Plague? In MY city?

More likely than you think

Wow! Welcome to my first official blog post! I figured I’d start off with something a bit special, so today we’re going to talk about the San Francisco bubonic plague outbreak of 1900-04. So. What’s so special about this plague outbreak? One, it was the first plague epidemic in the continental United States. Buboes, not just for those fancy Europeans anymore! Two, it completely embarrassed then-governor Henry Gage.

We start our scene in fair San Francisco, in the year 1900. A steamship (the s.s. Australia if you’d like to know) has just anchored in the Port of San Francisco. The ship unloads its cargo after arriving from one of its regular trips to Honolulu, Hawaii. Though there is no way to be absolutely sure, the arrival of this ship (and ships like it) spelled doom for the residents of San Francisco. The disease, carried by infected rats, left ships and found themselves in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The cramped conditions were a veritable breeding ground for the plague. A month after this, in February of 1900, a San Francisco Examiner article would call the city of San Francisco “plague-proof”

The first official plague victim in California was a man by the name of Wong Chut King (or Chick Gin/Wing Chung Ging depending on your sources). On March 6th, 1900, he was examined by a police surgeon, who then called upon a resident bacteriologist, who took samples from the man’s lymph fluid to be tested on animals. The very next day, Chinatown was quarantined. Tensof thousands were unable to leave, and though the quarantine was only 2 and a half days long, it was absolutely devastating. The news of potential plague fueled anti-Chinese sentiment and legislature. Both Japanese and Chinese Americans were required to have a health certificate to leave the city, unlike white residents. White residents seemed to fear the Chinese residents of Chinatown more than the plague itself.

Henry Gage, governor of California at the time, vehemently denied the existence of the plague in his city. In the January 29th, 1901 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, Gage denounces Dr. Kinyon (the discoverer of the plague and head of the SF Marine Hospital Service) and “the “yellow” newspapers which espoused his cause” and, claims that he is “convinced beyond a doubt that the plague did not exist and has not existed in San Francisco”. He would continue to deny the existence of the plague until his final speech in 1903. The job of eradicating the plague fell to one Rupert Blue. In 1903 Blue put in place a sanitation plan, soaking the sector in disinfectant, sealing off earthen basements, scrubbing walls with lye. But it didn’t end there. The second part of Blue’s plan was to autopsy as many rats as possible, paying rat trappers ten cents per rat, or about $3.50 today. Rats were nailed to a roof shingle, autopsied, and then immediately incinerated. Shockingly enough, with the decrease in rats, cases of the plague decreased as well! But San Francisco could not catch a break.

After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco descended into chaos. Over a quarter of a million people were left homeless. The increase in tent cities meant close quarters, and open sewers and destruction of infrastructure meant rats. The plague was back, baby! Once again, Rupert Blue was back to killing rats and scrubbing down encampments. Maybe this time the plague was gone for good.

WRONG AGAIN! Only 16 months later, in 1907, the plague was back in full force nearly everywhere (except, really, Chinatown) and once again Mr. Rupert Blue was in San Francisco. And this time, Rupert was serious about his rat killin’. At 401 Fillmore street, Rupert Blue rented a home that came to be known as “The Rattery”. Here, rats were autopsied at record speeds, around 13 thousand a WEEK. Still, though, the plague continued. So, more drastic measures were required. Rat catchers were now being paid 50 cents per male rat and 25 per female rat. It was an all out war upon rats. Then, finally, after an increase in sanitation and rat killing (and private funding by companies like Wells Fargo), San Francisco was declared plague free in May of 1908.

Whew. Plague spiel complete. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed looking at old newspaper clippings. I left some stuff out for time’s sake (I’m writing this at 1 am on a monday) and to avoid writing an entire paper for my first real blog post. Please feel free to comment if you think there’s anything vital I neglected to mention.