1853 — Smallpox, esp. natives, HI, Nevada City vic., CA OR WA MI; also NYC-7,450-9,450
–7,450-9,450 Blanchard tally based on breakouts below (range is from Hawaii & Pacific NW).
California ( ~400)
— 400 Cook. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization (4). 1976, 275.
— 400 Heizer, Robert F. (ed.). The Destruction of California Indians. 1974, 1993, p. 275.[1]
— 1 Jan 23, Monroeville, Colusa County, Judge W. B. Ide.[2]
— 1 Mar 13, San Francisco. Colden A. McLean. NYDT. “Died.” 5-9-1853, p. 3.
— >5 by April 16. San Francisco.[3]
Georgia ( 9)
— 9 Oglethorpe, by April 16. New York Daily Times. “Medical.” 4-16-1853, p. 2.[4]
— Mary F. W. May, Feb. Hays, L. F. The History of Macon County, Georgia. 1998, p476.
— Infant May, Feb 1853, 12-days-old. Hays. History of Macon County GA. 1998, p. 476.
Hawaii, Feb-mid-Jan 1854 (>5,000-6,000)
— <6,000 Marshal of island (s?); in Kenny. “Mormons…Smallpox Epidemic…,” 13.[5]
–2,485->6000 Armstrong in Leslie in Byrne. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Pestilence…, 2008, 31.[6]
— 5,000-6,000 HawaiiHistory.org. “Hawai’i Timeline. 1853. Life in Hawai’i.” 2012.
— 5,000-6,000 Schmitt/Nordyke. “Influenza Deaths in Hawai’i, 1918-1920,” HJH 33, 1999, 114.
— 2,485-5,748 Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence (revised edition). 2001, p. 138.[7]
— >5,000 Greer. “Oahu’s Ordeal…Smallpox Epidemic of 1853…,” 1965, in Schmitt.[8]
— >5,000 U.S. NLM, NIH, HHS. “1853: Smallpox epidemic spreads to Hawai’i.”
— >5,000 Worldatlas.com. Timeline. “Hawaii.” Accessed 1-9-2015.
— 2 All islands (apparently) by June 1. Kenny. “Mormons…Smallpox Epidemic…” 9
— 41 All islands (apparently) by June 18. Kenny. “Mormons…Smallpox…,” p. 9.
— 38 All islands (apparently), June 19-25. Kenny. “Mormons…Smallpox…,” p. 9.
— 189 All islands (apparently), June 26-July 2. Kenny. “Mormons…Smallpox…,” p. 9.
— 808 All islands, up to Jul 22. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 216 Oahu, Jul 16-22. New York Daily Times. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, 2.
— 19 Other islands, Jul 16-22. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 219 Oahu, Jul 23-28. New York Daily Times. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, 2.
— 26 Other islands, Jul 23-28. NY Daily Times. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, 2
— 1,027 All Islands, up to Jul 28. NY Daily Times. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, 2
— 87 Hawai’i Island, Jul 29-Aug 5. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, 2.
— 67 Other islands, Jul 29-Aug 5. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 1,193 All islands up to Aug 5. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 33 Oahu, Aug 6-13. NYDT. “Later From the Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 2 Maui, up to Aug 13. NYDT. “Later From the Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p.2.
— 23 Kawaihae, up to Aug 13. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
— 1,276 All islands up to Aug 13. NYDT. “The Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.
New York City ( 36)
— 1 Brooklyn, Jan 23-29. New York Daily Times. “Deaths.” 2-1-1853, p. 8.
— 15 NYC, Jan 16-22. New York Daily Times. “City Mortality.” 1-25-1853, p. 6.[9]
— 10 NYC, Jan 23-29. New York Daily Times. “City Mortality.” 2-1-1853, p. 8.[10]
— 10 NYC, March 20-26. NY Daily Times. “New York City. Mortality of the City.” 3-29-1853, 3.
