Mormons and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1853 (3)

Mormons and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1853 (3)

Smallpox strikes the Sandwich Islands. Mormon missionaries witness the terror, counsel against vaccination, see one-third of Saints die in agony.

First cases of smallpox	That day, however, the thirteenth of May, the "will of god" shifted. A washerwoman and a young girl living two blocks from the palace were discovered to have smallpox.
First smallpox epidemic	A smallpox epidemic had never occurred on the islands. Travelers were carefully checked, and isolated cases had been successfully quarantined. This was the first time residents had been diagnosed with the highly infectious and often fatal disease. After a twelve day incubation period, patients developed severe headaches and backaches, a high fever, and chills, followed by a severe rash, a return of the fever and bacterial infection. Death came by infection of the lungs, heart, or brain. The entire course from infection to death usually took five or six weeks.
Quarantine Vaccination mandatory Some flee	The two women were taken from their homes and quarantined, their clothing and grass houses burned. Their street was roped off and guards placed around the perimeter. The board of health made vaccination mandatory for all inhabitants of the island. Some, fearing the cowpox vaccine almost as much as smallpox, fled to the mountains or sailed for other islands.	perimeter: "Oahu's Ordeal," 41–42. other islands: Gifts, 231.
	On Maui Francis Hammond wrote,
Hammond opposes vaccination	The saints wished to know if they should not go and get vaxinated as all the people were doing so. I told them if their faith was weak and [they] do not trust the Lord to go but as for myself I should not go, and if I died all was well.	F. Hammond, May 18, 1853.
Tanner: pox is God's judgment	"We have been preaching that the hour of God's judgments were at hand," Tanner wrote "and the small pox has borne a faithful testimony to the fact."	Tanner to Brother Campbell, September 9, 1853 in Deseret News, December 15, 1853, 3.
	"Our Brethren thay say it is a judgment from the Lord," another wrote,	E. Green, June 13, 1853, at Wailuku.
Spit out the vaccination	and thay feal to trust in him. … [The] judge … impresed a fine on all that did not git vaxenated of $5. Thay then was oblige to go & be vaxinated for thay had not the $5 to pay. I have sean them after thay ware vaxenated pick thare arm & then suck it with thare mouth to git the mater out.
Some comply, others refuse medical attention	But the elders would be subject to heavy fines if convicted of interfering with vaccination, so Lewis directed all the elders and members to comply with the law. Still, they resisted. One of the native elders, probably Kauwahi, circulated a petition among the Saints. "The[y] wanted no Medical men near Them," Thomas Karren wrote. "All the[y] wanted was the Elders Of the Church of Jesus Christ to Administer to them and to pray With them … I never Saw as much faith in my life."	vaccination: "But what could we do? He was one of the Royal commissioners of public health whose power was absolute & to oppose whom we became subject to a heavy fine even in this country … & we had therefore to submit to their abuse as they had the power in their own hands." W. Farrer, July 16, 1853. law: F. Hammond, June 11-13, 1853. life: T. Karren, June 22, 1853.
Epidemic rate	The epidemic began slowly—only two deaths by the first of June. But the virus was spreading rapidly. By the 18th of June, 41 had died. In the following week, 38 died; the next week, 189. Still, Uaua reported at the end of June, "very few" Saints had contracted the pox, "and those who have had it all got well by administering to them with oil and prayer except one who died." If accurate, only one death would have been significant, for now the Mormons numbered 600, and nine or ten deaths might have been expected.	189: "Oahu's Ordeal," 45–46, 48. died: F. Hammond, June 29, 1853. Bigler also wrote to Keeler, the Saints were blessed "in comparism to the people out of the church. In nearly all cases where we have administered to them & they have obeyed our council & scarcely one has died as yet that has been administered to." June 30, 1853 in "Letters," 163. expected: The September 1853 issue of The Friend estimated the Oahu population at 18-20,000."Oahu's Ordeal," 75. Based on that estimate, the mortality rate at the end of June was roughly 1.4%.
Clergy pressured to administer	This apparent success heightened interest in Mormonism, and rumors circulated that members of Rev. Smith's congregation had urged him to do	T. Karren, June 22, 1853.
	as the Mormons done, telling him that The[y] done like the Bible. He Said it was right and went to work and laid his Hands on Several of them. So it is With the Docters. The[y] have comenced Anointing with Oile Saying it Is the Best Cure for the S[mall] pox seeing The Mormons are very Successful in There administrations.
