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In 1898 Forsyth County, like many other counties, faced the health problem of communicable diseases and how to control them.
Small Pox, was at that time, working its way through Statesville, Elmwood, Troutman's, Cleveland and Mooresville. The following news
articles give a glimpse of how the Board of Health and the City Alderman of Winston made their decision to build a house of quarantine
called the Pest House.
Also included are death certificates of just a few of the citizens who were buried in the Pest House Cemetery. (Contributed by Cindy H.
Casey)
Small Pox, was at that time, working its way through Statesville, Elmwood, Troutman's, Cleveland and Mooresville. The following news
articles give a glimpse of how the Board of Health and the City Alderman of Winston made their decision to build a house of quarantine
called the Pest House.
Also included are death certificates of just a few of the citizens who were buried in the Pest House Cemetery. (Contributed by Cindy H.
Casey)
UNION REPUBLICAN June 30 1898
NO CAUSE FOR ALARM
"An Ounce of Prevention Worth a Pound of Cure"
The City Aldermen held a called meeting last Thursday night for the purpose of taking some steps towards vaccination, quarantine, etc., in view of the small pox situation at Statesville, Elmwood,
Troutman's Cleveland and Mooresville, and against which communities, Salisbury and other places have prudently drawn the line. In the sixties, Salem had a scourge of the disease. In 1881
there were some cases in Winston and several deaths among the colored population. At a later period a quarantine was established against Martinsville, Va. This is our smallpox history briefly
summed up with our personal recollection.
A late report from along the Statesville road, and printed in a Charlotte paper, gives the number of cases reported to date. Statesville 10; Cleveland 5; Troutman's 1; Mooresville 1; Sheppard 1.
We have heard the above numbers doubled and trebled. In the camp of Statesville there were up to Wednesday of this week 70 cases of suspects. There has been a house to house canvass
and a general vaccination. In fact, at all points every effort has been made to prevent the spread and stamp out the disease, for which commendable effort authorities and physicians in Statesville
and Iredell county deserve credit.
Acting upon reports similar in instance to the above, Mayor Gorrell counseled with the Alderman, Dr. Charles Summers, the city Health Officer, and City Attorney Clement Manly, expressed
themselves upon the subject. Dr. Dalton also raised a timely voice against excursions that are continually rolling in and out of the city.
The result of the meeting was the adoption of the following ordinance drawn by City Attorney Manly and Health Officer Dr. Dalton at the request of the Alderman:
Be it ordained,
That all persons residing in the city of Winston shall be within 30 days from this date vaccinated by a physician of this city with ____ to prevent the contagion of small pox. Any person willfully
refusing or failing to comply with the aforesaid provision shall be fined $50 or imprisoned 30 days; provided that this ordinance shall not apply to any person to whom a practicing physician of
Winston may think vaccination injurious to his or her health or whom a physician on examination say does not require vaccination, by reason or recently undergoing the physician shall file said
report with the Secretary of the town.
That the Secretary and Treasurer is hereby authorized to pay all resident physicians who file each report at a rate of ??? cents for all persons vaccinated by him at place to be named hereafter.
The purpose is to grant free vaccination to all of our citizens.
The the resident physicians of the town shall publish immediately the time and places where vaccinations can take place and such publication shall be considered as part of this ordinance. Any
physician failing to report within the next 30 days shall be fined $5.00. Physicians will be prepared to vaccinate all applicants at their respective offices whenever present and give special attention
thereto every evening.
THE REPUBLICAN prints the above not for the purpose of creating alarm but to show the precautionary measures that have been taken. There is no small pox in Winston-Salem, nor nearer than
the points named along the Western Road. Undue publicity has been given the precautionary measures taken by the Winston authorities and to correct erroneous reports we print the truth as
concisely as it can be given. A number agree with the City Aldermen and believe in compulsory vaccination. Others do not and maintain a firm stand against it claiming the situation does not
warrant such rigid measures, siding with the Salem authorities in a more conservative course of action. Of course, the situation and population of the two towns are in some respects mutually
different, and upon Winston rests the greater responsibility. The ordinances speak for themselves and the citizens of the respective communities can govern themselves accordingly. Being
identified with the Salem authorities, I would not be courteous nor expected that the Local Editor should do more than state the facts, and above all again affirm that there is no small pox in 40
miles of the towns, that the probability is that there will not be, and should the disese reach Winston-Salem, this paper will most assuredly record it.
Mr Manly also read an ordinance he had drawn giving the Mayor and the Board of Health power to establish a quarantine against any place whenever they deemed it advisable; also to establish a
pest house. The ordinance was adopted and Mayor Gorrell was requested to confer with the Mayor and Board of Health of Salem to see if they would agree to adopt a similar law.
