1853 — May-Dec, Yellow Fever, esp. AL/1,293, LA/~15,000, MS/1311 TX/871-18,770-19,533

–18,770-19,533  Blanchard tabulation based on State totals below. [1]

 

Summary of State Breakouts

 

Alabama         —    1,291-1,293          July 12-Nov 13

Florida            —                 337           July-Oct 10

Indiana           —                     1

Louisiana       –14,602-15,363          May-Dec

Maryland       —                   18

Mississippi      —              1,311           Aug-Nov

New York      —                  142

Pennsylvania  —                 128           July 19-Oct    

Texas              —                 871           Aug-Dec

Virginia          —              1,600           Not using even though source was US M-HS.[2]

Maritime        —                 >69

            Total   –18,770-19,533

 

Breakout of Fatalities by States and Localities

 

Alabama         (1,291-1,293)              (July 12-Nov 13)

–1,291-1,293  Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below.

Locality Breakouts.

—     >3  Bladen Springs, Choctaw County.               A.H. Hutchinson, in Rpt. of San. Com., 106.[3]

—       ?  Cahawba, Dallas County.                              Barton in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 277.[4]

–70-87  Citronelle, Mobile County, and vicinity. Aug 16- late Oct. Blanchard estimate.[5]

–20   “        Aug 16-Oct 4. Ltr of Dr. James S. Gaines, in Alabama Pioneers.[6]

—       ?  Demopolis. Nott. “The Epidemic of Yellow Fever of Mobile in 1853.” NO MSJ, p. 71.[7]

—     23  Dog River Cotton Factory company town & area, ~5M SE of Mobile, Aug 18-Nov 21.[8]

–23  “ (population 300)          Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 442.

—       2  Gainesville, Sumter County, early Nov. Liberty Weekly Tribune, 12-2-1853. [9]

–1  Mrs. Lewis Folsom.                                  Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 123.

—       4   Hollywood resort area, Jackson County. Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 116-118.

–1  Sep 19, Michael Elliott, 6 yrs., 1^st death. Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 116.

–1  Sep 21, H. M. Stevens, 26 yrs.                 Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 117.

–1  Sep 23~, Mrs. Frances Stevens                Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 118.

–1  Sep 23~, Michael Stevens, young son of Frances. Dr. N.B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p118

–1,191  Mobile, July 12-Dec 16                                 Nott 1854, p. 583; Augustin 1909, p. 444.[10]

–337  Aug. Deaths from all causes.                Nott 1854, p. 582.

–780  Sep.  Deaths from all causes.                Nott 1854, p. 582.

–214  Oct.  Deaths from all causes.                Nott 1854, p. 582.

—  40  Nov-Dec.  Yellow Fever alone.            Nott 1854, p. 583.

–1,119   “                                      Macomber, R. “My Worst Fears…Yellow Fever Hits…”

–1,070   “      Aug 8-Oct 26          Sanger (Ed.). American Almanac for 1854. 1854, p. 350.

—   764   “      July 13-Nov 1         Workers of the… AL Guide to Deep South. 1941, p. 408.

—   115   “      Keating 1879, 88; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 19;[11] USMHS 1896, 437.

—      1    “     John Johnson, a stevedore, July 25, after loading cotton onto the Miltiades.[12]

—     35  Montgomery, Sep-Nov                                  Keating 1879, p. 88.

—     60  Point Clear (between “the village” [Village Point?] and Point Clear (So. of Village Pt.)[13]

—     32  Selma, Sep 17-Nov 13.      Keating 1879, 88; Sternberg 1908, 721; Rpt. San. Com., 110.

–1  ~Sep 1, grocery store clerk                       Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p. 108.

–1  ~Sep 18. Unacclimated iron foundry worker. Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p.108.

–1  ~Sep 19, wife, man who bought grocery store. Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., 108.

–3  Sep, children of grocery store owner.      Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p. 108.

–1  Oct 6, young man, clothing store clerk.   Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p. 108.

–2  Oct 16, Dr. Blevins and Mr. Mitchell.     Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p. 109.[14]

–1  Nov 13, last death from yellow fever.     Dr. A.G. Mabry, Rpt. San. Com., p. 110.

—     10  Spring Hill, Sep 5 to just after mid Sep.

–10    “                                    Augustin.  History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 444.

–10    “                                    Dr. J.C. Nott in Report of the Sanitary Com…, pp. 98-99.

–8  Sep 5 to just after mid Sep. Nott, 1854, p. 574.[15]

–2  Mid-to-late Sep. Two Wheeler children. Nott, 1854, p. 574.

—     >3  St. Stephen’s road residents (NW out of Mobile, “appearance of a continuous village.”[16]

–1  Sep 16  Miss Wilson, first death (cases started Aug 23). Nott 1854, p. 577.

 

Florida            (               337)

–337  Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below.

—    2  Jacksonville  Aug                     Augustin.  History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 455.

–112  Key West      Aug                     Keating 1879, 88; U.S. Marine Hosp. Svc. 1896, 437.

–200  Pensacola.[17] Late July-Oct 10  Augustin.  History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 457.

—  23  Brown. Ossian Bingley Hart, Florida’s Loyalist Reconstruction Governor. 1997, p. 87.[18]

–1  Oct 8. Brigadier General Childs, U.S. Army.[19]

 

Indiana                       (         1)

–1  Indianapolis, Lt. Baker of U.S. Army. Democratic Pharos, Logansport, IN, 11-2-1853, p. 3.

 

Louisiana       (14,602-15,363)          (May-Dec)

–14,602-15,333  Blanchard range. (Using Bell/State Register for low end; our high end tally.)

–11,089-15,333  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.[20]

—            14,602  Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

Locality Breakouts

—         50  Ascension Parish   May-Dec 31                Bell, A.W. State Register. 1855, p. 127.[21]

–15  Donaldsonville         Aug 1-Oct 31  Andrew Gengry in Rpt. of San. Com., p. 31.

—  9  Donaldsonville.                                Blanchard tally from Dr. Cottman narrative.

–1  Frenchman. Early Aug                 Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p. 30.

–3  at Donaldsonville Hospital           Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p30.[22]

–2  Kentucky mule drivers in house.  Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p. 30.

–2  Blacks                                           Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p. 30.

–1  Creole child                                  Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p. 30.

–3?  New River (“one entire family”)      Dr. Thos. Cottman in Rpt. San. Com., p. 30.

—         50  Assumption Parish. May-Dec                    Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—       225  Caddo Parish         May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–220  Shreveport Sep-Dec                      Toner. Contributions…Study…, 1873, 26.

–165  Shreveport  Sep-Dec                      Dowler. Tableau of Yellow Fever, 1853, 26.

—    ?  Shreveport  Sep-Dec                      Keating 1879, 89. (one quarter of pop.)

—       166  Carroll Parish         May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—        ~5  Catahoula Parish, Trinity                            Dr. A.R. Kilpatrick in Rpt. San. Com., 39.[23]

—        40  Concordia Parish    May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—     ?  Black River                                     Barton in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 277.[24]

–~17  Vidalia and vicinity.                        H. B. Shaw, Vidalia, 12-31-1853.[25]

—  5  Adult males, Vidalia.

—  3  Adult females, Vidalia.

—  2  Children, male, Vidalia.

—  2  Children, female, Vidalia.

—  1  White male adult “in the neighborhood…”

—  1  Child in the neighborhood.

–~3  (“Several”) blacks in the neighborhood.

–16   “   Vidalia    Aug 20 start                Augustin 1909, p. 504.

—       250  East Baton Rouge Parish.  May-Dec 31[26] Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–200-235  Baton Rouge                           Blanchard range using Keating and Sanger.

—  235         “               Aug 8-Nov      Sanger. American Almanac for 1854, p. 350.

—  202         “               Early Nov        Keating 1879, p. 89.

–~200         “                                       Dowler. Tableau…, 1854, p. 26.

–120-165  East Carroll Parish                         Blanchard range based on sources below.[27]

–165  East Carroll Parish, Providence            Judge Louis Selby, Providence.[28]

–152  East Carroll Parish, Providence            John Maxwell ltr. in Rpt. San. Com. p. 55.

–130  East Carroll Parish, Lake Providence. Dr. Ball report in Rpt. San. Com., p. 36-37.[29]

–120    “           “         “     Lake Providence.             Keating 1879, p. 88.

–1  Lulu Kemble (girl), ~Aug 31.       Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.[30]

–1  Mrs. Louis Selby, Sep 2^nd, 1^st reported death. Providence Mayor E. Terry.[31]

–1  Pat Feely, Sep 2^nd, after Mrs. Selby. Letter of Providence Mayor E. Terry.

–1  Mrs. Kimble, ~Sep 6.                   Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.

–1  Dr. Larche, who attended Mrs. Selby. Dr. B. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.

–1  Mr. Clark, Sep 9.                          Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.

–1  Black boy who carried mail from river boats to town.[32]

–1  Postmaster Miller, Sep 13.            John Maxwell, Surveyor ltr. In RSC, p. 55.

–1  Mr. Dunn, son-in-law of Miller.   John Maxwell, Surveyor ltr. In RSC, p. 55.[33]

–10-11 by Sep 13                               Dr. Nathaniel Houghton, Rpt. San. Com.[34]

–1  A trader from Vicksburg at Ira J. Manning plantation near Providence.[35]

–1  Mr. John Tucker, Oct, 7 miles below Providence on the riverbank (MS).[36]

–1  “Old Mr. Triplet, who lived off from this place.”[37]

–1  Sarah, Irish girl, Nov 28, last death. Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.

—         75  East Feliciana Parish, Clinton. Sep 1-Dec. Keating 1879, p. 88.

–50  East Feliciana Parish. May-Dec 31   Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–50  Town “of one square mile” [Clinton?] in East Feliciana Parish.[38]

—         50  Iberville Parish       May-Dec 30                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–?  Plaquemine                                         Carrigan. Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 107

–100-160  Lafourche Parish, Thibodaux                    Blanchard range using sources below.

—  160  Lafourche Parish.  May-Dec 30    Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—  160  Thibodaux                                     Keating 1879, p. 89.

–~150        “                                              Dowler. Tableau… 1854, p. 26.

—  100         “                                              Augustin 1909, p. 504.

—         35  Madison [Parish?]  May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–1  Joe’s Bayou                                         Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence.

–130-180  Natchitoches Parish                                   Blanchard recognition of Crocheron & Bell.

–100-180  Natchitoches Parish Sep 10       S. B. Crocheron, Natchitoches letter.[39]

—       130  Natchitoches Parish. May-Dec  Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

–68  “  Cloutierville.  Aug 14-?         Scruggs 1856.

—   1  “  Grand Ecore. Aug 29 case.    Dr. Richardson in Rpt. of San. Com., p. 35.[40]

—   1  “  Natchitoches, Sep 13, 1st death. S. B. Crocheron, Natchitoches, ltr.[41]

—   1  “             “           Sep 20, 2^nd death. S. B. Crocheron, Natchitoches, ltr.[42]

—   ?  “             “          Sep 23, 3^rd case. S. B. Crocheron, Natchitoches, ltr.[43]

—   ?  “             “                                  Dr. Richardson in Rpt. of San. Com., p. 35.[44]

–8,000-12,151  New Orleans (154,132 pop.)[45]          Blanchard range based on sources below.[46]

—  12,151  New Orleans          May-Dec 30                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—  11,000        “                      June 1-Oct 1                Willsey. Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, 559.

—  >9,000        “                                                          Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever… 1992, p. 32.[47]

—    9,000 of 11,000 deaths     5-month period           Grob. The Deadly Truth, 2002, p. 103.[48]

—    9,000        “                                                          Murphy 2003, 127.

—    8,400        “                                                           NYT. “Yellow Fever…” Oct 7, 1888.[49]

—    8,198        “                                                           N.O. Picayune, in Fenner 1854, 47.

—    8,186        “                                                           Sanger. American Almanac 1854, p. 348.

—    8,101        “                                                           Kelly 1906, p. 84;[50] Macomber.[51]

—    8,101         “ (from 15,787 deaths.)[52]                   Rpt. of San. Com. of N.O. 1855.[53]

—    8,063         “                      May-Dec                     Rpt. of San. Com. of N.O., pp. 232-241.[54]

—     ~5  New Orleans, May                            Barton, in Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, 232.[55]

—   >20            “          June                             Barton, in Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p. 233.

–1,524  New Orleans  July (from 2,216 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p236.

–5,269             “          Aug (from 6,201 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p237.

–5,133 “          Aug                             Augustin 1909, p. 49.

–1,066             “          Sep (from 1,627 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p237.

—   892 “         Sep                              Augustin 1909, p. 49.

—   147             “          Oct (from 674 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p. 238.

—     28             “          Nov (from 987 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p239.[56]

—       4             “          Dec (from 844 deaths). Barton, Rpt. of San. Comm. of NO, p241.[57]

—  <8,000  New Orleans. Times-Picayune. “1853: Terrifying yellow fever epidemic…New Orleans,” 8-18-2011.[58]

—    7,970         “                            Keating 1879, 88[59]; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, p.437.

—    7,849         “ pop. 151,132; May 22-Dec              Augustin 1909, p. 487.

—    7,848  New Orleans                                              Augustin 1909, p. 50.

—    7,818        “                                                           Augustin 1909, p. 49.

—    7,200        “                                                           Childs, E. E. 1886, 137; Simonds 1902, p83.

—    7,011        “ “Estimated mortality from Yellow Fever” by Nativity. Table H. in Rpt. SCNO.[60]

—           ?  Orleans Parish (other than New Orleans)

–?  Algiers                                          Carrigan. Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 107.

—         28  Ouachita Parish, Trenton  pop. 145. Aug 1 start.  Augustin 1909, p. 504.

–15-20 Trenton, cases of black vomit, one recovery. T. P. Richardson letter.[61]

—       150  Point Coupee Parish  May-Dec                 Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—  90-120  Rapides Parish                                           Blanchard range using sources below.

—  90  Rapides Parish        May-Dec 31    Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—    ?  Alexandria                                      Carrigan. Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 107.[62]

–120          “                                              Olmsted in Carrigan 1961, p. 109.[63]

–1/5^th to 1/6^th Alexandria pop. Mid-Sep-Nov      Dowler. Tableau… 1854, p. 27.[64]

—       150  St. Charles Parish  May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—           1  St. Helena Parish, Pine Grove; Mr. Terry. Aug 22. Gourlay in Rpt of San. Com., p. 28.

—       400  St. James Parish     May-Dec 31                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—       250  St. John Baptiste Parish  May-Dec            Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

—         90  St. Landry Parish  May-Dec 30                Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

>5–  Opelousas and/or Washington,        Barton in Rpt. of Sanitary Com., 374, 528.[65]

–1  James Petrel          Aug                 Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., p. 528.

–1  Child of Mr. Millspaugh, Aug      Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., p. 528.

–1  Dr. Heard                                     Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., p. 528.

–1  “young” Chahany, Sep 16            Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., 529.[66]

–1  Dr. Diggs              Sep 23             Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., p. 529.

~3  Grand Coteau                                           Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., 529.[67]

—         54  St. Mary Parish                                          Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below.

—  7  Centerville.   Sep 15-Nov 18.           Augustin 1909, p. 477.

–1    “ Mulatto, ~25, ~Sep 24             Dr. W. B. Wood, Centreville, 11-14-1853.[68]

—  2  Franklyn       Oct 19-Nov 24            Keating 1879, p. 88.

–45  Pattersonville  Aug-Dec                   Keating 1879, p. 88.

–45  Pattersonville  Aug 8-late Dec         Grant, in Rpt. of Sanitary Com., pp. 43-46.

–1  Aug 11, 1st death, girl, 19 yrs, just arrived from north, via New Orleans.[69]

–1  Aug 12, 2^nd death, brother to girl noted above, 17 yrs. Rpt. San. Com., p. 44.

