The Chronicles Of Grant County
The Pueblo at Jemez was the site of a major smallpox outbreak in New Mexico. (The photo was produced by Edwin Bass and provided courtesy of the Library of Congress, circa 1885.
There has been disagreement about governmental mandates regarding the wearing of masks, socially distancing from one another, and the use of vaccines regarding COVID-19. Some see these mandates as a responsible use of governmental power to protect society. Others see these mandates as an overreach of governmental power that infringes on individual freedoms.
It may be instructive to look back on how governmental mandates and freedom of choice were balanced regarding smallpox. This edition of The Chronicles Of Grant County looks at the impact of smallpox in Grant County and New Mexico. Future editions will look at the use of the smallpox vaccine with school-age children.
Many would agree that smallpox is a far worse disease than COVID-19. Smallpox spread rapidly. The death rate was quite high. Living with smallpox was difficult.
When a smallpox outbreak hit a community – or even just the rumor that a smallpox outbreak was underway or nearby – people took extreme actions to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
This publication is not including photographs of people with smallpox because those photos would be considered disturbing to many of the readers who may not be expecting to view that type of content. For those that might have interest in viewing those photos, there are several websites that detail the ravages of smallpox.
"Devastating smallpox epidemics and other diseases brought to the pueblos [of New Mexico] by the Europeans caused much concern among the mission friars," according to a statement from the National Park Service using information from the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. "In Jemez (pictured above), a series of epidemics resulted in the burials of a large number of natives in 1728 and again in 1733. More than 100 Indians died from the 1728 epidemic. Fray Camargo recorded these many deaths."
According to a document prepared in 1966 from the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, outbreaks of two diseases had great impact in the state starting in 1837: "Typhoid, followed by smallpox, killed off one-tenth of New Mexico inhabitants by 1840."
Smallpox came to Grant County and the region in waves through the decades. With people traveling among area towns and across the international border, the disease was never contained in one community for any length of time. The fear that smallpox was in a nearby community was enough to destabilize all types of activities – from mining to education and from social events to shopping.
The Southwest Sentinel of Silver City reported in a news article dated May 30, 1893, that at least two families in Anthony in Doña Ana County were infected with smallpox. This news article indicated that "it is supposed that [the family in Anthony]…brought it from Mexico."
Five years later, on January 5, 1898, The Eagle of Silver City noted that "It appears that all efforts to check the spread of smallpox in the valley of the Rio Grande have proved futile. Since the appearance of the first case in October the spread of the disease has been gradual, and now there are cases all along the river from Val Verde for a hundred miles up. For weeks after the development of the first reports that smallpox existed were denied in the papers and the denials were repeated until there was no longer any use in denying what was known to be a fact. There have been many deaths among the Mexicans and several Americans have succumbed to the disease which, it is said, is of a most malignant type. For the past few weeks [strenuous] effort have been made to check the spread of the disease, but in spite of all the precautions taken, it has been gaining ground."
The Eagle included a note at the top of its front page a week later with good news for the people of Silver City – "No danger at present from smallpox." On page three of the same edition of this newspaper dated January 12, 1898, was further information: "The smallpox scare has subsided. The vaccinated ones are fast becoming well again."
Later that year, the news had turned grim.
On August 23, 1898, The Daily Herald of El Paso included a news item from the Albuquerque Citizen that noted that "Private information reaches the New Mexican [likely referring to the Daily New Mexican newspaper in Santa Fe] that a case of genuine smallpox has made its appearance in the Grant county jail of Silver City. As between twenty and thirty prisoners are confined in this jail, the discovery is naturally causing much anxiety among the county authorities."
A telegram sent on December 11, 1898, from Deming from an Assistant Surgeon of the United State Marine-Hospital Service to the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Service in Washington, DC, detailed that "Smallpox is now epidemic in this (Grant) county along the Mimbres River, and near Silver City." [Please note that Deming was then still part of Grant County.] "No definite information to number, but thought to be over 25 now," the telegram continued. "Has existed for several months. Many cases and deaths, among Mexicans only. Few cases among Americans. Practically no precautions taken."
The next two editions of The Chronicles Of Grant County will detail how New Mexico and Arizona mandated childhood vaccinations and banned unvaccinated children from attending school during smallpox epidemics.
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© 2021 Richard McDonough