1868 — June-Dec, Smallpox, esp. San Francisco/960, Cincinnati/649, Chicago/150 –>1,825
— >1,825 Blanchard compilation based on State breakouts below.[1]
Summary of State Breakout below
California: (>960) (June-Dec) Especially San Francisco (760), but also throughout CA
Illinois: (>150) Chicago
Nevada ( ?) Virginia City (reported to have been spread from CA
New Mexico: ( >3) Plus unknown number of Native Americans (from troops).
Ohio: ( 649) Cincinnati (640-649)
Oregon: ( ?) Reported to have spread from California into Oregon.
Pennsylvania ( >48) Philadelphia (48)
Washington ( ?) Reported to have spread from Cal. into Washington.
Wisconsin: ( 15) Milwaukee
Total: >1,825
Breakout of 1868 Smallpox Fatalities by State and Locality (where noted):
California: (>960) (June-Dec) Especially San Francisco (760), but also throughout CA
–960 Blanchard tally based on sources below.[2]
— ? Petaluma. Morning Oregonian, Portland. Aug 4, 1868, p. 2.[3]
— 1 Rancho Los Laureles, ~12 miles from Monterey, early Nov.[4]
–760 San Francisco. Shah. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in…Chinatown. 2001, 57.[5]
–398 “ Morning Oregonian (Portland). “Small Pox in San Francisco,” 12-24-1868, 2.
–393 “ June-Nov. NY Times. “The Small-Pox in California…” 12-13-1868, p. 1.[6]
— 60 San Juan, Monterey County. NYT. “Ravages of Small-Pox…Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, 7.[7]
— 4 San Juan, Nevada County. Nov. Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Smallpox,” 11-7-1868.
— 23 San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, one-week, mid-Nov.[8]
— ? Santa Cruz, cases noted. Reader. Voices of the Heart. “Introduction.” 1993.[9]
— 11 Watsonville, by Nov 25. Reader. Voices of the Heart. “Introduction.” 1993.
— ? Whisky Hill (now Freedom), cases noted. Reader. Voices of the Heart. “Introduction.” 1993.
— ? California towns not noted. NYT. “Ravages of Small-Pox…Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, 7.[10]
Illinois: (150) Chicago
–150 Chicago. Illinois State Board of Health. Fifth Annual Report… 1883, p. 332.
–150 “ US Nat. Board of Health. Annual Report…National Board of Health, 1883.[11]
Nevada ( ?)
–? Virginia City. New York Times. “Ravages of Small-Pox on the Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, p. 7.[12]
New Mexico: ( >3)
— 3[13] Daily New Mexican, Santa Fe, NM. “Telegraphic Communication,” 7-11-1868, p. 1.
Ohio: (649) Cincinnati (640-649)
–649 Cincinnati. Twitchell. “The Prevention of Smallpox.” P. 693-96, The Lancet-Clinic. 1906.
–32 “ Month of Oct. Algona Upper Des Moines (IA). “Items,” 11-18-1868, p. 2.
–640 “ Mitchell. “History of Epidemics in Cincinnati.” UCMB, V1, N1, Nov 1920, 13.
Oregon ( ?)
–? Portland. New York Times. “Ravages of Small-Pox on the Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, p. 7.[14]
Pennsylvania (>48) Philadelphia (48)
–48 Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia. Annual Report (Vol. III), 1907, p. 99.[15]
Washington ( ?)
–? Puget Sound. New York Times. “Ravages of Small-Pox on the Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, p. 7.[16]
Wisconsin: ( 15) Milwaukee
–15 Milwaukee. Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, IN. 12-28-1868, p. 1.
California
Reader: “The first and perhaps the most devastating [epidemics] to the general populous occurred during the late fall and early winter of 1868. The disease was the much dreaded Smallpox and the first diagnosed cases of it occurred among the impoverished Spanish residents of San Juan Bautista. Local newspapers reported that the pestilence was spreading rapidly and by mid-November, 1868, there were more than one hundred and twenty known cases in the infected district with more being reported daily. The death toll in the first week of the epidemic was set at twenty-three.
