| Sources |
- [S49] Long Island Advance (Long Island Advance, 20 Medford Ave, Patchogue, NY), 27 Nov 1936, p. 6.
- [S231] Wikepedia, online [http://wikipedia.org ], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soper.
- [S32] Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA Original data: United States of America, B, Census Place: Manhattan Ward 22, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1048; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 1390; Image: 924; FHL Number: 1375061.
- [S577] Ancestry.com. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data:, Year: 1929; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: T715_4610; Line: 2; Page Number: 114.
Arrival Date: 19 Oct 1929; Ship Name: Volendam
- [S386] Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007., 11 Feb 1893.
- [S24] article, New York Times, New York, NY, 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.
- [S115] Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington,, Census Place: Great Neck, Nassau, New York; Roll: 1461; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 140; Image: 199.0.
- [S61] 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.
- [S1429] Cuyler Reynolds editor, Schenectady County Public Library, SCHENECTADY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE (http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/index.html : accessed ), ., 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.
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![George Albert Soper, [Sr., ii] >](img/male.jpg)
1870 - 1948 (78 years)
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