The Mayor also appointed a committee of three--Aldermen R. I. Dalton, J.B. Vaughn and W.N. Reynolds--to assist him in selecting a suitable place for the
pest house.
Monday the following notice was issued and posted:
FREE VACCINATION-- Those who are unable to pay a physician for vaccination will be vaccinated free of charge at the Mayor's court room in the City Hall between the houses of 9 and 10 am and
8 and 9 p.m. This free vaccination will begin tonight, and continues as above stated until all in our city have been given the only protection against small pox it is possible to obtain. A.B.
GORRELL, Mayor
July 7, 1898 UNION REPUBLICAN
PEST HOUSE AND GRAVEYARD: The City Aldermen met Monday and among other business transacted Mayor Gorrell made a report for the committee appointed to select a site for the
erection of a pest house. He stated that the committee had decided that the most suitable place was about 1 1/2 miles north of the city, owned by Rev. Howard Pegram. He suggested that the
Board authorize the committee to also purchase land for a cemetery for both white and colored. Alderman Griffith made a motion that 12 acres be purchased. This was adopted. The land will
cost $40 per acre. It is a cash transaction.
SMALL POX OUTBREAK
On August 20, 1900, the Mayor quarantined a house on Church and Liberia Street due to a case of small pox there. (7-120) The next day, the Board of Health met and suggested moving the
patient to a “pest house”, to clean the house, inoculate the neighborhood and allow the Mayor to keep the quarantine as long as he thought necessary. It was also approved that the houses in the
neighborhood be vacated for six months. (7-120)
At the October 5th meeting, the houses were ordered vacated for at least four months. These were all listed as “tenement houses.”(7-126)
October 27, 1900-The Board of Health reported there were now two places under guard and quarantine to keep the disease from spreading. (7-129) The Board discussed the 1898 ordinance
and agreed that it will do for this time. The ordinance had ordered vaccination of all persons but obviously that had not occurred. The Board of Health then suggested a resolution that “No children
will be admitted into any of the schools in town unless they can show proper evidences of as successful vaccination.”(7-130) This resolution was approved at the October 27, 1900 meeting of the
Board of Commissioners. (7-130)
There was another outbreak in 1902 when the Board of Health requested the Commissioners to rent two houses at the corner of Wachovia and Fairview Streets for small pox patients. (7-243) The
town was also to assume the cost of small pox vaccinations.
SMALL POX ORDINANCE
November 24, 1902-An Ordinance was passed requiring all persons residing in or carrying on business in the town to be vaccinated for small pox. (7-247) The current outbreak of smallpox had
been the subject at the last two regular meetings of the Board. While a small pox ordinance had been in place since 1898, this revision made it mandatory that everyone in town be vaccinated.
SCARLET FEVER EPIDEMIC
September 10, 1903-Following several deaths from scarlet fever health ordinances were enacted to stop the spread of the disease. It was required that anyone with the disease notify the health
officers and those persons would be quarantined. (7-308)
1918- THE WACHOVIA MORAVIAN - January 1918, page 2-3
The care of the county over its poor and unfortunate has drawn National attention during the past year. The County Home is considered a model structure. To it has come the Reformatory on
which much thought and care are being expended, and its good influence upon the wayward youth is being felt. The educational feature has been introduced; instruction is given, on one day for
white and on another for colored youth.
Sentences are now being made indeterminate, and thus a new stimulus has been given to improvement in behavior. It is planned also, that a "probation" officer shall look after the boys, after they
have started again, into a better kind of life. And to these two noteworthy institutions has come a third --the Tuberculosis Hospital, constructed in the most modern style, with ample light and
sleeping porches, at a cost of $15,000. It was opened in the early Fall. It has a capacity for 24 charity patients, which by means of its porches, can easily be doubled. It is in the charge of a
graduate nurse and a corps of assistants. In view of the civic spirit of Forsyth county, the Rockefeller Institution of New York has entered into a three years contract for an annual expenditure of
$3,000; the Rockefeller Institution to supply two-thirds and the County one-third of the cost. The money is to be applied for the prosecution of research along the line of preventable diseases. An
expert is to live here part of each year, and his laboratory is now being fitted up.
NO CAUSE FOR ALARM
"An Ounce of Prevention Worth a Pound of Cure"
The City Aldermen held a called meeting last Thursday night for the purpose of taking some steps towards vaccination, quarantine, etc., in view of the small pox situation at Statesville, Elmwood,
Troutman's Cleveland and Mooresville, and against which communities, Salisbury and other places have prudently drawn the line. In the sixties, Salem had a scourge of the disease. In 1881
there were some cases in Winston and several deaths among the colored population. At a later period a quarantine was established against Martinsville, Va. This is our smallpox history briefly
summed up with our personal recollection.