“The stage coach lines which serviced the area canceled all of their runs and a cry went out for help. The roads leading in and out of this little mission town were barricaded in an attempt to localize the malady. Collections were taken up in nearby cities in order to help alleviate the suffering.
“A campaign in Santa Cruz county raised almost two hundred dollars in one weekend. The funds were used to purchase serum in order to inoculate those in the area not already afflicted with the pox. Two young Irishmen, who would later loom large in the history of Watsonville, braved the ravages of the disease and delivered the much needed serum to San Juan. These two “home town” heroes were Matt Tarpy and Patrick McAllister.
“All attempts to contain the illness were without success, however, when cases began to appear in Watsonville and Whisky Hill. (Now Freedom) By the 25th of November, the death toll in Watsonville stood at eleven, among that number being a teacher and town constable. On the 27th, a group of Santa Cruz residents rode out to Aptos and demolished the bridge on the Watsonville Road. After posting a guard at the ruins to prevent anyone from entering Santa Cruz from the east and south, they scurried back to town and waited. But these quarantine measures were also useless and the only lasting effect of this rash action was to create an rift between the citizens of both cities.
“Two days later the plague was raging in Santa Cruz to such a degree that the county supervisors issued a medical alert and created, for the first time, a board of Health, appointing Dr. C.S. Anderson as Health Officer. the new board established a “Pest House” and inaugurated a daily route for a “death wagon” to convey the afflicted to the hospital for treatment. Instruction at the public schools were suspended for the remainder of the term and the local press published widely the latest remedies available for home use as well as methods to prevent the spread of Smallpox.
“Thanks to such measures the pestilence began to subside throughout the county during the first two weeks of December and by the new year, the Board of Health could declare the epidemic at an end. The exact number of those who succumbed to Small Pox during that winter will never be known, but cemeteries in the Monterey Bay area abound in headstones bearing dates from this period. It appears that the fatality rate from the disease was, as usual, highest among children.”
(Reader. Voices of the Heart. “Introduction.” 1993.)
Aug 4: “The small pox is prevailing at Petaluma, California, and in other places near San Francisco. The probabilities are strong that the disease will spread quite generally up and down the coast.” (Morning Oregonian, Portland. Aug 4, 1868, p. 2.)
Sep 8: “San Francisco, Sept. 8….The health officers report a fresh outbreak of small pox in its most virulent form. The number of cases reported at the health office from Monday to Monday was 36 most of them in the last two days.” (Morning Oregonian, Portland. “Our San Francisco Dispatch,” Sep 9, 1868, p. 1.)
Nov-Dec: “The Monterey Democrat of November 7th says: We hear of four deaths at San Juan from small pox since our last issue. George W. Crane, a prominent citizen, died of this horrible disease on the 2d inst. ….“San Juan, Monterey county, Cal, is being devastated by small-pox.” (St. Joseph Herald, MI. “Incidents and Accidents,” Dec 12, 1868, p. 2.)
Dec 15: “San Francisco, Dec 15 — The Board of Supervisors, last evening decided to enlarge the small pox hospital at once, and authorized the Building Committee to prepared additional sheds for the accommodation of patients. Ninety-four new cases were reported last week and thirty more reported yesterday.” (Morning Oregonian (Portland). “Our San Francisco Dispatch,” Dec 16, 1868, p. 2.)
Dec 19: “The Transcript of December 11th says: The small pox has now prevailed in San Francisco for six months, and, from all reports, is still increasing. During that time the mortality has been exceedingly large.” (Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Small Pox in Nevada County,” Dec 19, 1868, p. 3.)
Dec 24: “The Health Officer report shows that 1,100 persons have been attacked with small pox in San Francisco, of whom 398 or 35 per cent died. One in 135 of the whole population has taken the disease and but 7,915 persons, or one in 19, have been vaccinated.” (Morning Oregonian, Portland. “Small Pox in San Francisco,” 12-24-1868, p. 2.)
