Walter Reed

(1851-1902) lived at Sidney, Cheyenne County, and Ft. Robinson, Dawes County. Army medical officer, bacteriologist, credited with proving correct in 1900 a previously existing theory that the mosquito transmitted yellow fever, and his suggested steps for eradication saved many lives until a vaccine against the disease was developed in the 1920s; recognized posthumously by naming of Walter Reed General Hospital at Washington, DC. Consult Laura N. Wood, Walter Reed, Doctor in Uniform (Julian Messner, 1943) 132-141 and Nebraska History, Vol 54 (Fall 1973) 419-443 and Notable Twentieth Century Scientists, Vol 3 (Gale, 1995) 1657-1659 and American National Biography, Vol 18 (1999) 282-284.

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