Oregon ( 5)
— 5 Portland. New York Daily Times. “Oregon.” 5-9-1853, p. 3.
Oregon and Washington Native Communities (2,000-3,000)
— ? Native communities at Chinook and The Dalles.[11]
–2,000-3,000 Boyd. “Demographic History, 1774-1874.” P. 142 in Handbook of North…
California
Cook: “The next season [1853; ~100 smallpox deaths in 1852] these same tribes were visited again by smallpox and by typhoid.[12] The mortality from smallpox was stated specifically as 400 deaths, mostly of children. Typhoid many have accounted for another 100.” (Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4. 1976, p. 275.)
Jan 23: “Hon. W. B. Ide, County Judge of Colusa County [CA], died of small pox at Monroeville [county seat] on Saturday. He was fifty years of age, and a native of Ohio.” (New York Daily Times. “Crimes and Accidents.” 1-29-1853, p. 6.)
May 28 Newspaper: “The {Nevada} Journal of Friday says that the small pox has prevailed to a great extent among the Indians the resent season, and that it is computed by those best acquainted with the details of Indian life, that not less than four hundred of all sexes and ages of the Indians have been destroyed by this disease the past six months – that is one tenth of the whole number.
“The Indians are totally helpless when thus attacked, and if anything is resorted to besides groans by the sufferers or howling of their friends, the supposed remedy generally hastens death. The most common sufferers are children, which are swept off in numbers. The Indians are very uncleanly and careless in exposing themselves, and thus easily contract disease in its most deadly shape. The ravages of small pox have been mostly confined to the Indians, and but very few whites have suffered.” (Sacramento Union, May 28, 1853; in Heizer (ed.). The Destruction of California Indians…, 1974. Bison Book Edition, 1993, p. 275.)
Hawaii
Kenny: “….the thirteenth of May, the ‘will of god’ shifted. A washerwoman and a young girl living two blocks from the palace were discovered to have smallpox. A smallpox epidemic had never occurred in the Islands. Travelers were carefully checked, and isolated cases had been successfully quarantined. This was the first time residents had been diagnosed with the highly infectious and often fatal disease. After a twelve-day incubation period, patients developed severe headaches and backaches, a high fever, and chills, followed by a severe rash, a return of the fever, and bacterial infection. Death came by infection of the lungs, heart, or brain. The entire course from infection to death usually took five or six weeks.
“The two women were taken from their homes and quarantined, their clothing and grass houses burned. Their street was roped off and guards placed around the perimeter. The board of health made vaccination mandatory for all inhabitants of the island. Some, fearing the cowpox vaccine almost as much as smallpox, fled to the mountains or sailed for other islands.[13] (pp. 8-9)
“On Maui Francis Hammond wrote, “The saints wished to know if they should not go and get vaxinated as all the people were doing so. I told them if their faith was weak and [they] do not trust the Lord to go but as for myself I should not go, and if I died all was well.”[14]
“`We have been preaching that the hour of God’s judgments were at hand,’ Tanner wrote ‘and the small pox has borne a faithful testimony to the fact.’[15] ‘Our Brethren thay say it is a judgment from the Lord,’ another wrote,
and thay feal to trust in him. . . . [The] judge . . . impresed a fine on all that did not git vaxenated of $5. Thay then was oblige to go & be vaxinated for thay had not the $5 to pay. I have sean them after thay ware vaxenated pick thare arm & then suck it with thare mouth to git the mater out.[16] (p. 9)
“….The epidemic began slowly — only two deaths by the first of June. But the virus was spreading rapidly. By the 18th of June, 41 had died. In the following week, 38 died; the next week, 189.[17] Still, Uaua reported at the end of June, ‘very few’ Saints had contracted the pox, ‘and those who have had it all got well by administering to them with oil and prayer except one who died.’[18] If accurate, only one death would have been significant, for now the Mormons numbered six hundred, and nine or ten deaths might have been expected…. (p. 9)
“The doctors and constables were frustrated by Mormon obstructions. They were already overworked — Dr. Lathrop reported 568 patients under his care on the first of July — and natives were dying without ever seeing a doctor. On top of everything, it was discovered too late that the first batch of vaccine, given to fifteen hundred people, was defective. Bodies were discovered in grass houses, in alleys, and on hillsides. Burial squads were overwhelmed. Corpses buried in shallow graves were unearthed and eaten by hogs and dogs.[19] (pp. 10-11)
“….It will never be known how many Hawaiians died that summer. The marshal said nearly six thousand, 30 percent….” (p. 13) (Kenny, Scott G. “Mormons and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1853.” The Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. 31, 1997, pp. 8-11, 13.)
