SMALL POX
Crowley Signal January 27, 1900
News Article from Adadia Parish
Submitted by Winston Boudreaux, 2006

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SMALL POX
Crowley Signal January 27, 1900

Police Jury Report

On motion of W.W. Duson, duly seconded and carried, the sum of $1000 is 
hereby appropriated out of any available funds of 1900 to defray the expenses 
of the small-pox of the parish.

The jury president appointed Messrs. Daigle, Maignaud and Breaux a 
committee on claims, who approved out of the general improvement and the 
contingent fund, the following to wit:

Webb Drug Co., vaccine points and disfectants for small pox, $170.45
J. Frankel, merchandise for jail, $38.40
J. Frankel merchandise for small pox, $99.
Louis Fontenot, stove for pest house (for small pox victims?), $16.90.
Aurelien Garri, guarding and nursing small pox patients, $40.

SMALL POX CASES

Crowley Signal March 17, 1900

The parish board of health met at the court house Tuesday in pursuance of a 
call issued by the president, Dr. R.C. Webb, of Rayne.  The meeting was called 
for the purpose of reviewing the small-pox situation preparatory to making a 
report to the State board of health.  The number of cases, up to date, is given 
by ward as follows:

1 – 21 cases; 1 death
2 – 53 cases; no deaths
3 – 55 cases; 3 deaths
4 – 29 cases; no deaths
5 – 125 cases, 1 death
6 – 150 cases, 2 deaths

This makes only a total of ten deaths out of a total of four hundred and thirty-
three cases. A very marvelous record. Only a few cases of the malignant type 
have been reported, the greater portion of the cases being but a very modified 
form.  On one ward it was stated that when a person became afflicted with the 
disease the neighbors came and sat up with the patient.  Of course they 
contracted the disease themselves, but it was so slight that only a slight 
inconvenience was experienced.  As a consequence almost every person in 
that neighborhood has had the small pox.

A resolution was adopted by the board requesting all citizens who have not 
yet been vaccinated to do so at once to avoid all unnecessary trouble and 
annoyance.

The members present were Drs. R.C. Webb, C.H. Power & H.C. Webb, Drs. C.H. 
Wright and L.A. Clark being absent.

EXPENSES FOR SMALL POX

Crowley Signal March 17, 1900

Police Jury Report

Expenses small pox:

Philip Foreman, taking patients to pest house, $5.
A.J. Besse, guarding and nursing small pox and cash expended for patients, 
	$318.
Webb Drug Co., vaccine points, etc., $219.
Jim Ruffin, guard at pest house, $66.
T.J. Toler, lumber for pest house, $54.18
S.B. McElhinney, board for Besse, $30. (Proabably for A.J. Besse above)

Mary Alice Fontenot in her book “Acadia Parish, Louisiana, volume 2, A 
History to 1920” makes mention of this incidence of small pox.  In 1901 she 
reported other cases and stated that small pox victims were confined in 17 
houses that had been marked with yellow flags warning of the infection within.