1870 — May-Dec, Yellow Fever, esp. New Orleans/587 Mobile/173 Brunswick GA/112–1,038
–1,038 Blanchard tally based on State breakouts below.[1]
Summary of State Breakouts Below
Alabama ( 173) Sep 18-Nov 15~ Mobile
Georgia ( 112) Aug 21 to Fall Brunswick
Louisiana (~609) May 10-Dec 1 Principally New Orleans (587)
New York ( 103) Essentially Governors Island Quarantine
Pennsylvania ( 34) June-Sep Philadelphia and Delaware County
Texas ( 7) May-Dec
Breakout of 1870 Yellow Fever Deaths by State and Locality
Alabama (173) Sep 18-Nov 15~
–<1000 Mobile. Since mid Sep. Marysville Tribune, OH. 11-9-1870, p. 2, col. 4.[2]
— 875 “ Brewster Standard, NY. 11-5-1870, p. 4, col. 2.[3]
–Hundreds “ Goshen Times, IN. 11-23-1870, p. 2.[4]
— 173 “ Philadelphia Inquirer. 11-4-1870, p. 4, col. 6.[5]
— 140 “ Sep 18-Nov 1 Daily Ledger, New Albany, IN. 11-1-1870, p.2, c2.[6]
— ? “ Sep 26 dateline Weekly Journal, Logansport IN. 10-1-1870, 2, c.7.[7]
— 100 “ Sep 18-Nov 15 Dubuque Daily Herald, IA. 11-15-1870, p3, c.4.[8]
— 20 “ Oct 18 Boston Post. “Yellow Fever at Mobile.” 10-19-1870, 2.[9]
— 0 “ Oct 23 Philadelphia Inquirer. “Alabama.” 10-25-1870, 1.[10]
— 6 “ Oct 24 Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. 11-3-1870, p3, c.2.
Nov 1. NY Board of Health extends quarantine regulations stating Mobile infected by yellow fever.[11]
Georgia ( 112) Aug 21 to Fall (killing frosts)
— 112 Brunswick Aug 21 start Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 463.
Louisiana (~609) May 10-Dec 1 Principally New Orleans
–~609 State. Blanchard tally of breakouts below.[12]
— 9 Lafourche Crossing[13] Oct 2-Dec 1 Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 480.
— 588 New Orleans May 10-Dec Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 489.
— 587 “ Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 167.[14]
— 587 “ Keating 1879, 92; Sternberg 1908, 719;
— 587 “ N.O. Board of Health; citied in Ford 1879, p. 142.[15]
— 587 “ US MHS. Annual Report…[FY] 1895. 1896, 438.
— 250 “ Aug 25-Oct 20. Gettysburg Compiler, PA. “Items…” 10-21-1870, 2.
— 52 “ Sep 12-18. Galveston News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 9-20-1870, 2.
— 10 “ Sep 23. Galveston News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 9-27-1870, 2.
— 10 “ Sep 27. Galveston Daily News, TX. 9-28-1870, 2.
— 10 “ Oct 2. Galveston News, TX. “Home Miscellany.” 10-4-1870, 2.
— 15 “ Oct 6. Daily Express, San Antonio, TX. “Telegraphic.” 10-9-1870, 1.
— 15 “ Oct 8. Galveston Daily News, TX. “Domestic News.” 10-11-1870, 2.
— 10 “ Oct 9. Galveston Daily News, TX. “Domestic News.” 10-11-1870, 2.
— 10 “ Oct 10. Galveston Daily News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 10-11-1870, 2.
— 11 “ Oct 13. Galveston Daily News, TX. “Domestic News.” 10-14-1870, 2.
— 13 “ Oct 14-15. Daily Express, San Antonio. “Telegraphic.” 10-18-1870, p. 1.
— 11 “ Oct 16. St. Joseph Herald, MI. “The South.” 10-22-1870, p. 2.
— 3 “ Oct 17. Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana.” 10-19-1870, p. 1, col. 4.
— 7 “ Oct 19. Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana.” 10-21-1870, p. 1, col. 4.
— 12 “ Oct 21. Wisc. State Journal, Madison. “Yellow Fever.” 10-24-1870, 1.
— 11 “ Oct 22. Dubuque Herald, IA. “Census-Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1870, 1.
— 4 “ Oct 23. Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana” 10-26-1870, p. 4, col. 4.
— 7 “ Oct 24. Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana” 10-26-1870, p. 4, col. 4.
