A Wide-Open Town: Ogden and Public Health

Ogden has long been described as an untamed and wide-open town where people could indulge in any vice within walking distance from the train station. It was said that Twenty-Fifth Street was so well known across the country that one could just address a letter to Twenty-Fifth Street with no city or state and it would arrive in Ogden. Along with the reputation came health issues that the city and state governments struggled to deal with. The rise in venereal diseases during the 1940s and 1950s was so prevalent that the federal government became involved in order to protect the health and wellness of the servicemen traveling through Ogden or stationed at one of the military installations in the area.During the Progressive Era in the United States, health care began to highlight preventative medicine. Most medical professionals felt that it was better to avoid illness than treat it. They proposed education over treatment by including discussions of diseases in biology classes, including venereal diseases. During World War I, the military viewed venereal disease as a threat to military efficiency, and the education-only treatment became a problem. Venereal disease was a threat to soldiers’ morality, the same men who were defenders of democracy and freedom. According to the historian Allan Brandt, the Medical Department of the Army reported that “a total of 383,706 soldiers were diagnosed with either syphilis, gonorrhea, or chancroid between April 1917 and December 1919. . . . A case of venereal disease cost the Army about seven dollars per day for approximately thirty-three days. Thus venereal diseases during the war cost the government almost fifty million dollars.”1 The government went as far as trying to close houses of prostitution near army bases during the war to combat the problem. Ultimately, the Army Medical Group emphasized prophylaxis (disease prevention) instead of abstinence. They established stations staffed by military personnel to hand out condoms to soldiers.Following the war, the idea of handling venereal disease shifted from education and encouraging self-control to government intervention to combat this social problem. When Thomas Parran was appointed surgeon general by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, he resolved to bring venereal disease to national attention. Parran stated, “First and foremost among American handicaps to progress against syphilis . . . is the widespread belief that nice people don't talk about syphilis, nice people don't have syphilis, and nice people shouldn't do anything about those who have syphilis.”2 He advocated for not only better education but also treatment for diseases across the country. This helped lead to the discovery of penicillin and its widespread use by the military in 1944. Military planners and medical staff knew that education and abstinence wouldn't work during World War II, so they began to seek to regulate prostitution and provide early treatment to soldiers and prostitutes alike.Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the federal government had a minimal presence in northern Utah with the Ogden Arsenal, which was built after World War I to house ammunition and weapons from the war. With the growing threat of war in Europe, the government chose northern Utah to be the site for three new military bases: Hill Field, Clearfield Supply Depot, and Defense Depot Ogden. These installations brought thousands of servicemen and civilian workers into the area. The men would often head into Ogden for recreation that could include a cold beer, a poker game, or even the company of a woman.Ogden had attracted commercialized prostitution since the coming of the railroad in 1869. Belle London (also known as Dora Topham) first appeared in the city in 1888 and grew her business to become the most profitable madam in town. It was said that she ran the city and had government officials and police in her back pocket. Belle was so well known that in 1909, Salt Lake City approached her to run its stockades in the north end of the city. She was only there for two years before the political climate changed and she was forced to move back to Ogden. She left Utah in 1920, but other madams and prostitutes took her place.The Ogdenite, a local publication by Hugh F. O'Neil, wrote about prostitution in 1940. On the north side of Twenty-Fifth Street, behind the buildings, was Electric Alley. This area was filled with one-room cribs where the prostitutes would entertain their clients. The cribs would often have just “a bed, wash basin and lysol, bureau and a chair in which the guest is taken by the girl of his choice.” During the height of prostitution in Ogden, hundreds of women engaged in the occupation, and they could be found not only on Electric Alley but also at brothels, bars, and taverns and even walking the streets. “Prices charged in the houses of prostitution are $2.00, paid in advance, and the streetwalkers usually charge $1.00.”3The prevalence of prostitution led Ogden to recognize the need to treat the increase in venereal diseases as early as 1920. During a health board proceeding for the city, one Dr. Nelson reported that “venereal diseases were being treated at the office of Dr. Whalen in the Eccles building instead of the clinic room at City Hall and recommended that this be continued as it was more satisfactory to handle.”4 Up until the 1940s, the city health department would deal with venereal diseases through private practice and not run the cases through the clinic. This process of becoming more open about venereal disease was consistent with the broader