Leslie: “Armstrong, Richard (1805-1860). Although not a medical practitioner, Richard Armstrong was deeply involved in fighting the smallpox epidemic that swept the Hawaiian Islands in 1853. A member of King Kamehameha III’s (1813-1854) privy council, he led the vaccination program during the epidemic and afterward conducted a census to determine the disease’s toll. In the aftermath of the disaster, he and another cabinet member, Dr. Gerritt Judd (1803-1873), were accused of having mishandled the government response to the epidemic. He defended his actions in public hearings and managed to retain his government position, whereas Judd, who had led the Royal Commissioners of Health, was forced to resign.
“A teacher and Princeton Theological Seminary-trained minister, Armstrong and his family moved to Hawaii in 1832 to serve as missionaries. Armstrong served at several churches in the Hawaiian Islands before becoming Minister of Public Instruction in 1848, a position he would hold until his death in a riding accident in 1860.
“The smallpox epidemic began in February, 1853, when the Charles Mallory, a merchant ship from San Francisco, appeared in Honolulu’s harbor flying the yellow flag that signaled disease aboard. The single afflicted sailor, who eventually recovered, was isolated on a reef in the harbor while the rest of the crew was vaccinated and quarantined at Waikiki. This quick action seemed to have kept the contagion from spreading, but in may, more cases began to appear, probably unrelated to the Mallory’s sailor. After the Mallory incident, Armstrong had been charged with directing an intensive vaccination program as part of a comprehensive plan developed by the Royal Commissioners of Health and had secured a supply of vaccine by the end of March.
“The vaccination program was plagued with problems, including difficulty in securing good quality vaccine supply. Whereas most whites complied with government orders to be immunized, many native Hawaiians avoided the vaccinations, preferring the folk medicine of native healers called kahuna. Lacking sufficient medical personnel to handle the workload, Armstrong trained laymen to give immunizations and vaccinated a number of people himself.
“Rev. Armstrong drew upon his connections to the missionary community to spread smallpox information through churches. He set up vaccination stations at both Protestant and Catholic churches. He also persuaded the king to designate June 14 as a national day of prayer and fasting.
“The epidemic peaked in October 1853 and had run its course by the middle of January 1854. The islands had a population of over 73,000 just prior to the epidemic, and official statistics generated by Armstrong’s 1854 census set the toll of the epidemic at 6,45 cases of smallpox resulting in 2,485 deaths. These figures are generally agreed to be inaccurately low. Convinced that at least two-thirds of all cases went unreported, Armstrong himself contended that the actual death toll was over 6,000. This catastrophe prompted Hawaiian lawmakers in 1854 to make vaccination of natives and visitors compulsory.”[20] (Leslie, Teresa. “Armstrong, Richard (1805-1860).” Pp. 30-31 in: Byrne (ed.). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues. 2008.)
U.S. NIH: “Smallpox takes the lives of more than 5,000 Hawaiians, making it among the three worst epidemics in Hawaiian history. The first case arrives in the Port of Honolulu, on the ship Charles Mallory.” (United States National Library of Medicine. Native Voices. “1853: Smallpox epidemic spreads to Hawai’i.” Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, Dept. of HHS.)
