Mighty Mayport Beats Jacksonville
By Donald J. Mabry
© 2008
Yellow
Jack! That scourge of the tropics and subtropics visited Duval County, Florida
in 1888, coming on July 28th without warning, sickening rich and poor
alike, and killing and killing. Many died. There seemed to be no stopping it, no
cure. People fled if they could. Death was everywhere. The city's population
dropped from 130,000 to 14,000. Dwellings flew yellow flags to warn of the
presence of yellow fever.
Other places tried to isolate Jacksonville. Roads were sealed. Guards stopped
people from sneaking out of town. Steamboat traffic was suspended. Trains were
fumigated or prevented from passing from Jacksonville to other towns.
People
theorized what caused yellow fever. "Ironically, when yellow fever
broke out in Jacksonville in 1857, the railroad builders, clearing and draining
the marshy areas for the tracks, were accused of having
released malarial miasmas which brought on the dreaded plague." The Florida
Dispatch explained the theory of "Wiggins, the Canadian weather prophet
crank" who said: "The cause of the fever is astronomical. The planets
were in the same line as the sun and earth and this produced, besides cyclones,
earthquakes, etc., a denser atmosphere holding more carbon and creating
microbes. "Mars had an uncommonly dense atmosphere, but its inhabitants
were probably protected from the fever by their newly discovered canals, which
were perhaps made to absorb carbon and prevent the disease." Some from
Jacksonville exploded guns and cannons to "concuss the microbes."
On August
14, 1888, the Florida Times-Union suggested:
Keep indoors from an
hour or more before sunset 'til an hour at least after
sunrise…
Avoid the night air…
Avoid exposure to the
sun…
Eat no meat…
Eat no cabbage…
Eat before leaving
your house…
Avoid nervousness…
Have faith in your doctor…
American scientists did not know the causes or means of transmission.
They had not read the work of Dr. Carlos Finlay, the Cuban medical doctor who
had figured out
how the disease was transmitted. . It was not until the aftermath of the Cuban-Spanish-American
War of 1898 that Finlay's work became known to U.S. scientists and experiments
were conducted to prove Finlay was right. Walter Reed was enough of a scientist
to understand Finlay's theory, test it with experiments, and prove it.
Mosquitoes were the culprit. Those concerned with public health then sought to
control the mosquito population.
Some twenty
miles from the city lay the little village of Mayport,
sitting at the mouth of the St. Johns River; its residents were not so concerned
with the cause of the disease. They wanted to keep this scourge away from their
little resort and fishing village. Vacationers and working people conspired to
prevent those westerners from spreading the disease in Mayport.
To keep residents of Pablo Beach in the south from coming north, they patrolled
with guns. Mayport people established a "gunshot
protection" against residents of Pablo Beach. To counter the more serious threat
from Jacksonville, Mayport people would make
"contrary statements" about when the train would run between Mayport
and Jacksonville. The people who could afford to vacation in Mayport
or were permanent residents knew the fluctuating train schedule but hid it from
others. They would ride the little train to and from Arlington, just across the
river from the city only when absolutely necessary. They refused help from
refugees. Mayport successfully isolated itself and
survived the epidemic.
Frost came
on November 25, 1888 and killed the mosquitoes. The epidemic died as well.
No one knew why the disease occurred but they knew it would not infect mighty
Mayport.
Sources:
John W. Cowart, "Yellow
Fever in Jacksonville," says: "On July 28, 1888, Yellow Jack
invaded Jacksonville, Florida;"
"Yellow Fever's Victims, New York
Times, September 17, 1888.
Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., "Jacksonville
As A Nineteenth-Century Railroad Center," Florida
Historical Quarterly, 58:4, p.
374.