–1  Sep 1, elderly female resident. Grant, in Rpt. of Sanitary Commission, p. 45.

–2  Sep 6, blacksmith and black boy who nursed the elderly resident. RSC, p.45.

–1  Sep 7, plantation male, who visited wife at hotel where elderly woman died.

–75 cases between Sep 7-21.            Grant, in Rpt. of Sanitary Commission, p.46.

–>500 cases in all in the vicinity.     Grant, in Rpt. of Sanitary Commission, p.46

—           4  St. Tammany Parish, Madisonville, Aug.  Gourlay in Report of Sanitary Com., p. 28.

–2  Children of Cpt. Smith. Aug 18~      Gourlay in Report of Sanitary Com., p. 28.

–1  Miss Jones      Late Aug                     Gourlay in Report of Sanitary Com., p. 28.

–1  Mr. Sherman.  Aug 28                                    Gourlay in Report of Sanitary Com., p. 28.

—           ?  Tensas Parish, Waterproof.                        Barton in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 277.[70]

—         >3  Vermillion Parish (“very bad”)                  Joseph Gibbs, Rpt. of Sanitary Com., p. 530.

—     ~130  West Feliciana Parish                                Dr. Thomas C. Brown of Bayou Sara.[71]

–?  Bayou Sara, population ~600             Dr. Thomas C. Brown of Bayou Sara.

–?  St. Francisville, population ~300        Dr. Thomas C. Brown of Bayou Sara.

—         90  West Feliciana Parish.  May-Dec 30         Bell, A. E. State Register. 1855, p. 127.

 

Maryland       (  18)

— 18  Fell’s Point, Baltimore (out of 19 cases). Quinan. Medical Annals of Baltimore. 1884, p.40.

 

Mississippi      (1,311)             (Aug-Nov)

—      ?  Bay St. Louis, Hancock Co. Dr. Picton, ltr. to N.O. San. Com., notes an epidemic.[72]

–>111  Biloxi, Harrison Co. (on Gulf). June 29 start. Dr. A. Byrenheidt, Rpt. San. Com., p.541.[73]

–111  Whites. (white population of 5,500)   Dr. A Byrenheidt, Rpt. San. Com., p. 541.

–63  White males, over 10.

–34  White females.

–14  Whites under 10.

—     9  Brandon, Rankin County.                               Dr. J.L. Riddell, Rpt. San. Com., p.77-78.[74]

–1  Sep 23. 1^st death                                       Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 76.[75]

–1  Oct 8, John Smith, stage driver, who had been at Yazoo City and Jackson.[76]

–1  Oct 24, Dr. James H. Belt.                       Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Oct 30, Elisha Maxey.                              Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Nov 4, Charles H. Edwards.                    Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Nov 8, Edmund Smith.                            Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Nov 11, H. E. Grimes.                              Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Nov 23, H. F. Shelton.                             Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 77.

–1  Dec 3, Mrs. Eleanor Gardiner (last case). Dr. J. L. Riddell, in Rpt. San. Com., p. 78.

—  5  Fort Adams vicinity, Wilkinson County.           Dr. T. B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 82.

–2  last of Oct, Mrs. Presler, ~65, and son.    Dr. T. B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 82.[77]

–1  Dr. Taylor, who attended Presler family. Dr. T. B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 82.

–1  Dr. Davis, 14 miles from Presler’s.           Dr. T. B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 82.

–1  Dr. Baldwin, living 6 miles from Davis.  Dr. T. B. Benedict, Rpt. San. Com., p. 82.

–?  About eighty cases at Monterico plantation, mostly blacks. Benedict, Rpt. SC, p. 82.

—      ?  Grand Gulf, Claiborne County.                      John H. Crump in Rpt. San. Com. NO, 68.[78]

—      9  Greenwood                                                     Keating 1879, p. 89.

—  112  Jackson, Hinds County.                                 Rev. C. K. Marshall in Rpt. of SC, p. 81.[79]

–1  Sep 1, Mrs. Cothrine.                               Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.

–1  Sep 5, German carpenter, H. T. Mosher.  Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.

–1  Sep 7, Mr. Miller                                      Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.

–1  Sep 12, Alfred Englehard, black barber.  Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.

–1  Sep 12, a German at Spengler’s Mill.       Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.[80]

–1  Sep 14, Peter Gallaher.                             Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 79.

–1  Sep 14, Mr. Foster, at Mrs. McCarty’s.    Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 80.

–1  Sep 16, Mr. Foster’s son, 10 yrs.              Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 80.

–1  Sep 16, Mr. Clancey, saddle/harness maker. Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 80.

–1  Sep after Mr. Clancey; Mr. Brush who nursed him. Report of Sanitary Com., p. 80.

–1  Sep 18, daughter of Mrs. Cashman, 8 yrs.  Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 80.

–1  Sep 21, Miss Amanda Lee.                      Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–2  Sep 21, male boarders by the name of Stowe. Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–2  Sep 23, Mr. Fox and Mrs. Donnell.          Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 80.

–1  Sep 24, Miss Henckle.                              Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–2  Sep, shortly after Miss Henckle, both parents. Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–1  Sep 25, Mr. T. Horrabin.                          Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–1  Sep 26, another child of Mrs. McCarty.   Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

–1  Sep 29, Mrs. Hull at the depot residence.            Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 81.

—      1  Madison Co. A Mr. Walker who had visited Biloxi, returned “and died in one week.”[81]

—      2  Mississippi City, Harrison Co. Mr. Martin, July; Col. Pleyer, Oct 7. San. Com., p. 19.

—  350  Natchez          Aug 8-Nov                              Sanger. American Almanac for 1854, 350.

–200 “             Aug                                         Weekly Wisconsin, 8-31-1853, p. 6.

—    1 “ area     Nov 1, Rev. G. W. Morris.     Warren Mail, PA. “Items.” 12-1-1853, p. 2.

—    1 “             early-to-mid Nov, Gen. Robert Stanton.[82]

—    ~4  Ocean Springs, Jackson County.                    Dr. Jones info., San. Com. of N.O., p. 65.[83]

–3  “  Daughter of Dr. Davis, child and servant girl of Dr. Austin. Dr. Davis testimony.[84]

—      2  Pascagoula, Jackson Co., on the coast.          Testimony of Mr. Malcomb McRae, p. 66.[85]

—      ?  Pass Christian, Harrison Co., on Gulf.           Nott 1854, p. 579.[86]

—    64  Port Gibson, Claiborne County, on Bayou Pierre, near Mississippi Riv. John H. Crump.[87]

–1  Aug 14, 1^st death. Wren in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orl., p. 67.[88]

–1  Sep 2, 2^nd death.   Wren in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orl., p. 67.

–1  No date. “…lady of one of the best families…just returned from Cooper’s Wells.”

–1  No date. Mrs. Moore.                               Crump in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 69.

–1  Oct 7, Claiborne area. Little girl.              Crump in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 69.

–1  No date, Woodlawn overseer.                  Crump in Rpt. San. Com. of N.O., p. 69.

—  130  Thibodaux, Aug 18-Sep 24. “1853 Yellow Fever Deaths in Thibodaux, Louisiana.”[89]

–~500  Vicksburg, Warren Co.  July 19-Nov 21        Rev. C. K. Marshall, Vicksburg, 3-18-1854.[90]

—      2  Warrenton, Warren Co.  Sep 14.                    Rev. Marshall, Vicksburg, 3-18-1854, p.75.[91]

—      9  Washington, Adams County. (980 pop.)        Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 537.

–1  Black male, over ten, Sep 24.                   Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 537.

–1  Resident white, date not noted.               Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 537.

–1  German immigrant, Oct 11.                      Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 537.

–1  Foreign immigrant, Oct 14.                      Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 537.

–5  “fugitives from Natchez,” Sep 4-Oct 9.  Professor Wailes, Rpt. San. Com. p. 538.

—      ?  Woodville       Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “How it hangs.” 12-21-1853, p1.[92]

—      1  Yazoo City, Oct 13.  New York Daily Times. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-15-1853, p. 4.

 

New York      (  142)

—     128  New York City                                            Sternberg 1908, 719.

—       14  NY Marine Hospital                                    Keating 1879, 89; US MHS 1896, 437.

 

Pennsylvania  (  128)

—     128  Philadelphia             July 19-Oct                 Keating 1879, 89; US MHS 1896, 437.

 

Texas             (   871)            (Aug-Dec)

—  Blanchard range based on locality breakouts below.

—         50  Brownsville, Sep 23-Dec 23.         Keating 1879, 89

—         17  Cincinnati, Walker Co.  NY Times. “Ravages of the Yellow Fever.” 11-17-1858, p. 8.

—           ?  Cypress City.                                 Sternberg. “Yellow Fever,” 1894, p. 44.[93]

—           1  Fort Bend County                         Galveston News, TX. “Died.” 11-22-1853, p. 2.

—           1  Fort Brown, Cameron County, Nov. Lt. Col. Webster, U.S. Army.[94]

–536-608  Galveston, July-Nov                     Blanchard range from sources below.[95]

–608    “     Aug-Nov                     Sanger. American Almanac for 1854, p. 350.

–536    “     Aug 16-Nov 28.          Keating 1879, p. 89; Sternberg 1908, p. 719.

–~70    “   ~week of Sep 24-30.    NY Times. “Later from Texas.” 10-12-1853, p. 8.[96]

—            ?  Hockley                                        Sternberg. “Yellow Fever,” 1894, p. 44.[97]

—        >50  Houston.                                       NYDT. “From Texas…” 11-3-1853, p. 1, col. 2.[98]

—        >50        “                                              Sternberg. “Yellow Fever,” 1894, p. 44.

—            7        “          Sep 26.           NY Daily Times. “Later from Texas.” 10-12-1853, p.8.

—          12        “          Sep 27.            NY Daily Times. “Later from Texas.” 10-12-1853, p. 8.

—       4-87  Indianola, Matagorda Bay, Calhoun Co. (now ghost town). Range, sources below.

—  4    “                               Keating 1879, 89.

–10    “       Sep 22-28.       New York Daily Times. “Later from Texas.” 10-12-1853, 8.

–87    “       by Oct 12.       New Albany Daily Tribune, IN. “From Texas.” 10-29-1853, p. 3.

—          27  Lavaca      by Oct 12.       New Albany…Tribune, IN. “From Texas.” 10-29-1853, p.3.

—            ?  Liverpool                          Keating 1879, 89.

—        <30  Richmond, Fort Bend Co.[99] NY Daily Times. “Later from Texas.” 11-22-1953, p. 8.[100]

—            ?  Salina, several cases, people fleeing Indianola. John Henry Brown, Indianola.[101]

—            ?  Saluria, Matagorda Isl.     Sternberg. “Yellow Fever,” 1894, 44.[102] Barton, RSC, 373.[103]

 

Virginia          (1,600?)           [Not using — think this is a typo meant to be 1855.]

–1,600?  Norfolk                    U.S. Marine Hosp. Svc.  Annual Rpt…FY 1895. 1896, 437.[104]

 

Maritime        (   >69)

—>69  Blanchard tally of breakouts below.[105]

—    1   The D.S. Stacy, early to mid-Aug, had cases on board from NOLA to Providence.[106]

—  23   Steamer Golden Gate. NYDT. “Two Weeks Later From California.” 3-29-1853, p. 3.

—    1   The Memphis, Wm. Worsham, first clerk/ part owner, New Orleans to Lake Providence.[107]

—    3? Barque Miltiades, late June-early July. “Several” died of yellow fever at New Orleans.[108]

–~41   Steamer Winfield Scott. NYDT. “Two Weeks Later From California.” 3-29-1853, p. 3.

 

Narrative Information

 

On Yellow Fever

 

Ellis: “Originally brought to the Western Hemisphere by the African slave trade, yellow fever is an acute infectious disease transmitted in a man-vector-man cycle by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. The vector acquires the virus by a blood meal from an infectious human, and following an incubation period of approximately twelve days, it can then transmit the disease throughout its lifetime. Yellow fever is characterized by sudden onset of headache, chills, and fever followed by nausea, muscular pain, prostration, and the appearance of jaundice. At this point, from three to five days after onset, the patient may hemorrhage from external orifices, throw up the black vomit caused by internal hemorrhaging, and die following convulsions or coma, or the person may experience a remission of symptoms and begin a course of slow convalescence….Survival of an attack confers a lifelong immunity on white and black alike, but blacks possessed a genetic resistance to the disease that took its greatest toll among whites.” (Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever & Public Health in the New South. University Press of Kentucky, 1992, p. 31.)

 

eMedTV: “Yellow fever is a serious disease caused by the yellow fever virus, which is found in certain parts of Africa and South America. The virus is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Some people who get infected will have no symptoms; others may have flu-like symptoms or severe symptoms. Most people recover without any long-term effects….

 

“Yellow fever is not contagious, meaning it is not passed directly from humans to other humans. It is not spread through casual contact, such as touching or kissing a person with the virus.

 

“Transmission of the virus occurs in two main ways: urban (mosquito bites an infected human) and sylvatic (mosquito bites an infected monkey)….”  (eMedTV. “Yellow Fever.” Accessed 10-20-2013.)

 

Lamb: “Yellow fever is an infectious disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes, not native to North America, which probably bred in water barrels on slave ships from the West Coast of Africa (Duffy 1953[109]).  The disease is characterized first by high fever and flushed face, lips, and tongue. Within a few days, temperature drops below normal, the skin takes on a yellowish hue, and bloody, black vomiting occurs.  Death occurs due to liver and kidney failure and extreme toxemia. According to Duffy (1953), the case-fatality rate from yellow fever in colonial America varied between 12% and 80%.” (Lamb. “Historical and Epidemiological Trends in Mortality in the United States,” 2003. p. 186.)

 

Mattick: “Yellow fever probably originated in West Africa and was brought to the New World through the slave trade. The first recorded epidemics in the New World occurred in the Yucatan (1648) and Cuba (1649). In the 1700s it also struck as far north as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Outbreaks in Florida occurred nearly every two years from 1764 until 1905. After 1825, there were few outbreaks in the North, but the South continued to be gripped by the scourge every summer, though only occasionally did it reach epidemic proportions.”[110]

 

“The bilges of ships are…excellent breeding environment, and transport infected mosquitoes from yellow fever regions of the Caribbean to many of America’s port cities. There is no difference in susceptibility to yellow fever according to age, sex, or race. Cases among young children are usually so mild, however, that they are often not detected. It was long thought that blacks were immune to yellow fever. By the late nineteenth century, however, scientists realized that blacks were just as susceptible as any other race, but they rarely die from the disease. Yellow Fever is believed to have originated in West Africa, and the relative immunity of persons of West African descent may be a result of generations of exposure to the disease.”[111] [p. 102.]

Mattick, Barbara E. Ministries in Black and White: The Catholic Sisters of St. Augustine, Florida, 1859-1920. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Florida State University. Degree awarded Spring Semester, 2008.)

 

Wisconsin Department of Health Services: “Yellow fever is a viral disease that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Yellow fever occurs worldwide, in tropical regions of Africa and in parts of South America, but travel-related cases are rarely reported in the United States. The last epidemic of yellow fever in North America occurred in New Orleans in 1905.

 

“Onset of illness usually ranges from 3-6 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Symptoms of illness can be mild with acute onset of fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and vomiting to severe hemorrhagic fever, kidney and liver failure. Yellow fever can be prevented by vaccination prior to traveling to endemic areas.” (WI Dept. of Health Services. Yellow Fever (webpage). Accessed 3-12-2018.)

 

Narrative Information — Alphabetical, by State

 

Alabama (Mobile)

 

Augustin: “1853. Population 25,000. Number who fled, 8,000. Infected by bark…from New Orleans. First case, July 11; first death July 12. Last case, December 16. Deaths, 1,191.”  (Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 444)

 

Nott: “I herein transmit to you such facts as I have been able to collect, bearing on the Epidemic Yellow Fever which prevailed in and around the city of Mobile during the summer and autumn of 1853.