Newspapers on Hawaii
March 1 Report: “Dates from Honolulu to the 1st of March are received. Great exertions were being used to vaccinate the natives in anticipation of the small-pox, which it was feared would find its way from California to the Islands….” (New York Daily Times. “Sandwich Islands.” 5-9-1853, p. 3.)
July 22 Report: “By the arrival of the brig Zoe, we have dates from Honolulu to Aug 17, nearly one month later than previous advices.
“Continued Ravages of the Small-Pox – The following is the report of the Commissioners of Public Health, in Honolulu, for the week ending July 22:
“The number of new cases of small-pox which have been reported during the past week, for the island of Oahu, are 626; deaths reported are 216. From the other islands, the new cases reported are 40; deaths reported, 19. Total number of cases reported, 2,342; total number of deaths reported, 808.
“Whole number of cases reported during the week ending July 28, for the island of Oahu, is 480; the number of deaths reported in the same time is 219.
“From the other islands the new cases are 54, deaths 26. The total number of cases reported is 2,886, deaths reported, 1,027.
“Total number of burials under the direction of the Commissioners, by the police and others, in Honolulu and vicinity, since June 26, is 663.
“Forty houses at Waikiki, and thirty on the Ewa side of Honolulu, more than two miles from the market, are being erected by the Commissioners, under the direction of the Clerk of the Bureau of Public Improvements.
“Whole number of cases reported, for the week ending August 5, is 343; the number of deaths reported in the same time is 87.
“From the other Islands the new cases are…[unclear]; deaths, 67. The total number of cases reported is 3,183; total number of deaths, 1,193.
“For the week ending August 13, the number of new cases of small-pox which have been reported during the past week, for the island of Oahu, is 363; the number of deaths reported in same time are 33. From the other Islands no reports have been received during the past week.
“The total number of cases reported are 3,546. The total number of deaths reported are 1,276. The deaths on Oahu embrace all parts of the Island from which reports have been received. There are comparatively few cases in Honolulu.
“At Lahaina, on Maui, there have been but three cases of small pox, two of whom died, and one is recovering. Also four cases of varioloid, two of whom have been discharged ell, and two are still in the Hospital.
“From Kawaihae [Island of Hawai’i] we learn that the deaths from small-pox have amounted to twenty-three, out of a population of about fifty.
“In the districts of Kipahulu and Hanna, at the east end of Maui, small pox has been introduced, and is spreading. Other districts in that part of the Island, are yet unprotected. We have just heard from Hilo. The small-pox was raging at two points in the district. But there was none within six miles of Hilo bay, and all the people were vaccinated.
“The Argus, the opposition paper in Honolulu, has stopped, in consequence of the sickness of Mr. Fornander, its editor. He is down with the small-pox, which we much regret. He has also been afflicted, by the same disease, in the death of his father and mother-in-law, and the sickness of his own daughter, who has recovered.
“It appears that even vaccination will not protect the enervate Kanakas[21] from disease. The Marshal of Honolulu reports that he had found about seven eighths of those attacked had been vaccinated. He then presented a paper giving the number of persons taken with the disease, who had been vaccinated, and the number cured. We give only a summary. Whole number vaccinated, taken sick, 476; whole number cured, 209….” (New York Daily Times. “Later From the Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2.)
Michigan
March 29 Newspaper: “Saut Ste. Marie. From the Detroit Advertiser. We have been permitted to look over the correspondence of Col. S. McKnight, from the Saut, brought down by Capt. Jones, who arrived here last night, having made the journey in ten days….
“The small pox was raging among the Indians and half-breeds, and all efforts to stop the spread of the disease, by establishing a pest-house, proved unavailing, and the Indians obstinately persisted in visiting the sick, merely to gratify their curiosity, carrying their children with them, and refusing to be controlled.” (New York Times. “Saut Ste. Marie.” 3-29-1853, p. 3.)
