The smallpox outbreak of 1912 lasted until July. During the time of the epidemic, not one Willimantic resident died from smallpox. This was in large part attributed to the unselfish and heroic efforts of three people who  had volunteered to remain at the isolation hospital for the duration of the epidemic. Doctor William P.S. Keating was the City Health Officer and had been a surgeon in the Spanish American War and WWI. Nurse Ryan had training and experience in caring for smallpox patients and  had worked together with Dr. Keating several years before that in the isolation hospital in Manchester.  Frank Brooks, the cook,  was a Willimantic resident who had been in the British Army and had cared for smallpox patients in Turkey. These three remained at the hospital for its entire twenty-two week operation. During that time approximately one hundred people were admitted to the hospital. Six of the patients had “very serious” cases of smallpox. Dr. Keating also had to perform surgery on three patients. Besides the patients from Willimantic, eight patients from the Windham area also received care. After the hospital closed in July, the city appropriated $5,000. to be used as a contingency fund to care for any future smallpox cases, to return the isolation hospital building to good condition and to pay any outstanding accounts. Shamefully, however, the one bill that was not paid, but rather had been held up and sent from one committee to another was the one submitted by Dr. Keating. In July, he submitted a bill for $4469.96 for his services. It had not been paid as of the end of August. Local citizens and the newspapers took up the cause. People could not understand why the man who had to “bear the brunt of the work” had not been compensated. One newspaper article said that no other physician would have done that job “for any figure” and that the $200 per week Dr. Keating requested was “little enough for an expert on smallpox”. The doctor who had replaced Dr. Keating as the city health officer for the duration had received not only a salary but an extra $600.  Doctor Keating, in his private notes of August 12, 1912 wrote, “Met with Mayor and Corporation Council for a conference over my salary for services during small pox epidemic, could not confirm. Saw lawyer Kelly in regard to it, he asked me to put in my bill to city clerk and let it take its usual courses. Meeting of Common Council, nurses bill ordered paid. My bill referred to committee on smallpox.” On October 11, 1912, Doctor Keating again met with the Mayor and Aldermen and was finally paid $3,500 on October 16,1912. This week’s photo, from Dr. Keating’s album,  shows Dr. Keating , Nurse Ryan and Cook Frank Brooks at the hospital.