–3,542-3,584 Blanchard compilation based on sources below.

Summary of 1873 Yellow Fever Deaths from State Breakouts Below

Alabama ( 153-159) Aug 22-Nov 19 Primarily Montgomery (102-108)

Florida ( 77 – 78) Aug 24-Nov 5 Primarily Pensacola ( 61 – 62)

Georgia ( >17) Sep-Nov Bainbridge

Illinois ( 17 – 18) Cairo

Kentucky ( 5) Sep 22-Oct 15 Louisville

Louisiana (983-1017) ~July 4-Nov 19 Especially Shreveport & New Orleans

Mississippi ( 9)

New York ( 18) Especially NYC Quarantine Station

Tennessee ( ~2,000) Aug-Nov Memphis

Texas ( 265) Oct 10-Dec 31 Esp. Calvert; also Columbus, Marshall

Breakout of 1873 Yellow Fever Deaths by State and Locality

Alabama (153-159) Aug 22-Nov 19

–153-159 State Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.

— 1 Huntsville Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 443.

— 14 Junction[1] AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic Hist.; Augustin 1909, 443.

— 35 Mobile, Aug 21 start.[2] AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic History. “Yellow Fever.” 2013.[3]

–27 “ Aug 22-Nov 19[4] Augustin 1909, 444; Toner 1873, 19.

–102-108 Montgomery Blanchard tally from breakouts below.

–108 “ Aug 27-Nov 10 AL Genealogy Trails; Augustin 1909, 445.[5]

–102 “ Keating 1879, 92; Toner 1873, 19; Sternberg 1908, 719.

— 4 “ Oct 24 New York Times. “Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1873.

— 1 Oakfield, Sep 22 1^st case. Augustin 1909, 445; AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic Hist.

— ? Pollard. AL Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History. “Yellow Fever.” 2013.[6]

Florida ( 77-78) Aug 24-Nov 5

–77-78 State Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below

— 3 Fort Barrancas Sep 26-Nov 25 Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 454.

— 13 Fort Jefferson Aug 24-Oct 6 Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 454.

— 62 Pensacola Aug 6, 1^st reported case.[7] Keating 1879, 92; Sternberg 1908, p. 719.

–61 “ U.S. Marine Hospital Service. 1896, 439.

Georgia ( >17) Oct-Nov[8]

–15 Bainbridge. By Oct 29 — named individuals from the “many” yellow fever fatalities.[9]

–1 “ Oct 29. Weekly Democrat, Bainbridge, GA. “Yellow Fever.” 10-30-1873.[10]

—>2 Bainbridge mid-Nov. Philadelphia Inquirer. “Yellow Fever in Georgia.” 11-26-1873, 2.[11]

Illinois ( 17-18)

–18 Cairo. 11-19-1879 ltr. of Jas. Johnson to Dr. J. H. Rauch, Public Health Papers, V5, p. 196.

–17 Cairo Keating 1879, 92.

Kentucky ( 5) Sep 22-Oct 15

— 5 Louisville Sep 22-Oct 15 Augustin 1909, 472; Keating 1879, 92.

Louisiana (983-1,017) ~July 4-Nov 19

–983-1,017 State Blanchard tally of locality breakouts below.

Breakout of 1873 Louisiana Yellow Fever deaths by locality:

— ? Coushatta Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 178.[12]

— 4 Greenwood Sep 29-Oct 29 Augustin 1909, p. 479.

— ? Mansfield Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 178.

–220-226 New Orleans Blanchard rage based on sources below

–226 “ Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 169.[13]

–226 “ New Orleans Public Library. Yellow Fever Deaths

–225 “ Keating 1879, p. 92; Sternberg 1908, p. 719.

–225 “ US Marine-Hospital Service. Report. 1896, p. 439.

–220 “ July 4-Nov 19 Augustin 1909, p. 489.

— 16 “ Sep 7 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 35 “ Sep 14 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 26 “ Sep 21 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 22 “ Sep 28 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 15 “ Oct 5 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 24 “ Oct 12 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 18 “ Oct 19 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 11 “ Oct 26 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

— 11 “ Nov 2 Boston Med & Surgical Journal, Vol. 89, p. 543.