— 10 St. Landry[16] Sep Flake’s Daily Bulletin, Galveston, TX. 10-8-1870, p. 3, col. 1.[17]
— 2-3 Ville Platte[18] Sep Flake’s Daily Bulletin, Galveston, TX. 10-8-1870, p. 3, col. 1.[19]
New York (103)
— 103 Governor’s Island (NY Harbor). NY Herald. “Quarantine Statistics.” 11-18-1870, 3.
— 49 Governor’s Island (NY Harbor). Keating 1879, 92; Sternberg 1894, 42.
— 9 NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009. 2010.[20]
Pennsylvania ( 34) June-Sep
— 21 Philadelphia[21] June-Sep Trask 2005, 11.
— 18 “ Keating 1879, 92.; USMHS 1896, 438.
— 13 Delaware County Delaware Co. American. “Yellow Fever at the Lazaretto.” 8-17-1870.
Texas ( 7) May-Dec
–7 Blanchard tally of breakouts below.
–1 DeWitt County, Precinct 1, May. Frederick Schrader. DeWitt County 1870 Mort. Census.
–1 “ Aug. William Pincham. DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census.
–1 “ Aug. Rosette Pruskky DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census.
–1 “ Nov, Engel S. Ideus. DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census.
–1 “ Nov, Jefferson White. DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census.
–1 “ Dec. Laura Nichols. DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census.
–? Galveston Sep 30 Flake’s Bulletin, Galveston. 10-8-1870, p. 3, c.6[22]
–? “ Oct. New Albany Ledger, IN. 10-13-1870, p. 3, col. 3.[23]
–1 Houston Keating 1879, p. 92.
Narrative Information
Alabama, Mobile vicinity
“….We arrived at Huntsville at about 6 o’clock in the evening [Nov 7], and found the Huntsville House, the principal hotel of the city – and, by the way, one of the largest and best kept hotels in the South — nearly filled with people who had fled from the yellow fever in Mobile, which they reported to be a perfect epidemic in that city, taking off its victims by hundreds….” (Goshen Times, IN. “The Editorial Excursion. Down to Dixie and Back.” 11-23-1870, p. 2.)
New York, NYC
“The last case of yellow fever having disappeared from the Quarantine hospital, Dr. Carnochan takes the occasion of showing by the yellow fever statistics of the Health Office how near we all came last summer to a general yellow fever visitation. During the quarantine season 349 vessels arrived at this port from infected ports and 670 from suspected ports, and were quarantined in the lower bay. Upon these vessels there were 450 cases of yellow fever and 103 deaths. Eighty-three additional cases were received on Governor’s Island, of which thirty-one proved fatal. With this formidable array knocking at the gates of the city throughout the unprecedented heats of last summer, not a single case of yellow fever is known to have occurred inside the city, and no foothold whatever could the yellow fever demon obtain nearer to the pent-up poor of our population than Governor’s Inland. Can any argument or any comment speak more eloquently for Dr. Carnochan and his sometime obnoxious quarantine system than these sledge-hammer statistics?” (New York Herald. “Quarantine Statistics.” 11-18-1870, 3.)
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia vicinity
Delaware County American: “The appearance of the yellow fever at the Lazaretto,[24] and its spread beyond the immediate quarantine grounds, has caused some excitement in this county and Philadelphia, more, perhaps than the facts warrant.
“Quarantine consists of eight enclosed acres of ground on Tinicum island. Within is a substantial general hospital, presided over by a steward under the orders of the Board of Health of Philadelphia; not far distant is a hospital for the treatment of infectious diseases, known as the ‘Dutch House.’ There are also two brick buildings fronting the river, for the accommodation of the Physician and Quarantine Master and their families. The Lazaretto post office is within the enclosure, and there being no other on the island, the inhabitants have for several years received their mails therefrom, the previous exemption from disease dissipating all fears of infection. Indeed, no such fears seem to have operated on either the inhabitants or strangers, the island being a popular summer resort to Philadelphians, some of whom board there, while fishing parties have been of almost daily occurrence.
“About the last of June, the brig ‘Home,’ Capt. Phillips, arrived in the Delaware with a cargo of logwood from Jamaica, and upon coming to the Lazaretto and being boarded, it was ascertained that the captain had died on the voyage. The ship was in the most filthy condition and she was quarantined. Her cargo was discharged on the wharf, the vessel thoroughly cleaned and fumigated, and then anchored out in the stream for several days, after which she was permitted to depart. A number of stevedores with flats were sent from Philadelphia to remove the cargo to that city. Four of these men were stricken with fever and conveyed to the Hospital, when they recovered. Two of the crew of the vessel had received permission to go to Philadelphia, and both died suddenly, the death of one being ascribed to sunstroke, that of the other to yellow fever.