 

“The disease this season has pursued such an unusual course, as to bring under discussion again the long neglected idea of contagion, which I, in common with most members of the profession, had regarded as obsolete. However it may be explained, the fact is none the less certain, that the disease has extended not only to all the little settlements within five or six miles of the city, but to Citronelle, the present terminus of the Ohio Railroad, thirty-three miles from town; and to the various towns on the rivers tributary to our Bay as far as steamboats have gone and no farther — Montgomery and Demopolis, for example, to say nothing of many intermediate points.

 

“The first cases of Yellow Fever which occurred in Mobile, it is conceded on all hands, were imported from New Orleans on board the barque Miltiades; and for the following facts I am indebted to Doctor Walkly and Mr. Cox, one of our most respectable stevedores — Dr. Walkly’s information was derived from the captain of the barque and the second mate of the steamer Daniel Pratt, which acted as lighter[112] to her.

 

“The Miltiades sailed from Portland, Maine, to New Orleans, where she lost several of her crew with Yellow Fever; from thence she came to Mobile Bay and anchored below Dog River Bar, some fifteen or twenty miles below town, on the 11^th July; and on the 13^th Peter Johnson, one of the crew, was sent to our Marine Hospital in the back part of the city, one mile from the wharves, where he died with black vomit. Dr. Lopez, surgeon to this hospital, informs me that this man entered on the 11^th instead of the 13^th, in articulo mortis,[113] and that he had been sick at sea five days with Yellow Fever.

 

“On the 14^th, three days after the arrival of the vessel, the stevedores went on board to load her with cotton for Liverpool. One of them, John Johnson, was taken down with Yellow Fever on the 19^th or 20^th, and was brought to town on the steamer Daniel Pratt, and placed in the ‘Sailor’s Home,’ where he died with black vomit on the 25^th. On the 25^th four others were brought up from the vessel sick by the same steamer. One was taken to No. 9 Government street; one to Franklin street, below Eslava and another went to the hospital.

 

“On the 1^st of August the second engineer of the Daniel Pratt was taken down with the same disease and recovered. Dr. Levert saw a stevedore, David Nichols, with Yellow Fever, from the same vessel, on the 27^th July. These, as far as I can learn, include all the cases from this vessel.

 

“There were, however, other imported cases, preceding the appearance of the disease among our citizens, as the following facts will show; and these, like the former, cannot be questioned.

 

“On the record of our ‘City Hospital’ the following entries are made of Yellow Fever cases: July 23d one; 25^th two; 26^th three–all of who were laborers that had fled from the Epidemic in New Orleans, and were either sick on arrival or taken soon after. It may be worthy of remark en passant, that I was informed by the Sisters of Charity that the disease did not spread among the inmates of this hospital until some time after, when it had become epidemic throughout the city.

 

“After diligent inquiry among the physicians, the first case I can trace among our citizens who had no communication with the Miltiades, was Mr. McDowell, a patient of Dr. Levert; he slept at Hollywood, a watering place on the opposite side of the Bay, and came to town every day on the steamer Junior; he sickened on the 31^st of July, and recovered.

 

“A few days after this, rumor was busily at work, and cases were talked of in distant parts of the town, having no connection with each other. On the 18^th I made a memorandum in my notebook, to the effect, that up to that date, from the best information, there had been in the town about thirty cases. I inquired among the physicians as to their dates and localities and could trace no connection among the cases; they seem to have been sown broad-case over a mile square….

 

“The foregoing statement includes, as far as I know, all the essential facts connected with the late epidemic in the city. I now propose to give what information I have gathered relative to its extension from this point to others around the city and along the rivers.

 

“‘Spring Hill’ is part of a sandy, pine hill region, west of Mobile, 150 feet above tide water, and six miles distant from the wharves of the city; it has been a summer retreat for many years, is watered by excellent springs, and heretofore has been considered exempt from Yellow Fever, or any form of malarious disease. This settlement covers about three fourths of a mile square, with the virgin pine forest still standing, and includes about thirty families, together with St. Joseph’s College, which contains about 200 resident pupils. The epidemic commences its ravages at Spring Hill about the 5^th of September, and we shall give the history of its progress.

 

“On the 12^th of August, just about the time the Yellow Fever began to assume the epidemic form in Mobile, and one month after the first imported case, I was called to see a young gentleman, Mr. Alfred Murray, with a well marked attack of the disease, at a boarding house in Mobile, on St. Louis street, near St. Joseph, and on the 14^th had him removed on a bed to the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. Wheeler, on Spring Hill, abut the centre of the settlement. He recovered, and twenty days after he entered the house, 5^th September, two of Mr. Wheeler’s children were attacked with the epidemic, and about two weeks after two other children were attacked; three had black vomit and two died.

 

“On the 22d August Mr. Stramler moved his family from town to Spring Hill, and occupied the house of John B. Toulmin; on the 27^th he carried out a negro woman sick with intermittent fever, who died on the 31^st, under circumstances which I need not detail, but I have every reason to believe she did not have Yellow Fever.

 

“Mr. Greer moved with his family to the same house on the 29^th from town, carrying a daughter convalescing from Yellow Fever; another daughter sickened on the 8^th; three of Mrs. Flemming’s children, in the same house, on the 10^th; and Mrs. John Green on the next day; Mrs. Flemming on the 15^th, and John H. Greer two or three days after. This house is abut 300 yards north-west of Mr. Wheeler’s.

 

“My father-in-law, Col Deas, lived on a lot about 100 yards north of the last named house, and his household, white and black, consisted of sixty persons. On the 7^th September one of his negro women was attacked on an adjoining lot; on the 8^th his daughter-in-law, Mrs. John Deas, and on the 9^th Mrs. Brown, his daughter — each being in a different enclosure and 100 yards from each other. The disease then spread rapidly through the families of the three adjoining premises, attacking whites and blacks indiscriminately. Fifty-four were attacked out of the sixty, and in 14 days the whole tale was told — five whites, two mulattoes and one black were dead with black vomit, and the rest were convalescent. One half of the whites attacked died, and I had never in twenty-five year’s practice witnessed such a scene, among a class of people well lodged, in clean, well ventilated apartments and surrounded by every possible comfort, and this, too, on a high, barren sand hill, nearly six miles from the city.

 

“Cases existed simultaneously at Wm. Stewart’s, Mr. Wheeler’s and Mr. Purvis’s and Toulmin’s houses, widely separated from each other; and in the latter part of September and through October, the disease visited the houses of Capt. Stein, McMillan, Rev. Mr. Knapp, Mrs. George, Dubose’s John Battle’s and some others. The disease skipped about in an extraordinary manner; some houses escaped entirely, some had but one or two cases. I could see no connection between the houses or inmates to explain the order of attack. There was scarcely a fatal case among those attacked after the 16^th September — not more than two or three.

 

“The great majority of the subjects on Spring Hill had had no communication with the city for many weeks, and it is worthy of note that the disease had attacked most of the country between the Hill and town before it reached the Hill, though some neighborhoods, as the Nunnery, and around it as far as Hubbell’s, escaped. As far as I can learn, the disease did not spread among the country population beyond Spring Hill, which is sparse….

 

“Heretofore in Mobile the colored population, except in 1819, have escaped Yellow Fever; this year they have been as generally attacked as the whites, but with less fatality there have been at least 50 deaths among them this season from Yellow Fever, and the mulattoes have suffered more than blacks.

 

“Children, who heretofore have been little liable, this year have been generally and violently attacked. No acclimation, short of an attack of Yellow Fever, has served this year as a protectin; not only many who have lived here fifteen or twenty years and passed through several epidemics untouched, but grown up natives, and even those advanced in life, have been fatally attacked. There were very few second attacks….

 

“It is remarkable that not only some neighborhoods around the town escaped, within three or four miles, but many houses in town. Mrs. McKnight, a milliner, lived in Claiborne street, between Dauphin and St. Francis, and she with eleven unacclimated girls escaped entirely. Other examples of the same kind occurred.

 

“Elevation seemed to have no influence over it. The Battle House, a large and superb new hotel, had just been completed and occupied but a few months; it was as clean as any building could be and as well ventilated. The female Irish servants slept in the fifth story, and the males in the basement. They were nearly all attacked and about one half died. The cleanest parts and best residences in the city suffered as much as the small buildings in filthy alleys….

 

“It is a fact worthy of note that the Yellow Fever this season has visited every point on the Lake where the New Orleans boats have touched, while Portersville, where they did not touch, has escaped….

 

“The winter population of Mobile is at present about 25,000, of which at least one third were absent during the epidemic; some of the latter remained in the vicinity, and many went to the interior or other States. It should however be borne in mind that our city cemeteries are the repositories of most of the dead for several miles around the city, as well ads for the steamboats; and that our bills of mortality may therefore exhibit a larger per centage on our population on our population than truth would justify. But mitigate that facts as we may, 1331 deaths in 90 days is a terrible mortality, and had the population remained in the city, I see no reason to doubt that the white portion would have been more than decimated. Certain it is, that in many villages along the Gulf States, where the number of inhabitants could be closely approximated, and where none were ‘acclimated,’ this fearful epidemic committed ravages far beyond decimation.  Mobile, December 18, 1853.” (Nott. “The Epidemic of Yellow Fever of Mobile in 1853.” New-Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal.  Part First, March, 1854, pp. 571-574, 577-579, 582-583.)

 

Newspapers

 

Sep 3: “The number of interments yesterday were 37, which is a large increase.” (La Crosse Democrat, WI. “The Epidemic.” September 13, 1853, p. 2.)

 

Oct 24: “New Orleans, Oct 24….The yellow fever at Mobile, has somewhat abated, during the last three days.” (Madison Dollar Weekly Courier, Madison, IN. “By Telegraph,” 11-2-1853, 1.)

 

Centreville (Centerville), LA

 

Dr. W.B. Wood: “….The Police Jury of the parish of St. Mary, ‘with the view of preventing the introduction and spread of yellow fever’ within our limits, established the strictest quarantine regulations, about the middle of August, and stationed health officers on the Atchafalaya, near the mouth of Bayou Têche, and at Berwick’s Bay; rendering it impossible for steamboats or vessels from New Orleans or the coast, to get into our parish without submitting themselves and their passengers to the quarantine law, under penalty of being fired into and suck if they attempted to pass up the Bayou Têche without submitting to the delay required! These regulations required boats and passengers to remain nine days from the time they left any port or place where yellow fever was prevailing as an epidemic, before they could even enter the Bayou Têche and proceed on their journey to Newtown or St. Martinsville above this; and in some instances they were kept in quarantine for eighteen days; as was the case with the steamer Pitser Miller. Think of that, ye advocates of quarantine laws! The parish authorities of St. Many detaining a steamboat, loaded with freight and passengers, in quarantine, eighteen days; which only asked the privilege of passing directly through the parish, on her way to St. Martin’s parish! And then tell me how long the authorities of the parish of Ascension or Iberville, lying as they do, on both sides of the Mississippi river, would detain the Magnolia or the Southern Belle, or any other steamboat, loaded with freight and passengers for Concordia parish, or Bayou Sara, in quarantine, before they would allow them to proceed on their way up the Mississippi river?

 

“Any yet, with all these rigid quarantine regulations enforced in St. Mary; subjecting the whole community to great expense, and greatly endangering the lives of those subjected to quarantine; besides, being the greatest inconvenience that our traveling population could be forced into; the yellow fever made its appearance at Pattersonville, nearest the quarantine stations, early in September, and at Centreville on the 15^th of the same month!….”[114]

 

New Orleans, LA:

 

Barton: “Is our local position — climate — are the pursuits, character and habits of our people so utterly irreconcilable, or unamenable to all sanitary influences, that this enormous mortality is to continue, and that we are to bear the stigma of being not only the sickliest city in the United States, but in America, — nay in the civilized world!….

 

“Under such circumstances, what does common sense dictate? The answer at once will be — correct it — do, as all other cities have done and not lie idle and indolent, resting satisfied in boasting that it was one of the ‘healthiest places’ in former times (when there was no city at all!) — but put your shoulders to the wheel, rectify the disadvantages of your position in this respect, and take courage in viewing the stupendous works that have been made to improve the sanitary condition of ancient cities — that yet in their mighty relics, are still standing monuments of the great value those people placed on health, and their confidence in sanitary measures to preserve it.”

 

(Barton, Edward. H., M.D. (Head of Commission). Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 223-224.)

 

May 6, Dowler: “Testimony of Dr. M. M. Dowler.

 

“Case 1. — The Dr. stated that a man named Kein, living on Gormley’s Canal, was taken sick on the 6^th of May, and died on the 10^th. The woman, his wife, was taken sick on the 11^th, and died on the 15^th. The Dr. derives this information as to dates from Mr. Ebbinger, who was Kein’s landlord, and Dan. Hubert, having lost his memorandum book about the 15^th of August, in which it was noted. The man died with black vomit, and his case was clearly and unequivocally one of yellow fever. The woman did not throw up black vomit, and the Dr. gave a certificate, in both cases, of bilious malignant fever, not wishing to create alarm. The Dr. subsequently attended cases in the same square; he saw many cases afterwards, as late as the 3d of August, in the same neighborhood….Has seen three cases this year of recovery from black vomit, out of perhaps fifty….” (Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. 1854, p. 4.)

 

May 9, Pashley: “Testimony of Mr. Pashley.

 

“Ship Northampton. — Mr. Pashley states that the first cases of yellow fever seen by him, occurred on board the ship Northampton, direct from Liverpool, with between three and four hundred passengers. This vessel arrived here on the 9^th of May. On the 10^th, hands were sent on board to cleanse her; this work was arrested by discovering what they supposed to be black vomit in the hospital of the ship. It was understood that several persons died on the voyage, and one man, a steerage passenger, whilst coming up the river. The ship lay at the first wharf above the steamboat landing, in the Fourth District. Charles Lanness, one of the men sent on board to cleanse, was taken sick with yellow fever two or three days afterwards. James McGuigan, one of the steerage passengers, also took the fever, was sent to the Charity Hospital, and died there. The boy of the ship was taken sick. The remark of Dr. Thrope was, that the case, had it occurred alter in the season, would be considered undoubted yellow fever.

 

“Of the second gang, employed five days afterwards in discharging the vessel, several were taken sick; among them Mr. Pashley’s confidential man, although he was acclimated. Mr. Clark, foreman of the gang employed in loading the ship. An man under his charge, living in the Third District, sickened and died with black vomit….

 

“The ship National Eagle lay in the neighborhood of the Northampton; this vessel was bound to New York. She lost, after her departure, so many hands from fever, that she was compelled to put into the Capes of the Delaware in distress. Many of the passengers were reported sick with fever. No other vessel came up in tow with the Northampton, neither was she in company with any other at the Pass. The Siri, from Rio, lay one-fourth of a mile distant from the Northampton.”[115] (Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission… 1854, pp. 6-7.)

 

May 17, Fenner: “The disease made its first appearance among the crew of the ship Augusta, which arrived here direct from Bremen, on the 17^th day of May, and took position at the foot of Josephine street, in the fourth district. On inquiry, I learned that this ship brought over 230 European emigrants, who enjoyed good health on the voyage; having only lost two children, which died of Diarrhea…. The emigrants…remained but one day, and then proceeded up to the West.”  (Fenner 1854, p. 15.)