–759-787 Shreveport Blanchard range based on sources below

— 787 “ Aug 20-Nov 13 New Harmony Register, IN. 12-6-1873, p. 3, c.1.[14]

–~759 “ late-Aug Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 169.[15]

— 759 “ Keating 1879, p. 92; Sternberg 1908, p. 720.

— 30 “ Sep 11. Ouachita Telegraph. “Our…Sister City.” 9-13-1873, p. 2.

— 18 “ Sep 12. Ouachita Telegraph. “Our…Sister City.” 9-13-1873, p. 2.

— 3 “ Oct 24 YF interments. New York Times. “Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1873

Mississippi ( 9)

— 9 State Harden, et al. Mosquito News. March 1967, p. 60.[16]

— ? Vicksburg Sternberg. Rpt. on Etiology…Yellow Fever. 1890, p. 45.[17]

— 3 “ Daily State Journal, Richmond, VA. 9-24-1873, p.1, c. 6.

New York ( 18)

–18 New York Keating 1879, p. 92.

Tennessee ( 2,000) Aug-Nov

–1800-2K Memphis Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 179.[18]

–>2,100 “ Ottumwa Democrat, IA. 11-27-1873, p. 3, col. 2.

–>2,000 “ Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever & Public Health…New South. 1992, p. 32.[19]

— 2,000 “ Murphy 2003, 127; NYT 10-7-1888; TN Encycl. Hist.; Keating 1879, 92;

— 2,000 “ U.S. National Board of Health. Annual Report of…1879. 1879, p. 253.

— 1,500 “ Erskine. A Report on Yellow Fever…in Memphis, Tenn., in 1873. P. 389.[20]

— 24 “ Oct 23-24 (noon to noon) New York Times. “Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1873.[21]

— 3 “ Nov 17-23. Weekly Pantagraph, Bloomington, IN. 12-5-1873.

— 1 “ last wk Nov. Weekly Pantagraph, Bloomington, IN. 12-5-1873.

Texas (265) (Oct-Dec)

–229 Localities noted below: Blanchard tally.

–125 Calvert Sternberg 1908, p. 721.

–101 Columbus, Colorado Co., Oct 10-Dec 31. Dr. John M. Bowers ltr. in TX Med. Jour. V19, 166.[22]

–61 Columbus By Dec 1 Galveston News. “From Columbus.” 12-2-1873, p2.[23]

— 1 “ Dec 17 Galveston News. “From Columbus.” 12-18-1873, p2.[24]

— ? “ Dec 25. Report of a few lingering cases.[25]

— 2 “ Dec 31 Dr. John M. Bowers ltr. in TX Med. Jour. V.19.

— ? Denison (prevailed) Pope. “Yellow Fever in Marshall…1873.” V6, 241.

— 2 Galveston Nov 15 Galveston News. “Mortuary Report.” 11-23-1873, p. 3.

— 1 “ Nov 19 Galveston News. “Mortuary Report.” 11-23-1873, p. 3.

— 36 Marshall Sternberg, “Yellow Fever,” Ref. Handbook of Med. Sciences V8, 1894, 589.

–3 “ Mrs. Bethea, two children. Marion Star, SC. 12-3-1873, p. 2, col. 5.

Narrative Information

New Orleans

Jones: “The first case of yellow fever, officially reported [in New Orleans] was traced to the bark Valparaiso, which arrived at Quarantine from Havana, June 16^th, and after remaining the usual period…she was permitted to proceed up the Mississippi River to New Orleans…. On the 4^th of July, the mate of the Valparaiso…was taken sick with yellow fever…died on the 8^th, having had black vomit prior to death..” (Jones 1874, 542) Dr. Jones’ report includes the latest posting from the Mortuary Records of New Orleans – that of November 2 – indicating that 11 people died of yellow fever the previous week, for a total since early July of 200. (Jones 1874, 543)

