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Quarantines Used To Include The 'Pest House'

Texas General Land Office

Hunt County Historical Commission chairman Carol Taylor discusses the existence in the 19th and earl 20th centuries of the "pest (for pestilence) house" in many communities, where people with highly contagious diseases were taken to be treated.  In her blog, she writes about a pest house in Virginia where the mortality rate decreased from 50 percent to 5 percent.  Greenville had a pest house where wealthy businessman Tom King went to recover from smallpox.

John Mark Dempsey is the host of the public interest program The Blacklands Café from KETR News. Dempsey is also the play-by-play announcer for Commerce Tigers Football on 88.9 FM and on ketr.org.
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