when Clotworthy
ONeale, a Baltimore shoemaker, on
his way to establish a shop at Rich
mond, was seized with the fever,
driven from that city and forced to
make his way back to Baltimore by
land. During 1890 yellow fever was
prevalent in Baltimore and Norfolk
and a small-sized panic prevailed in
Georgetown.
The records of the quaint old town
which remain do not show that the dis
ease spread much, although a few
other cases resulted from contact with
ONeale. So greatly feared were on
tagious diseases in the early days of
more than a century ago, before the
idea of boards of health had been con-
ceived. that a person unfortunate
enough to contract a dangerous disor-
der was treated with scant humanity.
O'Neale, forced to leave Richmond and
exposed to the weather on his long
trip northward to Georgetown, en-
tered that port the object of suspicion,
He vas placed in a Gilapidated shanty
close to the river. Georgetown was
panic-stricken and a committee was
appointed to receive the sick man.
What became of O'Neale is contained
in the form of a bill, as follows:
September 80, 1900, Corporation of
Georgetown, DR.. TO cash paid for
Juggling one grave. IS bd.
Georgetown, regarded now as anti,
quated and the butt of the jokes Of Wis
iting comedians on the local stages
was in those days a busting, busy
place, teeming with life and activity.
On the 18th day of May it will be eX.
actly 1872 years old, having been laid
out in 1851 by IN act of the Maryland
assembly at Annapolis, providing for
the erection of a town ION Potomac
river, above the mouth of Rock creek,
in Frederick county"
The town was settled by Scotch
agents of English mercantile houses,
whose ships visited its wharves each
year, building up a strong commerce.
The Potomac in those days was a
'main travelled road" for Indian trad
ers. A great trade was carried on in
sugar and molasses. The farmers Of
Maryland and Pennsylvania sought the
port as an outlet for their products
and Georgetown became a hive of in
dustry. Loads of wheat, corn and
hides poured into the port and from
the foreign vessels their value in cloth,
groceries and other articles were
taken into the interior of the middle
eastern territories.
In those days, before the Potomac
had experienced physical changes
which ruined it commercially, the
river was navigable to Cumberland,
long, fat-bottom boats pointed at each
end being used. A small canal was then
built around the Great Falls only. This
canal was finished in 1893. George
Washington was once president of the
canal company, the f%orerunner of the
present Chesapeake and Ohio canal.
Georgetown was thus highly favored
and babe fair to become one of the
most important cities in the United
States. In 1912, when this country was
at war with England, 60 hogsheads Of
Louisiana sugar were brought from
New Orleans up the Mississippi and
Ohio rivers, thence to the Potomac and
carried to Georgetown. Washington's
dream, that the nations capital would
be the chief port on the Atlantic sea-
board for the products of the great
west, was believed to be realized. The
railroad had no. been invented then,
1t was the railroad that killed George
town.
" M H