national context. Brandt explains, “As the costs of venereal disease became clear, both public health and military officials sought to address the problem of these infections, transforming a previously secreted medical issue into a social dilemma.”5By the 1930s, the federal government, in the form of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), began investigating the rise of venereal diseases in Utah and sent field workers to examine the issues and search for solutions. In 1931, Newell Edson went to Utah and wrote back, “There is no venereal disease clinic in the state and no funds for venereal disease work in the state. The reporting on doctors is poor. Dr. [Theodore] Beatty feels it is impossible to get the legislature to recognize the importance of venereal diseases, and to make appropriations for it. The prostitution situation is very bad not only in Salt Lake City, but in other places.”6 Working with Edson and the American Social Hygiene Association, Utah looked into creating a state venereal disease clinic and encouraged cities to establish their own.During the 1931 visit, Edson also met with Milton Welling, Utah's secretary of state who had been in the legislature during the passage of the Chamberlain-Kahn bill and who talked about getting a treatment center in Utah. The bill was passed in 1918 to combat the spread of venereal disease during World War I. It gave the power to the government to quarantine any woman suspected of having a sexually transmitted disease (STD). A medical exam was necessary, and if it revealed an STD, it would constitute proof of prostitution. The women could be sentenced to a hospital until cured. The act made funds available to states that had laws that pertained to the control of venereal diseases. Utah had enacted a law in 1911 that required the reporting of syphilis and gonorrhea but lacked any funding for enforcement. The Chamberlain-Kahn act allowed those funds to be used for the reporting and education of disease prevention and treatment to Utah.Newell Edson returned and visited Ogden in 1933 and cited the rottenness of the situation in the city. He said it was “the worst in the state, where the city commissioner and the mayor have recently been indicted by the grand jury for connection with commercialized vice.”7 It turned out that Mayor Ora Bundy, Sheriff Amasa Hammon, Chief of Police A. E. Wilfong, police officers M. L. Christensen and L. W. Pack, Commissioner Fred E. Williams, and Deputy Sheriffs Jack Harbertson and Erastus Bingham were arrested and charged with violating the federal prohibition act. They were all found not guilty, as there was no evidence to support the conspiracy charge and no ability to prove any direct payments to the defendants. Nevertheless, this showed just one example of how the federal government worried about the close ties between Ogden's city officers and the vice that ran rampant in the streets.Nationally, social hygienists and Progressives differed in how they approached the problem of venereal disease. Social hygienists saw education as the answer, while Progressives tried to repress prostitution.8 By 1939, Ogden City recognized the need to control and prevent the spread of venereal disease. They funded the city health department to open a venereal clinic in downtown Ogden. The clinic officially opened in in the of the According to the Ogden in of those or has a increase to the where they are at in a field that has long been in public The clinic about with women the of but saw as as and as as The state and federal governments the for the which treatment and The clinic was open and from to They the need for for those who so they opened for one a first by the clinic was in 1940. She was a from the of and had on to public health According to was to talk with those The they they were with the gonorrhea or other they left town. They would just They were required to to the clinic and have an also that of the prostitutes would her to not recognize in the if she was in She a madam being arrested she had a They her in where had to her about one with Dr. who was for Dr. head of the one described the as very they would be they came in and tried to as as they could so they would not have a The police department gave to all prostitutes in Ogden that they had to have a on at They would the clinic office and for their The police that a exam would early and the of The problem as Dr. in by or be to be from venereal disease but they be and with they have with after This is not only it is the of World War II, the federal government became with the rise of venereal disease and of prostitution in In of visited Ogden to establish the Association and to a control with He met with people in the city over a of a and made the is a open town. are reported by Army on are the and . . . The of are city and The that of these were just two from the they attracted railroad the Army was a to the among soldiers by soldiers in the In the a at the gave medical not of with This the idea that people were and to seek treatment for the in other a to how Army approached in Ogden. to that the situation in Ogden was a one that Army officers saw as to to in the of a city Hill reported on a at Hill in by E. a venereal disease control at Hill The wrote that that per of the cases of venereal disease at Hill in came from prostitutes in the city of Ogden. . . . in Ogden . . . among and this problem be by civilian police than the soldiers where to these he police be to He recommended that the city a vice with the of to the in and The Ogden City to an that would women from taverns and other that become The situation the as the women were by