Chapter 4

April 4, 1850

While on my rounds of the area I patrolled, I was approached by a young woman with a plea for help, "Sir, I understand you're also the town doctor of Cincinnati. Could you look at my Suzy? She's awfully sick. Nothing I do seems to be helping."

I knew the distrust most people had for doctors here and now. There was no formal training or licensing required to call yourself a doctor and many charlatans presented themselves as qualified to treat anything. If they were desperate enough to ask for one to look at someone, then they had tried everything they knew beforehand and the person was probably at death's door. I was reluctant to look at her for that reason but I couldn't resist the look of appeal she gave me.

When we got to the house I put on my bandanna over my mouth before I entered the house to check on the young child. She had a high fever and her body was covered with bumps. The bumps were filled with a thick, opaque fluid and had a depression in the center that looked like a bellybutton. Some of the bumps had become pustules-sharply raised, round and firm to the touch as if there was a BB pellet embedded in the skin. I held my breath and quickly rushed out of the house and confronted the mother, "Did you know your daughter has smallpox?"

She began to cry at my accusing tone, "I was afraid she did. Please don't let her die! She's all I have left!" I was really upset about not being warned about the possibility of smallpox, but it was too late to do anything about it now. I held her until she calmed down.

"Who have you or Suzy been around in the last three weeks?"

"No one, sir. I've been in the house treating Suzy for the last week. Before that she came from Monticello where she was visiting with her Aunt Susan for a while. I've been working in the fields trying to get the crops in. My husband died last year and I'm by myself."

I remembered hearing about the smallpox epidemic that was going on in Cowlitz County. She could have been infected while she was there. I just hoped that her next answer would let me know if she had been around anyone while she was infectious, "How long has Suzy been sick?"

"About 5 days now, although she felt poorly for a couple of days before that."

"Has anyone been around since then?"

"Just Miz Anna, she's the herb woman. She left me some things for her fever on the first day that Suzy was ill."

I hid my dismay as best I could. As an herb woman Miz Anna could have gone anywhere and if she had gotten infected by Suzy could be spreading the disease over a large area. This was getting to be too big for me alone. I told her to stay with Suzy and headed toward my house.

When I got to the house I stopped outside and yelled, "Louise!" I saw a bustle of movement and saw Louise come out of the door wiping her hands. "Don't come any closer! I've got a case of smallpox I've been exposed to. Bring me my bag and all of Jug # 4 you can find and leave it by the oak tree with some clothes in a bag. Tell Josh to ride to Salem and tell the sheriff we have smallpox in the area and not to let anyone enter Salem until I say it's safe."

"Alex! Are you going to be all right? Are you sick?"

"Don't worry about me. Just make sure no one is allowed in to see the babies until I get back." I told her where I was at and repeated my orders not to let anyone get near the babies then waited until she finished packing my things. Making her go back to the house first, I picked up my bag and the other supplies I'd asked for.

I headed back toward the group of houses where Suzy lived. I got close enough to yell at some of the men I knew and got their attention, "Where does Miz Anna live?"

"What's wrong? Someone hurt?"

"I need to speak with her about a sick child", I didn't want to spark a panic right now but I really needed to speak to her and find out if she was sick. They gave me instructions and I headed toward her house. About 20 minutes later I found her little shack tucked away in a small draw with herb beds on the slopes around her. Getting off my horse I called out to the house. I didn't hear or see anyone, so I went closer. I looked into the one window and saw Miz Anna on the bed. "Miz Anna?", I called. She didn't move, so I went into the shack. I found her alive but feverish, with a pool of vomit next to the bed. Seeing a glass nearby I went out and drew up a bucket of water. Filling the glass I returned and managed to get her to drink some of it mixed with the some of the contents of Jug #4.

She opened her eyes but didn't recognize me or where she was. I looked around the shack and found a buggy in the back of it next to a small corral with a pair of horses. I couldn't leave her here and treat both her and Suzy at the same time so I had to get them together. Hitching up the horses to the buggy, I put Miz Anna in the buggy and drove her to Suzy's house. When we got there I found Suzy's mother laying down with a high fever and complaining of nausea.

Making up a pallet with the bedding I had brought from Miz Anna's house on the floor, I examined my patients. The only conscious one was Suzy's mother and I decided that I would give her as much of the mix from Jug #4 as I could force down her. I didn't know if it would help but I figured it wouldn't hurt. I looked around and got as many sealable containers as I could find and put them in boiling water. I was going to make as much of the mix from Jug #4 as I could.

