–139-141 Blanchard tally of locality breakouts.[1]

Breakout by locality, where noted.

–10-12 Bethel, Windsor County. Sep-Oct. Gallup. Epidemic Diseases in Vermont, p. 46.

— ~30 Norwich, Windsor County. Late summer and autumn. Gallup. Vermont Epidemics, p. 45

— 17 Pomfret, Windsor Co., Sep-Oct. Gallup. Vermont Epidemic Diseases, p.45, citing Ware.

— 50 Salem and Sandgate area, late July start. Gallup. Epidemic Diseases in Vermont, p. 46.[2]

— 32 Shays’ Settlement, Egg Mountain, July-Sep. Butz. Shays’ Settlement in Vermont, 150.[3]

— ? Other places. Late July beginning. Gallup. Epidemic Diseases in Vermont, p. 46.[4]

Narrative Information

Butz: “Another gravesite, known as the Shays’ Settlement Cemetery,[5] is…rumored to be on Egg Mountain. This site is mentioned in a history of the town of Sandgate[6] written by Hugh Graham ….It is referenced as being the place where the settlers were buried who died due to the ‘Black Death’ that may have caused the settlement to be abandoned. There may have been three epidemics that ravaged the settlement. The first took place sometime in 1787, possibly when the Regulators[7] were just arriving on Egg Mountain. The second hit in July, August and September 1798, as evidenced by church records in Sandgate that record thirty-two deaths, thirty of which were children who lived at the settlement. Although the locals called it the black death or black sickness, it was most likely either typhus or dysentery. An outbreak of dysentery had a severe effect of the town of Sandgate in 1798.”[8] (Butz. Shays’ Settlement in Vermont: A Story of Revolt and Archaeology, p. 150.)

Gallup: “1798, The most prevailing diseases of this year were typhus fever, and dysentery. They were both severe in some places and neighbourhoods, whilst others were more exempt….

“There was something of a drought in the months of July, August, and September, which are the principal dysenteric months. But dysentery as often prevails without drought. By letter from Dr. Ware, of Pomfret, ‘seventeen adults died of dysentery in September and October…

“During the latter part of summer and autumn, of this year, if my information is correct, the dysentery proved very fatal at Norwich, on the banks of Ompompanoosuc river; about thirty died….

“The dysentery, this season, began in Sandgate and Salem, the latter part of July. It was very mortal in that region this year, as well as in other places. About fifty died in those places. Dysentery was very severe this year, in September and October in Bethel, especially in a particular neighbourhood. I believe ten or twelve died in this neighbourhood after a short term of sickness. About eighty had it in the town.” (Gallup. Epidemic Diseases in Vermont. 1815 pp. 45-46.)

Sources

Butz. Shays’ Settlement in Vermont: A Story of Revolt and Archaeology. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2017. Google preview accessed 2-9-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=QTEvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Gallup, Joseph A., M.D. Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont; From its First Settlement to the year 1815, with a Consideration of their Causes, Phenomena, and Treatment. Boston: T. B. Wait & Sons, 1815. Accessed 2-7-2018 at: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-2555005R-bk

[1] We show, in the description headline, at least or more than (>) in that Gallup notes dysentery was “very mortal” in Sandgate, Salem, and in “other places” not noted. We thus assume some mortality elsewhere.

[2] Gallup writes that dysentery was “very mortal in that region [Sandgate and Salem] this year, as well as in other places. About fifty died in those places.” This statement is ambiguous. Our interpretation is that the number fifty does not refer to the “other places” mentioned. It could be read as fifty deaths in Sandgate and in Salem combined. The “in that region” statement throws us off in that today’s Salem is not in the region of Sandgate. Perhaps there was another Salem at the time near Sandgate. In any event we choose to read this as stating that there were fifty deaths in “Sandgate and Salem the latter part of July.”

[3] Butz writes: “The second [epidemic] hit in July, August and September 1798 [1^st was in 1787], as evidenced by church records in Sandgate that recorded thirty-two deaths, thirty of which were children who lived at the settlement. Although the locals called it the black death or black sickness, it was most likely either typhus or dysentery. An outbreak of dysentery had a severe effect on the town of Sandgate in 1798.” [Blanchard: there were deaths in Shays’ Settlement which we know about because they were noted in church records in Sandgate, over the next mountain ridge. There were also deaths in Sandgate, noted by both Gallup and Butz.]

[4] We do not know from Gallup what these “other places” were or the mortality, but we assume there was some.

[5] The Shays’ Settlement Project website (archaeological study) notes: Shay’s Settlement was “a fortified 18^th century settlement located in the mountains near the New York/Vermont border. The settlement was founded by Captain Daniel Shays and his fellow refugees after they fled from Massachusetts following the uprising he lead in 1787.”

[6] Egg Mountain is part of a ridge extending down to the southwest into New York. To get to Sandgate one would need to go down the mountain to the southeast, through the valley floor and stream and then up, over, and down another mountain ridge to get to Sandgate near the stream at the bottom of this ridge.

[7] A name the rebels gave to themselves.

[8] It seems clear that “Black Death” (probably dysentery), was experienced in both the Shays’ Settlement, and in the town of Sandgate, a mountain ridge away in a valley.

1798 — Sum-fall, Dysentery, VT, esp. Norwich/Pomfret/Salem/Sandgate, Shays’ Stlmt., VT–>141