 

May 23, Fenner: “On the 23d of May, Dr. Schuppert was called on board the ship Augusta, to see G.S___, a sailer, aged 21, whom he found laboring under symptoms which he supposed indicated gastro-duodinitis – skin hot and dry, pulse 100, violent headache, pains in the back and limbs, tongue coated, breath fetid, nausea and vomiting of bilious matters.  On the fifth day his skin and eyes turned quite yellow.  He recovered, and was discharged on the fourteenth day.  On the 25^th of May, another sailor on the same ship was attacked with symptoms similar to the first, though more violent.  He died on the 30^th in a state of delirium.  Soon after death the body turned yellow… No post mortem examination allowed.

 

May 26, Vanderlinden (in Sanitary Commission): “Testimony of Mr. Vanderlinden, Clerk of the Charity Hospital.

 

“Case 1. — The first case of yellow fever this year in the Charity Hospital was that of a man named James McGuigan, who came in on the 26^th of May; had been sick four days; was an Irish emigrant from Liverpool; had been in the city one week previous to being sick; had not been attended by any physician; died in two days after his admission, with black vomit. This patient came from Orange street, First District, and had been employed on the ship Northampton in discharging said vessel.” (Barton. Report of Sanitary Commission, 1854, p3.)

 

May 27, Fenner: “…on the 27^th of May, two more sailors were attacked on the same ship, and with the same symptoms.  One of them recovered; the other…was sent to the Charity Hospital, and died on the 30^th of May….” (Fenner 1854, pp. 16-17.)

 

May 28, Fenner: “The very first case of black vomit that occurred, happened in one of my wards, at the Charity Hospital, on the 28^th of May; and although so very early in the season…I found another case in my wards that bore a strong resemblance to yellow fever….” (Fenner 1854, pp. 16-17.)

 

Meighans, May 27-28: “Testimony of Dr. Meighans.

 

“Case 1. — Dr. M.’s first case of yellow fever occurred on the 27^th or 28^th of May, in Tchoupitoulas street, in a boarding-house kept by Mrs. Edwards; sent the man, who had been in the city ten months, and who had black vomit at the time, to the Charity Hospital.

 

“The second case seen by Dr. M. occurred on the 28^th of May, in Race street, one door from Tchoupitoulas street, immediately adjoining the house of Mrs. Edwards, mentioned above. The locality is filthy and the buildings crowded with occupants

 

“The third case was on board the ship Evangeline, lying at post 14, First District, a laborer who worked on vessels; he had recently arrived here. Drs. Davidson and Rhodes had case on board the Evangeline….” (Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. 1854, p. 5.)

 

May 29, Vanderlinden (in Sanitary Commission): “Testimony of Mr. Vanderlinden, Clerk of the Charity Hospital.

 

“Case 2. — Gerhardt H. Woette, a sailor, born in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, twenty-five years of age, in New Orleans fifteen days, came from Bremerhaven; was employed on board ship Augusta, from the said port of Bremerhaven; came to the Hospital on the 30^th of May, 1853, being then sick five days; died on the 30^th of May 1853; yellow fever with black vomit.

 

“Case 3. — John Allen, a seaman, born in Scotland, aged twenty-four, in New Orleans seven months; came from Boston; admitted June 4^th; sick since seven days; discharged June 12^th.

 

“Case 4. — Thomas Hart, laborer; born in England; aged twenty-five; in New Orleans four months; came from New York; admitted June 5^th; sick three days; died June 10^th, of yellow fever.[116]

 

“Case 5. — Michael Mahoney, laborer; born in Ireland; aged sixteen; in New Orleans four weeks; came from Liverpool; admitted June 6^th; sick three days; came from ship Saxon; died June 7^th, of yellow fever.

 

“Case 6. — Barbara Berg; born in Germany; twenty-three years of age; in New Orleans five months; came from Havre; admitted June 6^th for intermittent fever; died of yellow fever, June 19^th. [end of p. 3.] (Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. 1854, p. 3.)

 

June, Barton: “June….The mortality had now reached, during the month, six hundred and fifty-six; consumption, which had formed a prominent feature in the weekly mortality, was now greatly reduced, near to its normal standard; and scarlatina, which seems to be a prodrome of the epidemic yellow fever here, as it is in various other countries, was now reduced to half its mortality during the preceding month, and thence gave way to the epidemic, and scarcely made its appearance again, until December. Precisely opposite was the influence of the season on the class of nervous affections; almost keeping pace with the epidemic, it reached its acme at the same time and then declined. The class was unusually large throughout the year.

 

“The zymotic class began now rapidly to augment. Bilious remittent, pernicious, typhoid, and malignant fevers greatly increased, and more than twenty deaths by yellow fever were reported.

 

(Barton: “Report upon the Sanitary Condition of New Orleans, Section II,” p. 232-233).

 

Mid-June through September, 1853, Harper’s:

 

“No one feared or even thought of Yellow Fever revisiting its old arena, after so long an absence. There had been no epidemic since 1847. Epidemic cases had indeed occurred in the Charity Hospital every summer; but the disease did not spread, and the assurance became general that this dreadful disease had abandoned New Orleans at last, as it had done Philadelphia and New York in 1822….

 

“About the middle of June it began to be noised about that there was some sickness among the shipping in the upper part of the city. The report was hushed up, or treated as mere ebullition of some timid panic-makers, or idle gossipers, who had no lots to sell, or any business that might suffer from an apprehension that the city was unhealthy. The general cry was-” Hush up. Don’t alarm people. You will frighten them into a fever. It is all humbug. A slight sickness among sailors and poor laborers, who eat bad food, &c.” And so was determined to ignore and discredit the existence of the fever.

 

“But the formidable and insidious malady would not thus consent to be ignored. All the while it was furtively and gradually disseminating its poison-sowing the seeds of a rich harvest of death, filling up the wards of the Charity Hospital, and thinning the crowds of laborers on the levee. The very small. number of our citizens who ever took the trouble to examine statistics of mortality, began to be alarmed; but they were frowned down as panic-makers, and the disease, the existence of which was admitted, was pronounced to be ship-fever, which threatened only sailors and stevedores. But what did the mortuary statistics show?  In the books of the Charity Hospital the following cases were found entered:

 

“…James McGingan, laborer; native of Ireland; one week in the city; had just landed from a vessel direct from Liverpool; was taken sick on the 23d of May entered the Hospital on the 27th; and died the same day, of black vomit.

 

“Gerhart II. Worte, a native of Germany; a sailor, last from Bremen, died on the 30th May, of black vomit.

 

“Michael Mahoney, a native of Ireland-last from Liverpool; died June 7th, of black vomit.

 

“Herman Bruntz, late from Bremen; died 7th of June, of black vomit.

 

“Thomas Hart, a native of England-last from Liverpool; died on 10^th of June, of black vomit.”

 

“Margaret Runnel-fifteen days from Boston; died on 11^th of June, of black vomit.”

 

“These were the first six cases which terminated fatally. But these were ordinary occurrences, by no means justifying any apprehensions of an epidemic. Only six deaths from yellow fever in the Charity Hospital in twelve or fourteen days!

 

“The first of July arrived. There had been but one death from yellow fever. There was, however, a good deal of other sickness; yet the month of June showed only 625 deaths in the whole city-being an average of 156 per week.  But July was less satisfactory. The first week exhibited a result which created alarm. The deaths from yellow fever had doubled. Yet there were only 59 deaths out of a population of 80,000. “Let us hold on a little longer before we permit ourselves to be frightened,” was the cry. The 16th of July arrives-204 deaths by yellow fever for one week.” That is serious’, certainly.” – “No; the fever exists among the shipping, and the very poorest classes. It will not extend to the more respectable portion of our people.” The Council was not alarmed, and the Mayor was not at all discomposed. Even the newspapers curbed their natural tendency for panics, stirring incidents, and startling events; and lightly treated these rather serious figures. But at the same time they betrayed their real sentiments by inveighing against the Council for not cleaning the streets, creating a Board of Health, or doing something to prevent the introduction or origination of an epidemic. Alas! they knew well enough that the epidemic was already near the city; but the fatal effects of alarm were urged in justification of the pious suppressio veri.

 

“About the middle of June there was one portentous announcement, which was well understood by the old residents. It was the publication of the Programme of the Howard Association-an association composed of thirty gentlemen, who, under a charter from the Legislature, have been long organized to aid the poor sick “during an epidemic.” This publication was loudly censured. It Was equivalent to a declaration that there was an epidemic in the city. The doctors disputed this point. The disease was confined to a particular class and a special locality: an epidemic includes all classes.  The Council joined issue with the Association.  Meeting on the 27th July, the Assistant Aldermen passed the following resolutions:

 

“Whereas, There now exists a very general apprehension among the good citizens of this city that the yellow fever, which is by many believed to be sporadic, and confined almost exclusively to certain crowded localities, may spread and become epidemic.

 

“And whereas, It is highly important that all and every possible and proper means be at once taken to prevent both the spreading of the disease and to allay all unnecessary excitement touching its mortality, by truthful official reports of its progress or decline.”

 

“These resolutions were written by a physician, and adopted by a body presided over by a physician. “May spread and become epidemic!”- The people were then dying at the rate of a hundred a day, in every part of the city. Fifteen hundred had already died of a disease “which is by many believed to be sporadic, and confined almost exclusively to certain crowded localities.” Fifteen hundred in a few weeks cut down sporadically-just one half the total number of the victims of the epidemic of 1847 — which was considered the severest that ever visited the city.

 

The Council next created a Board of Health, placed $10,000 at its disposal, and then adjourned, many of its members flying the city, and others remaining to perform their duties, like men and philanthropists.

 

“The Board of Health set to work vigorously and earnestly, established infirmaries in various parts of the city, and performed such other duties as were now within the scope of human power. But it was too late to discuss preventive measures. It was not even considered necessary to repair the error of the Council, and declare that there was an epidemic in the city.  It spoke for itself. It was figured up in the reports of the daily interments. It was proclaimed in a thousand forms of gloom, sorrow, desolation, and death.  Funeral processions crowded every street. No vehicles could be seen except doctors’ cabs and coaches, passing to and from the cemeteries, and hearses, often solitary, taking their way toward those gloomy destinations. The hum of trade was hushed.

The levee was a desert.  The streets, wont to shine with fashion and beauty, were silent. The tombs–the home of the dead–were the only places where there was life–where crowds assembled–where the incessant rumbling of carriages, the trampling of feet, the murmur of voices, and all the signs of active, stirring life could be heard and seen.

 

“Spread over a large area, and badly built up, New Orleans did not, however, bring so distinctly before the eye and mind of the observer the full extent of the ravages of the disease as other cities would have done under a like visitation. To realize the full horror and virulence of the pestilence, you must go into the crowded localities of the laboring classes, into those miserable shanties which are the disgrace of the city, where the poor immigrant class cluster together in filth, sleeping a half dozen in one room, without ventilation, and having access to filthy, wet yards, which have never been filled up, and when it rains are converted into green puddles-fit abodes for frogs and sources of poisonous malaria. Here you will find scenes of woe, misery, and death, which will haunt your memory in all time to come. Here you will see the dead and the dying, the sick and the convalescent, in one and the same bed. Here you will see the living babe sucking death from the yellow breast of its dead mother. Here father, mother, and child die in one another’s arms. Here you will find whole families swept off in a few hours, so that none are left to mourn or to procure the rites of burial. Offensive odors frequently drew neighbors to such awful spectacles.  Corpses would thus proclaim their existence, and enforce the observances due them. What a terrible disease! Terrible in its insidious character, in its treachery, in the quiet, serpent-like manner in which it gradually winds its folds around its victims, beguiles him by its deceptive wiles; cheats his judgment and senses, and then consigns him to grim death. Not like the plague, with its red spot, its maddening fever, its wild delirium and stupor-not like the cholera, in violent spasms and prostrating pains, is the approach of the vomito. It assumes the guise of the most ordinary disease which flesh is heir to-a cold, a slight chill, a headache, a slight fever, and, after a while, pains in the back. Surely there is nothing in these! “I won’t lay by for them,” says the misguided victim; the poor laborer can not afford to do so. Instead of going to bed, sending for a nurse and doctor, taking a mustard bath and a cathartic, he remains at his post until it is too late. He has reached the crisis of the disease before he is aware of its existence.  The chances are thus against him. The, fever mounts up rapidly, and the poison pervades his whole system. He tosses and rolls on his bed, and raves in agony. Thus he continues for thirty-six hours. Then the fever breaks, gradually it passes off-joy and hope begin to dawn upon him. He is through now. ” Am I not better, Doctor?” “You are doing well, but must he very quiet.” Doing well! How does the learned gentleman know?  Can he see into his stomach, and perceive there collecting the dark brown liquid which marks the dissolution that is going on? The fever suddenly returns, but now the paroxysm is more brief. Again the patient is quiet, but not so hopeful as before.  He is weak, prostrate, and bloodless, but he has no fever; his pulse is regular, sound, and healthy, and his skin moist. “He will get well,” says the casual observer. The doctor shakes his head ominously. After a while, drops of blood are seen collecting about his lips. Blood comes from his gums-that is a bad sign, but such cases frequently occur.  Soon he has a hiccough. That is worse than the bleeding at the gums: then follows the ejection of a dark-brown liquid which he throws up in large quantities; and this in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand is the signal that the doctor’s function is at an end, and the undertaker’s is to commence. In a few hours the coffin will receive its tenant, and mother-earth her customary tribute….

 

“The Board of Health commenced its operations about the 1st of August. Daily reports were then published of the interments in all the cemeteries of the city. Commencing on 1^st August with 106 deaths by Yellow Fever, 142 deaths by all diseases, the number increased daily, until for the first week, ending on the 7th, they amounted to 909 deaths by Yellow Fever, 1186 of all diseases. The next week showed a continued increase: 1288 Yellow Fever, 1526 of all diseases. This was believed to be the maximum. There had been nothing to equal it in the history of any previous epidemics, and no one believed it could be exceeded. But the next week gave a mournful refutation of these predictions and calculations: for that ever memorable week the total deaths were 1575, of Yellow Fever 1346. But the next week commenced more gloomily still. The deaths on the 22d of August were 283 of all diseases, 239 of Yellow Fever. This proved to be the maximum mortality of the season. From this it began slowly to decrease. The month of August exhibited a grand total of 5122 deaths by Yellow Fever, and nearly 7000 deaths of all diseases. Slowly the disease continued to decrease, only for the want of victims, until on the 6th of September (at which time these notes are transcribed), when it reached 65 deaths by Yellow Fever, and 95 deaths of all diseases. Looking back from this point we find that the whole number of deaths by Yellow Fever from its first appearance on the 28th of May were 7189 — deaths from all diseases 9941. But there are 344 deaths the cause of which is not stated in the burial certificates. At least three-fourths of these may be set down in the Yellow Fever column-which would add 250 more, and make the deaths by Yellow Fever 7439.

 

“But do these figures include all the deaths?  Alas! no. Hundreds have been buried of whom no note was taken, no record kept. Hundreds have died away from the city, in attempting to fly from it. Every steamer up the river contributed its share to the hecatombs of victims of the pestilence. Nor do these returns include those who have died in the suburbs, in the towns of Algiers and Jefferson City, in the villages of Gretna and Carrollton. But even these figures, deficient as they are, need no additions to swell them into proofs that the most destructive plague of modern times has just wreaked its vengeance upon New Orleans. Estimating, the total deaths at 8000 for three

months, we have ten per cent. of the whole population of New Orleans. At this rate it would only require two years and four months to depopulate the city….

 

“There is scarcely any parallel to this mortality. The great Plague of London in 1665 destroyed one out of every 13 1/3  of its population. That of New Orleans in 1853 destroyed one out of every ten of its total population, and one out of every four of those susceptible of the disease. This exceeds the mortality in Philadelphia in 1798, when it was estimated that one out of every six died.” (Harper’s Weekly Magazine, “History and Incidents of the Plague in New Orleans,” November 1853, pp. 797-806.)

