Depending on when you were born, you may have a small circle scar on your upper arm as a reminder of your smallpox vaccine. In 1972, it was determined the vaccine was no longer needed and it stopped being administered to children

Looking through cemetery records, it is obvious that many deaths around the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century near Atlanta were due to smallpox. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the discussions regarding vaccines, I found a similarity with discussions of smallpox vaccine from about 130 years earlier.

There were people on both sides of the smallpox vaccine debate in Georgia. A September 7, 1891, Atlanta Constitution column titled “Against Vaccination” featured a lengthy letter from a citizen strongly opposed to vaccination and Atlanta’s rule that students could not attend without vaccination.

The letter is followed by an explanation and opinion by Dr. J. B. Baird, secretary of the board of health. “The more the people become enlightened, the more they believe in it and know its worth, and if wanted of its benefits to humanity, thousands and thousands can be given.”

Nine years earlier Atlanta’s Superintendent of Schools, William Franklin Slaton, stated that every child in Atlanta schools was vaccinated against smallpox. When one student’s family asked for her not to be vaccinated, she was removed from school. (Atlanta Constitution, April 28, 1882)

A notice titled “Public Schools” on August 31, 1882, informed the public that the “Office of Superintendent, 75 E. Mitchell, will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the next three days. Persons applying for school tickets must bring certificate of vaccination.”

Whether the vaccine was required or even available to the small communities surrounding Atlanta, I do not know. I do know that smallpox was causing devastation to these communities.

At Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Brookhaven, Solomon Goodwin was buried in 1849 and is believed to have died of smallpox. Goodwin was later reinterred on Goodwin land along Peachtree Road only to be later moved back to Nancy Creek Cemetery.(“The History of DeKalb County, Georgia 1822-1900, Vivian Price)

In Dunwoody, the Bennett-Rainey cemetery and Donaldson cemetery had their beginnings around the time of a smallpox epidemic. The Bennett-Rainey cemetery was referred to as a smallpox cemetery by Franklin Garrett, Atlanta historian who documented cemeteries in DeKalb County in 1931. (Atlanta History Center, Franklin Garrett necrology, 1931) Fannie Adams, Lonnie Adams, Maggie Adams, and Minnie Adams all succumbed to the disease around 1884 and 1885 and are buried at Bennett-Rainey Cemetery, a small, unmarked cemetery along North Shallowford Road.

The Donaldson cemetery, adjacent to Donaldson-Bannister Farm, includes the grave of Nuty A. Donaldson who died in 1883. She was the daughter of original owners William J. Donaldson and Millie Adams Donaldson. On her marker are the words “died from smallpox.”

Smallpox began over 3,000 years ago according to cdc.gov. History tells us that Spanish Explorer Hernando de Soto brought smallpox to Mexico in 1520. The first smallpox epidemic in New England occurred in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.

Native Americans of Georgia were hit hard by smallpox outbreaks in 1735 and 1759.

Dr. Edward Jenner’s discoveries in 1796 led to a vaccine. Concentrated efforts by the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox began in 1959. By 1966, smallpox was considered eliminated in North America and Europe. The Intensified Eradication Program began the next year and in 1980 the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.

The November 25, 1974 Atlanta Constitution carried the headline, “Within a Few Months Smallpox Will Have Been Wiped Out.” They reported that 43 countries had outbreaks of smallpox in 1967 and that number had been reduced to four countries in 1974.