Hungerford Small Pox Epidemic Changes Ontario Health Care

In 1884, Andrew Sinclair Sr. (1829-1899) endured the devastating loss of multiple family members during a virulent smallpox outbreak that swept through Hungerford Township in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada. A case of the ‘black measles’ was misdiagnosed in Belleville and the carrier returned home to the isolated rural community just in time for harvesting season. As neighbour helped neighbour the spread was tragically accelerated, resulting in at least 200 local infections and over 45 local deaths. This number was only reflective of recorded statistics in Hungerford, Sheffield, Elzevir and Kaladar townships: the local churches, cemeteries and family records indicate a higher number of fatalities.

SMALL POX - Variola Virus

The illness would begin innocuously enough with a high fever, headache and fatigue. The situation would turn dire as the characteristic rash appeared on the mouth and face - fulling with pus, bursting and scabbing over. It was highly contagious, disfiguring and deadly with a mortality rate of 30%.[1]

British Dr. Edward Jenner was the creator of the first successful vaccine in 1796. He pioneered the smallpox vaccine and successfully proved that immunity could be achieved through inoculation. By 1861, Canada, still a British North American Colony, had ‘in theory’ adopted the Victorian ‘Vaccination Act’ which made smallpox injection mandatory for infants. In Canada, with a lack of centralized government, large distances and a rural population - vaccination remained voluntary and many were uneducated about its benefits.

A NEW PROVINCIAL HEALTH BOARD

Smallpox made its way through several communities in the late 19^th century including Windsor (1882), Ayr (1883), Peterborough (1883), Prince Arthur’s Landing (1883-1884) and Hungerford Township, Hastings (1884).

Ontario developed a Provincial Board of Health in 1882 under Prime Minister Oliver Mowat. It was comprised of a group of medical professionals. Their first challenge would come with multiple small pox outbreaks across the constituency.

A Public Health Act was enacted May 1884 that ordered all municipalities to create a local Public Health Board. It further granted the Provincial Board of Health, chaired by Dr. William Covernton, oversight and discretionary powers in crisis situations.[2]

Under the new health laws intervention from the Provincial Board was deemed necessary to prevent the epidemic in Hungerford from spreading to other areas in the province.[3]

THE HUNGERFORD SMALL POX TIMELINE (October – December 1884)

Summer 1884  - A case of smallpox misdiagnosed in Belleville as black measles

September 1884  - Victim moves home to Hungerford Region

October 1884       -  Small pox outbreak among the harvesting/farming community

Hungerford was an isolated and sparsely populated rural township that had no public health organization.  The few local doctors were put off by the inability of the poorer farmers to pay them for their practices and in turn confined victims to the ‘poorer farms in the francophone part of the township.’[4]

17 November 1884  -  Telegram from Dr. W.A. Dafoe in Madoc to Provincial Public Health

                               Board Secretary Peter Bryce reporting the epidemic.

Nov 18-December -  Secretary Bryce visits Tweed to develop local health boards.

December 1884      -  Inspectors, Sanitary Police, Medical Officer of Health Dr. T.E. Pomeroy from the University of Toronto travelled the Region to vaccinate the healthy, open isolation hospitals in Stoco and Marlbank, close the rail and road transportation to and from the area and control ‘what has been the severest outbreak of smallpox, which in so short a space of time, has within the past years afflicted any single locality in Ontario.” [5]

Public meetings were banned and schools closed. Local churches provided charity as the farming community reeled from economic fallout from the loss of the harvest.  

The provincial coordinated intervention was a success. The epidemic was over by early January.  The Township was billed $11,000 for the actions that would also benefit the rest of the province.[6] The Provincial Board would use these medical control practices on a wider scale with the 1885 outbreak in Montreal that would claim over 3000 lives.

By 1886, governmental medical services in Ontario were unrecognizable from before the outbreak. Local irregular practices were no longer applied. A health code framework required workers to practice under centralized supervision and to keep consistent records. The government entered the medical market as a producer, supplier and provider of medical services in order to stabilize the quality and reliability of supplies. This crisis also saw the Public Board initiate public education about  health safety.

THE SINCLAIR/RODGERS TRAGEDY

Near the beginning of October it is likely that the Sinclair and Rodgers families celebrated Thanksgiving. Two weeks, end of October, later the virus would have started with Andrew’s son William Sinclair (43) with fever and aches, grandson Richard was next to contract the virus and then in daily succession, Andrew Sinclair Jr, his daughter-in-law Mary Jane, 2 year old grandson James, wife Mary (Rogers) Sinclair, granddaughter Mary and then a week later (possibly as they had assisted the family when they were ill) niece Anna and nephew William contracted the deadly illness. From 08 November until 27 November – they all died. Not done with devastation and grief, illness would claim another granddaughter, Mary Ruth would in mid-December.

While Ontario gained a modern public health system from the tragedy, the personal cost to Andrew Sinclair Sr. and his family was immeasurably high. Other names in the community that experience death: Canniff, Cassibo, Hughes, Pool, Wilson, Foley, Dolan, Deshane, Flynn, Huffman, Morrow, Woodcock, Palmer, Cavally and MacDonald.

Smallpox was declared irradicated 08 May 1980. It is the only human disease to ever be completely resolved.

Acknowledgement to the Ontario Heritage Trust Provincial Plaque information. A bilingual plaque was presented 22 October 2009 to the Tweed & Area Historical Society recognising THE HUNGERFORD SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1884.  It can be viewed at the Lions Hungerford Hall, Tweed, Ontario, Canada.

[1] “Smallpox.” World Health Organization, 2026, webpage (www.who.int/health-topics/smallpox#tab=tab_1:

     accessed 02 March 2026.

[2]  47 Victoria Cap. 38 Pt. 1, Sec. 3 established the powers of the Provincial Board of Health to make

    regulations for the prevention or mitigation of disease “whenever this Province or any part thereof or place

    therein appears to be threatened with any formidable epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease …”.

[3] “Special Report on the Hungerford Outbreak”, Sessional Papers #25, 1885, (hereafter cited as Sessional

     Papers/25).

[4] Sessional Papers/25, 2; Weekly Intelligencer (Belleville) 20 November 1884; Newspaper Hansard 4 February

  1885. Although the Provincial Board of Health initially endeavoured to use local physicians to control

   epidemics, reliable service was not always available and some doctors were not willing to undertake

   hazardous temporary work for the province that might effect their private practice and regular livelihood.

[5]  Ibid footnote 4.

[6] Newspaper Hansard 4 February 1885, AO R.G. 8 I-1-D 1686/1885; and Sessional Papers 25/1885.