 

July 2, Fenner: “There had been forty-seven deaths from Yellow Fever up to the 2d of July, as appeared in the weekly reports from the cemeteries…. (Fenner 1854, p. 30.)

 

“From the foregoing facts it will be seen that the disease steadily progressed with increasing speed from the time of its first appearance, about the 23^rd of May.  If we had not an epidemic actually upon us at the period we have now reached, (July 1^st) there was certainly a strong probability that we soon would have one.  But this was by no means a conceded point; on the contrary, there were all sorts of caviling, disputes and discussions in regard to it; and those who interpreted correctly the signs of the times, and foreseeing the impending danger, advised their friends who intended to leave the city to hasten their departure, were most soundly abused for their conduct.  It were needless now to recount the unfortunate victims who were thus ensnared, from want of correct information and judicious advice.  The city was actually without a Board of Health at the time, although the weekly reports from the cemetery were published as formerly, under the direction of the Mayor and the late Secretary.  This was all the correct information that was published, and even this was complained of by some who thought it better to suppress the truth than cause a panic.”  (Fenner 1854, p. 35.)

 

July 2: “July 2.  I note eighteen deaths from Yellow Fever at the Charity Hospital….” (Fenner 1854, p. 36.)

 

July 9: “July 9. Reports from the cemeteries show fifty-nine deaths from Yellow Fever, and fourteen from other fevers, for the week ending this date…. (Fenner 1854, p. 36.)

 

July 13: “July 13. Deaths from Yellow Fever fifteen to twenty a day at the Charity Hospital….” (Fenner, 1854, pp. 36-37.)

 

July 17: “Yellow Fever increases rapidly. Interments for the week ending yesterday, three hundred and forty-four; of which two hundred and four were from Yellow Fever….” (Fenner 1854, pp. 36-37.)

 

July 23: “Interments for the week ending today [July 23], six hundred and seventeen; of which four hundred and twenty-nine were from Yellow Fever.  Still there are but few cases in the centre of the city.  The epidemic reigns chiefly in the unpaved parts all around….” (Fenner 1854, p. 37.)

 

July 31: “A dispatch from New Orleans, of Saturday, reports 154 deaths in the last 24 hours, of which 120 were from yellow fever.” (Zanesville Courier, OH. “From New Orleans.” 8-1-1853, p. 5.)

 

Aug 1-2, Daily Free Democrat: “We received from New Orleans papers of Tuesday last, August 2d, this morning…the yellow fever on the increase.  The number of deaths for the week, were 864, of which 622 were of yellow fever.  In the 48 hours ending 2^nd inst., 299 deaths had occurred.” (Daily Free Democrat, WI. “Yellow Fever in New Orleans,” 8-10-1853, p. 2.)

 

Aug 2: NY Daily Times: “August 2.  A Board of Health has been organized, and the papers of this morning contain its first weekly and daily reports.  For the week ending July 31^st, the interments were eight hundred and eighty-four; Yellow Fever six hundred and ninety-two.  Interments of the first day of August, one hundred and forty-two; of which one hundred and twenty-three were from Yellow Fever…..

 

Aug 5: “New Orleans, Saturday, Aug 6.  The total interments in this city for the last 24 hours were 238.  Of this number 191 died of yellow fever.” (New York Daily Times. “Yellow Fever at New-Orleans,” Aug 11, 1853, p. 1.)

 

Aug 6:  “New Orleans, Sunday, Aug 7.  The total number of deaths reported for the past week were eleven hundred and thirty – of which nine hundred and fifty were from yellow fever.”  (New York Daily Times. “Deaths by Yellow Fever at New-Orleans,” Aug 11, 1853, p. 1.)

 

Fenner, Aug 7: “August 7.  Weekly report of the Board of Health to this date shows one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight deaths, of which nine hundred and fifty-nine were from Yellow Fever, and twenty-nine of other types of fevers, such as ‘pernicious.’ ‘malignant,’ ‘congestive,’ ‘intermittent,’ ‘typhus,’ ‘typhoid,’ etc..” (Fenner 1854, p. 37)

 

New-York Daily Times. August 8, 1853 (204 fatalities):  “New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug 9.  The deaths in this City yesterday were two hundred and twenty eight of which number two hundred and four were by yellow fever.” (New-York Daily Times. “Yellow Fever in New-Orleans,” Aug 11, 1853, p. 1)

 

Star and Banner (Gettysburg). August 11, 1853:  “A letter from the Picayune office dated the 11^th instant says:

 

…Our burying grounds have presented a scene of much confusion, and in some instances of fighting; so much so, that the Mayor and Recorder have been obliged to send a large force to keep order in many of them.  So many dead bodies are brought, and the friends claiming precedence of burial, until they actually get to blows.

 

A poor French emigrant, in the neighborhood of our office, arrived here three months ago with a party of twenty-six; he was taken about a week since with the fever – at that time all his companions were buried but eight – he however recovered and got out to-day, when, on inquiry for the little remnant of his party, he found he was the only survivor – all had been buried but himself.”

 

(Star and Banner (Gettysburg). “Incidents of…Yellow Fever…New Orleans,” Aug 26, 1853, 2.)

 

Fenner: “August 15.  I find the following summary of the work of death in one of the city papers:  [excerpts for yellow fever deaths]

 

August 3…124

August 4…135

August 5…128

August 6—194

August 7…165

August 8…187

August 9…166

August 10…193

August 11…192

August 12…180

August 13…179

August 14…191  two week total…2,255  ….”  (Fenner 1854, 38)

 

August 18, 1853:  “On the 18^th, the Mayor of the city, under the advice of the Board of Health, ordered rounds of cannon to be fired in various quarters of the city, at sunset every day, and barrels of tar to be burnt at nightfall all over the city.  The firing of cannon was soon discontinued on account of its injurious effect upon the sick, but the tar-fires were kept up for a considerable time.” (Fenner 1854, p. 38)

 

Weekly Wisconsin, August 19, 1853:  “A private dispatch from New Orleans, of the 19^th, says, number of deaths to-day from yellow fever, were 220. Tar cans are burning through the streets and cannons firing.  We have eight hospitals….The population of Natchez does not exceed 5000.” (Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Efforts to Smoke Out the Yellow Fever,” 8-31-1853, p. 6, col. 3.)

 

Star and Banner (Gettysburg, PA). August 20, 1853:  “New Orleans, Aug. 21. – The fever shows no abatement in its violence, and the weather continues unfavorable.  The deaths for the last twenty-four hours have amounted to 280, including 248 from the yellow fever.  The board of health report the interments for the week at 1,580, including 1,350 from the fever.”  (Star and Banner (Gettysburg, PA). “Progress of the Yellow Fever,” August 26, 1853, p. 2.)

 

August 21, 1853: “New Orleans, August 21. – The Picayune says the epidemic increases in virulence almost every hour, and has become truly alarming.  It adds:  ‘No one appears to be exempt from its ravages.  Many of our oldest and most respectable inhabitants are now suffering from it’.”  (Gettysburg Star and Banner (PA). “Progress of the Yellow Fever,” Aug 26, 1853, 2.)

 

Fenner: “August 21.  I cannot do better than insert here the following summary of the epidemic up to this date, from the Picayune:

 

The Epidemic:  Cemeteries—Hospital—Remarks.

 

The interments in all the cemeteries of the city for the week ending at 6 o’clock yesterday morning, Saturday, the 20^th inst., are in detail as follows, the deaths by Yellow Fever being those certified to by the physicians.  Interments fort he twenty-four hours ending at 6 A.M., on:  [excerpts from table]

 

August 14…191

August 15…182

August 16…163

August 17…191

August 18…188

August 19…203

August 20…184  … Total…1302

 

During this week the cases of deaths reported for causes unknown number seventy-four.  At least sixty-three of these were Yellow Fever deaths, which, added to the total above, would give one thousand three hundred and sixty-five deaths by Yellow Fever for the week ending at 6 A.M. on the 20^th inst.

 

The mortality for the week previous to the above was as follows (Interments for the twenty-four hours ending at 6 A.M. on):  [excerpts from table for Yellow Fever]

 

August 7…165

August 8…193

August 9…164

August 19…184

August 11…194

August 12…183

August 13…179 … Total 1262

 

The unknown cases were fifty-four in number.  Of them at least forty-six were deaths by Yellow Fever, making the total deaths by this cause for the week ending the 13^th inst., one thousand three hundred and eight.

 

The returns for the week previous to the one just referred to were as follows (Interments for the twenty-four hours ending at 6 A.M. on):  [excerpts]

 

July 31……137

August 1…106

August 2…115

August 3…124

August 4…143

August 5…128

August 6…194 … Total 947

 

The unknown cases were fifty-seven.  Of them, taking the same proportion (six sevenths) as in the preceding tables, the deaths by Yellow Fever were forty-nine.  The total deaths of Yellow Fever for the week ending on the 6^th inst., were nine hundred and ninety-six.

 

The interments for the three weeks ending yesterday are as follows (Week ending at 6 A.M. on):  [excerpts]

 

August   6…..996

August 13…1308

August 20…1365 … Total 3669

 

….How long this is to continue, it is not for human authority to say, except that experience tells us that the first frost will, without doubt, cut short the career of the epidemic.  We do not well see how its severity is to last much longer, for there must be few unacclimated persons left to undergo its power. (Picayune, in Fenner 1854, 38-41)

 

From the Picayune, August 28:

The Epidemic

The interments in all the cemeteries of the city for the week ending at 6 o’clock yesterday morning, Saturday, 27^th inst., are in detail as follows (Interments for the twenty-four hours ending at 6 A.M. on):  [excerpts]

 

August 21…230

August 22…239

August 23…220

August 24…188

August 25…188

August 26…186

August 27…151 … Total 1365

 

Of the total interments 90 were cases where the doctor’s certificate did not state the cause of death.  Of these at least 77 were yellow fever cases, making the deaths by yellow fever for the week 1442.

 

The returns for the fourteen weeks ending yesterday at 6 A.M., since the first yellow fever death took place, are as follows (Week ending on Saturday):  [excerpts]

 

May 28………1

June 4………..1

June 11………4

June 18………7

June 25………9

July 2…….…25

July 9…….…59

July 16…….204

July 23  ..….424

July 30…….555

Aug. 6……..947

Aug. 20…..1302

Aug. 27…..1365 … Total 6170

 

The cases in which the doctor’s certificate did not give the cause of death, were as reported by the Board of Health for the last five weeks in the preceding table, to the number of 279.  Of these at least six-sevenths were yellow fever cases, giving 239 for that class of disease… These, added to 6170 at the foot of the general table above, show that in the four districts of this city, from May 28 to August 27 – or within a day of three months – 6449 human beings have died of yellow fever.  (Picayune, in Fenner 1854, 43-45)

 

“September 1… deaths from it [yellow fever] now only amounting to about 100 a day.

 

“September 2….Yellow Fever is now prevailing at Mobile, Natchez, Vicksburg, Woodville and Thibodauxville…. The following extract is from one of our city papers:

 

Yellow Fever at Thibodauxville…. Stores closed – town abandoned – 151 cases of yellow fever – 22 deaths – postmaster absent – clerks all down with the fever….

 

Yellow Fever in Mobile. The interments in Mobile on the 31^st ult. Were 27, of which 22 were yellow fever.  On the 1^st inst. The number reached 32, of which 23 were of yellow fever.  On the 2d inst. The interments were 43, of which 37 were from yellow fever cases. (Quoted in Fenner 1854, 45)

 

La Crosse Democrat (WI), Sep 5:  “The number in interments yesterday [Sep 5] were 133, of which 110 were of fever.  Business is entirely suspended in accordance with the Mayor’s Proclamation.”  (La Crosse Democrat (WI). “The Epidemic,” September 13, 1853, p. 2.)

 

Fenner:  “September 7.  Only 48 deaths from yellow fever to-day.”  (Fenner 1854, 46)

 

“September 17. The deaths from yellow fever have now got ten down to 24 a day; for the last week 221.  All the infirmaries of the Howard Association have been closed, excepting one, which is still kept open for convalescents.  In fact, the epidemic is now over, though this is not yet announced by authority, and we may expect to see sporadic cases till the end of the year….  (Fenner 1854, 46)

 

“October 8.  The mortality for the week ending this day, was 133, of which 42 died of yellow fever, and of these 36 died at the Charity Hospital; consisting chiefly of laborers and others, who had recently come to the city.”  (Fenner 1854, 46)

 

“The following extract is from the last weekly summary of the epidemic that appeared in the Picayune:  [Excerpts that pick up from the last printed report.]

 

Sept. 3….749

Sept 17…221

Sept 23…125

Oct. 1……85

Oct 8…….42

 

Cases in which causes of death were not stated in the last ten weeks of this table…450

Of these six-sevenths for yellow fever…385

Total of deaths by the fever since May 28…8,198 (Fenner 1854, 47)

 

October 13.  The Board of Health announce publicly that ‘there is now no epidemic in the city, and that absentees and strangers may come in with safety.’….”  (Fenner 1854, 47)

 

There were additional Yellow Fever deaths after this, many of which, though, were not attributable to Yellow Fever in that the prevailing attitude of the time is that the first frost stopped the propagation of yellow fever.  Thus, many Yellow Fever deaths after the first frost were recorded as other types of death, even when they looked like Yellow Fever.

 

“When shown by the reports from their cemeteries that the annual mortality of this city, in proportion to population, more than doubles that of any city either in Europe or America, they either disregard the solemn truth or flatly deny it – saying there must be some mistake, and calling those who bring to light such unwelcome facts, enemies to the city and traducers of its fair fame.  When informed of the first cases of yellow fever that appear in the summer, the newspaper press almost invariably denies the truth of the reports, and, not unfrequently, showers upon the heads of those whose duty it is to pronounce upon the character of the prevailing diseases, volumes of abuse and ridicule.”  (Fenner 1854, p. 4)

 

Ellis: “After the great New Orleans yellow fever epidemic in 1853 and upon the recommendation of the New Orleans Sanitary Commission the following year, the Louisiana legislature enacted a law on March 15, 1855, establishing the Louisiana State Board of Health. During the first twenty years of its existence, however, the board was constantly harassed by opponents of quarantine, and it also endured a general lack of cooperation on the part of the authorities of the city of New Orleans.  By the mid-1870s the relatively weak bureau suffered from want of financial support and entanglement in litigation.”  (Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever & Public Health in the New South. 1992, p. 34.)

 

Pattersonville (Patterson), LA

 

Dr. James S. Grant (Pattersonville) letter to Dr. E. D. Fenner of the New Orleans Sanitary Commission. After describing how immigrants from a northern state who had been laid-over in New Orleans a few days on the way to Pattersonville (arriving Aug 8) were the first victims, and afterwards a slow spread until “a young man who was permitted to pass our quarantine station of the 16^th August, on a visit to a gentleman about four miles above our village, upon his promise that he would remain with his friend and not visit any other place until the term of quarantine was completed. He remained with Captain M. until the evening of the 22d, when he was seized with chill, succeeded with violent fever, pains in the head, back, and limbs, injected eyes, &c. The next morning (the 23d) his symptoms being somewhat mitigated, he concluded to leave his friend’s residence and was brought to out village….” [p. 44]

 

Grant goes on to note that the young man became very sick and was placed in a hotel room where he “recovered after a protracted illness, with almost every unfavorable symptom, such as hemorrhage from the gums, bowels, and scarified surfaces….” [p. 45]

 

Cases and deaths commenced to climb: “From the time of the death of the blacksmith, the disease spread rapidly; so much so that by the 21^st of September we had seventy-five cases in our vicinity. It extended to nearly every plantation for several miles above and below our village; respecting neither age, sex, color, or condition in life. On some plantations, every white person, with nearly every slave, passed through the ordeal; while some intermediate places enjoyed complete immunity. These last, however, were restricted to non-intercourse with supposed infected districts.