Indiana
Dec 2: “Smallpox is prevailing in Balton Township, Wayne county.” (Seymour Weekly Democrat, IN. “State Items.” 12-2-1868, p. 2.)
Lower Ohio – e. g. Owensboro, KY and Evansville, IN
Dec 24 report: “Smallpox is prevailing to some extent in Owensboro, Evansville, and other towns along the Lower Ohio. Cases of are likely to be brought to our city. Let those who would escape the disease be vaccinated.” (Rochester Standard, IN. “State Items.” 12-24-1868, p. 2.)
Milwaukee
Nov 17: “The Milwaukee News says: The presence of small pox in the Second ward, and the return to the public school of children freshly pitted with the disease, has created considerable alarm in that quarter and caused the temporary closing of the school until the necessary inquiries can be made, and general confidence restored.” (Jamesville Gazette, WI. “Small Pox,” 11-17-1868, p. 1.)
Dec 28: “Fifteen funerals of the victims of the small pox took place in Milwaukee in one day recently.” (Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, IN. 12-28-1868, p. 1.)
Dec 27: “These figures [school attendance during Fall Term 1868] show a decrease in attendance over the previous term, which is entirely owing to the decrease during the month of December caused by the small pox excitement.” (Daily Milwaukee News. “Our Public Schools.” 12-27-1868, p. 5.)
Nevada
Sep: “The Virginia(Nevada) Trespass, of the 15th says: ‘The small pox has made its appearance in this place to the great terror of the Piute Indians. The noble red devils are awfully frightened at the appearance of small pox in the land, and now, for the first time, have asked to be vaccinated.” (Galveston Daily News, TX. 10-13-1868, p. 1.)
New York
May-June: “New York…The bark, Agnes, from Bremen, had fifteen deaths on the passage, eight being from small pox, and has now twenty-one cases of that disease aboard. The vessel is detained at quarantine.” (Titusville Herald, PA. “New York General News,” 6-3-1868, p. 1.)
June 18 report: “The steamer Virginia, from Liverpool, arrived at New York Saturday with fifteen cases of small pox on board, and has been quarantined.” (Shawano County Journal, WI. 6-18-1868, p. 2.)
Aug 19: “New York….The sloop Four Brothers, seized by the revenue officers, has been tied to a wharf in this city, where thousands of passengers are landing daily. Great complaints are made about this way of doing things. It is requested that the Board of Health look to this matter immediately, as yellow fever and small pox have been on board the infected sloop.” (Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 8-19-1868, p. 2.)
Ohio
Nov 28: “Cincinnati has the smallpox bad. One hospital is nursing seventy-nine cases.” (Janesville Gazette, WI. 11-28-1868, p. 1, col. 1.)