	William Farrer was less sanguine. Visiting Honolulu in late June, he wrote,
Farre: misery and wretchedness	I shall not soon forget the scenes of misery & wretchedness my eyes beheld. The first man we visited was one of our priests & a faithful man by the name of Kamahiai. When I left he was well & healthy to all appearances but now he was so disfigured with the small pox that no traces of his countenances were discoverable & his throat was so stopped up that his voice was scarcely audible. We administered to him & several others.	W. Farrer, June 28, 1853.
Lewis' death threat	On the first of July, Farrer and Lewis returned to check on Brother Kamahiai. There they were surprised to discover Dr. Lathrop, who advised them Kamahiai would probably not live. As they were talking, an Englishman named Charles Turner arrived. Turner, who had been hired by the marshal to help with the epidemic, accused Lewis of causing his mother-in-law's death by telling her to throw out her medicine. He threatened to kill Lewis or any other Mormon caught on his property again. The doctor tried to calm Turner down and the two left. Turner soon returned with two constables, who warned the elders to stop administering to the sick.	Charles Turner: "Oahu's Ordeal," 47.
Farrer attacked Court case	The missionaries, ignoring the warning, went to administer to another member. Again Turner and the constables appeared. Turner attacked Farrer, punching him three or four times in the face and chest, then turned on Lewis, threatening to kill him. The elders fled, with Turner on their tail, demanding that they go with him to the prison. Instead, they returned home and B. F. Johnson filed a complaint on their behalf, charging Turner with assault. He was fined $12.	W. Farrer, July 1–7, 1853. The case went to court almost immediately. B. F. Johnson, representing the elders, charged Turner with assault. The defense, in turn, accused the elders of malpractice. Turner, they said, was acting in an official capacity as a nurse appointed by the marshal to protect the sick from Mormon interference. Johnson countered that charges of malpractice were a smokescreen to hide religious persecution, and insisted the case be confined to assault charges, not medical issues.
Bodies	The doctors and constables were frustrated by Mormon obstructions. They were already overworked—Dr. Lathrop reported 568 patients under his care on the first of July—and natives were dying without ever seeing a doctor. On top of everything, too late it was discovered that the first batch of vaccine, given to 1,500, was defective. Bodies were discovered in grass houses, in alleys, and on hillsides. Burial squads were overwhelmed. Corpses buried in shallow graves were unearthed and eaten by hogs and dogs.	"Oahu's Ordeal," 47; Ephraim Clark, Honolulu Station Report, 1853, Hawaiian Missionary Children's Society; Tanner to Brother Campbell.
Hospital	At the hospital, Farrer wrote, "the stench … was almost unendurable although the natives in attendance … kept burning tar … to purify the room." He had difficulty finding the object of his visit, Sister Makainaina. She had lost so much facial skin as to be almost unrecognizable and was "near breathing her last. … At the door lay two corps ready to be carried of[f] to inter the one in a coffin, & the other wrapped up in native mats."	W. Farrer, July 23, 1853. On July 30 Farrer reported that a Brother Noomana died just as Farrer arrived to visit him. Tanner received word from Oahu in late July that there had been a thousand deaths (likely a report based on Uaua's estimate) but "only three of our Church had fallen." Honolulu Hawaii Mission, June 10, 1853.
Mormon deaths begin	The deaths of Makainaina and Kamahiai are not specifically mentioned, but we do know that two sisters died on July 1. Kahoouluwa, who was ordained an elder on the 6th of July died of the pox on the 13th. Kahoouluwa was, Hammond wrote, "much beloved by all the church. He is the first man out of this nation in this generation that has died with the Holy priesthood on him." Also dying that day was a brother Nuhi. A teacher, W. D. Umu, was also among the first Mormons to die. On July 15, a sister Kaumaka succumbed.	W. Farrer, July 1, 6, 13, 15, 1853; May 5, 1853; September 6, 1853; F. Hammond, July 21, 1853.
Doctors visit Mormons	The next day, July 16, a doctor and his assistant called on two households where the elders had administered to the sick. In the first, they left medicine and dumped out the Mormon tea. The occupants of next household told the doctor he was not needed. Warned if they did not get medical attention they would die, they replied, "If they did, it would only be like those who had had the doctors in that neighborhood who had all died."	W. Farrer, July 16, 1853.
Vaccination effective	Vaccination was an effective preventative—even Mormon elders did not dispute that. But once pox appeared, there was little that medicine, or the laying on of hands could do. It was not always fatal, and doctors, like missionaries, may have attributed recoveries to their intervention, but neither medical or priesthood arts could reverse Death's rampage.
Mormon deaths Kaneohe	A brother Noomana and a few others died the last week of July. Henry Bigler discovered several abandoned houses in Kaneohe. "The occupants had either all died or had fled to some other place leaving everything behind, hogs, dogs and pets to take care of themselves."	H. Bigler, July 29, 1853.