the soldiers and taken back to their The military and houses to do vice on their They also would city police and the health department to more with the federal treatment center in Salt Lake the rise of venereal disease the government sought out medical treatment first appeared during World War The federal government became with the increase of venereal disease among soldiers in the United to the the military and civilian would deal with disease in by dollars and in for but do anything to the spread of the The first center was established in at in where the head of the of from the to into a A described the process this Army doctors a has a venereal he is at of his are and the are for a they have syphilis or if there is evidence of gonorrhea, they are taken to the hospital the of the funds were made available to state and local governments for the and of The were for and women in near military and of the Venereal wrote in a letter in that the were to provide treatment for prostitutes with a venereal were as the of the and women were its During World War II, the and at men in the to against having with prostitutes or of one a as a with syphilis and She was a threat to the war she men with the was to the treatment and had over in The required to there from a to with the being by an or The women were often to during their wrote about the treatment and the need for the treatment to have control over the of the medicine. all began to a of control over these to from the and control so that they could not their to control so that could be that they of the treatment that they so center in Salt Lake City was one of the to open in the country. It was established by at Street, and Dr. the head of the of that the center was the of the of prostitutes and women who have been found to have venereal The women would for for syphilis and three for that to has a of venereal and do not that they are the as as treatment was to The center was to use the police and quarantine power to any to to the arrive on their police would and the to the The treatment was a of an and into the for gonorrhea, penicillin was The center had a for and from all of the state. was to that treatment are an to by at the center so that they have to of a and These are an to in work was to the prostitutes who made the of the of this at a penicillin was found to be very in the control of venereal the military grew more about the situation in Ogden. The American Social Hygiene Association, with army met with Ogden including and health workers to the problem of local commercialized prostitution and the rise in venereal disease According to a that ran on one of the from the venereal at Hill is than the as a in the that if was to the of the and United would control of the L. D. the at Hill Field, an to the city to with military in Ogden's growing venereal disease problem or the of military According to are not getting the from the city . . . the the venereal disease became in Ogden, after an had been Mayor was in and said that he with the military officers most of the vice was being out in the of the city and he control military gave the to the city. The health department and police to work with the was police for a but it the officers said that the would not the women arrested for prostitution. The city, the army medical to a and near the The and would be by the army and the of Hill The need for that was to the on Twenty-Fifth Street, where there were for through or stationed in the area to a venereal Dr. in an in It a problem of the soldiers who were in and had in Ogden, and also came in from the from Hill the and Supply Depot, venereal disease and it became This made it to control that would be the process is to to the practice of which is a problem. it in the prostitutes from one to out of the and houses on Twenty-Fifth Street, close but they move out into the a house and all over federal government Ogden City officials to on prostitutes and women who taverns and On passed the to combat the prostitution problem The of the was to the of to the and civilian personnel by venereal disease. The act stated, it be within distance of any military or . . . to in prostitution or to or prostitution or to or for the of The military that local law prostitution in their so that it have to the a problem with prostitutes in Ogden. City to prostitution cases soldiers were to the which was to military The military to the of in on which they felt would the the its case it is just as to protect the far as I I not case that before be on its In the American Social Hygiene Association that prostitution was a profitable and often with local and of the of the of cases of gonorrhea in any is to its both the or and the of the of the in Ogden of commercialized vice was Mayor He to the the brought to the In he was out of office but found back the In field Hall reported on his with is the of the Army so I emphasized work with the military in the new He of was and the was a Hall went on to talk with who was the head of the of that was an and out and that the had tried to get out of but he came back The police department was also of personnel and far the The were being of the The cited the as an example of the of The that this “the of was to the this the to at of to be into the city they could back to their to the until they were on the to their that the city government would be the and health officials tried to combat the rise in prostitution and in military personnel by in recommended a be made of prostitution and in Ogden. He a on the Street, Twenty-Fifth Street, and The would be to military officials and city officials to use the as they could to prevent