A late report from along the Statesville road, and printed in a Charlotte paper, gives the number of cases reported to date. Statesville 10; Cleveland 5; Troutman's 1; Mooresville 1; Sheppard 1.
We have heard the above numbers doubled and trebled. In the camp of Statesville there were up to Wednesday of this week 70 cases of suspects. There has been a house to house canvass
and a general vaccination. In fact, at all points every effort has been made to prevent the spread and stamp out the disease, for which commendable effort authorities and physicians in Statesville
and Iredell county deserve credit.
Acting upon reports similar in instance to the above, Mayor Gorrell counseled with the Alderman, Dr. Charles Summers, the city Health Officer, and City Attorney Clement Manly, expressed
themselves upon the subject. Dr. Dalton also raised a timely voice against excursions that are continually rolling in and out of the city.
The result of the meeting was the adoption of the following ordinance drawn by City Attorney Manly and Health Officer Dr. Dalton at the request of the Alderman:
Be it ordained,
That all persons residing in the city of Winston shall be within 30 days from this date vaccinated by a physician of this city with ____ to prevent the contagion of small pox. Any person willfully
refusing or failing to comply with the aforesaid provision shall be fined $50 or imprisoned 30 days; provided that this ordinance shall not apply to any person to whom a practicing physician of
Winston may think vaccination injurious to his or her health or whom a physician on examination say does not require vaccination, by reason or recently undergoing the physician shall file said
report with the Secretary of the town.
That the Secretary and Treasurer is hereby authorized to pay all resident physicians who file each report at a rate of ??? cents for all persons vaccinated by him at place to be named hereafter.
The purpose is to grant free vaccination to all of our citizens.
The the resident physicians of the town shall publish immediately the time and places where vaccinations can take place and such publication shall be considered as part of this ordinance. Any
physician failing to report within the next 30 days shall be fined $5.00. Physicians will be prepared to vaccinate all applicants at their respective offices whenever present and give special attention
thereto every evening.
THE REPUBLICAN prints the above not for the purpose of creating alarm but to show the precautionary measures that have been taken. There is no small pox in Winston-Salem, nor nearer than
the points named along the Western Road. Undue publicity has been given the precautionary measures taken by the Winston authorities and to correct erroneous reports we print the truth as
concisely as it can be given. A number agree with the City Aldermen and believe in compulsory vaccination. Others do not and maintain a firm stand against it claiming the situation does not
warrant such rigid measures, siding with the Salem authorities in a more conservative course of action. Of course, the situation and population of the two towns are in some respects mutually
different, and upon Winston rests the greater responsibility. The ordinances speak for themselves and the citizens of the respective communities can govern themselves accordingly. Being
identified with the Salem authorities, I would not be courteous nor expected that the Local Editor should do more than state the facts, and above all again affirm that there is no small pox in 40
miles of the towns, that the probability is that there will not be, and should the disese reach Winston-Salem, this paper will most assuredly record it.
Mr Manly also read an ordinance he had drawn giving the Mayor and the Board of Health power to establish a quarantine against any place whenever they deemed it advisable; also to establish a
pest house. The ordinance was adopted and Mayor Gorrell was requested to confer with the Mayor and Board of Health of Salem to see if they would agree to adopt a similar law.
The Mayor also appointed a committee of three--Aldermen R. I. Dalton, J.B. Vaughn and W.N. Reynolds--to assist him in selecting a suitable place for the
pest house.
Monday the following notice was issued and posted:
FREE VACCINATION-- Those who are unable to pay a physician for vaccination will be vaccinated free of charge at the Mayor's court room in the City Hall between the houses of 9 and 10 am and
8 and 9 p.m. This free vaccination will begin tonight, and continues as above stated until all in our city have been given the only protection against small pox it is possible to obtain. A.B.
GORRELL, Mayor
July 7, 1898 UNION REPUBLICAN
PEST HOUSE AND GRAVEYARD: The City Aldermen met Monday and among other business transacted Mayor Gorrell made a report for the committee appointed to select a site for the
erection of a pest house. He stated that the committee had decided that the most suitable place was about 1 1/2 miles north of the city, owned by Rev. Howard Pegram. He suggested that the
Board authorize the committee to also purchase land for a cemetery for both white and colored. Alderman Griffith made a motion that 12 acres be purchased. This was adopted. The land will
cost $40 per acre. It is a cash transaction.
