Skip to main content

Great Sanitary Awakening 1850-1880

Salt Lake County’s earliest public health directives were influenced by the way people thought about disease and medicine at the time. In 1852, the same year that Utah settlers were establishing an official county government, a statistician and bookseller in Massachusetts named Lemuel Shattuck published a report on the connections between disease and poverty in urban spaces. Shattuck was part of what historians call the “great sanitary awakening,” when U.S. and U.K. public officials started to think of disease outbreaks and high mortality rates as the direct result of densely-populated and unsanitary living conditions. At this time, health officials also still believed in a “miasma” theory of disease, where foul air was seen as a primary vector of illness.

Links

A large house with a few people sitting on the porch.

County’s First Infirmary

The county’s first infirmary and poor farm was located at the heart of county health department history - today 2001 South State Street. (Image courtesy of the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah.)

Welfare & Poor Farms

Because of these ideas emerging in the 1850s, early Utah ideas about public health were inextricably tied to poverty. According to the county government’s very first meetings documented in the first ledger, it was the goal of the government to care for the poor and needy through public funds. In fact, the earliest name for the county health department was named the Department of Health, Welfare, and Charity. In these early days, individual families were reimbursed by the county for providing shelter and care for “indigent” – meaning poor or homeless – locals.

By 1886, increased demand for social welfare led to the county establishing a poor farm and infirmary just outside the city boundaries. “Poor farms” were common across America and grew out of English poverty law practices. They essentially provided the mentally ill, elderly, disabled, and impoverished a place to receive care, shelter, and sometimes work. Poor farms were usually built outside of town so as to keep the residents – called “inmates” – socially separated from urban life. Salt Lake County’s poor farm and infirmary was located at the modern-day site of the county government center on 2001 S. State Street.

A group of horses pulling a carriage.

Garbage Wagons

Thanks to public pressure, public officials removed decaying waste from the streets. At this time, foul air was believed to be the main cause of disease. (Image used by permission, Utah Historical Society.)

Sanitation & Waste

Even with a poor farm and infirmary established, health and disease was a concern for the county government. Officials appointed a county physician, James Gordon, as early as 1856 to oversee the regulation of disease outbreaks. But locals still expressed concern about sanitation in the city, which was becoming a less and less appealing place to live.

An open letter written in 1888 by Deseret Evening News editor, Charles W. Penrose, described Salt Lake City as a place constantly reeking of human waste. Rotting fruit and other trash lined many streets, and as Penrose wrote, “The City-Council can take measures to abate all such nuisances. A general inspector with a few assistants and a few dump carts can keep this city as clean and as wholesome as any on the continent.”

By 1890, the Salt Lake City council finally considered a health ordinance that would officially create a board of health staffed by physicians to address the environmental and public safety of the city. These health officers would ensure that water was clean, dairy was safe, animals were regulated and disease-free, and that Salt Lake City was a nice place to live. The new position of Chief Inspector, appointed by the mayor with a salary of $1,500, would “inspect the entire city and engage all the necessary assistance to remove garbage, decaying animal or vegetable matter…. [and] suppress all business detrimental to public health.” Many of these directives are still carried about by the county health department today.

SCOPE OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT IS RAPIDLY EXPANDING NOTABLE IMPROVEMENTS MADE WITHIN THE PAST FEW YEARS D'VISION OF THE SALT LAKE CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

The Health Department Grows

As early as 1890, the public decried urban waste and sanitation. By the 1910s, the county health department greatly expanded to address community health. (Image from the Salt Lake Tribune, August, 1915.)

Sources

  • All photos courtesy of the Salt Lake County Archives unless otherwise noted.
  • "Local News," Deseret News, March 31, 1886.
  • "The Health Ordinance," Deseret Evening News, March 22, 1890.
  • "The Health Ordinance," Deseret Weekly, April 5, 1890.
  • Salt Lake County First County Ledger Book, 1852-1855. Salt Lake County Archives.
  • Institute of Medicine. 1988. The Future of Public Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
  • Larry Decker, Celestia Cragun, Amy McCormick, Jeff Wood. 2005. "History of Salt Lake County." Salt Lake County Auditor's Office, Internal Auditor's Division.