Saturday, December 10, 2016

Harry J. Warner - Years Served: 1939-1942




Harry J. Warner was born July 19, 1880 in Prophets town, Illinois a small rural town in the northwestern part of the state.[1] He graduated from the University Illinois in Urbana in 1901 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.[2] He received his MD at George Washington University in 1907.[3] He worked in the Bureau of Chemistry at the Department of Agriculture before being commissioned with the U.S. Martine Hospital Service on April 3, 1908. Like all other Public Health Service surgeons, he lived the life of a nomad constantly traveling at the command of the Surgeon General. His first assignment was on the Revenue Cutter Itascu in 1911.[4] Several years later, in 1915, he ordered to work in Tampa Bay, Florida at the quarantine station. [5] From July 26, 1917 to June 30, 1919 he served as the Officer in Charge at several military camps as well as the City of Atlanta, Georgia.[6] He was promoted to Surgeon on June 5, 1920 and then sent to New York City to manage Hospital Number 70, formerly known as the House of Relief, which opened on December 9, 1920.[7] For the next fifteen years he lived in New Mexico and Washington with assignments to the Fort Stanton, New Mexico General Hospital Number 9 (1922-1926),[8] Albuquerque, NM (1926-1930),[9] and Spokane, Washington (1930-1933) where he became senior surgeon and was responsible for control of communicable disease amongst Indians.[10] On March 24, 1934 he was promoted to Medical Director and served two years in San Pedro, California (1934-1936).[11]
He became the medical officer in charge of Gallops Island on September 1, 1936 - the year when this station’s operations were permanently disbanded. Warner assumed command of both the quarantine and immigration operations in Boston – a major step forward in the consolidation of federal services. In his 1939 annual report he noted that 59,741 aliens were examined aboard vessels in Boston, with 54,698 being seamen and 5,043 passengers. The passengers consisted of 909 aliens seeking permanent admission to America as well as 4,122 visitors or returning aliens. Warner also conducted inspections at the sub-ports of Chelsea, Quincy, Charlestown, Everett, Lynn, Beverly, Salem, Marblehead, Weymouth, Braintree, Cambridge and Plymouth, Massachusetts. By 1939 radio pratique was in full swing with 84 vessels using this special expedited service. IN that year, the quarantine station included an administration building in the customs house, a boarding office, garage, and dock space for two boats at the Army Base in South Boston and Gallops Island, which was still being maintained and kept in condition for the detention of quarantinable cases. Warner recommended that Gallops Island quarantine station be maintained until the new hospital facilities opened at the Marine Hospital. During this transition period, Warner kept one caretaker on the island.[12]
He died July 26, 1954 in San Diego, CA.



[2] Twenty First report of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 1902, Springfield, IL, p. 77. Accessed online: http://archives.library.illinois.edu/erec/University%20Archives/0101802/01_volumes/1900-1902.pdf
[12] Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1939, Boston Massachusetts Quarantine Station, Report Prepared by H.J. Warner, July 7, 1939, National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, MD, Domestic Stations, 1936-1944; 1940-1939 Annual Reports Quarantine (Misc.), Box 145, E10 NWCH, HM1999
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Ernest A. Sweet - Years Served: 1935-1936




Ernest A. Sweet of Great Barrington, was a veteran of 37 years' service in the U.S. Public Health Service.  He was born in Great Barrington on July 6, 1876 and was the son of Norris and Maria Morrison Sweet.  He was an 1893 graduate of Searles High School, and two years later graduated from Westfield Normal School. After teaching assignments in West Cummington and Mittineague, he entered the Albany Medical School, in Albany, NY and graduated in 1900.  Based on his excellent performance at Albany Medical School, he received an internship to work at Albany Hospital in 1900. He married Minnie E. Mann on December 31, 1901. He entered the U. S. Public Health Service on May 2, 1904 as an Assistant Surgeon after practicing medicine for three years in Housatonic.  Two days after his appointment he was assigned to the New York immigration station. His life was one of constantly changing assignments. The following year on September 11, 1905, he was sent to Fort Station, New Mexico.  Three years later, on July 29, 1908, he successfully completed his examinations and became a Passed Assistant Surgeon. In ensuing years, he conducted ground breaking research on tuberculosis transmission patterns amongst migrant TB cases in Texas in 1913, publishing the results of his study in 1915 in the April 9, 1915 issue of Public Health Reports.[1] In 1918 he published very popular guidance on safe milk and the field identification of malaria carrying mosquitoes which was reviewed in the Surgeon General’s Annual Report for 1918.[2]
During his brief one year tenure as the commanding officer in Boston (August 1935 to August 1936), the Service began to deemphasize the use of the Gallops Island quarantine station. Nevertheless, this change had little impact on the overwhelming workload of the quarantine station. In 1936, he oversaw the inspection of 822 vessels as well as the medical examination of 56,985 crew and 28,321 passengers, making Boston the third busiest port in America behind New York and Los Angeles. While in the service his tours of duty included Germany, Greece, Cuba, Hawaii and several places in the United States. He retired from the service in 1941 with the rank of medical director.  For many years Sweet was a director of the National Mahaiwe Bank of Great Barrington. He died January 25, 1964, at his Berkshire Heights Road residence in Great Barrington, Vermont. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Great Barrington.[3]