“The disease soon made its appearance in the Hospital at Tinicum, the wife of Mr. Kugler, the steward, being the first victim, and at length, doubtless through the free communication which was permitted between the inmates of the institution and those outside of its enclosures, the fever attacked and destroyed some of the latter. Two of the nurses fell victims, one of them before her death having gone to her home, over a mile distant. Her attending physician, Dr. Boone, pronounced the disease typhus in its nature, but when others were attacked with what was known to be yellow fever, opinion changed as to the cause of the death of the young girl. The family of Jacob Pepper, Esq., living outside the enclosure, were early attacked, and himself, wife, child and servant died of the disease. Dr. Wm. S. Thompson, who had given more or less attention to all of these cases, took the disease, and after a week’s sickness died. Robert Gartside, the Quarantine Master, was attacked about the same time, and died on Friday morning last.
“The whole number of deaths up to this hour, according to the best information we can gather, is thirteen. We last week ascribed the death of Mrs. Kerlin and daughter of Chester, to the same disease, and at the time many of the citizens of that city were impressed with the same belief. But the statements upon which the story was predicated have been proven untrue. Mrs. Kerlin had not visited the Gartside family or any other at Tinicum. She was delicate, and her daughter had been ailing for a week with something like diphtheria; this was followed by typhus and after several days sickness she died – her mother’s death occurring from the same cause the next day.
“Chester took better and more prompt precautions than Philadelphia, where the Board of Health (as will be shown by a correspondence which follows) treated the facts presented by Dr. Ulrich and Amos Gartside, Esq., with cool indifference. Both of them are men entitled to attention and consideration, but they found it impossible to penetrate to the Health office of that city – a fact which we commend to the attention of Governor Geary and to the Councils of Philadelphia. The Council of Chester took early action on the subject, and a proclamation from Mayor Larkin warns all inhabitants of the infected district against visiting the city, and all in the city against visiting the island. Cool weather set in on Saturday night last, and we are now satisfied that there is little occasion for further public anxiety, though we cannot but advise the continued enforcement of all proper precautions. If we thought the danger was still imminent, we would exhibit no hesitancy in giving our thought utterance, for we have little faith in that policy which would sacrifice the public health to selfish commercial advantage. Panics are the offspring of ignorance. Give a community complete and reliable information, and you do more to mitigate terror than can positively be done in any other way….
“The wife of the watchman at Ledwardmills, in Chester, but who resided at Leiperville, died of what is supposed to have been the yellow fever on Friday last. She attended the funeral of Jacob Pepper. Mr. Ledward, so soon as he learned of the illness of the watchman’s wife, relieved him from duty and prevented him from coming there, so that now no danger is feared in that quarter. We quote the following from the Phila. PRESS of Monday last: -‘The yellow fever has been brought under at the Lazaretto. All the critical cases have died off. No new cases are reported. Mrs. and Miss Thompson, widow and daughter of the late quarantine physician, are rapidly advancing toward recovery. Under personal direction of Dr. John F.W. Forwood, who has been in charge for some days, the Lazaretto has been thoroughly disinfected. The clothing of all the persons who died has been burned. An ample supply of necessaries is now on hand, and there is a sufficiency of good nurses. The necessary rules are being rigidly enforced. By Dr. Forwood’s instruction, all vessels coming up the Delaware from the West Indies, or ports where the devastating disease now rages or has lately raged, are detained in quarantine at the Lazaretto. There has not been a single case of yellow fever in Philadelphia.” (Delaware County American. “Yellow Fever at the Lazaretto.” 8-17-1870.)
Texas
“Late news from Texas reports the yellow fever as quite prevalent in some of the towns in that State. A quarantine had been declared at Houston and Interior towns on the Central Railroad.” (St. Joseph Herald, MI. “The South.” 10-22-1870, p. 2.)