More Mormon deaths Continue to send positive reports	In the first week of August, J. W. Opunui, a priest; Makahoe, a deacon; and Aaron Waiawa, a teacher; died. Certainly others died unknown to the missionaries until weeks after the deaths occurred. Nevertheless, by late July it was obvious to everyone that Saints were dying. The Utah elders, their faith undisturbed by events, continued to send glowing reports to Utah. One insisted the elders were "administering to the sick with the greatest success, not any of the Saints dying who adhered to counsel and attended to the ordinances of the Gospel."	died: W. Farrer, July 30; August 6, 8, 9, 1853. Gospel: Deseret News, October 29, 1853, 3, citing letters from George Q. Cannon of July 26 and B. F. Johnson of August 10.
	Farrer was more candid. In his diary he acknowledged,
Farrer: Mormons dying daily	There is scarcely a day but what someone of the Brethren or sisters is dying of this disease. The number of deaths that have come to my Knowledge in the district that I have charge of & which numbered a little rising of 400 when the Sickness commenced is near 100.	W. Farrer, August 22, 1853.
	The death toll continued to climb. Brother Kaneauakala died on August 28, and I. W. Kahona on the 30th.	W. Farrer, August 28, 1853.
	The next day Thomas Karren wrote,
1/3 died	When I first landed [in February], the Streets of Honolulu you would find Crowded all night and you would hear the Sound of Instruments of Musick all Over the Town With dancing and Rowding of all kinds. But O what a change. Travel through the Streets now and you will Scearsly meet with a pearson. It is soposed that a bout 1 third of the Inhabitants Of this Island has died with the Smallpox. It has taken Saint and Sinner. … I think there is a bout 1 half of this people that is under the venerial deases, and when they took the smallpox they died of[f] like rotten Sheep.	T. Karren, August 31, 1853.
Death all around	The Saints were surrounded by death. Their meeting house stood in the hardest hit area of Honolulu. "In one small yard near our meeting house there were 53 persons at the commencement of the disease 32 of which died," Farrer reported. "In another small yard there were 11 taken sick & taken to the hospital 10 of which died, & many such like cases have occured, & many houses have been left without inhabitant." While others minimized the effect smallpox had on the Saints, Farrer would only say that the Mormon death rate was no higher than the general population.	W. Farrer, August 26, 1853.
17 deaths in Kahaluu branch	The scourge continued through September and into October. Henry Bigler had attended a conference at Kahaluu in September. When he returned in November, he found seventeen members of the branch had died of the pox. "Elder Ioba and wife are dead," he wrote in his journal.	H. Bigler, November 16, 1853.
Death takes best members	Brother Ioba was the presiding Elder of the branch a man who had influence among the people and among his brethren and was faithful and died a good man. I have noticed one thing and so has my Utah brethren that death has taken the best members we have on these Islands. He has seen fit to take the best Elders we have but perhaps they are taken for a wise purpose in the Lord as they have the Priesthood and may be sent to preach to the Spirits in prison as Jesus did, I mean to their dead.
	In five months the epidemic was transformed from a scourge of the wicked to a mission call for the righteous.
Numbers	It will never be known how many Hawaiians died that summer. The marshal said nearly six thousand, 30 percent. In Honolulu, Reverend Lowell Smith lost 375 members, and Reverend Ephraim Clark, 516. Other areas of the island were relatively unaffected, while in Ewa, forty percent died. There, several months later, Reverend Artemas Bishop reported, "The whole state of society became disorganized. Almost every family was broken up. … The Sabbath was not well observed, & few meetings but thinly attended, & immorality prevailed. … There is [still] much apathy prevailing on the subject of religion."	30 percent, 375 members: "Oahu's Ordeal," 75, 50. 516: Ephraim Clark, Honolulu Station Report, 1853, Hawaiian Missionary Children's Society, May 3, 1854. forty percent died: The Missionary Herald of May 1854 in "Oahu's Ordeal," 64, quotes Bishop as reporting 1,200 deaths in Ewa out of a total population of 2,800. subject of religion: Ephraim Clark, op. cit.
	The Mormons were similarly affected. Approximately 275 died—a third of all the Saints on the island, and survivors were dispirited. Karren observed "a cloud of Gloom hanging Over This place. Those Crowded And spirited Meetings which Were Carried on hear a few Months Ago, has disapeared. Our Meetings In a great Measure has Been Broken up. We have had to Give up Our Meeting House. So great has Been the Distruction among this People that the[y] all most dispare of life. Even them that Servive."	on the island: See note. them that Servive: T. Karren, September 18, 1853.
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