BIOS

Mr. Morris served in the U.S. Army and Marines. He was in the Spanish American War.

He was a volunteer for Dr. Walter Reed for the Yellow Fever vaccine. He was stationed in Quemados, near Havana, Cuba.

In Mr. Morris' own words, "They said that the volunteers who got the fever would be paid $200. If they didn't get it, they'd be paid $100.

Well, I volunteered and stuck my hand through an opening in a canvas bag where they kept the misquotos and it felt like lighted matches. It sure was a funny feeling, and in eight or ten hours I was stretched out like a log. I was a $200 man they told me."

Before being exposed to the misquotoes, he and his colleagues spent 21 miserable, agonizing days in a closed room to test the common theory that yellow fever could be contracted from "fomites"- the soiled bedding and clothing of pervious victims.

They slept on filthy and blood stained sheets and covered their pillows with towels soiled with the blood and vomit of fever victims. At time the stench was enough to drive them out, but always they returned. Not one contracted yellow fever.

Then they were returned to another room, where they were exposed to the misquotoes. It didn't take long for Mr. Morris and most of the other men to come down with the disease.

"I thought I was a goner. Most of the time I'd shake so bad that I could hardly stand it. We couldn't take food when our fever was high, so they kept giving us shots of whiskey."

Of the 17 volenteers to contract the disease, five died within a few days. Mr. Morris lay a month on his hospital cot before responding to the treatments of Dr. Reed and his associates, Drs. Jessie Lazear, James Carroll and Aristides Agramonte.

"Boy, when I got out of that hospital, I sure had a good time with that $200."

Dr. Reed commented:"In my opinion, the courage exhibited by these men has never been surpasses in the annals of the Army of the United States."

On April 16, 1906. Mr. Morris was a Master Sergeant in the Medical Corps. at the Presidio in San Francisco, Ca. He was asleep in his barracks when he heard an ominous rumbling. A closet fell and injured his right arm in the Great Earthquake.

Mr. Morris died on 8-21-1957, leaving his widow, Mary Jane, a daughter, Jennie Buller and a stepson, Lloyd Wagner, and 5 grandchildren, Joan Wagner, Michael Wagner, Jenalee Buller, Janet Buller and Justine Buller.

Parts of this story was taken from an article in the Reading Eagle newspaper. Dated July 26, 1950. Mr. Morris was my grandfather.