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Alvin Randolph Sweeney - Years Served: 1927-1935




Alvin Randolph Sweeney was born in Grand Chenier, Cameron Louisiana on September 2, 1881, the fifth of 12 children born to Columbus Carter Sweeney and Aurelia Miller Sweeney. His father was a physician in Gran Chenier, LA and clearly influenced his son to choose the medical profession.   Dr. Sweeney was educated in private and public schools on these same islands, and taught school there before leaving to attend Acadia College in Lake Charles in 1900. After two years in Lake Charles he attended Texas Central University at Greenville, Texas, graduating in 1904. That same year he enrolled in Vanderbilt Medical School, transferred to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating in the class of 1908. [1] In 1908 he married Rilla Adele Ingram of Fort Worth, Texas.  He practiced in Port Arthur, TX and Enid OK before receiving his commission as an officer of the Public Health Service on March 3, 1913.  He became a passed surgeon May 13, 1918 and then promoted to Surgeon on May 7, 1922.[2]
Sweeney was made commanding officer of Gallops Island on January 3, 1927. During Sweeney’s tenure, communicable disease had seen dramatic declines which were maintained by his vigilant efforts to fumigate vessels and continue examining them for rats. In fiscal year 1927 Sweeney reported fumigation of vessels was done at the docks in Boston and occasionally at the quarantine anchorage. A total of 732 rats were recovered. Of these, 5 were Rattus norvegicus, 307 Rattus alexandrinus, and 420 Rattus rattus. All rats recovered were examined for plague but none were found infected. Sweeney noted that in view of the widespread prevalence of plague and the large number of vessels from plague-infected ports entering Boston the menace from this disease is apparent. The rat proofing of vessels to protect against the plague, was especially valuable under these conditions.[3]
In 1928 Sweeney made arrangements to care for the quarantine functions at the ports of Beverly, Salem, and Lynn, Plymouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts. At the two latter ports a local quarantine officer was appointed to take care of the work. In 1929 he saw an improved class of vessels entering Boston with many making progress in rat proofing thereby reducing the need for fumigation. In 1929 Sweeney’s staff inspected 1,047 vessels, 71,464 seamen and 47,534 passengers. A total of 25% of the passengers inspected were examined intensively for vermin infestation. The system of making combined quarantine and immigration inspection, inaugurated during his first year continued with satisfaction.  
At the Boston Quarantine Station 161 vessels were fumigated, Zyklon-B and cyanogen chloride being the fumigants used. Sweeney conducted experiments to determine the effect, if any, of these fumigants on foodstuffs. Experiments to determine the comparative efficiency of cyanide and carbon sulfide and tetrachloride gases were also made. [4] In 1931 Sweeney learned Congress authorized 24 hour quarantine service and this meant resources might be required to meet this higher standard of performance. On March 23, 1931 Sweeney urged the Surgeon General to provide the requisite resources for Boston to keep up with this anticipated expansion of services.[5] The Surgeon General’s office noted that increased service must be justified.  Sweeney quickly determined shipping companies could live with 16 hours of daily service so no resources would be needed to meet the congressional mandate.
Franklin Roosevelt nominated Sweeney to be Senior Surgeon and his position was confirmed in 1933 by the U.S. Senate.[6] Sweeney was relieved of command in Boston on August 1, 1935. The Boston Globe covered the luncheon celebration honoring his eight years of outstanding service. Sweeney took the opportunity to praise Boston for its world famous schools, and its vital economy at a time when the great depression was badly hurting the rest of the American economy. His eight year stay at Gallops Island was one of the longest assignments for any commanding officer in the U.S. Public Health Service history. Attending his farewell party was John F. Fitzgerald, a member of the Boston Port Authority who predicted greatly improved business for the port in the ensuing year.
Sweeney had numerous assignments in his busy quarantine career including Galveston, TX (August 11, 1915); St Louis, MO (December 3, 1916); Fort Worth, TX (assignment ended: April 27, 1918); Fayetteville, NC, (September 17, 1918 to June 30, 1919); Stapleton, NY, (July 18, 1919); Ellis Island, NY, (October 12, 1920); Port Arthur, TX (June 18, 1925). Boston, MA (1927 to 1935), and Philadelphia, PA (1935). [7]  He was a member of the Washington Health Council, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Medical Association,  Washington Medical Society, Association of Military Surgeons, American Public Health Association, and a 32nd degree Mason. He retired on October 1, 1945 and accepted a position as Superintendent of Gallinger Hospital, Washington, D. C., where he served until April 27, 1949, when he became ill. He died at the U. S. Marine Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland on April 17, 1954.



