The great Georgetown vaccine fight: When a mob took to the streets to protest them
Charles H. Wells, Delaware State Health Commissioner, was staying at Georgetown’s Brick Hotel when the mob appeared.
At first, Wells was puzzled about the cause of the uproar. According to the January 14, 1920 edition of the Wilmington Every Evening, the mob rushed into the hotel and packed the ground floor, leaving scores of the crowd outside.
A spokesman for the mob confronted Wells and told him, “You’ll have to leave town.” Others who remained outside angrily shouted, “Run him out!” and “Get a rope!”
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Smallpox outbreak deadlier than COVID-19
In late 1919, an outbreak of smallpox had been reported in Sussex County. Far more deadly than the COVID-19 virus, smallpox killed an estimated 30 percent of the people who contracted the disease during its more than two-thousand-year known history.
The most effective means of preventing the spread of smallpox or other contagious diseases was to isolate the sick from the general population. Residents of Philadelphia, New York, and other American ports were terrified that immigrants would carry with them an infectious disease. In 1880, the federal government established the National Quarantine System to provide a uniform defense against contagious diseases that might arrive on ships entering American ports, and in 1885, the Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Hospital was established on Cape Henlopen to examine all people on ships entering Delaware Bay.
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Smallpox vaccine developed, for those who would take it
At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the work of Dr. Edward Jenner and others, a reliable vaccine for smallpox was readily available. The vaccine, however, had to be taken to be effective. On Dec. 5, 1919, the Every Journal reported “Unless there is an abatement in the spread of smallpox in Indian River district within the next two or three days, the State Board of Health will place a rigid quarantine on the infested districts. … Orders have been issued by the State Board to have all of the children of Georgetown public schools vaccinated and scores of them are daily visiting the offices of the several physicians.”
When a significant number of people in southern Delaware failed to get vaccinated, the State Board of Health threatened to fine or imprison them. Lewes Constable Frank Johnson began to collect the names of those who had not been vaccinated, but the Every Evening reported, “There are scores of persons who [reject] the idea of the prevalent disease being smallpox, and pretest vigorously against vaccination, saying they will fight to the last ditch.”
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Georgetown vaccine sweep leads mob to take to streets
During the second week of January, Health Commissioner Wells began an inspection tour of southern Delaware to see if the mandatory vaccination orders were being followed. At Georgetown, he spent a day walking around the business district and asking people if they had been vaccinated. He took down the names of those who had not received the vaccine and swore out warrants for their arrest.
That evening, a mob of several hundred people descended on the Brick Hotel to demand that Wells leave town at once. There was also a rumor that was quickly debunked, that an additional hundred men were ready to descend upon Georgetown to prevent the enforcement of the vaccine order.
Wells later said, “Realizing that under the circumstances it would probably be the most peaceful thing to do, I agreed to go.”
Wells packed his bag and was escorted to a car that took him to Milford. The threats of fines and imprisonment failed to convince people to get vaccinated, but the threat of smallpox remained real. Most of the residents of southern Delaware voluntarily got vaccinated, and the fear of a smallpox epidemic was over.
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Principal Sources:
Every Evening, December 5, 1919; December 31, 1919; January 1, 1920; January 14, 1920; January 15,1920Milford Chronicle, January 23, 1920.
Evening Journal, December 5, 1919; January 1, 1920; January 14, 1920; January 19, 1920.
History of Smallpox, Centers for Disease Control, History of Smallpox | Smallpox | CDC
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Mob once took to Georgetown streets to protest vaccines: The saga