Select 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
Boston Post. “Yellow Fever at Mobile.” 10-19-1870, p. 2, col. 1. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-oct-19-1870-p-2/
Brewster Standard, NY. [Yellow Fever, Mobile, AL] 11-5-1870, p. 4, col. 2. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/brewster-standard-nov-05-1870-p-4/
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
Daily Express, San Antonio, TX. “Telegraphic.” 10-9-1870, 1. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=186700145&sterm=yellow+fever
Daily Ledger, New Albany, IN. [Yellow Fever, Mobile, AL] 11-1-1870, p. 2, col. 2. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-albany-daily-ledger-nov-01-1870-p-2/
Delaware County American. “Yellow Fever at the Lazaretto.” 8-17-1870. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dbarnes/1870_YF_2.html
DeWitt County, TX 1870 Mortality Census. Transcribed by Ellen Horner for USGenWeb Census Project. Accessed 12-8-2012: http://us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/tx/dewitt/1870/mortality.txt
Dubuque Daily Herald, IA. “Census-Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1870, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com
Dubuque Daily Herald, IA. “Miscellaneous.” 11-15-1870, p. 3, col. 4. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/dubuque-daily-herald/1870-11-15
Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. [Yellow Fever, Mobile, AL] 11-3-1870, p. 3, col. 2. Accessed 5-4-20-18 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/edwardsville-intelligencer-nov-03-1870-p-2/
Flake’s Daily Bulletin, Galveston, TX. “Louisiana.” 10-8-1870, p. 3, col. 1. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-flakes-daily-bulletin-oct-08-1870-p-3/
Ford, W. Hutson, MD (editor). Reports to the St. Louis Medical Society on Yellow Fever; Consisting of The Report of the Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Relations of the Epidemic of 1878 to the City of St. Louis… St. Louis: Geo. O. Rumbold & Co., 1879. Google preview accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=JNIEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true
Galveston Daily News, TX. 9-28-1870, 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com
Galveston Daily News, TX. “Domestic News.” 10-14-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=40993356&sterm=yellow+fever
Galveston Daily News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 9-20-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=40993275&sterm=yellow+fever
Galveston Daily News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 9-27-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news/1870-09-27/page-2
Galveston Daily News, TX. “From New Orleans.” 10-11-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=40993345&sterm=yellow+fever
Galveston Daily News, TX. “Home Miscellany.” 10-4-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=40993324&sterm=yellow+fever
Gettysburg Compiler, PA. “Items of all Sorts.” 10-21-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=2849157&sterm=yellow+fever
Goshen Times, IN. “The Editorial Excursion. Down to Dixie and Back.” 11-23-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=189823736&sterm
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
Marysville Tribune, OH. [Yellow Fever, Mobile] 11-9-1870, p. 2, col. 4. Accessed 5-3-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/marysville-tribune-nov-09-1870-p-2/
New Albany Ledger, IN. “Yellow Fever in Texas.” 10-13-1870, p. 3, col. 3. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-albany-daily-ledger-oct-13-1870-p-3/
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009, The City of New York. December 2010. Accessed 12-4-2012: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/vs/2009sum.pdf
New York Herald. “Quarantine Statistics.” 11-18-1870, 3. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=10793645&sterm=yellow+fever
Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana.” 10-19-1870, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-oct-19-1870-p-1/
Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana.” 10-21-1870, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-oct-21-1870-p-1/
Philadelphia Inquirer. “Louisiana” 10-26-1870, p. 4, col. 4. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-oct-26-1870-p-4/
Philadelphia Inquirer. “Things in New York…Yellow Fever…” 11-2-1870, p. 3, col. 3. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-nov-02-1870-p-3/
Philadelphia Inquirer. [Yellow Fever, Mobile, AL] 11-4-1870, p. 4, col. 6. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-nov-04-1870-p-4/
St. Joseph Herald, MI. “The South.” 10-22-1870, p. 2. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/st-joseph-herald/1870-10-22
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
Trask, Benjamin H. “The World of ‘Septic Vapours:’ Yellow Fever and United States Shipping, 1798-1905.” The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord, Vol. XV, No. 2, April 2005, pp. 1-18. Accessed at: http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol15/tnm_15_2_1-18.pdf
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: GPO, 1896. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
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Wikipedia. “Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana.” 2-3-2018 edit. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafourche_Crossing,_Louisiana
Wikipedia. “Saint Landry, Louisiana.” Jan 15, 2018 edit. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Landry,_Louisiana
Wikipedia. “Ville Platte, Louisiana.” 3-2-2018 edit. Accessed 5-4-2018 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Platte,_Louisiana
Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Yellow Fever.” 10-24-1870, p. 1. Accessed 12-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=57757431&sterm=yellow+fever
[1] As in many contagious disease outbreaks we have covered we believe our tally of fatality estimates under-represents the true fatality. In the years of slave labor and all-but-slave field labor after the Civil War, deaths of slaves and black field laborers was rarely reported. We know that significant numbers of field laborers must have died. The Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, on Dec 8, 1870, for example, notes that “at some points on the gulf coast…the prevalence of yellow fever has temporarily suspended field labor.”
[2] We have found no corroboration and thus do not find credible.
[3] “The total number of deaths from yellow fever, at Mobile, Ala, since the 18th ult., is 875.” Do not view as credible.
[4] “We arrived at Huntsville…and found the Huntsville House, the principal hotel of the city…nearly filled with people who had fled from the yellow fever in Mobile, which they reported to be a perfect epidemic in that city, taking off its victims by hundreds.”