“It is probable that the actual number of cases has been much larger; it is also probable that a number of deaths, referred to the various forms of malarial fever, were in reality caused by yellow fever. If the total number of cases of yellow fever have not been fully and accurately reported to the Board of Health, the failure may be referred to two causes: 1^st. To the great prevalence of dengue, and the failure in many cases to distinguish the milder cases of yellow fever from this disease. 2d. To the decided opposition of many of the measures of disinfection practiced by the Board of Health. The opinion is held by many that the carbolic acid so abundantly used as a ‘disinfectant,’ not only has no effect in arresting or eradicating the disease, but also acts injuriously upon the sick in those localities where it is fully employed.” (Jones 1874, 546)

“The yellow fever of 1873 has not confined its attacks to the sea-coast, but has committed its ravages at various points in the interior, as at Shreveport, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee, Marshall and Calvert, Texas; Montgomery and Pollard, Alabama; and Bainbridge Georgia. The extension of the disease along the lines of travel has spread alarm and dismay, and brought prominently to the attention of cities and States the question of efficient quarantine upon lines of railroad as well as upon the great water courses.” (Jones 1874, 543)

NYT states: “Florida and Charleston, S.C. suffered in 1871, and in 1873 another great epidemic of yellow fever swept along the Gulf Coast and up the Mississippi Valley, touching parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio. The greatest mortality was at Memphis, where it reached 2,000.”

Marshall, Texas

Pope: “….The population, in September, 1872, was about 4000, nearly half being negroes. Up to this date there never had been an epidemic of yellow fever, and no special precautions had ever been used to prevent it….Twelve months, ending September, 1873, added to the population of Marshall about 2000 inhabitants, nearly all immigrants from the Northern States. Besides, the transient population would number several hundred, chiefly railroad laborers….

“At the outbreak of the yellow fever in Shreveport hundreds of the citizens of that place came pouring into Marshall and the country around.[26]….” (Pope, John H., MD. “Yellow Fever in Marshall, Texas in 1873.” The Texas Health Journal, Vol. 6, No. 10, April, 1894, pp. 238-241.)

New York City

Dec 4: “The New York Herald says that since the raising of the quarantine at that port there have been detected several cases of yellow fever among seamen belonging to the United States Navy, sent from New Orleans to the Brooklyn yard, and some of these have proved fatal. As announced by the Health Officer about a month since, over 60 cases of yellow fever reached that port during the season, and many of them, despite the care which they received, proved fatal.” (Galveston Daily News, TX. 12-4-1873, p. 2, col. 1.)

Shreveport

Carrigan: ‘At the close of Shreveport’s epidemic of 1873, the Shreveport Medical Society appointed a committee in investigate the origin and course of the recent scourge. The committee concluded that the disease had been imported from Havana to New Orleans, and thence transported to Shreveport by boatmen employed on the Red River packets. Since the population of Shreveport, approximately 12,000, had tripled since the last yellow fever epidemic in 1867, most of the citizens were susceptible to the disease. It was estimated that only about 4,500 persons remained in the city during the epidemic. Of that number at least 3,000 suffered attacks of the fever and about 759 died. Hence, the case fatality rate was almost twenty-six per cent. Of the population in the city at the time, approximately seventeen per cent died of yellow fever.” [p. 177]

Selected Sources

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History. “Yellow Fever.” Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013 at: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

American Public Health Association. Public Health Reports and Papers, Volume V, 1879. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1880. Google preview accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=WHYCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, “Notes Upon the Yellow Fever of 1873, in New Orleans,” Vol. 89, p. 543. Boston: David Clapp & Son, Publishers, 1874. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=9TwBAAAAYAAJ&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

Daily State Journal, Richmond, VA. “Yellow Fever Scourge,” 9-24-1873, p.1, col. 6. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/richmond-daily-state-journal-sep-24-1873-p-1/

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

Erskine, John H. A Report on Yellow Fever as it Appeared in Memphis, Tenn., in 1873. Accessed from the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 5-6-2018 at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2272699/

Galveston Daily News. “From Columbus.” 12-18-1873, p. 2, col. 4. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-dec-18-1873-p-2/

Galveston Daily News. “Mortuary Report.” 11-23-1873, p. 3. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-nov-23-1873-p-3/

Galveston Daily News, TX. [Yellow Fever, Columbus TX] 12-25-1873, p. 4, col. 2. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-dec-25-1873-p-4/