Sources
Algona Upper Des Moines (IA). “Items” [Smallpox in Cincinnati]. 11-18-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=122679225
City of Philadelphia. First Annual Message of John E. Reyburn, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia with the Annual Reports of the Departments of Public Health and Charities, Supplies, Public Education, Law, City Controller, City Treasurer, Commissioners of the Sinking Funds, Receiver of Taxes, and Board of Revision of Taxes for the Year Ending December 31, 1907 (Vol. III). Philadelphia: Dunlap Printing Co., 1908. Google digitized. Assessed 12-5-2012: http://books.google.com/books?id=0ihNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Craddock, Susan. “Sewers and Scapegoats: Spatial Metaphors of Smallpox in Nineteenth Century San Francisco.” Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 7, pp. 957-968, Nov 1995. Accessed 11-26-2019 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14654184_Sewers_and_scapegoats_Spatial_metaphors_of_smallpox_in_nineteenth_century_San_Francisco
Daily Alta California, San Francisco. “Pacific Slope Intelligence. California.” 11-10-1868, p. 1. Accessed 11-26-2019 at: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18681110.2.10.1&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1
Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Our Public Schools,” 12-27-1868, p. 5. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=120003878
Daily New Mexican, Santa Fe. “Telegraphic Communication” [Smallpox in Dona Ana County] July 11, 1868, 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=78896603
Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, UT. “Small Pox in Virginia.” 12-4-1868, p. 3. Accessed 11-26-2019: https://newspaperarchive.com/salt-lake-city-deseret-evening-news-dec-04-1868-p-3/
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, IN. [Smallpox in Milwaukee], 12-28-1868, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=43526954
Illinois State Board of Health. Fifth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Illinois. Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker State Printer and Binder, 1883. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=rR-086nb37cC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true
Janesville Gazette, WI. 11-28-1868, p. 1, col. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=53370423&sterm=smallpox
Jones, Thomas R. “July, Fifty Years Ago, in California.” The Grizzly Bear, Los Angeles, July 1918, p. 5. Accessed 11-26-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=nNssXAq6B0YC&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Mitchell, E. W., M.D. “History of Epidemics in Cincinnati.” University of Cincinnati Medical Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 1, November 1920, pp. 10-18. Accessed 3-15-2015 at:
Morning Oregonian, Portland. “Smallpox in San Francisco Bay.” 1-20-1880, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=19224213
Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Small Pox,” 11-7-1868, p. 3, col. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=1723747
Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Small Pox in Nevada County,” 12-19-1868, p. 3. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=1724084
New York Times. “Ravages of Small-Pox on the Pacific Coast.” 12-25-1868, 7. Accessed 11-26-2019: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1868/12/25/79378618.html?pageNumber=7
New York Times. “The Small-Pox in California…” 12-13-1868, p. 1. Accessed 11-26-2019 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1868/12/13/101004712.html?pageNumber=1
Reader, Phil. Voices of the Heart Memorial Poems from the Diphtheria Epidemic of 1876-78. Cliffside Publishing, 1993. Accessed 9-28-2011 at: http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/313/
Rochester Standard, IN. “State Items.” 12-24-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=190054651&sterm=smallpox
Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 8-19-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com
Seymour Weekly Democrat, IN. “State Items.” 12-2-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=190085647&sterm=smallpox
Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Shawano County Journal, WI. [Smallpox ship NY harbor], 6-18-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=37180713
St. Joseph Herald, MI. “Incidents and Accidents.” 12-12-1868, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=12319646
Titusville Herald, PA. “New York General News,” 6-3-1868, p. 1. Accessed at http://www.newspaperarchive.com
Twitchell, George B, MD (Cincinnati). “The Prevention of Smallpox.” Pp. 693-696 in The Lancet-Clinic (Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery). New Series, Vol. LVI. Cincinnati: Lancet-Clinic Co., Jan-June, 1906. Google preview accessed 4-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4RACAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
United States National Board of Health. Annual Report of the National Board of Health, 1883. Washington,
DC: GPO, 1884. Digitized by Google at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=MtuxEGC1Vp4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true
[1] Compiled by B. Wayne Blanchard, November 2019 for inclusion in website Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-of-Life Events, accessible at: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
[2] We us 760 for San Francisco smallpox death toll and ~200 for remainder of the state based on many reports that smallpox was prevalent over much of the state and even “rampant” in some towns and locales. As an example we quote from the Sacramento Daily Union, “Spread of the Small Pox.” 12-8-1868: “It has spread to other places and is likely to run all over the State. If the interior manages it no better than the metropolis has done we do not see any chance of getting rid of the pestilence for months. Its victims are already counted by hundreds, and will be lamented by thousands unless we act promptly to arrest its spread and confine it to the present limits as much as possible.” In order to contribute to our tally we “translate” the phrase deaths “counted by hundreds” into two hundred, the smallest number that conforms to “hundreds.”
