Typhoid Mary in Oyster Bay
Mary Mallon worked as a cook in and around New York City between 1900 and 1907. August 4, 1906, Charles Henry Warren, a wealthy New York banker, hired Mary as their family cook. In the summer of 1906, the Warrens rented George Townsend’s home in Oyster Bay and Mary Mallon came along. (George Townsend’s home is by the high school).
From August 27 to September 3rd, six of the eleven people in the house came down with typhoid fever.
According to three Oyster Bay doctors typhoid fever was a rare and unusual occurrence.
The Townsends worried they’d be unable to rent their house and hired George Soper to investigate.
June 15, 1907, his investigation was published in the American Medical Association Journal where Soper said he believed soft clams might be the source of the outbreak.
He wrote: "It was found that the family changed cooks on August 4th three weeks prior to the epidemic. She only worked for the family a short time, leaving three weeks after the outbreak.
She was described as being Irish about 40 years of age, tall, heavy, single. She also seemed to be in perfect health."
Soper later apprehend Mary Mallon in NYC. She was placed in isolation on North Brother Island not once, but twice.