Galveston Daily News, TX. [Yellow Fever, New York City] 12-4-1873, p. 2, col. 1. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-dec-04-1873-p-2/

Gilmore, J. T., M.D. “An Account of Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in Mobile and Vicinity in 1873.” Mobile, AL. Accessed 8-25-2013 at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2272663/pdf/pubhealthpap00028-0425.pdf

Harden, F. W., H. R. Hepburn and B. J. Ethridge. “A History of Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Diseases in Mississippi 1699-1965, Mosquito News, Vol. 27, No. 1, March 1967, pp. 60-66. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/content/part/JAMCA/MN_V27_N1_P060-066.pdf

Jones, Joseph. “Notes upon the Yellow Fever of 1873 in New Orleans.” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1874, p. 543. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=9TwBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

Marion Star, SC. [Yellow Fever, Marshall, TX] 12-3-1873, p. 2, col. 5. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/marion-star-dec-03-1873-p-2/

Medina County Gazette, OH. “Late News Items.” 12-19-1873, p. 2, col. 1. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/medina-county-gazette-dec-19-1873-p-2/

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

New Harmony Register, IN. [Yellow Fever, Shreveport] 12-6-1873, p. 3, c.1. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-harmony-register-dec-06-1873-p-3/

New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division. Yellow Fever Deaths in New Orleans, 1817-1905. Accessed 3-7-2010 at: http://nutrias.org/facts/feverdeaths.htm

New York Times. “Yellow Fever.” 10-25-1873. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/10/25/79053156.pdf

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

Ottumwa Democrat, IA. 11-27-1873, p. 3, col. 2. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/ottumwa-democrat-nov-27-1873-p-3/

Ouachita Telegraph. “Our Unfortunate Sister City.” 9-13-1873, p. 2, col. 2. Accessed 8-25-2013 at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/newspapers/ot/1873/yellowfever1873.txt

Philadelphia Inquirer. “Yellow Fever in Georgia.” 11-26-1873, p. 2. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-nov-26-1873-p-2/

Pope, John H., MD. “Yellow Fever in Marshall, Texas in 1873.” The Texas Health Journal, Vol. 6, No. 10, April, 1894, pp. 238-241. Google preview accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=iYeCxYl_HwoC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Quinn, Rev. D. A. Heroes and Heroines of Memphis, or Reminiscences of the Yellow Fever Epidemics that Afflicted the City of Memphis During th Autumn Months of 1873, 1878, and 1879… Providence, RI: E. L. Freeman & Son, State Printers, 1887. Google preview accessed 5-6-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Xu80AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. Washington: GPO, United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Dept., 1890. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LpYaAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Yellow Fever Epidemics. (Entry by Christopher Caplinger, Georgia State University). Accessed 10-7-2008 at: http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=Y002

Texas Medical Journal (Monthly), Vol. 19, No. 5, November 1903. Austin. Google preview accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=rqYCAAAAYAAJ&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/19

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

United States National Board of Health. Annual Report of the National Board of Health, 1879. Washington, DC: GPO, 1879. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=0SsgAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

United States Senate. Index to the Senate Executive Documents for the Third Session of the Forty-Second Congress of the United States of America, 1872-ʹ73. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1873. Google preview accessed 5-6-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=zI0FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Weekly Democrat, Bainbridge, GA. “The Yellow Fever in Bainbridge.” 10-30-1873. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85034008/1873-10-30/ed-1/seq-3/

Weekly Journal, Logansport, IN. [Yellow Fever, Vicksburg] 9-31-1873, p. 2, col. 6. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/logansport-weekly-journal-sep-13-1873-p-2/

Weekly Pantagraph, Bloomington, IN. “General News.” 12-5-1873, p. 2, col. 5. Accessed 5-7-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/bloomington-pantagraph-dec-05-1873-p-2/

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. [Yellow Fever, Vicksburg] 9-26-1873, p. 2. Accessed 5-8-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-sep-26-1873-p-2/

Additional Source

Rogers, William Warren Jr. “‘Death has Been Busily at Work’: Yellow Fever at Bainbridge in 1873.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 84. No. 3, Fall 2000, pp. 410-433.