[5] “There have been one hundred and seventy-three deaths from yellow-fever in Mobile this season.”
[6] “Mr. John Aton of Mobile sends us slips from the Mobile papers giving the returns of deaths from yellow fever. The total number of yellow fever deaths in the city since September 18th, when the first occurred, is one hundred and forty.”
[7] “News of the Week….Monday, September 26….The yellow fever is raging in Mobile. Thirty cases were reported in one day, and the disease is spreading.”
[8] “Mobile has had 100 deaths from yellow fever in the past three months.” A number of reports indicate that the epidemic started Sep 18 — thus our start date here. Article published on Nov 15 — thus our end date.
[9] “Mobile, Oct. 18.–There have been twenty deaths from the yellow fever since the last report [don’t know that date]. The citizens who have remained here, and devoted their time and means to the relief of those afflicted with the plague, have expended all their funds, and now appeal for aid to absentees, and the public generally.”
[10] “Mobile, Oct. 24.–There were no deaths from yellow fever yesterday — the first day without a death since September 18.”
[11] Philadelphia Inquirer. “Things in New York…Yellow Fever…” 11-2-1870, p. 3, col. 3.
[12] We use the number of 587 for New Orleans, even though, as we write in footnote 15 we believe the number low.
[13] “Lafourche Crossing (also known as Lafourche) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana…” (Wikipedia. “Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana.” Feb 2, 2018 edit.)
[14] Notes this was from a population of more than 190,000, citing: Report of the Louisiana State Board of Health for 1870, pp. 74 and 80.
[15] A table is shown from an annual report of the Board of Health of New Orleans to the Louisiana General Assembly wherein fever deaths are shown by type from 1867-1872, inclusive. We note that for the year 1870, as in the year 1867 when there was a large loss of life to yellow fever, there is also generally a spike in the other “fevers” reported. For example “Bilious” Fever went from 12 in 1869 to 35 in 1870; “Congestive” Fever went from 228 to 241; “Remittent” Fever from 36 to 51, “Typhoid and Nervous” Fever, from 68 to 84, “Typhus” Fever from 5 to 13 and “All” fevers other than yellow fever from 381 to 451. At least two points bear on the figures: (1) the difficulty sometimes in diagnosing the cause of death, and (2) a reluctance to name the death as due to yellow fever, particularly in the early and end-of-epidemic days. It seems reasonable to assume that at least a few of the “other” fever deaths, were in fact yellow fever.
[16] “Saint Landry is an unincorporated community in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana…” (Wikipedia. “Saint Landry, Louisiana.” Jan 15, 2018 edit.)
[17] “The Opelousas Courier of the 1st inst. says of the yellow fever in St. Landry: Since last Thursday week the yellow fever has diminished considerably in Washington [St. Landry Parish]. Up to this time there have been forty-eight cases of yellow fever at Barry’s Landing. The black vomit was observed in eleven cases, ten of which proved fatal. The last two cases are not pronounced out of danger.”
[18] “Ville Platte is a city in, and the parish seat of, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana…” (Wikipedia. “Ville Platte, Louisiana.” 3-2-2018 edit.)
[19] “Two or three persons have died [yellow fever article] in Ville Plate recently.”
[20] Chart on cover page entitled “The Conquest of Pestilence in New York City…As Shown by the Death Rate as Recorded in the Official Records of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”
[21] “From June to September at Philadelphia’s lazaretto [quarantine station] ten miles below the city on the Delaware River, a physician and quarantine master examined incoming ships, crews, cargoes, and passengers. Despite these preventative measures in 1870, the fever appeared along the city’s waterfront after taking the lives of the lazaretto’s physician, master, the master’s wife, and eighteen nearby residents.” (Trask 2005, 11-12)
[22] Notice. Owing to the fact of the appearance of Yellow Fever in our midst, the Exchange Hotel will be closed from and after this date. Due notice will be given of its reopening…Galveston, Sept. 30, 1870.”
[23] “Washington, Oct. 13 — The Collector of the port of Galveston, Texas, has arrived here, and states that the yellow fever is much more serious than has been generally supposed. Other accounts state that there was an unfortunate panic among the citizens when the fever first appeared, and on the first day of its announcement over five hundred persons fled from the city. Quarantine has been declared at Houston and the interior towns on the Central Railroad.”
[24] A lazaretto is a quarantine station. According to Wikipedia (Philadelphia Lazaretto, 10-31-2012 modification), “The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and the first Swedish settlers in America. Called Province Island it was the site of the confinement of the Christian Moravian Indians who were brought there under protective custody from Lancaster, PA in 1763 when their lives were threatened by the Paxton Boys….”