| Sources |
- [S127] Advance, Long Island, 27 Nov 1936, p. 6.
- [S492] Wikipedia.org, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soper.
- [S104] 1910 Census, Census Place: Manhattan Ward 22, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1048; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 1390; Image: 924; FHL Number: 1375061.
- [S444] Passenger Lists, New York 1820-1957, Year: 1929; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: T715_4610; Line: 2; Page Number: 114.
Arrival Date: 19 Oct 1929; Ship Name: Volendam
- [S546] Passport Applications, 11 Feb 1893.
- [S129] 1930 Census, Census Place: Great Neck, Nassau, New York; Roll: 1461; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 140; Image: 199.0.
- [S542] New York Times, Obituary, 18 Jun 1948, p. 23.
DR G. A. SOPER DIES; FOUGHT EPIDEMICS
Sanitary Engineer, 78, traced 1904 Oyster Bay Outbreak to 'Typhoid Mary,' a Cook
Southampton, L.I., June 17—Dr. George A Soper, one of the nation's leading sanitation engineers, died today at the Southampton Hospital. His age was 78. Inactive because of illness for several years, he had been residing with a son, George A. Soper, Jr., at Cedar Grove, Hampton Bays.
Dr. Soper was perhaps best known for his discovery of the famous typhoid carrier, "Typhoid Mary." His pioneer work on cancer and his rehabilitation work at Galveston, Tex., after the devastating storm of 1900, also were noteworthy.
Born in this city, a son of George A. and Georgianna Lydia Buckham Soper, he received a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., in 1895. At Columbia University he won an A.M. (1898) and a Ph.D. (1899).
Beginning as a civil engineer with the Boston Water Works, Dr. Soper soon began to specialize in filtration work, traveling to manyparts of this country as engineer of the Cumberland Manufacturing Company, builders of filtration equipment.
In 1900, a hurricane which reached a velocity of 135 mile an hour virtually destroyed Galveston. Some 5,000 lives were lost and property damage amounted to $17,000,000.
Success in Ithaca
Dr. Soper was sent to the scene as engineer in charge of sanitary reconstruction work. Highly commended for his efforts, he was made sanitary engineer for the New York City Department of Health (1902). In 1904 he was called by the state as an expert to take charge inthe work of suppressing a thyphoid epidemic in Ithaca, N.Y. His success there led to his being called by many other cities for similar duties.
"Typhoid Mary," the first carrier of typhoid bacilli identified in America, was found by Dr. Soper after an epidemic of typhoid in Oyster Bay, :.I., in 1904. Asked to trace the cause, he tested the water, inspected the plumbing, investigated the milk supply and carried out other studies with out positive results.
Learning that a new cook, a certain Mary Mallon, had been employed in one family affected by the disease, he traced her references through employment agencies for ten year back, and found that in every place she had worked, but one, there had been a typhoid outbreak.
He order her confined. She was taken to North Brother Island in the East River while the matter was investigated. It was discovered that, though immune herself, "Typhoid Mary" was a human culture tube, a peripatetic breeding ground for the disease. "Mary" died on the island in 1938.
Because of her confinement, thanks to Dr. Soper, millions of persons had lived in greater security.
Dr. Soper's next job was a thorough study of the ventilation system of the New York subways, which he did for the Transit Commission, completing a serious of more than 5,000 analysis and recommending the plan eventually adopted.
As a commissioner of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission of New York and as president and director of its scientific work bureau, he drew up comprenhensive plans for sewage disposal. Thereafter he was called upon by the city of Chicago for the same kind of work, and in 1914 and 1915 drew water supply and sewage disposal plans there.
Studied Atlantic Ice Conditions
After the sinking of the liner Titanic in 1912 through the collison with an iceberg, Dr. Soper made a study of the situation in respect to drifiting ice in the Atlantic.
In 1923, he was named managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer [now the American Cancer Society], serving actively until 1928 and thereafter as a consultant. During this period his efforts received wide publicity. He was the author of many articles on the subject an a leader in driving for control funds and public recognition of the cancer menace.
In 1929 Dr. Soper went abroad to study health and sanitation methods in foreign cities, and compare them to those in New York. The result was a booklet in which, as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a fellow of the American Public Health Association, he found much to criticize here.
"Fundamental changes in the street cleaning and refuse collection and disposal system of New York must be made if it is to be put on an efficiency plane comparable to the best European practice," he stated. In the matter of controlling litter, he found the methods of Munich, Germany, better than those of New York.
The result of his efforts was the introduction of the present covered sanitation wagons.
Dr. Soper served as a major in the Sanitary Corps of the Army during the first World War. He was a member of many scientific and engineering societies.
Besides the son with whom he lived, he leaves his wife, Mrs. Eloise Liddon Soper; another son, Harvey McLeod Soper, and a sister, Mrs. Georgianna Alberta Talbot of Pasadena, Calif.
- [S889] Yale Journal of Medicine & Law, viewed; 4 June 2011; v. 6, # 6. http://www.yalemedlaw.com/2010/02/america-home-of-the-healthy-land-of-the-free/.
- [S542] New York Times, 14 Mar 1911.
Sewage Polluting the Oyster Beds
Dr. Soper Tells of Discoveries of Sewerage Commission in City Waters.
"The inadequacy of the present sewerage system of the metropolitan section and the dangers resulting from pollution of the tidal waters in and about New York were set forth by Dr. George A. Soper, President of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission, before the New York Academy of Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History last night. ..."
- [S761] OpenLibrary.org, viewed; 4 June 2011; http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2406737A/George_A._Soper.
The air and ventilation of subways; 3 editions - first published in 1908
Modern methods of street cleaning; 2 editions - first published in 1909
The pollution of New York harbor: a paper read before the Boston society of civil engineers; 1 edition - first published in 1908
A report to the Chicago Real Estate Board on the disposal of the sewage and protection of the water supply of Chicago, Illinois; 1 edition - first published in 1915
- [S542] New York Times, 25 Dec 1910, Sunday Supplement.
New York’s Sewage Problem A Hard One To Handle: Dr. George A. Soper, President of the Commission Dealing with It, Tells of Its Difficulties and What Is Being Done to Remedy It
“I suppose,” said Dr. George A. Soper of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission, regretfully, “that the question of sewage and garbage disposal is not thought by the average person to be very interesting. As a matter of fact, it is no less interesting than a surgical operation and quite as necessary. ...”
- [S890] Primary Sources: Workshops in American History, visited ; 4 June 2011; http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/disease/docs/soper.html.
- [S891] Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: McLeod, visited; 4 June 2011; http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/mcleod-1.html.
This source indicated a marriage date of July 19, 1905. This would seem to be unlikely, considering the ages of their children recorded in the 1910 census. Another source indicated 1895.
- [S24] Genealogy Com., http://genforum.genealogy.com/soper/messages/426.html.
Posted by: Jack/Nancy Soper, 2 April 2002. Said to be from the 'New Soper Compendium' by Dawn and her late husband, Dr. Earl F. Soper.
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1870 - 1948 (78 years)
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