[1] Population 35. (Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 443.)

[2] Sternberg. “Yellow Fever.” Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (Vol. 8), 1894, p. 589.

[3] Cites Time Magazine, 7-6-1925.

[4] Gilmore has the first case on August 21. (Gilmore, J. T., M.D. “An Account of Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in Mobile and Vicinity in 1873.” Mobile, AL.)

[5] Citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925, writes that infection was from Pensacola and that “The whole population of the city, except about 1,800 fled. There were 500 cases, with 108 deaths.”

[6] Cites as source: Time Magazine, 7-6-1925.

[7] Sternberg. Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (Vol. 8), 1894, p. 589.

[8] We use October as start month given a Oct 24 note from Savannah on yellow fever in Bainbridge printed in the NYT on Oct 25. This article notes “Physicians concur in the opinion that the disease which broke out there a week or more ago is yellow fever.”

[9] Bainbridge Democrat, GA. “The Yellow Fever Scourge.” “Never before has the shadow of death hung so darkly over our once bright and prosperous little city. Hardly can we realize it — never did we dream of such fatal affliction. For the past few weeks Death has been busily at work, cutting down without warning many of our citizens, who but a short while ago bid fair to live to old age….Immediately [after disease had been named yellow fever], as a precautionary measure, most of the women and children of our city were sent away. Those who remained did so from choice, not wishing to be separated from members of their families who could not leave. Since our last issue we have to chronicle the deaths of a child of the lamented H.J. Swearengen, Mrs. Wm. Painter, Mrs. Spear, wife of Mr. H. H. Spear, Hon. B. F. Bruton, who died last Wednesday morning, and Mr. Frank Green, and Mrs. Geo. W. Pearce, who died last night; and also a negro named Wallace Donalson, who died in the early part of the week….There are at this writing many cases in town, some of which are very dangerous, perhaps hopeless. Col James Wilson, died at his place below this city, yesterday, it is supposed of the fatal disease…” Notes other names.

[10] “…there is not much improvement in the yellow fever at Bainbridge. Three new cases — all negroes — were reported yesterday, and one death. There are twenty-off cases in all, ten of them dangerous….we have no hope of an abatement of the disease until a black frost shall spread its chilling mantle over the plague-smitten city….” Notes in column one” “During the continuance of the Yellow Fever scourge in our city, we shall issue only a half-sheet of the Democrat, for the reason that business has almost entirely suspended, and our inability to procure sufficient means to publish a full-sheet during its prevalence.”

[11] “Mayor Stokley [Philadelphia] was yesterday in receipt of the following letter: ‘Clerk’s Office, Supreme Court, Bainbridge, Ga., Nov 19, 1873. Mayor Stokley — Dear Sir — The yellow fever is still raging in our city, but is on the decline slowly. All business suspended; has been for months. I am in charge of the court and county records, and have remained all the while at my post. Our mayor and his wife died last week. There is considerable destitution and embarrassment in our city. Can we (through you) get some aid from your citizens and city for our people? If so, telegraph me and send the contributions to Messrs. Dickinson & Stigall, bankers, Bainbridge, Ga. Our people will appreciate a contribution from your city highly. I am, very respectfully, T. F. Hampton, One of the Relief Committee and clerk of the Supreme Court, Decatur county, Ga.”

[12] Carrigan: “According to a resident of Coushatta, the pestilence had made ‘sad havoc’ in the entire area of the Red River Valley. ‘The country looks desolate,’ he wrote; ‘worse than ever it looked during and after Bank’s raid through Red River.’ For a distance of at least fifty miles through the valley south of Coushatta, the area was practically deserted.” Cites, in footnote 31, p. 178: Picayune, 10-2-1873.

[13] “The Saffron Scourge probably caused more deaths in New Orleans than the reports indicate. According to the Board’s report, about half the population suffered cases of ‘Dengue’ during the epidemic season, some of which finally ‘assumed the appearance’ of yellow fever and terminated in death. Although seldom fatal, dengue fever is easily confused with the yellow pestilence in its early stages. Probably a number of cases, and especially the deaths, reported as dengue fever were actually caused by yellow fever.” (Cites; Report of the Louisiana State Board of Health for 1873, pp. 9 and 55.