the spread of diseases. the venereal disease clinic officers at Hill would use the to the where prostitutes the for military the the venereal disease at Hill continued to According to the field of Hall in venereal disease has from in to approximately prostitution in Ogden about the I have reported this situation is the worst in the state. officials in their The police in Ogden a of and the vice and police officers were no by was a case of one that had at soldiers and had been through treatment but was in Electric Alley. was no used against her to get her out of The army continued to had a for venereal diseases that was and to the political climate in Ogden changed with the of a new was and and were They to commercialized prostitution in Ogden. In the Ogden that the of and made in Ogden taverns and by prostitutes and women during the local social were to these in the The of the health and with had a in the of venereal disease in problem shifted from professionals to women who would soldiers at and They often lacked the education of prostitutes to prevent the spread of disease. According to in his to the from the of women the could do to the by social The that the of a woman a the that she was more for the of the disease than With prostitution being out of the city, the problem of disease was to the at the and The reported that of all these that are are the of with the in the of to The city to these by not women into or taverns in that they wouldn't the military men as they went on Twenty-Fifth police and mayor were to the vice laws in all of Ogden A health department was to Ogden to bring in for and treatment who had been Ogden's use of a the military and social of the that men were to get at Hill Field, it was found to the rise in in military The was had his medical in but the Army during the war. He was stationed in and sent to Hill and Ogden to the clinic the of disease the military He was to work with the Ogden Police Department as the to the of town to bring in the described the had to prostitutes and their and civilian and military close he their and this to the and as well as law on vice was until was mayor of Ogden. The was that had been On he with at the Ogden and was of the in to the of the to work with the new of to back against trying to “the he could make for if he would to the said he would he could to out commercialized He to close Ogden's houses of prostitution and said it was a back, that it would be impossible to out prostitution in Ogden was for in to to get was a Army with as This as the between the public and the It was to be a for the of and so that side knew more about the had as a in World War and the military He was also of the soldiers and the of in Ogden. The of of also had been its to and could be to for the of prostitution. The recommended that a of Ogden before the and that officials would use the to the that The Utah Social Hygiene Association began to on the to prostitution or the was on Ogden. The to in Ogden as to military According to an by the staff of the were venereal diseases in Ogden The officers could an order on the said that the city government and police would not with the order and to the a of from was as mayor and was and city officials no trying to prostitution from Ogden. with the Ogden police and at and other of wrote in his On a to Ogden, and I visited Sheriff and his and They on a for as a girl and were brought in at the as a of by the of and the the Sheriff the idea of that office is on the This have been but I the company involved is to get the of Ogden as a wide-open with prostitution in just The city tried to the city by prostitutes and after the madams in the city In the first a of against the for a house of prostitution. and her were of houses of prostitution and sentenced to for three With in Ogden, the even the from the and to the city continued to work on vice from Ogden's streets. By the military Ogden's in out commercialized According to Dr. A. A. of the state health had a syphilis than the state for the first in per as to in continued to be clinic and field by the health department in the but the cases of venereal disease at the clinic continued to By the health department cited that cases of venereal disease from an of per to just per with the of prostitution. The Ogden reported Ogden's city that there were houses of prostitution within the city or its a were in taverns by field for the in found that Ogden was its against prostitutes and that of venereal disease were in the over the three years before the houses were Hall recommended that the department make a of Ogden about until it was for He was that prostitution continued and that there was on at the on Twenty-Fifth By the had Ogden a city. According to a of the American Social Hygiene Association, even who used to Street the had houses of prostitution the people with vice have left town. a has to a long . . . Ogden vice has been brought to an be vice in any but an city government and police it at a has often been described as a wide-open town that all the known to It was not until the federal government and military involved in the city during World War that the city to in the downtown area a rise in venereal diseases among servicemen and civilian workers to the that it was the war The American Social Hygiene Association was sent to the in town and the public to prostitution. It was often an local who soldiers prostitutes and of the of from the police and city The military would often and taverns on the for servicemen to the spread of the disease. It took almost the use of penicillin as and a in government officials to prostitution and the of venereal disease