The fight over a pesthouse in New Rochelle had turned into something close to open rebellion.
In the Jerusalem Woods north of the city, health commissioners were trying to build quarantine houses for smallpox patients. The local farmers wanted no part of it. They blocked gates with barbed wire, barricaded roads, shouted threats from the hillsides, and warned that the pesthouse wagons would never reach their destination.
When the commissioners arrived with a wagonload of workmen, they found men and women waiting for them behind a barred gate, jeering at the officials and demanding the pesthouse be built somewhere else.
The health board pressed on anyway.
By nightfall, two wooden houses were half built, warrants had been issued for some of the farmers, and residents were promising legal action, roadblocks, fire, and violence if the pesthouse remained in Blind Brook Valley.
War on the Pesthouse
NEW ROCHELLE, New York. — In the Jerusalem Woods, north of New Rochelle, the merry war of the farmers against the health commissioners who are trying to build a pesthouse in the Blind Brook Valley, continued yesterday with several novel features. The Jerusalem folk chuckled over a trump card which they said they would play today in the form of legal proceedings, which, according to them, “will put the commissioners on the run.”
When Health Commissioners Carson and Bartlett, who had armed themselves in anticipation of trouble, drove to the woods with a stage load of workmen, they found the gate leading to the woodland where the pesthouse is to be situated barred with strands of barbed wire.
Behind the gate were a score of men and women who greeted them with hoots and jeers.
“Put your pesthouse down in Drake Lane, where Mike Dillon lives,” cried one of the women. Mr. Dillon is the Mayor of New Rochelle.
The health commissioners broke down the gate, and Policeman MacDonald dispersed the crowd.
The health officials will send their patients to the quarantine station tomorrow, in the dead of night, to escape observation. The farmers are barricading the road, and say the wagon will never reach its destination.
James Burns, whose home is nearly opposite the pesthouse, last evening brought out long poles and several gates, with which he proposes to bar Mill Road.
“This road is private property,” said Mr. Burns. “It belongs to me, and nobody can use it except myself unless I give permission. If they bring their pest wagon past here they’ll break the law, and I’d like to see them try it.”
Philip Stouter, Edward Ash, and other residents of Jerusalem gathered on the Stouter hillside and sullenly watched the workmen marching through the woods. They said they had been to New York to see J.E. Stohlmann, who owns the property beside Blind Brook.
“Mr. Stohlmann will be here tomorrow,” said Mr. Ash, “and he’ll put a stop to this work. He’s furious that a pesthouse should be built on his property, and he has already served notices on Dr. Peck and the mayor. Follmer, his tenant, sublet the ground to the health board without having any right to do so. The pesthouse buildings won’t be standing here tomorrow.”
About thirty young men invaded the woods in the morning and warned the workmen that they would burn the wooden houses and shoot someone, if need be. They were driven off. Several hours later the Jerusalem folk, men and women, gathered on a rocky eminence and shouted threats at the workmen and the officials, who during the day succeeded in half completing two houses.
Health Officer George A. Peck is being severely criticized in New Rochelle for the manner in which he has conducted the isolation of the smallpox patients. The cases were removed from different parts of the city to a house close to a schoolhouse, in Harrison Street, which is attended by from 600 to 700 school children. The parents of the children were highly incensed, and the school board had the school closed.
Then they say that the site of the pesthouse in the woods is badly chosen. It is on low ground, and only a few feet away is surrounded by swamp land covered with greenish water.
City officials of New Rochelle have decided not to serve for the present the warrants issued late Wednesday night for some of the farmers. They reason that a knowledge of the warrants may serve to intimidate the Jerusalem folk. Chief of Police Timmons was angry yesterday that any report of the warrants had leaked out. It is said he fears the residents in northern New Rochelle may resent aggressive action, and that he would be unable to maintain order there.
Source: The Evening Times. Washington, D.C. February 23, 1900.
