In October of 1898, physicians in Laredo, Texas began treating what they thought to be an outbreak of chicken pox. With the death of a child they realized that the disease was smallpox. Three months later more than 100 cases of smallpox were recorded in Laredo.
The State Health Officer recommended house-to-house vaccination, fumigation or destruction of personal effects and establishment of a quarantine house.
A poorer section of town was targeted, but the residents began resisting the vaccination and fumigation efforts. At last a detachment of Texas Rangers arrived in Laredo to ensure that regulations were followed. Not a good choice, as it turned out. Latin Americans on the Border hated Texas Rangers, who broke down doors and forced vaccinations, fumigations, and removal of persons to the quarantine house. One police officer was hit by a stone; another got a shotgun blast to his leg.
Ranger Captain Rogers too a squad in to the barrio in search of a cache of ammunition. At the house of one Agapito Herrera resistance came to a head. Herrera tried talking with Captain Rogers. Then a boy appeared in the doorway and shouted, “Ya.” Gunfire broke out. Herrera wounded Rogers in the shoulder. Other Rangers immediately shot Herrera. One Ranger walked across to where Herrera lay and fired two bullets into his head. The gunfire erupted into a riot. The Rangers retreated to Market Square and called on a nearby US Cavalry Squad to help.
The epidemic raged for the next two months with many children dying, but then slowed. By May 1 the quarantine was lifted.
Texas suffered from other tropical diseases during that century. Yellow Fever along coastal areas, cases of dengue, and malaria declined by the 1930s. More recent diseases such as influenza, polio, and St. Louis Encephalitis took their places.
I’m indebted to the Handbook of Texas Online for bringing the smallpox epidemic to my attention.