New York, New York City
March 26: “The deaths in the City, for the week ending Saturday, 26th inst., were 387, being an increase of 16 from the previous week….The fever victims were 38…Small pox claims 10…” (New York Daily Times. “New York City. Mortality of the City.” 3-29-1853, 3.)
New York, Oriskany Falls
Jan 22 Newspaper: “The Utica Gazette says the small pox is raging fearfully at Oriskany Falls, 19 miles south of that City. The stores in the village were mainly closed, and public meetings held to take measures to prevent the spread of the disease.” (NY Daily Times. 1-22-1853, p. 6.)
New York, Syracuse
May 3 Newspaper report: “Syracuse, Tuesday, May 3….The small pox prevails in the Poor-house in this city and many of its inmates are sick.” (New York Daily Times. “Railroad Accident – Strike of Laborers – Small Pox in Syracuse.” 5-4-1853, p. 1.)
Pacific Northwest
Boyd: “Of all introduced diseases on the Northwest Coast, smallpox caused the greatest mortality…. (p. 137)
“In 1853, smallpox was apparently introduced at more than one coastal location by trading vessels from San Francisco. From an initial focus at the mouth of the Columbia (Swan 1857: 54-55) the epidemic spread south through Tillamook, Yaquina, and Alsea territory as far as Cape Perpetua (Gibbs 1856: 12) and north as far as Quinault territory (Olson 1936: 182) and the head of Puget Sound…(Starling 1853). From a second focus at Neah Bay (Hancock 1927: 181-182) smallpox was introduced to Nitinaht (Drucker 1951: 12) and Clallam lands ( W. H. Hills 1853: 137). The disease was also reported in Nooksack territory and among the lower Skagit (J. M. Collins 1949a: 302). Its entry into Puget Sound itself was stalled by a vigorous program of vaccination (Starling 1853).
“Mortality from this outbreak seems to have been greatest at the two points of introduction and along the intermediate portion of the Washington cost, where somewhat more than 40 percent of the Indian population perished. The death rate was considerably less among peripheral populations. Total loss in the affected areas of the coast was about 2,000-3,000 people.” (pp. 141-142) (Boyd, Robert Thomas. “Demographic History, 1774-1874.” Pp. 135-148 in Handbook of North American Indians: Northwest Coast, William C. Sturtevant (Editor). 1990.)
April 2: “Our dates from Oregon are to the 2d ult. [April]….The Oregonian of the 2d is assured, by the practicing physicians of Portland, that the small pox has entirely disappeared. There have been no new cases for the last ten days. We learn that there have been, all told, about twenty cases of small pox and varioloid, of which five have died.” (New York Daily Times. “Oregon.” 5-9-1853, p. 3.)
April 15 Newspaper: “Oregon dates are to the 7th inst. The small pox was raging fearfully among the Indians.” (Independent American, Platteville, WI. “From California.” 4-15-1853, p.2.)
Texas
April 16 Newspaper: “It is stated that the Small Pox is raging o a considerable extent in Bastrop and Georgetown.” (New York Daily Times. “Medical.” 4-16-1853, p. 2.)
Sources
Boyd, Robert Thomas. “Demographic History, 1774-1874.” Pp. 135-148 in Handbook of North American Indians: Northwest Coast, William C. Sturtevant (Editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, U.S. GPO, 1990. Google digital preview accessed 1-9-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=M7KRhRt3i2cC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Boyd, Robert Thomas. “Disease Epidemics among Indians, 1770s-1850s.” The Oregon Encyclopedia. Oregon Historical Society. 2015. Accessed 1-9-2015 at: http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/disease_epidemics_1770s-1850s/#.VLBNK3s9Z14
Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=AXgmN-PIrywC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Greer, Richard A. “Oahu’s Ordeal – The Smallpox Epidemic of 1853 – Part II,” Hawaii Historical Review, Vol. II, No. 1, October 1965, p. 261; cited in: Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 67.
