HITE, David R.

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Small pox outbreak on Bainbridge Island 1877

Interesting article about a small pox outbreak on Bainbridge Island, about the same time the Hoskinson's were arriving in Seattle, and only a year before they moved to their homestead on Bainbridge Island. Stewart Hoskinson's 3rd wife Nellie Burnett Andrews lost three children ages infant, 3 and 5 years in 1878 in Seattle while with her first husband Stephen Andrews. Small pox may have been the cause. The article contains a lot of racism and fear-mongering re potential spread by local Indians: "SMALL POX - ...the outbreak of small pox at Port Orchard is proving to be quite a serious matter; like a prairie fire in the West, there is no telling where it will end....Two white men and several half-breed children at Port Orchard are down with the disease, while two Indian have already died of it....Indians often come direct from the homes of their sick friends to Port Madison and Blakely and mingle with people and other Indians (note Indians are apparently no people!) there, we are further informed...Indians are naturally very cautious in exposing themselves to contagious diseases. But though they regard such pestilence with a sort of superstitious horror, and are generally disposed to give infected neighborhood a wide berth, their fear is that of crude ignorance, and as they are entirely uncontrolled by reason, they act in such case very much on the same principle as panic stricken beast during a fire, which in their terror have been known to plunge headlong into the flames, when every effort was made to abet their escape. Therefore it is but folly to claim that the natural fear the Indians entertain of this disease will prevent a spread of it among themselves, or their communicating it to the white population...The authorities of Kitsap county should at once blockade Port Orchard harbor, and shut in the diseased Indians and white men so effectually as to prevent the possibility of their communication with other Indians in any manner. Unless this be done the smallpox is certain spread, and, as we said before, there is no knowing where it will end." The clipping goes on to relate a story about a doctor investigating a small death at Salmon Bay, north of Seattle, where another outbreak was expected.