Susan Campbell Bartoletti - Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America

Mrs. Warren hired Mary Mallon as her cook. The servants agency said Mary had impeccable references.

New York American, June 30, 1909. Courtesy New York Public Library.

In Oyster Bay, Long Island, Mrs. Charles Elliot Warren had fired her cook. It was August 1906, and with several weeks left in the summer, she needed a cook. She could not manage without one. Not with a household of four children and five servants to feed. Not with a social calendar filled to the brim with dinner parties and Sunday teas.

For a wealthy woman such as Mrs. Warren, it was a terrible fix. There were plenty of servants in Americaroughly 2.3 millionbut for women like her, a good servant was hard to find.

Mrs. Warren needed a cook who wouldnt mind the lack of freedom and the fourteen-hour days. She needed someone available morning, noon, and night. Someone who wore a white servants cap and apron, a plain dress, and thick-soled shoes. Someone who never left the house without permission. Some cooks shared rooms with other servants. Others made themselves comfortable sleeping in the attic or the cellar.

A good servant wasnt uppity. She knew her place. If a servant was smarter than her employer, she never showed it. She was humble. She ate in the kitchen, using the plain crockery and ironware, not the good family china and silver. Even though her employer called her by her given nameBridget or Sally or Peggy or Maggieshe said Mister and Sir and Miss or Mrs. and Maam. No matter her age, she was always a girl and never a lady.

A servant never used the front entrance of the house. She entered and left through the service entrance at the rear of the property or under the front stoop. If she happened to spy her employer outside the home, she averted her eyes and never acknowledged her.

Good servants understood that all Americans were equal, regardless of class. But they also understood that employers were more equal than servants. A good servant didnt complain. She didnt demand a labor contract with clearly defined hours, duties, and wages.

For many employers, a good servant meant a specific race, nationality, and religion. Some employers hired white help only. Some preferred black help only. Some hired Protestants only. Some hired Catholics. Some hired immigrants. Some would not.

The duty of hiring servants fell to the lady of the house, and so Mrs. Warren did what most other New York City ladies did. She telephoned Mrs. Strickers Servants Agency on Twenty-eighth Street in Manhattan and said, Send me a cook.

The agency director gave Mrs. Warren the name of a good, plain cook named Mary Mallon and praised her references, character, and abilities in the kitchen.

No doubt Mrs. Warren was impressed. Mary had worked for some of the most prominent and socially elite families in New York Cityfamilies whose names appeared alongside the Warrens in Whos Who and in the society pages of the New York Timesand for this she was well paid.

As a cook, Mary earned forty-five dollars a month (roughly $1,180 today). This was much more than Mary would have earned cooking for a middle-class family. This wasnt unusual. The wealthier a family, the more they paidas much as double the salary for the same worker in a middle-class home. It was a simple fact of life.

Was Mary a perfect servant? No servant ever was. If she were, she would have been bolted firmly to someone elses kitchen floor long before she had a chance to cook for the Warrens.

There is no record of the interview between Mrs. Warren and Mary Mallon. There likely was no interview. If Mrs. Warren didnt like a cook, shed simply send her back.

When the agency sent Mary Mallon, she was thirty-seven years old, unmarried, with no family or children, and in good health, never sick a day. She had good references that praised her. Sure, Mary never stayed longer than a year or two at one house, but this wasnt unusual for a servant. Sure, there were gaps in Marys employment history, but this, too, wasnt unusual for domestic workers.

Mary was Irish and Roman Catholic. Although some employers were prejudiced against Irish Catholics, by 1906 this attitude was changing, especially regarding Irishwomen. More than 80 percent of Irish-born women working in America toiled as domestic servants. Employment agencies touted them as excellent workers.

Many employers agreed. They praised their Irish servants for quick wit and strong arm and voluble tongue. They called their servants industrious, pious, and chaste. They noted that Irish servants had sterling integrity and were rarely in trouble with the law. One employer put it simply: The Irish are, as a rule, honest.

Did Mrs. Warren hold these stereotypical views? We dont know. But we do know she hired Mary on the spot.

Marys life was about to change forever.

Mary Mallon packed her belongings and traveled by train to Oyster Bay, a popular vacation town on Long Island. She found her way to a large yellow house with tall windows and graceful arches and a wraparound porch at the corner of East Main Street and McCouns Lane.