[5] Letter to Surgeon general from A.R. Sweeney, Surgeon, Medical Officer in Charge, dated March 23, 1891. National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, MD, Central Files, Boston Quarantine Station, folder 2210-95-180, Box 144.
[7] Boston Globe August 31, 1935, p. 7
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Friench Simpson - Years Served: 1924-1927



Friench Simpson Jr. was born October 7, 1877 in Columbus, Texas. He was the son of Friench Simpson and Virginia Ann Harbert. His father held a wide array of jobs including banker, lawyer, capitalist, farmer and a poet at varying times of his life.[1] He was able to send his children to college so Friench went to the University of Texas where he received his MD in 1903.[2] The following year, he completed his internship at St. Mary's Infirmary in Galveston, Texas. [3] He married Ruby Lee Williamson on September 20, 1906 in Colorado County, Texas.[4] Eight days later, he was commissioned an Assistant Surgeon on October 1, 1906. His first assignment was to Baltimore, Maryland.[5] On January 22, 1907 he was detailed to the Revenue Cutter “Perry” on which he traveled to Alaska. [6]
On October 26, 1909, Assistant Surgeon Friench Simpson was detailed to assist Rupert Blue in the work of eradicating plague infected squirrels in California.  Since 1903, the presence of bubonic plague among the ground squirrels was suspected, but it was not proven until the summer of 1908, when four naturally infected squirrels were found. Subsequent investigation during the fall of 1908, and spring of 1909, revealed a widespread epizootic. In April 1909, a well-organized campaign was inaugurated to control the infection and develop a plan for the complete eradication of the squirrel.  In May 1910 Simpson was placed in charge of the eradication program.[7] He achieved the rank of Passed Assistant Surgeon on October 6, 1910.[8] In 1911 he continued his plague work in San Joaquin Valley California where he was responsible for overseeing the work of 117 federal and state inspectors working in eight counties reporting to Rupert Blue who was in overall command.[9]  In 1913 Simpson published Public Health Report Number 122 titled Rat Proofing: Its Practical Application in the construction or repair of dwellings or other buildings.[10]
In fall of 1913 and the spring of 1914, Simpson was detailed to New York City to conduct industrial hygiene assessment of garment workers to determine their health and working conditions.[11] In 1914 Simpson was sent to New Orleans to help with the eradication of bubonic plague that broke out in that city.[12]  He was responsible for sanitary measures in one of nine sanitary districts created by the Public Health Service to fight the epidemic. On May 16, 1916 Simpson was given complete charge of the rat eradication program for the entire city of New Orleans, a duty he held until 1917 while still holding the pay grade of Passed Assistant Surgeon.[13] He registered for the draft on September 10, 1918 while in Columbia, South Carolina.[14] The following year, Simpson served as the Officer in Charge at the Columbia, South Carolina quarantine station where he worked until June 30, 1919. [15] In that same year he co-authored Public Health Bulletin #423 titled, Rodent Destruction on Ships.[16] On November 22, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Simpson to the position of Surgeon effective October 6, 1918. He was given a one month assignment at the Mobile, Alabama quarantine station in January 1919.[17]  From July 1, 1919 to 1922 Simpson was the Officer in Charge of the San Francisco, California quarantine station on Angel Island.[18] During that time he published an important article titled “Methods of Plague Control” where he urged public health officers across the nation to take action using on-shore strategies to rid American cities of rats.[19] On June 19, 1923, Simpson was assigned to the Rosebank, New York quarantine station where he worked until September 1, 1924.[20]