[3] “The small pox is prevailing at Petaluma, California, and in other places near San Francisco. The probabilities are strong that the disease will spread quite generally up and down the coast.” Another source notes: “There were fifteen cases of smallpox in Petaluma, and the epidemic in San Francisco still continued.” (Jones, Thomas R. “July, Fifty Years Ago, in California.” The Grizzly Bear, Los Angeles, July 1918, p. 5.)
[4] Daily Alta California, San Francisco. “Pacific Slope Intelligence. California.” 11-10-1868, p. 1.
[5] See, also: Craddock, Susan. “Sewers and Scapegoats: Spatial Metaphors of Smallpox in Nineteenth Century San Francisco.” Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 7, pp. 957-968, Nov 1995. (p.960)
[6] “San Francisco, Friday, Dec. 11. A meeting of prominent citizens was held last night, which adopted stringent measures to prevent the further spread of the small-pox. The disease has prevailed in the city since June last, but has increased to an alarming extent recently, 120 new cases having occurred since the 1st of December. During the past six months 1,110 cases were reported to the Health Officer, and there were 393 deaths. The disease prevails to a certain extent throughout the State. The small villages in the southern portion have suffered fearfully by it.”
[7] “From the San Francisco Bulletin Nov. 27. The small-pox, which now afflicts us, not only this city, but the Pacific States and Territories, is the most serious calamity that has occurred to us since the drought of 1864. Here, in San Francisco, we are losing at the rate of between seventy and eighty lives a month by it out of a population of 150,000; but in some parts of the interior the scourge is even more severe. In San Juan, Monterey County, with a population of about 1,000 people, there have been 180 cases, and of these one-third (sixty) have died….”
[8] Reader. Voices of the Heart. “Introduction.” 1993. “…the first diagnosed cases of it occurred among the impoverished Spanish residents of San Juan Bautista. Local newspapers reported that the pestilence was spreading rapidly and by mid-November, 1868, there were more than one hundred and twenty known cases in the infected district with more being reported daily. The death toll in the first week of the epidemic was set at twenty-three.”
[9] “Two days later [Nov 30] the plague was raging in Santa Cruz to such a degree that the county supervisors issued a medical alert and created, for the first time, a board of Health, appointing Dr. C.S. Anderson as Health Officer. The new board established a “Pest House” and inaugurated a daily route for a “death wagon” to convey the afflicted to the hospital for treatment. Instruction at the public schools were suspended for the remainder of the term and the local press published widely the latest remedies available for home use as well as methods to prevent the spread of Smallpox.”
[10] “Every large town in the State has had its loss, though in some few favored instances it has only been a life or two. The disease has traveled by every stage, steamship and railroad route in California; it has gone by sea to all our domestic ports North and South [of San Francisco]…It is scourging the whole coast.”
[11] “Table of mortality from small-pox in the city of Chicago from 1851 to 1882, inclusive.” p. 134.
[12] “It
[smallpox]
has…wound its way up the Columbia River to Portland…” Another source writes: “The smallpox is still raging in Virginia City, Nevada. The Safeguard of the 21st [Nov] says: ‘This disease is still spreading, there being it is estimated, not less than twenty cases in the city. Little or nothing has been done thus far by the authorities to arrest its ravages. Between the White Pine fever and smallpox, it may be reasonably anticipated that Virginia will soon be depopulated.” (Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, UT. “Small Pox in Virginia.” 12-4-1868, p. 3.)
[13] A minimalist estimate based on statement “The small pox is prevalent throughout Dona Ana county, and several deaths have occurred.”
[14] “It
[smallpox]
has crossed the Sierras and raised its head in Virginia City…”
[15] Table entitled “Deaths from Smallpox from 1807 to 1907, inclusive, and Rate per 1,000 of Population.” Notes death rate of 0.07 per 1,000 population – the same as 1867.
[16] “It
[smallpox]
has domiciled itself among the pines on the shores of Puget Sound, and has found victims among our British neighbors in the Northern colonies.…”