[14] “From August 20^th to November 13^th, seven hundred and eighty-seven persons died of yellow fever in Shreveport.”

[15] The numerous cases began to attract considerable attention in late August, and by the first of September the Shreveport epidemic was well under way. Of a population numbering from 10,000 to 12,000 it was estimated that over half fled the city. By mid-September most business establishments had shut down and the streets were almost empty. The community had been completely quarantined by all neighboring towns, and the telegraph served as the only means of communication.” Cites, in footnote 21, p. 170: Report of the Committee appointed by the Shreveport Medical Society on the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1873 at Shreveport, Louisiana (Shreveport, 1874), pp. 12-13; Henry Smith, Report of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1873, Shreveport, Louisiana… (New Orleans, 1874), p. 3.

[16] From: Table 1. — The major yellow fever epidemics for the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

[17] Report is of locations in MS which have experienced yellow fever epidemics and the years. A newspaper article dated Sep 13 notes “yellow fever prevails as an epidemic at Vicksburg.” (Weekly Journal, Logansport, IN. 9-31-1873, p. 2, col. 6.)

[18] “In 1873 out of a winter population of 50,000 only about 15,000 persons remained in the city during the epidemic, of which 7,000 had the fever and from 1,800 to 2,000 died.” Cites: New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, New Series, I (May 1874), pp. 791-793; L (May, 1898), p. 636.

[19] Ellis writes that” “Following its outbreak in August 1873, the most disastrous yellow fever epidemic in Memphis to that time caused more than two thousand deaths in about seven thousand cases, the chief victims being poor Irish inhabitants of a waterfront slum.”

[20] “Memphis claims a population of 50,000; of these 20,000 fled the city. Out of the 30,000 remaining, 1,500 died of the fever.” (pp. 388-389.) Quinn wrote that the population was “some sixty thousand. Of these, about one-third belonged to the colored race…” (Quinn. Heroes and Heroines of Memphis, pp. 1-2.)

[21] “….Out of 55,000 inhabitants only about 10,000 remain. Of these more than 1,000 are now sick. Two thousand newly-made widows and orphans are dependent on charity, and even though the scourge were to cease at once these helpless people must be assisted during the coming Winter. The relief associations are without funds, and unless substantial aid is furnished the poor and sick must die of neglect or succumb to hunger and want.”

[22] Dr. John M. Bowers, who practiced in Columbus at the time, later wrote Dr. Co. O. Weller, of Austin, on his recollection. Dr. Bowers wrote that a man from Shreveport, who stopped at McDonald’s boarding house, sick, first introduced yellow fever to Columbus. “He was for six or seven days without physician or attention” when Dr. Bowers, who “was well acquainted” with yellow fever, saw him. The man died the same day, which he recalled “was the tenth day of October, 1873.” He notes” “The last two cases occurred on Christmas day, a Mr. Shuttlewurse and mulatto boy, both of whom died on the thirty-first day of December, 1873. Many people took the disease after they had fled the town, and some eight or ten deaths occurred among these, but in no instance was the fever communicated to those with whom they stayed. The total number of deaths was one hundred and one.”

[23] “Columbus, Dec 1. Since my last to you on Saturday [Nov 29], there have ten new cases of yellow fever, and five relapses and four deaths. George Billort died on Sunday, and today W. T. S. Compton and his daughter Mary, and City Marshal J. W. Fields fell victims to the disease. There have been sixty-one deaths to date, and thirty cases are now under treatment, several of which are doubtful…”

[24] “Columbus, Dec 17. Two new cases of yellow fever are reported since yesterday morning, and one death to-day. Sixteen cases are under treatment. The cases are more malignant…>Fred, Barnard and Ben. Baker, editors of the Colorado Citizen , are very sick.”

[25] Galveston Daily News, TX. 12-25-1873, p. 4, col. 2.

[26] Marshall is about 42 miles west of Shreveport, LA (which is on the Red River).

1873 — July-Dec, Yellow Fever, esp. Memphis, AL, Pensacola, Louisville, LA, TX–3542-3,584