 

“In our little village, nearly every individual had the disease during some period of its prevalence; which continued here from the above dates until late in December. Whenever it made its appearance in a family, it generally, sooner or later, extended to every member, in what we considered the infected region. Many persons who visited this place contracted the disease…The range of country, from about six miles above this place, to nine miles below, along the margin of the river, composed our sickly region, many of the intermediate plantations, however, remained healthy. The number of cases during its prevalence here, as near as I can calculate, exceeded five hundred, of which number there were forty-five deaths….our place was never more healthy at the same season of year than at the time the above cases were introduced…” [p. 46] (Dr. James S. Grant (Pattersonville) ltr. to Dr. E. D. Fenner, New Orleans Sanitary Commission; p. 43-47, Report…Commission…on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853.)

 

Natchez, MS

 

August 20: “Yellow Fever in Natchez – The terrible scourge. – The yellow fever has appeared in this city for several days, having, it is thought, been brought here by some vessels from New Orleans.  Up to the present writing, upwards of 200 deaths have taken place.  The excitement is general.  Many citizens have left the city in consequence of the fever.  A large building has been provided, which is to be used as a hospital for the indigent and sick.  The authorities have pronounced the fever as epidemic.” (Weekly Wisconsin. “Yellow Fever…” 8-31-1853, p. 6.)

 

September 3: “Deaths in this city averages from 13 to 15 daily out of a population which does not probably exceed 400.” (La Crosse Democrat, WI. “The Epidemic,” Sep 13, 1853, p. 2.)

 

Port Gibson, MS

 

Wren: “….Position.–Six miles East of the Mississippi, in a bend of the Bayou Pierre….” [p. 66]

 

“The first case was a man who had a short time before returned from New Orleans, where the fever was at its most fatal stage as an epidemic The disease spread from square to square for some two or three weeks, until the whole village had been visited by it. All classes seemed to be equally subject to the disease. The prominent symptoms were the same as those occurring in New Orleans; firstly, chill, duration of fever thirty-six to forty-eight hours, slow convalescence; or, hemorrhage with black vomit would succeed, with extreme yellowness of skin and death. Black vomit occurred in nearly all the cases that died. I had seven cases of true black vomit that recovered, during the month of September….” (Wren in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 67.)

 

Philadelphia, PA

 

July 28. “Supposed Yellow Fever. – Several deaths from yellow fever occurred here yesterday. – Some excitement exists, and many people have closed their houses.  The vessel which imported the fever has been ordered back to the Quarantine, thirteen miles below the city.  The Board of Health have also ordered her planks to be torn up, and her bilge-water pumped out.  Several houses in the vicinity of the epidemic have been fumigated.  Some physicians say that the disease is the malignant yellow fever.” (Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Yellow Fever.” Aug 3, 1853, 3.)

 

Texas

Cincinnati:  “Cincinnati, on the Trinity River in northern Walker County, was a riverport and an important ferry crossing during much of the nineteenth century. The settlement was founded in 1837… Cincinnati probably reached its peak in the early 1850s, when the town had a saloon, a grocery store, a cotton warehouse, a dry-goods store, a saddlery, a tannery, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a wagon-maker, a stonemason, and two doctors. Estimates of the population during the early 1850s ranged from 200 to 600….The major cause of the demise of Cincinnati occurred in 1853, when a traveler from Galveston brought yellow fever to the town. Perhaps as many as 250 people died, although the record is not clear. Rumors were wild and horrifying, but there are only a few specifically identified instances of yellow fever as the cause of death. No doubt a far greater number of people fled to escape the pestilence, and many never returned. The town began a steady decline….”[117] (Holder, Gerald L. “Cincinnati, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association.)

 

Oct 21 report:  “”Baltimore, Wednesday, Nov. 2. New Orleans papers of Thursday last are received. Galveston (Texas) dates to the 21^st [Oct] are at hand. The yellow fever had abated at Galveston, but it was worse at Houston – the deaths averaging 7 to 9 daily.  It also continued at Lavaca and Indianola.” (New York Daily Times. “From Texas – The Yellow Fever…” 11-3-1853, p. 1, col. 2.)

 

Nov 4 report: “The Houston Gazette, of the 4th inst., learns from a gentleman who has recently visited Cincinnati, on the Trinity, that seventeen persons have died in that town, within two or three weeks, of yellow fever, there were twenty persona taken sick, and only three survived

 

“In Richmond, the yellow fever is still raging with unabated malignity. About twenty-six persons had died of this disease, and several were still sick. Only forty or fifty persons remained at the town.

 

“The Lavaca Commercial, of the 29^th ult., exultingly announces the disappearance of the epidemic, and invites absent citizens to return home forthwith. We quote from the Commercial:  ‘Lavaca proved a hard place for physicians in the late epidemic. Out of eight that practiced here during its prevalence, seven were attacked with the fever, and four out of the seven died.” (New York Daily Times. “Ravages of the Yellow Fever.” 11-17-1858, 8.)

 

Maritime

 

March 29: “The latest date from San Francisco is the 18^th of March….

 

“The community has been painfully excited by the mortality aboard steamers recently arrived from Panama. The Golden Gate lost twenty-three of her passengers from yellow fever, and the Winfield Scott as many as forty-one from the same disease. The disease attained its full virulence after leaving Panama.  No case is reported as arising in San Francisco.”  (New York Daily Times.  “Two Weeks Later From California.” 3-29-1853, 3.)

 

Sources:

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: Published for the Author by Search & Pfaff Ltd., 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010. 1909 copy digitized at: http://archive.org/stream/historyofyellowf00auguuoft#page/n4/mode/1up

 

Barton, Edward. H., M.D. (Head of Commission). Report upon the Sanitary Condition of New Orleans. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1855. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100633711

 

Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Bell, A.W. (Compiler). The State Register: Comprising an Historical and Statistical Account of Louisiana, From its Earliest Settlement as a Territory Down to its Present Period as a State.  Baton Rouge, T.B.R. Hatch & Co., Publishers, 1855, 164 pp. Digitized by Google. Accessed at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=300VAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Boudreaux, Edmond. Lost Biloxi. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2015. Google preview accessed 4-17-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=87ugCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Brown, Canter Jr. Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida’s Loyalist Reconstruction Governor. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. Google preview accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=lmvvDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Causey, Donna R. “Amazing letter from 1854 reporting on the Yellow Fever epidemic in Mobile, Alabama.” Alabama Pioneers. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: http://www.alabamapioneers.com/yellow-fever-mobile-alabama/

 

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY:  Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Dowler, Bennet, MD. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853, with Topographical, Chronological, and Historical Sketches of The Epidemics of New Orleans Since Their Origin in 1796, Illustrative of the Quarantine Question. New Orleans; Office of the Picayune, 1854, 76 pages. Accessed 4-18-2018 at: https://ia800300.us.archive.org/18/items/65020990R.nlm.nih.gov/65020990R.pdf

 

Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever & Public Health in the New South. University Press of Kentucky, 1992. Partially google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=pqRcT7sFYYYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

eMedTV. “Yellow Fever.” Accessed 10-20-2013 at: http://virus.emedtv.com/yellow-fever/yellow-fever.html

 

Fenner, Dr. E.D. History of the Epidemic Yellow Fever at New Orleans, LA. In 1853. New York:  Hall, Clayton & Co., Printers, 1854, 84 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=d2U-AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=yellow+fever+1853&ei=eOIxSfDIGaj-yASg7sSKDg#PPA56,M1

 

Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University Press, 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=U1H5rq3IQUAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Harper’s Weekly Magazine. “History and Incidents of the Plague in New Orleans.” November 1853, pp. 797-806. Accessed at:  http://harpers.org/archive/1853/11/0026005

 

Holder, Gerald L. “Cincinnati, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. Accessed 8-24-2013 at: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvc52

 

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Kelly, Howard A. (Professor of Gynecological Surgery, Johns Hopkins University). Walter Reed and Yellow Fever. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1906, 299 pages. Google digitalized at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=qUgJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 1 of 2). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1855. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Fsg1AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Lamb, Vicki L. “Historical and Epidemiological Trends in Mortality in the United States.” Pp. 185-197 in Bryant, Clifton D. (Ed.). Handbook of Death & Dying. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, 2003. Google preview accessed 3-12-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=3z9EpgisKOgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Macomber, Robert. “My Worst Fears Have Been More Than Realized: Yellow Fever Hits The Union.” Huntingdon, TN: Civil War Interactive (website). Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ArticleYellowFeverMacomber.htm

 

Mattick, Barbara E. Ministries in Black and White: The Catholic Sisters of St. Augustine, Florida, 1859-1920. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Florida State University. Degree awarded Spring Semester, 2008. Accessed 10-11-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ED3ZkLuUqFsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2003.

 

Nott, Josiah Clark, MD. “The Epidemic of Yellow Fever of Mobile in 1853.” New-Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal.  Part First, March, 1854. Google preview accessed 3-6-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=V241AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Quinan, John R., M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore From 1608-1880, Including Events, Men and Literature, to Which is Added A Subject Index and Record of Public Services. Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xNcRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sanger, George P. (Editor). American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the Year 1854. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, 1854. Google digitized. Accessed 1-8-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=BK0TAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. New Orleans: By Authority  of the City Council of New Orleans, 1854. Google preview accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=_EQJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Scruggs, Dr. Samuel O.  “Letter to Dr. E.D. Fenner,” published in Transactions, American Medical Association, Vol. IX, 1856.  Published for the Association by T.K. and P.G. Collins, 1856, 898 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=JuBXAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Simonds, W. E. (ed.). The American Date Book.  Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC

 

Sternberg, George M. “Yellow Fever,” pp. 39-72 in A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (Vol. 8), Albert Henry Buck, (Ed.). NY: William Wood & Co., 1894. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=Jr00AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever:  History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908.  Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Toner, Joseph M., MD. Contributions to the Study of Yellow Fever…from 1668 to 1874. Reprinted from Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon, U.S. Marine-Hospital Service, 1873. Google preview accessed 4-18-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=MubBrycWv74C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Toner, Joseph M. (M.D., President, American Medical Association). “The Distribution and Natural History of Yellow Fever as it has Occurred at Different Times in the United States” (Paper read before the American Public Health Association, November 12, 1873). Washington, DC: 1873, 33 pages. Accessed 8-23-2013 at: http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/LSUBK01/id/10240/rec/

 

United States Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811). Washington, DC: GPO, 1896. Digitized by Google at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Senate. Index to The Reports of the Committees of the Senate of the United States for the First Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress (Two Volumes). Washington, DC: George W. Bowman, Printer, 1860. Google preview accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=GKUFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Willsey, Joseph H. (Compiler), Charlton T. Lewis (Editor). Harper’s Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World.  New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1895.  Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Yellow Fever (webpage). Accessed 3-12-2018 at: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/arboviral/yellowfever.htm

 

Workers of the Writers’ Program of the Works Progress Administration in the State of Alabama. Alabama: A Guide to the Deep South. Alabama State Planning Commission and Federal Works Agency, 1941. Google digitized. Accessed 1-8-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=9lR0DPE_kgQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Newspapers

 

Daily Free Democrat, Milwaukee, WI. “Yellow Fever in New Orleans – Frightful Mortality,” Aug 10, 1853, p. 2.  At:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=35009005

Galveston News, TX. “Died [Yellow Fever].” 11-22-1853, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=152441576&sterm

 

La Crosse Democrat, WI. “The Epidemic,” September 13, 1853, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=35028847

 

Liberty Weekly Tribune, Liberty, MO. “Letter From Mexico.” 12-2-1853, p. 1. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/liberty-tribune-newspaper-dec-02-1853-p-1/

 

Madison Dollar Weekly Courier, Madison, IN. “By Telegraph,” 11-2-1853, p. 1. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-dollar-weekly-courier-nov-02-1853-p-1/

 

New Albany Daily Tribune, IN. “From Texas.” 10-29-1853, p. 3. http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=192854526&sterm=yellow+fever+brownsville+hockley+houston+indianola+lavaca

 

New-York Daily Times. “Deaths by Yellow Fever at New-Orleans,” 8-11-1853, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/centralamerica.html

 

New York Daily Times. “From Texas – The Yellow Fever…” 11-3-1853, p. 1, col. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2816544&sterm=mobile+yellow+fever

 

New York Daily Times. “Later from Texas.” 11-22-1853, p. 8. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2818022&sterm=yellow+fever+cypress+hockley+liverpool+richmond+saluria+woodville

 

New York Daily Times. “Ravages of the Yellow Fever.” 11-17-1858, p. 8, col. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2817669&sterm

 

New York Daily Times. “Southern Mail Items.” 10-14-1853, p.1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2814938&sterm=yellow+fever

 

New York Daily Times. “Two Weeks Later From California.” 3-29-1853, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchives.com

 

New-York Daily Times. “Yellow Fever at New-Orleans,” August 11, 1853, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2809540

 

New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” October 7, 1888. Accessed at:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D03EFD81F38E033A25754C0A9669D94699FD7CF&oref=slogin

 

Racine Daily Advocate, WI. “Sickness at Mobile.” 10-13-1853, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchives.com

 

Star and Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “Progress of the Yellow Fever,” 8-26-1853, p. 2. At:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewerTags.aspx?img=9554123&currentResult=0&src=search

 

The Courier. Elyria, OH, 11-2-1853, p. 2. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/elyria-courier-nov-02-1853-p-2/

 

Times-Picayune, NOLA. “1853: Terrifying yellow fever epidemic hits New Orleans,” 8-18-2011. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2011/08/1853_terrifying_yellow_fever_e.html

 

Warren Mail, Warren, PA. “Items.” 12-1-1853, p. 2. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/warren-mail-dec-01-1853-p-2/

 

Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Efforts to Smoke Out the Yellow Fever,” 8-31-1853, p. 6, col. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=120025012

 

Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “How it hangs.” 12-21-1853, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=33318794&sterm=woodville+yellow

 

Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee. “The Yellow Fever.” 8-31-1853, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=33318735&sterm=yellow+fever

 

Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Yellow Fever” [Philadelphia]. Aug 3, 1853, 3. At: http://www.newspaper.com

 

Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee. “Yellow Fever in Natchez.” 8-31-1853, p. 6. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=120025012

 

Zanesville Courier, OH. “From New Orleans.” August 1, 1853, p. 5. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=10714756

 

[1] The total uses the high New Orleans figure. We suspect there were many more deaths than noted here in small villages and towns to which refugees fled.

[2] We think this was is an error meant to be “1855” when there was an epidemic — can find no supporting sources.

[3] Our number, in order to recognize the loss and for purpose of contributing to a tally, based on: “The cases of yellow fever which occurred here were the same as those of Mobile, Alabama. All who died had black vomit.”

[4] “At Cahawba, Ala., about ten miles from Selma, where it prevailed in an eminent degree…the disease, although freely brought there, did not spread, but terminated with the individual cases.” (Not said if there were deaths.)

[5] A letter of Dr. James Gaines, noted below, notes 20 deaths in Citronelle up to the date of his letter (Oct 4). He notes that “within the last ten days the number [cases] has been increasing.” The letter is in Nott (1854, pp. 575-576]. Nott notes that soon after writing his letter, Dr. Gaines died from yellow fever — making the toll 21. Nott adds that 16 of 18 railroad employees died, making the toll 37. He adds that “many more of the population [Citronelle] died.” For the purpose of a number to add to the tally, we convert “many” into about ten, that would make about 47. Nott then notes that “many laborers” besides the railroad workers died from yellow fever. Again, we convert “many” to about 10, making the toll about 57. This would get us close to what Nott himself estimates the toll to have been — “something like a fourth or a fifth of the population along the road from Mobile to Citronelle…” While we do not have a population estimate of all who lived along the road to Citronelle, Dr. Gaines did provide an estimate of the population of Citronelle — “about 350” [p. 575]. A fifth of this population (20%) equals 70. A fourth (25%) equals 87.5, which we round down to eighty-seven, for our guestimated/extrapolated range of 70-87.