HawaiiHistory.org. “Hawai’i Timeline. 1853. Life in Hawai’i.” 2012. Accessed 9-17-2012 at:
http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&year=1853
Hays, Louise Frederick. The History of Macon County, Georgia. Genealogical Publishing Co., 1998, 803 pages.
Heizer, Robert F. (ed.). The Destruction of California Indians; A collection of documents from the period 1847 to 1865 in which are described some of the things that happened to some of the Indians of California. Bison Book Edition, 1993. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=d0aXNrxV2ZMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Independent American, Platteville, WI. “From California.” 4-15-1853, p. 2. Accessed 9-17-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=35025932
Kenny, Scott G. “Mormons and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1853.” The Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. 31, 26 pages, 1997. Accessed 1-9-2015 at: https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/406/JL31007.pdf?sequence=1
Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.
Leslie, Teresa. “Armstrong, Richard (1805-1860).” Pp. 30-31 in: Byrne, Joseph P. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Partially Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2012 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
New York Daily Times. “City Mortality.” 1-25-1853, p. 6. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2796470&sterm=smallpox
New York Daily Times. “City Mortality.” 2-1-1853, p. 8. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2797006&sterm=smallpox
New York Daily Times. “Crimes and Accidents.” 1-29-1853, p. 6. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2796814&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “Deaths” [Smallpox in Brooklyn]. 2-1-1853, p. 8. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2797006&sterm=smallpox
New York Daily Times. “Died” [Smallpox, San Francisco]. 5-9-1853, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2802393&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “Later From the Sandwich Islands.” 10-10-1853, p. 2. Accessed 9-17-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2814570
New York Daily Times. “Latest Intelligence…One Week Later From California.” 5-11-1853, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2802530&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “Medical” [Smallpox, Oglethorpe, GA]. 4-16-1853, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2801043&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “New York City. Mortality of the City.” 3-29-1853, 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2799926&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “Oregon” [Smallpox, Portland]. 5-9-1853, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2802393&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times. “Railroad Accident – Strike of Laborers – Small Pox in Syracuse.” 5-4-1853, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2802053&sterm=
New York Daily Times. “Sandwich Islands.” 5-9-1853, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2802393&sterm=small+pox
New York Daily Times.[Smallpox at Oriskany Falls, NY.] 1-22-1853, p. 6. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2796300&sterm=small+pox
New York Times. “Saut Ste. Marie [Smallpox among Natives].” 3-29-1853, p. 3. Accessed 9-17-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2799926
Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, 86 pages. Accessed 9-20-2012 at: Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii – eVols – University of Hawaii. Accessed at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fevols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10524%2F150%2FJL03074.pdf%3Fsequence%3D2&ei=UPSvVK2bLoO4yQTO74L4DA&usg=AFQjCNHER9A57xAr6d0m9mJcnsc4F2Z8Gg&bvm=bv.83339334,d.aWw
Schmitt, Robert C. and Eleanor C. Nordyke. “Influenza Deaths in Hawai’i, 1918-1920.” Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. 33, pp. 101-117, 1999. Accessed 9-17-2012 at: https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/538/JL33107.pdf?sequence=2
United States National Library of Medicine. Native Voices. Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. “Timeline. 1853: Smallpox epidemic spreads to Hawai’i.” Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed 9-17-2012 at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/320.html
Worldatlas.com. Timeline. “Hawaii.” Accessed 1-9-2015 at: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/hitimeln.htm
[1] Citing The Journal (Nevada [Nevada City?])
[2] New York Daily Times. “Crimes and Accidents.” 1-29-1853, p. 6.
[3] Our attempt to put a number to “many fatal cases.” (New York Daily Times. “Latest Intelligence…One Week Later From California.” 5-11-1853, p. 1.) Paper writes “New-Orleans, Monday Night, May 9. The steamship Daniel Webster has arrived at this port from San Juan. She brings San Francisco dates of the 16th of April….The small-pox was increasing to a rapid extent throughout San Francisco, and many fatal cases were reported.”