Friench Simpson served as the Boston quarantine station chief effective September 2, 1924 and ending in 1926.[21] In his first year in Boston the quarantine station consisted of an administration building, power plant,  quarters for the medical officer in charge, the pharmacist, the nurses, and the employees, hospital, laboratory, delousing plant, and barracks. The hospital consisted of two wards and 12 rooms; total capacity, 40. The barracks provided 1,272 bunks and 89 beds. Detention capacity was 1,361. Total capacity, including hospital was 1,401. Water was supplied through a main, and electric and telephone was available by cable from the mainland.  Based on his previous expertise with the plague, in January, 1925, Simpson began keeping records of the location of rats found dead following fumigations. Ninety-two vessels were examined for this purpose. Fifty-five vessels, or 59 per cent, were found without rats upon search after fumigation. The remaining 37 vessels yielded 511 rats, of which 332 were identified as Mus rattus and 179 as Mus alexandrinus.
In 1925, his staff of nurses and one inspector continued inspecting arriving steerage passengers for vermin. Only 15 persons, distributed among eight passenger vessels, were found louse infested in that year. These cases were deloused aboard while in quarantine without being removed to the quarantine station. Simpson attributed the low rate of infestation as compared with former years to the excellent preliminary inspection service conducted by service officers abroad in ports of departure, and to the cooperation of ships' officers who maintained a daily inspection service on-route, delousing vermin-infested steerage aboard before arrival. [22] No vessel arrived with quarantinable or suspected quarantinable disease aboard in 1925 or 1926.  Only one vessel was detained in quarantine. In 1926 Simpson also continued the inspection of third-class passengers for vermin. In 1926, three thousand one hundred and sixty-five persons, approximately 25 per cent, of arriving alien passengers were examined intensively for vermin. Only 15 individuals, all female, were vermin infested.  Simpson felt the thoroughness of the preliminary inspection conducted by medical officers of the Public Health Service abroad and the cooperation of ships' officers in disinfesting passengers on route were the chief reasons communicable disease cases were at an all-time low. [23]
In 1927 Simpson was transferred to the Marine Hospital in Mobile Alabama, a post he held for two years.[24] In 1929 Simpson was in charge of the Tampa, Florida quarantine station but was relieved of this assignment the following year.[25] On July 10, 1930 he was promoted to Senior Surgeon and was stationed in Oslo, Norway at the United States Consulate General.[26] From 1931 to August 31, 1932 he was the Senior Surgeon in Dublin in the Irish Free State.[27] On August 23, 1932 he was promoted to Medical Director and was transferred on September 1, 1932 to Naples, Italy.[28] From 1933 to 1936, the Official Register of the United States and the U.S. Census records indicate he was the Medical Director of the Fort Monroe, Virginia quarantine station.[29] From 1937 to 1940 he was the Medical Director for the Angel Island quarantine station in San Francisco, California – a fact confirmed in the U.S. Census tally of the island’s residents in 1940.[30] By 1943 he was listed as a medical director domiciled to Halletsville, Texas pending orders.[31]
He died of lobar pneumonia on August 21, 1950 and is buried in Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, Columbus, Texas.[32]



[4] Accessed online: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Simpson-2047
[14] Accessed online:  World War I Registration Card
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Henry W. Wickes - Years Served: 1923-1923