SMALL POX OUTBREAK
On August 20, 1900, the Mayor quarantined a house on Church and Liberia Street due to a case of small pox there. (7-120) The next day, the Board of Health met and suggested moving the
patient to a “pest house”, to clean the house, inoculate the neighborhood and allow the Mayor to keep the quarantine as long as he thought necessary. It was also approved that the houses in the
neighborhood be vacated for six months. (7-120)
At the October 5th meeting, the houses were ordered vacated for at least four months. These were all listed as “tenement houses.”(7-126)
October 27, 1900-The Board of Health reported there were now two places under guard and quarantine to keep the disease from spreading. (7-129) The Board discussed the 1898 ordinance
and agreed that it will do for this time. The ordinance had ordered vaccination of all persons but obviously that had not occurred. The Board of Health then suggested a resolution that “No children
will be admitted into any of the schools in town unless they can show proper evidences of as successful vaccination.”(7-130) This resolution was approved at the October 27, 1900 meeting of the
Board of Commissioners. (7-130)
There was another outbreak in 1902 when the Board of Health requested the Commissioners to rent two houses at the corner of Wachovia and Fairview Streets for small pox patients. (7-243) The
town was also to assume the cost of small pox vaccinations.
SMALL POX ORDINANCE
November 24, 1902-An Ordinance was passed requiring all persons residing in or carrying on business in the town to be vaccinated for small pox. (7-247) The current outbreak of smallpox had
been the subject at the last two regular meetings of the Board. While a small pox ordinance had been in place since 1898, this revision made it mandatory that everyone in town be vaccinated.
SCARLET FEVER EPIDEMIC
September 10, 1903-Following several deaths from scarlet fever health ordinances were enacted to stop the spread of the disease. It was required that anyone with the disease notify the health
officers and those persons would be quarantined. (7-308)
1918- THE WACHOVIA MORAVIAN - January 1918, page 2-3
The care of the county over its poor and unfortunate has drawn National attention during the past year. The County Home is considered a model structure. To it has come the Reformatory on
which much thought and care are being expended, and its good influence upon the wayward youth is being felt. The educational feature has been introduced; instruction is given, on one day for
white and on another for colored youth.
Sentences are now being made indeterminate, and thus a new stimulus has been given to improvement in behavior. It is planned also, that a "probation" officer shall look after the boys, after they
have started again, into a better kind of life. And to these two noteworthy institutions has come a third --the Tuberculosis Hospital, constructed in the most modern style, with ample light and
sleeping porches, at a cost of $15,000. It was opened in the early Fall. It has a capacity for 24 charity patients, which by means of its porches, can easily be doubled. It is in the charge of a
graduate nurse and a corps of assistants. In view of the civic spirit of Forsyth county, the Rockefeller Institution of New York has entered into a three years contract for an annual expenditure of
$3,000; the Rockefeller Institution to supply two-thirds and the County one-third of the cost. The money is to be applied for the prosecution of research along the line of preventable diseases. An
expert is to live here part of each year, and his laboratory is now being fitted up.
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| LIST OF INDIVIDUALS BURIED IN THE PEST HOUSE GRAVEYARD INFO FROM DEATH CERTIFICATES Not a Complete Listing |
| FORSYTH COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FCHA Homepage |
The first Forsyth County Tuberculosis Hospital/Sanitarium opened in 1917 off of north
Liberty Street.
(Where several airline-related buildings are now located just north of the present day
Smith Reynolds airport entrance. The facility was later used as a NC Highway Patrol
and driver’s license office before it was torn down. Note: The Smith Reynolds airport
was built years later. )
The first PEST HOUSE was built at the turn of the 20th century and had its own
cemetery.
Those who died in this 1917 TB Hospital were probably buried at Woodland
Cemetery. The Old Liberty Cemetery was full and no longer taking "residents"
DIGITAL FORSYTH
Liberty Street.
(Where several airline-related buildings are now located just north of the present day
Smith Reynolds airport entrance. The facility was later used as a NC Highway Patrol
and driver’s license office before it was torn down. Note: The Smith Reynolds airport
was built years later. )
The first PEST HOUSE was built at the turn of the 20th century and had its own
cemetery.
Those who died in this 1917 TB Hospital were probably buried at Woodland
Cemetery. The Old Liberty Cemetery was full and no longer taking "residents"
DIGITAL FORSYTH
A second Forsyth County tuberculosis hospital opened in
1930 to relieve the first one located off Liberty Street. The
second TB hospital was located off of Sturmer Park Circle. It
had 148 adult beds and 24 children’s beds. The hospital
closed in 1955 and the facility later became Knollwood Hall as
pictured here. Knollwood Hall was a retirement home.
DIGITAL FORSYTH
1930 to relieve the first one located off Liberty Street. The
second TB hospital was located off of Sturmer Park Circle. It
had 148 adult beds and 24 children’s beds. The hospital
closed in 1955 and the facility later became Knollwood Hall as
pictured here. Knollwood Hall was a retirement home.
DIGITAL FORSYTH