[6] The Oct 4, 1853 letter of Dr. James S. Gaines, from Citronelle, printed in the Mobile Advertiser on October 6, and reprinted in Nott (1854, p. 575), notes: “The local population of Citronelle is 250; adding the boarders at the hotels and different boarding houses, say 100, it will make our population about 350. This estimate of the population does not include over 100 hands in the immediate vicinity of Citronelle. I have seen and treated since the 16^th of August 53 cases of Yellow Fever; 13 out of this number have died. There have been seven other deaths since this date; they were not seen by me, but from what I could learn, five out of this number were from Yellow Fever; making the total number of deaths since the 16^th of August up to date, 20. That will just make an average of 1 death to 17 of the population [340]. The first case that I was satisfied of its originating here occurred on the 11^th of September, since which time there have been several clear cases and within the last ten days the number has been increasing, some of them of a very malignant type. I have no idea that the disease could have originated here, had it not been for the frequent communication between this point and Mobile….” Nott notes” “The Doctor, unhappily, did not live to tell the whole tale — he himself fell a victim to the disease soon after this date. Many more of the population died, and 16 out of 18 of the employees on the Rail Road, besides many laborers. There are no data for accurate statistics, but from what I can learn, something like a fourth or a fifth of the population along the road from Mobile to Citronelle died. According to Dr. Gaines’ statement, there was just a month between the first case imported into Mobile and the first at Citronelle.” (Nott 1854, pp. 575-576.)

[7] Writes the epidemic “extended…to the various towns on the rivers tributary to our Bay as far as steamboats have gone and no farther — to Montgomery and Demopolis, for example, to say nothing of many intermediate points.” Barton, in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1854 (p. 373), also notes that the yellow fever was at Demopolis, though his correspondents, Drs. Ruffin and Ashe, thought it spontaneously arose, rather than being brought there by outsiders.

[8] Nott. The Epidemic Yellow Fever of Mobile in 1853 (1854, p. 576). Notes: “The Dog River Cotton Factory is situated south-west of Mobile [on Dog River] and has within its enclosure of some 20 or 30 acres about 300 operatives, including their families. The houses are built in a hollow square and form a complete village. Mr. Charles Wattleworth, one of the most efficient and intelligent officers of the establishment, under date of 21^st November, writes the following reply to certain queries: ‘Dear Sir — In answer t yours of yesterday, I send you the following account of the deaths and recoveries from Yellow Fever in our immediate neighborhood. The first case we had was a man that had been to New Orleans; he was taken ill on the 18^th August (two days after his return and died on the 22d — a man that waited on him died about the same time. The next cases that occurred were about the 1^st September; they were about six in number, and the parties had been in the habit of going to town. The first cases that appeared here among parties that had been in no way connected with the city, or with the sick, occurred on the 9^th October; there were five cases on the evening of that day, and about the 13^th there were five more. Other cases have occurred since that time and there are three sick at present (21^st November) one of which is not expected to live. The whole number that died with Yellow Fever up to date is twenty-three, and forty-six have recovered.”

[9] Liberty Weekly Tribune, Liberty, MO. “Letter From Mexico.” 12-2-1853. “Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 14. More Fever. — Both of the telegraphic operators at the Gainesville station of the Morse line, died of yellow fever last week. One of them was named Savage.”

[10] We presume that Augustin drew upon Nott. Nott is a conjecture, based on his experience and mortality data. A total of 1,331 deaths occurred Aug-Oct from all causes, from which he subtracts 180, the number one might expect “from other causes than Yellow Fever.” He then notes that 40 other people died Nov-Dec “from Yellow Fever alone,” for a “Total of Yellow Fever [deaths] from 1^st August to 16^th December, —- 1191.” On p. 582 Nott provides a “Table of interments in the Mobile Cemeteries during the Yellow Fever Epidemic from 1^st August to 1^st November, 1853.” A daily tabulation is made and the total, from all causes, is 1,331.

[11] Cites: New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, 1854, p. 571.

[12] Noted by Nott as the first Mobile citizen death. Augustin notes July 12 start and the WPA book on Alabama notes July 13. We conclude these refer to the deaths of crewman on or from the barque Miltiades, out of New Orleans.

[13] Nott (1854, p. 578): “On the opposite side [east] of the Bay [Mobile Bay], while many cases occurred at isolated houses and some sixty deaths between the village [which we take to be Village Point, across from Mobile and north of Point Clear] and Point Clear, yet Freeman’s and the Point Clear Hotels, having more than one hundred regular boarders each, escaped almost entirely, though cases were brought to them from Mobile and New Orleans.”

[14] Writes that after these deaths: “The citizens now became alarmed, and it is supposed that one thousand which with five hundred absent; reduced the population proper from three thousand to one thousand five hundred persons.”

[15] After noting deaths of the two Wheeler children, Nott writes that out of “household” of sixty people (white and black) of his father-in-law, Col. Deas, “Fifty-four were attacked out of the sixty, and in fourteen days the whole tale was told — five whites, two mulattoes, and one black were dead with black vomit, and the rest were convalescent.”

[16] Nott (1854, p. 577): “What is called St. Stephen’s road goes off from Mobile in a north-west direction, and is so densely populated for five miles as to present much the appearance of a continuous village. My friend, Dr. E. P. Gaines, lives about four miles from town on this road, had ample opportunities for investigating the epidemic, and to him I am indebted for the following facts: The following cases all occurred from two to four miles from town [Mobile] on the St. Stephen’s road, or in other words, between the Creek and Gen. Toulmin’s residence. August 23d, two cases; 24^th, one; 30^th two. September 1^st, one. These were all contracted in town. The following were the first originating in the country: September 4^th, one; 7^th, one; 9^th, one; 11^th, two; 12^th, two; 16^th, one — Miss Wilson, the first death with black vomit, and from this date the disease became decidedly epidemic….The disease extended out in this direction some ten miles, into the neighborhood of William Cleveland….” In that the death of Miss Wilson was noted as first death, we presume there were others, and for purposes of a tally, assume at least three.

[17] There is a scanning error in the Augustin text, which reads “2G0” deaths.  We have chosen to use 200.  Augustin notes that the population at the time was approximately 1,200.

[18] “Life at Tampa prior to his mayoral election had proved difficult for Lancaster [Joseph B.] and other town residents. Although the local population had grown somewhat, by 1855 it amounted only to about eight hundred persons, of whom perhaps 20 to 25 percent were black. Continued growth could not be expected unless railroad construction was assured. Until then the local economy would remain weak and dependent upon the adjacent army facility, Fort Brooke. Tampa’s existence remained so tenuous that the town practically depopulated in 1853 when yellow fever arrived from New Orleans. Twenty-three individuals died. Reportedly, by late October ‘the place {was} deserted for the pine woods.’” Cites: Grismer, Tampa; FP, September 1, 1855; Hackley Diary, October 26, 1853, in PKY; FR, November 24, 1853; Savannah Georgian, January 15, 1854.

[19] The Courier. Elyria, OH, 11-2-1853, p. 2. Additionally an undisclosed “many” of Gen Childs’ officers died of yellow fever: “…Brevet Brigadier General Thomas Childs, an honorable and gallant officer of the army of the United States, who was four times brevetted, twice for distinguished services rendered in the Florida war, and twice for gallant conduct in the war with Mexico, died in service at Tampa Bay, Florida, of yellow fever, on the 8^th of October, 1853. The laws allow pensions to widows of officers of the army who are slain or die of wounds received in battle. We can see no reasons why the widows of those ordered by their government to posts where disease and pestilence prevail, of which they die, should not receive a like bounty. We are advised that many of the officers of the late General Childs’ command at Tampa Bay, in 1853, died of the fever. The widows of some of the officers of his command who died in the same year, at the same place, have been allowed pensions by special act of Congress. We are of the opinion that the bill which is herewith reported, allowing Mrs. Childs a pension of $25 a month, should pass.” (U.S. Senate. Report of the Committee on Pensions. 1-3-1860, p. 53 in Reports of Committees..)

[20] Low-end of  range uses 202 for Baton Rouge, 8,000 for New Orleans, and 100 for Thibodeaux. High-end of range uses 235 for Baton Rouge, 12,151 for New Orleans, and 160 for Thibodeaux. We believe it is fair to have a large range for New Orleans in that (1) at the beginning of the epidemic there was a disinclination to believe or report deaths as yellow fever, as opposed to some other seasonal fever, (2) after the epidemic was recognized as a true yellow fever epidemic there was still a very large spike of above “normal” or expected deaths which were attributed to other causes, primarily a range of fevers, (3) we believe some deaths (such as some blacks) were not officially reported or noted by officials, and (4) we believe there was under-reporting of deaths of those who were very ill, and left New Orleans only to die on a boat or nearby shore, with many such deaths going unreported.

[21] Population totals from which to compute fatality percentages are provided at page 128.

[22] Notes that “The hospital at Donaldsonville received twenty cases per day…”

[23] My number based on: “Trinity, La.–Trinity is a village of two hundred and eighty inhabitants, at the junction of Ouachita, Tensas and Little Rivers; and steamboats from New Orleans land there at least every week, and in busy seasons every day. Several cases of yellow fever were put off there last July and August, all of which died; and some corpses were put off there and buried.”

[24] Barton writes that “many cases of yellow fever were carried [there]…” Presumably there were some deaths.

[25] Pp-57-58 in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. Notes that the population was “between fifty and sixty persons, about two-thirds white, and mostly adult males.”

[26] George A. Pike, in a communication from Baton Rouge, in the Report of the New Orleans Sanitary Commission, writes that the first case (Jessee Butner, 40) was on August 17^th. (page 32)

[27] I draw attention to the fact that the lower end of the range (130) is from Dr. Ball, who died from yellow fever, and thus the reporting here is in reference to the deaths prior to his. It is probable there were others, perhaps 35 others.

[28] Communication from Providence Judge, Louis Selby, in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. (pp. 52-53) He also notes that the Providence population prior to the epidemic was about 1,000, that evacuations dropped the population to 400, of whom 165 died out of a “Whole number of cases of fever about twice as many, viz near 330.” On the other hand, Mr. John Maxwell, the Surveyor, notes: “Population of Providence when the epidemic commenced, say 550.” Also notes that population dropped to 280 after the epidemic commenced, “say 10^th or 12^th of September,” that total deaths up to Dec 25 were 152, and that only 19 citizens, “white and black” escaped the epidemic altogether, “all supposed to have had it before.”

[29] The “Testimony of Dr. Ball” is on pp. 36-37. He notes: “Went to Lake Providence on the 24^th September; the mortality there was very great. The fever appeared at Lake Providence the last week in August. Mr. Odell, of New Orleans, was sick a week earlier than the 1^st of September. Mrs. Selby was the first person who died; her death took place on the 1^st September, with black vomit….The disease was the same, but more fatal there than here [Mobile]….The population of Lake Providence is about 600.” The San. Com. Report notes that at the time of Dr. Ball’s departure from Lake Providence, “the number of deaths amounted to 130.”

[30] This seems to make hers the first death and Mrs. Selby the first case. Bowman letter in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, p.48.

[31] Communication to Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, pp. 47-48 in its Report.

[32] John Maxwell, Surveyor, in letter to the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans; pp. 54-55 in Report of…

[33] Does not give the date of death, but is noted in context of reporting on the first deaths.

[34] Dr. Houghton wrote the Commission that when he arrived in Providence ‘from the North on 13^th of September, there had then been ten or eleven deaths.”

[35] Dr. Benj. H. Bowman, Lake Providence, letter to Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, p. 50 in Report of.

[36] Letter of Providence resident Hercules Hillman to the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, pp. 56-57.

[37] Letter of Providence resident Hercules Hillman to the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, pp. 56-57.

[38] The “Communication from Fred. R. Harvey, Parish of East Feliciana, LA” begins: “The incorporated limits embrace an area of one square mile; population 1,300 to 1,500. In that the limits of the parish are much more than one square mile, the correspondent must be referring to an unnamed locality within the parish. He notes that there were 175-185 cases of yellow fever and 50 deaths. The communication is in the Rpt. of the Sanitary Com., p. 35-36.

[39] In the Rpt. of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853,  p. 63-64. Writes: From yellow fever about one hundred and eighty deaths in this parish, and deduct about one hundred from the one hundred and eighty, for other fevers and diseases; leaving about eighty persons that died from what is here and elsewhere called yellow fever.” Blanchard note: bear in mind that not all yellow fever deaths produce the same obvious symptoms which can result in confusion on the cause of death. Often in reports we have seen there is a spike in deaths in a place where yellow fever prevails, which is above the norm for that place at the same time of year, over and above those attributed to yellow fever.

[40] Dr. Richardson practices at Grand Ecore. The Commission notes that “The first case of yellow fever occurred two miles below Grand Ecore, on the 20^th of August…He was a citizen who was supposed to have contracted the fever from the steamboat. Two young men, recently from California, and coming from Alexandria, were the first cases seen by Dr. R., on the 29^th of August. One of them died….Knows two other localities, having no communication with infected districts, where the disease prevailed.”

[41] In Rpt. of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853,  p. 63.

[42] In Rpt. of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853,  p. 63.

[43] In Rpt. of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853,  p. 63. Writes that after this 3^rd case “it came upon us like a thunder storm in the Gulf.”

[44] “This yellow fever was imported from New Orleans to Natchitoches. Natchitoches escaped until late in the season, in consequence of its being less accessible than Grand Ecore.” Does not note fatalities there.

[45] Edward H. Barton, MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and Other Cities in America (3^rd Ed, with Supplement), 1857, “Comparative Table.”

[46] Barton estimates (p.253), Rpt. San. Com. of N.O. on Yellow Fever Epidemic, that the N.O. pop. was 154,132.

[47] Ellis:  “During the great epidemic in 1853, unquestionably one of the worst urban disasters in American history, approximately forty thousand persons were stricken, of whom more than nine thousand died.”

[48] “The epidemic of 1853 was…unprecedented in scope in virulence. During the epidemic perhaps 30,000 to 75,000 of the more than 150,000 residents fled the area. Of the remainder, approximately 40,000 developed yellow fever. In a five-month period, 9,000 of the 11,000 deaths were attributed to the disease…”

[49] NYT: “The terrible epidemic of 1853 that swept over portions of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, numbered its victims by thousands.  In New Orleans alone during the month of August the mortality was 6,235, while before the epidemic ended the death list had swelled to a total of 8,400.”

[50] Kelly states that this represented a mortality rate of 27.91%.

[51] Macomber writes that after “the city dwellers panicked and many left…Of the 125,000 that remained, twenty nine thousand were attacked…and 8,101 died.”

[52] Table G. “Monthly Returns from each of the Cemeteries,” on page 246, shows a total of 15,572 interments in 12 cemeteries from Jan through Dec — Jan/518, Feb/487, Mar/508/Apr/510, May/676, June/668, July/2132, Aug/6298, Sep/1621, Oct/700, Nov/747, and Dec/759.