Henry W. Wickes was born May 22, 1869, the son of Peregrine and Henrietta Catharine Welsh Wickes of Maryland.  His father was a highly regarded Maryland judge who combined a quick, active, comprehensive intellect, and unimpeachable integrity with great administrative abilities.[1] Henry graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine on April 14, 1892 where he won the McKew Prize for medicine.[2]  He became an acting assistant surgeon of the U.S. Marine and Hospital Service on April 24, 1893 and then a year later commissioned as assistant surgeon on May 25, 1894.[3] On May 27, 1895 he married Josephine Craig.[4]
Wickes was a peripatetic surgeon who worked on many important assignments during his career. In the spring of 1896, he reported on a smallpox outbreak in Memphis, TN.[5] The next year he was transferred from his work in Baltimore to Boston.[6] On May 16, 1899, he successfully became a passed assistant surgeon.[7] Then six months later he was ordered to Glasgow, Scotland arriving on December 23, 1899. While in Glasgow he was responsible for enforcing the United States quarantine regulations on vessels departing for America. This work was the leading edge of the Service’s efforts to prevent the entry of communicable disease into America. In 1900, while working in Glasgow, he discovered the possible presence of plague bacillus in bone dust shipped from Bombay India.  Based on his remarkable discovery, Surgeon General Walter Wyman placed a halt on the importation of bone dust into the United States.[8]  
He was ordered to Reedy Quarantine station in Reedy Island Delaware (March 12, 1903- September 27, 1906).[9]  His next assignment took him to the New York City quarantine station (September 28, 1906-June 17, 1907).  While in New York, he was temporarily assigned to the nearby Perth Amboy, New Jersey station with a start date of June 18, 1907.[10] He was then ordered to New Orleans (April 8, 1908-November 1909).[11]  After New Orleans he was sent to Cairo, Illinois (November 1909-1912) [12] during which time he was promoted to the position of Surgeon.[13]  Wickes was briefly stationed in Boston in 1913 and during this time was ordered to perform examinations of immigrants arriving at New Bedford.[14] On September 9, 1914 he was then sent to Detroit, MI (1914-1916) but this work was cut short in 1916 when he was ordered to work on a special project to address the horrific infantile paralysis epidemic that struck thousands of children in New York City.[15] If this schedule was not enough to tire him out, it certainly affected his family. In the midst of all of these assignments his personal life took a beating. Although he and Josephine had two children - Henry Welsh Wickes Jr. (1902-1951), Josephine B Wickes (1909-1998) - their marriage apparently did not work out. They separated sometime prior to World War I. He met Willie Eugenia Henderson Wall from Erie Pennsylvania and they got married on December 28, 1916. They had one daughter, Madelon Barbara Wickes, born July 12, 1918.[16]
On June 4, 1919, Wickes was ordered to Buffalo, New York but was soon relieved of his duties there and shifted to work in Evansville, Indiana. [17] He was in charge of the Marine Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio (September 4, 1919-September 17, 1922) followed by an assignment to the Washington DC offices of the Public Health Service (September 18, 1922 –June 3, 1923).

On June 4, 1923 he received orders to become the fifth officer in charge at the Boston Quarantine station. During his tenure in Boston Wickes oversaw the completion of the station buildings that were under construction as a result of the typhus epidemic of 1921. With the aid of the local architect's office, the delousing outfit, sterilizers, and kitchen and dining room equipment for detention barracks were finished in time for the expected flood of immigrants on July 1, 1923.  The island did not have a salt-water fire-fighting system and Wickes felt such a system would be needed protect the island quarantine station.
In his 1923 report to the Surgeon General he noted that routine work of boarding and fumigating vessels and inspecting passengers had increased. The cooperation of the medical personnel of the shipping lines and of the service representatives stationed at points of embarkation was excellent. It was unnecessary to bring ashore a single immigrant or to hold in quarantine a single ship because of the presence of communicable disease – an outstanding accomplishment after over one hundred years of continuous incursions of communicable disease into the harbor. Wickes also managed a laboratory that was established at the Boston quarantine station for the examination of rats for plague. During 1923, his staff examined a total of 6,734 rats, including rats trapped at Boston, Mass., Weymouth, Mass., Providence, R. I., and a number taken from ships fumigated in Boston, and Portland, Maine. No plague-infected rats were found. [18]
On October 20, 1924 he was ordered to the Columbia River quarantine station in Astoria Oregon.[19] Henry W. Wickes died while employed at that station on July 20, 1926 at the untimely age of 57.[20]



[20] Oregon Death Index: 1898-2008 and JAMA August 28, 1926 Volume 87, Number 9, p. 687
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