Dr. Butin had the last word

For The Madera Tribune

Jasper Lewis is shown here with his wife, Adelia, in 1896. Twenty-two years later, as Madera County Sheriff, he was enforcing an order that Maderans had to wear masks in public to fight the flue epidemic.

---

Dr. John Butin was a worried man in October 1918. The flu epidemic had hit Madera with the same ferocity with which it had struck the rest of the country. As a result, in the performance of his duty as County Health Officer, he had to take action to protect the public from itself. He issued two orders that drew immediate resistance from the people.

In the first one, he ordered that all of Madera’s schools be closed. Keeping the kids at home would reduce the spread of the disease. In his second order, Butin decreed that everyone wear a mask when out in public. The reaction was both immediate and negative. The people decided to fight. The county’s top doctor had gone way too far this time. When he ordered the schools closed and the people to wear masks in public, he stretched his authority way beyond the limits the Constitution had fixed, or so the people thought. This was America, and Maderans were going to push back.

The Madera Mercury published Butin’s orders, but to his chagrin, very few paid any attention. Only an occasional mask was seen in town; it was as if the order had never been given.