[53] “Comparative Table [Yellow Fever and Cholera]. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st — of Yellow Fever.” Barton follows up with a note of “Explanation”: “There are some discrepancies in the report in relation to the monthly mortalities — the monthly returns by the cemeteries — the aggregate mortality for the entire year, and number in the tabular return of yellow fever cases, with those from which I have made my calculations, which require notice. For the first three, one explanation will suffice, for about one-third of the year was there an authorized board to record the number, and the cause of death — for the balance of the year it has been difficult to get the cemetery returns and they do not correspond. In relation to the number of deaths by yellow fever, many were stated as ‘unknown’ ‘unspecified’ — whose deaths were probably caused by yellow fever; — anxious to arrive as near the truth as possible, the Sanitary Commission has authorized me, during the epidemic, to add a large portion of these to the yellow fever mortality, which I have done in the daily returns in the tables, C, D, E.”

[54] Our number based on adding up monthly yellow fever deaths noted on pages cited. The 8,101 number is found in a table later in the same document.

[55] “There were only two cases of yellow fever formally reported on the mortuary record, though the investigations of the Sanitary Commission have discovered several others, and there were several recoveries during the month from the disease…” For a tally we convert “several” additional fatalities to “three” and add to two formal cases.

[56] A cholera epidemic had begun, and the total deaths number of 987 includes 177 from cholera.

[57] The total deaths number of 844 for December included 332 cholera deaths.

[58] “Yellow fever was a feared and deadly scourge….The epidemic of 1853 was by far the most terrifying: In a city of 154,000 people, nearly 8,000 died.”

[59] Keating notes other yellow fever fatality estimates for New Orleans of 8,000 to 10,000, and elaborates:  “Dr. Dowler says the greatest number of deaths in Now Orleans was in August, amounting to 5,189, or, by adding all the deaths, 6,235, an average exceeding 201 per day, about 9 every hour, 1 every six or seven minutes for a whole month.  His total, from May 26^th to October 22d, by yellow fever, is 7,782; total unnamed (mostly yellow fever), 669; in all, 8,228, without enumerating deaths from October 22d to December 22d.  He estimates the whole mortality at 8,400.  Dr. Edward H. Barton, in his report to the Commission, states that the total mortality during the year, not only those certified to be such, but a large proportion of the ‘unknown,’ supposed to be such from a want of proper records, is estimated, upon all grounds of probability, to have been 8,101…. The total number of cases of yellow fever in 1853 was 29,020, which was the largest number of cases of yellow fever which ever afflicted this city (New Orleans).  But 8,101 deaths out of that great number of cases is only 27.91 percent, or 1 in 3.58, the least mortality which had ever occurred in a great and malignant epidemic of the dread disease.” (Page 88)

[60] Table H. is titled “Cost of Acclimation” (p.248) supports argument that people born in New Orleans and Louisiana, as well as the West Indies, South America and Mexico, had much lower mortality rates (3.58 for NO and LA; and 6.14 for W. Indies, So. America and Mex.), than people born in Holland and Belgium (328.94), Austria and Switzerland (220.08), Ireland (204.97), Denmark, Sweden and Russia (163.26), Prussia and German (132.01), etc. Goes on to note: “The mortalities of the natives of New Orleans from yellow fever have almost entirely been confined to those under ten, with very few exceptions…” Notes that the table does not represent all places of birth, there being under-representation, “most of whom, were colored, however.” (Blanchard note: There is no line in Table H for any part of Africa, and I suspect that black deaths were under-reported.)

[61] P. 42 in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever. 1854.

[62] Simply notes the yellow fever was experienced in Alexandria.

[63] Carrigan: “In his well-know account of travels through ‘The Cotton Kingdom,’ Frederick Law Olmsted mentioned the epidemic in commenting on Alexandria, which city he visited in December of 1853. Ne noted that the community ordinarily had a population of 1,000, but had been almost entirely deserted by its citizens when the pestilence struck. Of some 300 who had remained in town, he was told that 120 had died.” (Cites: Frederick Law Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger. New York: 1953, p. 278.)

[64] “At Alexandria, the disease became epidemic about the middle of September. It declined towards the end of November, but was not wholly extinguished at the latest dates. The disease is reported to have carried off from one-fifth to one-sixth of the population.”

[65] “At Washington, La., the three first cases had not been exposed to yellow fever.” (cites Dr. T.A. Cooke.) We put Opelousas and Washington in the same line in that from the Joseph Gibbs communication at pp. 528-529, it is not clear which of the two neighboring towns is being discussed for every case.

[66] “…the next case was young Chahany, who was clerking at Washington, came to Opelousas to attend the funeral of a child; was taken sick about September the 8^th, and the next day the doctor declared it yellow fever. Our council met and waited on his father, and requested him to send away his family with the exception of one or two to nurse him….On the morning of the 16^th, he was taken worse, and that evening was a corpse–buried early next day, his clothes and bedding burnt and other precautions taken.” (pp. 528-529.)

[67] Writes that “Several have passed through our town [Opelousas] from Washington [to the north] and died at Grand Coteau [to the south], and elsewhere.” For purposes of a tally, we translate “several” into approximately (~) three.

[68] P. 60 in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever. 1854. Notes that this was first victim who became sick on Sep 15. Notes the disease disappeared “as an epidemic” about Nov 1.

[69] “Communications from Dr. Jas. S. Grant, of Pattersonville” to Dr. E. D. Fenner, New Orleans, in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. (1854, p. 44.)

[70] “…many cases were brought and terminated without extending the disease.” Presumably some died.

[71] Sanitary Com. of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission. 1854, pp. 32-34. After noting that yellow fever prevailed in Bayou Sara and in St. Francisville, he writes: “The deaths in the two towns are estimated at a little over one hundred; in the whole Parish of West Feliciana, including the towns, at about one hundred and thirty.”

[72] “During the height of the epidemic in the city…” Report of San. Com. notes “His first case at the Bay of St. Louis occurred on the fifteenth of July, the second on the seventeenth. The first was a resident of New Orleans, the second had just arrived from Nicaragua. Both were young men, and both were taken sick on board of the steamboat from New Orleans, on their passage across the Lake…” Does not note whether they or anyone died during the epidemic.

[73] “The first case of yellow fever occurred on the 29^th June, a patient came sick with yellow fever from New Orleans, and died five days afterwards. Fifteen cases occurred in July, and the next five cases occurred in the adjoining lot a few days afterwards. The attendants were mostly taken down a few days afterwards; most of them died.” Boudreaux, in Lost Biloxi, also notes 111 deaths — out of 533 reported cases in a population just over 5,000. (p. 77)

[74] Notes that Brandon had a population of “near twelve hundred, and was not diminished much by the epidemic.”

[75] Notes victim was Robert Langford. Earlier. Dr. J. S. Copes noted that a young man had contracted the disease in Jackson and died in a Brandon hotel room. (p. 41)

[76] Report of the Sanitary Com. of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. p. 77.

[77] Noted that Presler family lived about two miles from Fort Adams, and quarter mile from the river.

[78] “The fever did not occur at Grand Gulf until after it had broken out in Port Gibson.” In addition, we have found reference to an article by E. M’Allister on “The yellow fever at Grand Gulf, Miss., in 1853,” in the New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, 1854-4, X, pp. 675-678.

[79] The Rev. Marshall notes that he has “traced the origin and progress of this fearful pestilence for one month [Sep].” Then notes “It did not reach the point of its greatest ravages until the 7^th of October.” Notes: “The ordinary population of Jackson is about three thousand; during the epidemic it was reduced to six hundred and ninety. It is believed there were three hundred and fifty cases of sickness, of which one hundred and twelve proved fatal.”

[80] Another correspondent, Col. C. S. Tarpley, a Jackson lawyer and planter, notes that “Thirteen of the Spingler family died.” (Report of the Sanitary Commission. of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 89.)

[81] Testimony of Mr. Malcomb McRae in Report of the Sanitary Com. of New Orleans on the Epidemic…, p. 66.

[82] Liberty Weekly Tribune, Liberty, MO. 12-2-1853, p. 1, column 4.

[83] Our guess-work number based on the following: “The first case of yellow fever at Ocean Springs, was Mr. Waters, of the city, early in August; had been sick three or four days before visiting him; he slept in the garret with some thirty others (unacclimated). [Blanchard: Dr. Jones notes next case recovered, thus we presume the first case did not. No mention made of any of the thirty unacclimated who slept in the same room.] [T]he third case was Wm. Ames, ad resident of Mississippi; did not at the time consider it a case of yellow fever; from after cases [how many?] recognizes it as fever. The children of Dr. Austin were taken [died?] in succession soon after Mr. Porter.”

[84] Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 65.

[85] Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853. Notes “Col Bliss died with yellow fever at Pascagoula; he had been in New Orleans seventeen days before. A man named Foley, a laborer, returned from Mobile, and died with fever.

[86] “It is a fact worth of note that the Yellow Fever this season has visited every point on the Lake [Gulf of Mexico?] where the New Orleans boats have touched…Biloxi, Pass Christian…”

[87] “In the course of three weeks from the first case it began to spread through the place, and seemed to radiate from the shoemaker’s house, as a centre. This house is situated in a filthy portion of the town, low and wet. Population about 1000. During the epidemic, there were left in the town about 200 whites and 300 blacks. There were sixty-four deaths. The fever, as epidemic, ceased the 28^th October, though some cases occurred thereafter. The fever spread into the country for some fifteen miles, and cases when carried from town produced many new ones. Very few cases were carried out which did not spread.” Rpt of the Sanitary Com. of New Orleans…Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 68.

[88] Dr. Jno. V. Wren, MD, Port Gibson, communication, in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 67. Notes first case was a German bootmaker who had gone to New Orleans for materials, returned, became sick on Aug 11 and died on 14^th.

[89] On Genealogy Quest website, accessed 4-18-2018. Names, nativity, date of death of victims noted in list. The dates of death in list correspond with New York Daily Times article, “Southern Mail Items.” 10-14-1853, p. 1, which notes that papers from New Orleans had been received noting that “The fever had disappeared from Thibodeaux, but at Yazoo City it was still raging severely.” The Genealogy Quest page notes that the “epidemic of yellow fever…killed about 15% of their population.”

[90] “….The usual population of Vicksburg is a little more than 5,000. It was reduced during the epidemic to about 2,000 whites and 1,000 blacks. About 350 or 400 blacks were taken away during the epidemic. The suburbs embrace about 2,000 persons — not more than 300 or 400, if so many, could have been removed. There were about 2,100 cases of fever, as near as I can form an estimate from the best sources of information. We lost about 500. Some died whose names are not in the reported lists.” Rpt of the Sanitary Com. of New Orleans…Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 70. “I believe the first case of yellow fever in this city occurred July 19^th, at Mr. Fugates, in the person of John Scannell. The last case was Col Levi Mitchel, on the 21^st of November.” (p. 73.) See also, page 84 for similar data.

[91] The death on the 14^th was Mrs. J. Crawford. The other was a traveling salesman, who “had come there from a point somewhere below by steamboat — fell sick — died.” Goes on to write “No place in the South suffered more than that town.” Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853, p. 75.

[92] “The yellow fever has again been declared epidemic at Woodville, Mississippi.”

[93] Sternberg notes that yellow fever occurred here but does note fatalities.

[94] Liberty Weekly Tribune, Liberty, MO. “Letter From Mexico.” 12-2-1853.

[95] We note beginning of yellow fever in July rather than Aug given “Testimony of R. H. McNair” of Galveston to the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans, noting first cases began after the steamship Mexico arrived there on July 9 from New Orleans with three sick passengers onboard who were sent to hospital. (p. 126 of San. Com. Report.)

[96] Our approximation based on statement: “From Galveston papers, of the 30^th…no abatement of the fever. The Galveston News, of that date, says: ‘It will be seen by the Sexton’s report that the interments have averaged ten per day for the last three days, the same as for a week or two preceding.’”

[97] Sternberg notes that yellow fever occurred here but does note fatalities.

[98] The NY Daily Times cites Galveston, TX papers received dated up to Oct 21 which note, in reference to the yellow fever, that Houston is “averaging 7 to 9 [deaths] daily.” We loosely guestimate over fifty.

[99] Sternberg (“Yellow Fever,” 1994, 44) notes that yellow fever occurred here but does not note fatalities.

[100] “We have Galveston dates to the 11^th…we clip the following…from the Galveston News of the 11^th: ‘….we regret to learn, by the arrival of passengers yesterday, direct from Fort Bend, that the yellow fever still continues in Richmond. It is reported that upwards of thirty persons died of that disease, out of the small number in that place. This must certainly be a very great mortality, though e do not know what may be the population of Richmond.’”

[101] Communication of, in Report of the Sanitary Com. of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever 1853. p. 126.

[102] Sternberg notes that yellow fever occurred here but does note fatalities.

[103] References communication of J. . Brown, that “At Saluria, Texas, spontaneous cases occurred, without even the suspicion of communicated infection.” [Other than mosquitoes.]

[104] Notes that Norfolk was “infected by a vessel from the Antilles [Caribbean]. There were 1,600 deaths. We see no other references to such an epidemic however.

[105] The “at least” or “this number if not more” symbol “>” derives from numerous passing references we have seen of yellow fever deaths on unnamed boats, times and places, which, therefore, go untallied here.

[106] The carpenter of the boat died on board and was buried at Milliken’s Bend. Communication of Providence Mayor, E. Terry, to the Sanitary Commission; p. 47 in Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic.

[107] Testimony of Mr. Odell, p. 37 of Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow…

[108] For the purpose of contributing to a tally we convert “several” to three. The account is in Nott who writes:  “The Miltiades sailed from Portland, Maine, to New Orleans, where she lost several of her crew with Yellow Fever…”

[109] Duffy, John.  1953.  Epidemics in Colonial America.  Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State University Press.

[110] Cites:  William L. Pond, “This is Yellow Fever,” Journal of the Florida Medical Association, 58 (August 1971), p. 48; Khaled J. Bloom, The Mississippi Valley’s Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), pp. 2-3; William M. Straight, “The Yellow Jack,” Journal of the Florida Medical Association, Vol. 8 (August 1971), p. 43; and Barbara Elizabeth Miller, “Tallahassee and the 1841 Yellow Fever Epidemic,” (Masters Thesis, Florida State University, 1876), p. 17.

[111] Cites Barbara Elizabeth Miller, “Tallahassee and the 1841 Yellow Fever Epidemic,” (Masters Thesis, Florida State University, 1976), pp 20-21; Khaled J. Bloom, The Mississippi Valley’s Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), pp. 10-11; George M. Sternberg, M.D., Researches Relating to the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever, submitted June 21, 1890, pp. 50-52. Notes that Yellow fever is endemic in Africa between 15´N and 10´S of the equator, an area that includes West Africa. It is also endemic in the Caribbean and parts of South America. Cites: William H. Shoff, M.D. et al. “Yellow Fever,’ online at http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2463.htm.

[112] “A lighter is a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships.” (Wikipedia. “Lighter (barge).” Accessed 3-6-2018.

[113] “At the point of death.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Accessed 3-6-2018.

[114] Dr. W. B. Wood, Centreville, 11-14-1853; pp. 61-62, Report… San. Com…. New Orleans on…Yellow Fever.

[115] Following this testimony is a statement of the Captain of the Northampton concerning this voyage. He states that there were no yellow fever cases on-board his ship until three weeks after arrival in New Orleans when a Mr. Richardson became sick. Then “The mate died on her return trip to Liverpool; sickened after leaving the bar; was sick four days with yellow fever; no other person contracted the disease.” (Report of Sanitary Commission, p. 7.)

[116] From the testimony of a Mr. Clark, it is noted that Thomas Hart was one of “gang of hands” who loaded the Ship Northampton, becoming “sick about the 1^st of June and “died on the 8^th of June, with black vomit” [at Charity Hospital]. (Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever. 1954, p. 6.)

[117] Cites: D’Anne McAdams Crews, ed., Huntsville and Walker County, Texas: A Bicentennial History (Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University, 1976). Heather Hornbuckle, “Cincinnati: An Early Riverport in Walker County,” Texas Historian, March 1978.