1749 — Dysentery Epidemics, CT, esp. Waterbury (130) Woodbury (57), CT –252-262
–252->262 Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below.[1]
— 187 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, p. 52.
— 150 Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. 1799, p. 241.
Bethlehem (40-50)
–40-50 Graves. “President’s Address. Epidemic Disease in Early Connecticut Times,” p. 76.[2]
Cornwall ( 20)
–20 Packard. The History of Medicine in the United States. 1901, p. 100.
–20 Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. 1799, p. 241.
Hartford ( >5)
–>5 Packard. The History of Medicine in the United States. 1901, p. 100. “Many” died.[3]
Waterbury ( 130)
— 130 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions. 1942, p. 52.
–~130 Graves. “President’s Address. Epidemic Disease in Early Connecticut Times.” P. 76.
— 130 Packard. The History of Medicine in the United States. 1901, p. 100.
–~130 Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. 1799, p. 241.
Woodbury ( 57)
–57 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions. 1942, p. 52.
–Terrible. Webster, citing Douglas, Vol. 2, p. 208.
Narrative Information
Caulfield: “…epidemics definitely identified as dysentery occurred in Connecticut in Waterbury (1749), where 130 died, [and] Woodbury (1749), where 57 died…” (Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions…Colonial Society of Mass., V35, April 1942, 52.)
Graves: “The years 1749-1751 were characterized by very distressing epidemics in some of the Connecticut communities. Webster says:
In 1749 the dysentery and nervous long fever visited many towns in Connecticut with distressing mortality. Waterbury suffered a loss of about 130 of hr inhabitants principally by dysentery. Cornwall, then a new settled village on high mountains, lost twenty of her citizens. Hartford was severely visited with intermittent for the last time.
“At the same time there was ‘terrible dysentery’ in Woodbury, and in Bethlem[4] ‘raged a mortal fever which swept away between 30 and 40 of the inhabitants’.”
Packard: “In 1749 dysentery again visited the towns of Connecticut. Waterbury had one hundred and thirty deaths, chiefly from that disease. Cornwall lost twenty persons by it. In Hartford and Woodbury many died.” (Packard. The History of Medicine in the United States. 1901, p. 100.)
Webster: “In 1749 the dysentery and nervous long fever visited many towns in Connecticut with distressing mortality. Waterbury sustained a loss of about 130 of her inhabitants principally by dysentery. Cornwall, then a new settled village, on high mountains, lost twenty of her citizens….Douglas, vol. 2. 208. I am authorized to say that the terrible dysentery in Woodbury did not appear to be very contagious—it excited great alarm; every one avoided the sick, if possible; but many who lived remote and never came near the sick, were seized, and suddenly died.” (Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. 1799, p. 241.)
Sources
Caulfield, Ernest. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 35, April 1942, pp. 4-65. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/865
Graves, Charles B., M.D. “President’s Address. Epidemic Disease in Early Connecticut Times.” pp. 67-95 in: Proceedings of the Connecticut State Medical Society 1920, 128th Annual Convention, Held at New Haven, May 19th and 20th, 1920 (James Frederick Rogers, Editor). Published by the Society, September 1920. Google preview accessed 1-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=gHACAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Packard, Francis Randolph, M.D. The History of Medicine in the United States. Philadelphia and London, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1901. Google preview accessed 1-26-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=dCxAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases; with the principal phenomena of the physical world which precede and accompany them, and observations deduced from the facts stated (in two volumes). Hartford, DT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799. Accessed 1-29-2018 at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:12?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
[1] Several sources cited below write that dysentery was fairly widespread in CT this year. We report, though, just those localities for which we have seen numbers.
[2] Graves quotes his uncited source as stating that a mortal fever” “raged” there. He does so in a section of dysentery.
[3] The number is our “translation” of “many” into a number in order to include in a tally. Packard notes that “many” died in Hartford and Woodbury. Caulfield notes that fifty-seven died in Woodbury. Thus our “translation” of “many” into “five or more” (>5), seems to us to be conservative.
[4] Most probably a reference to the town of Bethlehem in Litchfield County, CT.