After I had boiled the jugs for a while I lifted them out of the hot water with a pair of sticks and turned them over to drain. Getting all the sugar I could find, I boiled it into a syrup and filled the jugs mostly full, I let the syrup cool and then added some of the solution from Jug # 4 into each jug and capped it. The jugs needed to sit for at least a week to be of any use at all from my experiments. I figured that I had found a form of penicillin and hoped that it would help me cure the people. I had mostly used it to treat surface wounds but Louse had told me she had given it to me orally when I had been shot.

I sat Suzy's mother, Lisa, up and gave her several glasses of water mixed with the solution from Jug #4. It seemed to do no harm, so I gave Suzy as much as I could get her to drink. I looked at Miz Anna and noticed that she seemed to be a bit more aware of her surroundings, "Miz Anna, who have you been around the last week?"

She lay there trying to remember but I could see that she wasn't aware enough to answer me. I gave her some more of the solution from the jug and checked her body out for bumps. I saw several were beginning to show in her mouth and face but nothing as bad as Suzy had. I grabbed a bucket and took it outside to wash my hands. I found several men waiting outside. "Get back!" I yelled. "Smallpox!" The men scattered as if they had been shot.

I called to one of the men I recognized, "I need to find out who Miz Anna has seen in the last weeks. Send someone there and have them yell at the house when you find out. If no one answers send in someone who has had smallpox to bring anyone sick to me. No one should leave their claim for at least three weeks. If anyone else starts running a high fever and has nausea, bring them to me here, with food and bedding. They shouldn't be too infectious until the bumps start to show." He yelled back his understanding and took off.

I washed my hands and returned to the cabin. Taking a wash cloth I cleaned up the women as best as I could and cleaned up the house as well. I hoped there wouldn't be too many more patients because just three were hard enough to take care of. I took a wash cloth, put on some of the solution from the jug and used it to wipe down Suzy's body. I forced myself to remember what I had learned in my high school health class about smallpox. They had been going through one of their terrorist awareness periods and they had talked a lot about diseases that might be used as a terrorist weapon. They had mentioned something about a period during which people could be inoculated after exposure and still be protected.

I was afraid. I had never been inoculated against smallpox and from what I had seen since I got here had hoped to never see it hit around me. I had seen several people who had been blinded by smallpox and seen the skin scars and heard the horror stories of what happened to pregnant women and how bad some people suffered from arthritis after having the disease. I took out a small scalpel and went toward Suzy. Finding a pustule that was full of pus I lanced it and gathered the fluid on the blade. Finding a small dish I poured some of the solution from the jug and stirred in the pus from Suzy's pustule with the scalpel. I left the blade in the solution, gave each of the patients a drink of water and Lisa and Miz Anna some soup to eat. Suzy was too sick to eat so I gave her some of the left over syrup I had made.

I returned to the scalpel and steeling myself against my fears of getting smallpox cut my arm slightly and placed some of the mix of the solution and Suzy's pustule under my skin. Getting a small cloth out of my bag, I wrapped the cut. I sat there feeling myself sweating from my actions. The cut itself didn't bother me, but the idea that I had just exposed myself to smallpox scared the hell out of me. All I could do now was just wait and hope I didn't get too sick. I went to the one chair Lisa had in her cabin and sat. I must have been tired because the next thing I knew there was a call from outside the house, "Hallo the house!"

I looked outside the door and saw the sheriff with my friend, Dr. Campbell, the doctor from Salem. "You all right, Alex?" The sheriff asked.

"I'm fine right now, as long as I don't get too many new patients."

"We're going to start a vaccination of the area if we can find enough supplies. I've already sent word to Oregon City for any vaccine they have."

"Make sure my wives and kids get it."

"All right! What do you want to do with any other patients we find?"

I looked around and tried to figure out how many more people I could fit in here if it came to that. If necessary I could manage to fit maybe 8 to 10 more people in here at most. I let him know and then we just sat there looking at each other. I didn't know what to say. I could feel my sweat flowing under my arms from the fear that I felt. I couldn't leave though, because I had been exposed. For the next three weeks I was going to be stuck in this cabin with my patients until they either got well or died.

Finally with the wishes for good luck ringing in my ears, the sheriff and doctor rode away. I remained behind with the patients. I returned to them and gave them as much water as they would drink. I was most worried about Suzy. Her mother had waited until the last moment to call me and she was going to have deep scarring at the least. I was worried about her becoming blind from scarring in her eyes. I sat down in the rocking chair again and fell asleep because the next thing I knew it was morning.