News & Notes
President ’ s Message
By Pamela Baird MVHA President
This newsletter is published four times a year by the MOUNTAIN VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION P . O . Box 252 , Mountain View , CA 94042 www . mountainviewhistorical . org
MVHA Board of Directors
President : Pamela Baird Vice-President : Robert Cox Secretary : Jamil Shaikh Treasurer : Emily Ramos Past President : Nicholas Perry Historical Data : Candace Bowers Publicity : Marina Marinovich Membership : IdaRose Sylvester Newsletter : John Cortez Ways & Means : Mark Perry Director-at-Large : Lisa Garcia Director-at-Large : Gil Lane
Newsletter Copy Editor : Cynthia Hanson Newsletter Graphic Designer : Nicholas Perry
MVHA Board of Directors Email : info @ mountainviewhistorical . org Voicemail : ( 650 ) 903-6890
Well , here we are again . As I write this the Omicron variant is surging . The number of new COVID cases in the US is at an all-time level — more than any other time of the pandemic . A local school district is asking
Pamela Baird parents to volunteer because of staff shortages .
Testing opportunities are hard to �ind . Stanford delayed in person classes by three weeks . When will this end ?
Diseases have changed the course of history in many areas of the world . Repeated waves of bubonic plague that swept Europe from 1300 – 1700 killed 20 – 30 % of the population and is thought to have upended civic , social , and church organizations . The many diseases that Europeans brought to the New World killed up to 90 % of the native populations , destroying many civilizations .
In 1793 , Philadelphia suffered a cholera epidemic that killed 10 % of its population . In the 1800s , over 20 outbreaks of yellow fever occurred in the American South . In 1777 , George Washington ordered the inoculation of the troops against smallpox , a devastating disease that was rapidly spreading among them .
But disease can affect people , families , and small communities as well . The namesake of our February 20 public meeting , Elisha Stephens , was a leader in the successful Murphy-Stephens wagon train crossing of the Sierras . The extended Murphy family decided to leave Missouri because of an outbreak of malaria , which killed two family members .
As many communicable diseases have been eradicated by better cleanliness , improved public water and sewage systems , and vaccines , many of us have no experience with people or families that have seen the effects of communicable diseases . My mother contracted polio when I was a baby . She spent six months in hospitals . Some of the time she was in an iron lung , which helped her breathe . Polio left her with profound disabilities that made every day a struggle .
Two brothers of my husband ’ s father died of typhus on the same day when they were little boys in coal country Pennsylvania . The sister of my uncle ( by marriage ) died at the age of 18 from tuberculosis in rural Nebraska . All of these diseases can or have been prevented or eliminated by modern medicine .
The many lives that have been lost ( or changed ) remind us how precious every life is to each family and community . Let us be thankful that science has been able to protect us , our families , communities , and country against the devastation of disease .
— Pamela
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