Jennie Barmore

Jennie Barmore (popularly known as "Typhoid Jennie") was the operator of a boarding house in Chicago from 1910 until about 1920 who was placed under an involuntary quarantine by the Chicago Health Commission in 1919 after being deemed an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid. Barmore, represented by attorney Clarence Darrow, challenged the forced quarantine in court unsuccessfully. She subsequently moved to Oklahoma.

Opening of boarding house In 1910, Barmore opened a boarding house in Chicago.

Barmore caught national attention, with her situation coming on the heels of that of "Typhoid Mary" in New York City that had been national news years prior. in June 1921 Barmore petitioned the Supreme Court of Illinois for a writ of habeas corpus to declare that Robertson and Chicago Health Commission epidemiologist Herman Bundesen were unlawfully restraining her liberty by preventing her from leaving her home amid suspicions that she was a carrier of typhoid. Her petition was denied in April 1922. The court found Barmore to be a health concern, and permitted health officials to hold her in quarantine for as long as they deemed it to be necessary. However, the case's holding greatly weakened the authority of the health commissioner of Chicago. The court found that the health commissioner lacked much authority, since the city had no board of health (as authorized by the state), but instead had itself established a Department of Health. The court decided that the Chicago City Council had no authority to delegate to the Department of Health authority equivalent to what the state would allow them to grant a board of health. Consequently, the top health official of Chicago would have weakened authority until a board of health was created in Chicago in 1932.

Later life Sometime following their court loss, Barmore and her husband left Chicago and moved to Oklahoma. Barmore died in 1940.