[4] “The people of Oglethorpe, Ga., have held a public meeting, at which the Mayor presided, to take measures to justify in the eyes of the world, Drs. Head and Colzey, the only physicians of the town who would consent to visit the sufferers from the late malady, which shut off Oglethorpe from communication with its neighbors. It seems that when the epidemic first appeared it was exceedingly difficult to say whether it was a severe form of Chicken Pox, or a very mild for of Small Pox. The physicians inclined to the latter opinion, and published a Card to that effect. The course of the disease showed plainly that there was some Small Pox in the town. Out of the 48 cases, 9 proved fatal. The meeting unanimously expressed their highest regard for the two physicians named, and their disapprobation of those newspapers which showered their abuse upon them.”
[5] It is not clear if the marshal’s domain is Oahu or all the islands. Continuing his reference to the estimate of “nearly six thousand” by “the marshal” Kenny notes “30 percent.” He then writes of deaths in Honolulu Oahu.
[6] Richard Armstrong, member of King Kamehameha III’s privy council, in Teresa Leslie, “Armstrong, Richard (1805-1860).” Pp. 30-31 in Byrne, Joseph P. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.
[7] “It was so explosive that during an eight-month period about 8 percent of Hawaii’s population died of the disease. When the epidemic ended late in January 1854, the official figure was 6,405 cases and 2,485 deaths. According to eyewitness accounts, this is an underestimation. Another source cites 9,082 cases and 5,748 deaths, apparently a more realistic figure.”
[8] Greer, Richard A. “Oahu’s Ordeal – The Smallpox Epidemic of 1853 – Part II,” Hawaii Historical Review, Vol. II, No. 1, October 1965, p. 261; cited in: Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 67.
[9] “The Report of the City Inspector for week ending Jan 22, gives the total number of deaths at 360. Of these, 65 were men, 72 women, 110 boys, and 104 girls. Five years old and under, 134….These deaths are reported to be the result of the following diseases…Small pox 15…”
[10] “The City Inspector reports the total number of deaths during the week ending Jan 29, to have been 364…”
[11] “The 1853 epidemic…struck people throughout the lower Columbia, claiming half of the Native communities at Chinook and The Dalles. By 1853, smallpox vaccine was available in Oregon, but it did not reach the Indians.” Robert Boyd. “Disease Epidemics among Indians, 1770s-1850s.” The Oregon Encyclopedia. Oregon Historical Society. 2015. [Chinook is on the Washington side near the Columbia River mouth, and the Dalles is about 182 miles to the East.]
[12] Cites: Sacramento Union, May 28 and July 23, 1853.
[13] Cites: Richard A Greer. “Oahu’s Ordeal – The Smallpox Epidemic of 1853.” Hawaii Historical Review: Selected Readings, ed. Richard A Greer (Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society, 1969) 41-42; and Bushnell, O. A. The Gifts of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawai’i (Honolulu: U of Hawai’i P, 1993, 47.
[14] Cites: Francis A. Hammond diary, 18 May 1853.
[15] Cites: Tanner to Brother Campbell, Parley P. Pratt Papers, LDSCA.
[16] Cites: Ephraim Green diary, 13 June 1853 (at Wailuku), HBLL.
[17] Cites: Greer. “Oahu’s Ordeal,” pp. 45-46, 48.
[18] Cites: Hammond diary, 29 June 1853.
[19] Cites: Greer, “Oahu’s Ordeal” 47; Ephraim Clark, Honolulu Station Report, 1853, HMCS; Tanner to Brother Campbell.
[20] Notes as further reading: Daws, Gavin. Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974; and, Greer, Richard. “Oahu’s Ordeal: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1853,” Hawaii Historical Review, Vol. 1, 1965, pp. 221-242.
[21] “Kanaka, a word, meaning ‘people’ or ‘person’, used by various Polynesian people to refer to themselves…” (Wikipedia. “Kanaka.” 9-2-2012 modification.