The story behind a deadly typhoid epidemic in Ithaca | syracuse.com.
The story behind a deadly typhoid epidemic in Ithaca
Published: Sunday, January 30, 2011, 6:54 AM Updated: Sunday, January 30, 2011, 11:26 AM
Globe Pequot PressWorkmen pour concrete to build the Six Mile Creek Dam in the summer of 1903. Poor sanitation caused a typhoid epidemic in Ithaca. In 1903, Americans watched in horror as a typhoid epidemic — born from the greed and stupidity of some prominent Central New York businessmen — raged though Ithaca, striking down hundreds and killing at least 82 people, including 29 Cornell University students. Almost 1 in 10 residents became ill. Award-winning journalist David DeKok has written “The Epidemic,” (Globe Pequot Press, $22.95) a book about an otherwise forgotten public health catastrophe. He spoke with Hart Seely.
How did it start?
A businessman by the name of William T. Morris acquired Ithaca Water Works from the Treman family in Ithaca. Morris, a close friend of Ebenezer Treman, was able to afford the company because Cornell University loaned $100,000, an enormous amount at that time. He paid too much, more than Wall Street valued the deal, so he decided to build a dam to increase the amount of water he could sell. … Strict warnings on sanitation were not enforced by Morris or his people. One or more of the workers were carriers, a concept not really understood at that time, and through bad sanitation, the typhoid spread into the water supply and the town.
You write that at one point, a third of Cornell’s student population was fleeing the city.
David DeKokIt was a terribly scary thing. By the time it was over, one in 10 people in Ithaca was ill. That’s a huge percentage — one of the worst typhoid epidemics, in percentage, in American history. Students were getting on trains and going home. For some, they thought they were getting away from death, but it ended up finding them anyway. A number of them died in their parents’ homes.
OK, let’s talk about the main villain, William T. Morris.
He was from Penn Yan. His father, Daniel Morris, had been a two-term U.S. Congressman during and after the Civil War, a Republican. In fact, he was among the congressmen who passed the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery. … Daniel Morris sent young Will to Cornell, and he became a lawyer. He came back to Penn Yan and set up a law practice. He did not seem to have a high ethical standard. There’s an incident where he and some of his partners took retainer money from a client and bought new linoleum for their office. … The law firm broke up, and Morris got interested in the utility business. He acquired the Penn Yan Gas Light Company, then started acquiring small-town utilities in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Eventually, he set his sights on Ithaca.
What was Morris like?
Very narcissistic. Everything was about him. And very clueless. It was not necessarily conscious criminal behavior. He was more reckless.
The story includes many prominent figures. For example Frank Gannett (founder of the Gannett newspaper chain).
William T. MorrisHe was the city editor on the Ithaca Daily News. It was his first real newspaper job — actually, I believe he was a stringer for your paper in summers during college — working for Duncan Campbell Lee, the (Ithaca) publisher, one of the heroes… Gannett ran a crew of hard-working reporters, out all the time, getting long lists of patients’ names, people who had come down with typhoid. … They reported every little thing that was going on.
The industrialist, Andrew Carnegie.
He was on the Cornell Board of Trustees. He didn’t actually come to meetings often, but Jacob Gould Schurman, the president of Cornell, was more than happy to have him, because he was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He became a hero, at least to some, when he agreed to pay medical and/or funeral expenses of students.
Some references to the name “Vonnegut.”
Obviously, Kurt Vonnegut came much later, but three great uncles from Indianapolis were students at Cornell during the epidemic.
How do Cornell officials come off?
Globe Pequot PressSix Cornell coeds pose on the balustrade in front of Sage College around 1903.They had a real problem. They did not handle this particularly well. Schurman, the president, was a prominent intellectual, a very smart guy, but he had to deal with a board of trustees primarily made up of people from the local community. … It was not Schurman who came up with the idea to help Morris buy the water company. It was the Tremans and the Van Cleefs, so conflicts of interest were immense — but overlooked. In the early stages of the epidemic, there was a reluctance to do anything that would offend William Morris, a good friend of the Cornell board.
So they let it spiral out of control?
They did, for a while. There was severe criticism of the university, locally and in newspapers around the state, about the quality of medical care that was being given.
You say the story has a modern legacy.
William Morris got rid of his holdings in 1909, in part because he never really recovered from the costs of the epidemic, and he didn’t want to have the Public Service Commission telling him how to run his business. The company in 1921 was acquired by two fellows, John Mange and Howard Hopson. … It collapsed, went into bankruptcy and emerged in 1946 as the General Public Utilities Corporation, which ran the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (site of the 1979 accident).
What lessons should we learn?
Certainly, the need to regulate businesses that affect the public interest. In 1903, there was no regulation of water companies, and little litigation if anything happened to you. … I also think the story is a good lesson about what happens when an infectious disease epidemic strikes a town. … With things like SARS or H1N1 flu, something could happen again.
Giveaway
We have a copy of “The Epidemic” to give away. To be eligible, send your name, address and phone number on a postcard or in a letter to CNY, “Epidemic” giveaway, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221. It must be postmarked by Tuesday. One entry per person, please.
About typhoid
Typhoid fever is a life-threatening disease of the intestinal system caused by the typhoid bacillus, Salmonella typhosa.
It is spread by infected people who handle food or fluids without washing their hands or when sewage carrying the bacteria contaminates water, milk and other foods.
Typhoid was famously spread around the same time as the Ithaca epidemic by “Typhoid Mary,” a cook named Mary Mallon who was quarantined for life against her will after personally causing at least a dozen outbreaks.
Symptoms show up one to two weeks after infection and include sore throat, fever, headache, nausea and loss of appetite and, in severe cases, delirium and death. The bacteria can invade the bloodstream and cause meningitis. The fever generally lasts three to four weeks.
Today, only about 400 cases are reported annually in the US, 70 percent acquired through international travel.
— Source: World of Health, 2007
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