1768 — Fall-Winter (two months), Smallpox, especially children, Reading, PA — >60

–>60  Blanchard. (If nearly 60 children died, a few adults also probably died.)

–~60  Children, two months. John Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, 1879, p. 100.

Narrative Information

Duffy: “Other than Philadelphia the only Pennsylvania town to suffer from the disease[1] was Reading. A report from Philadelphia dated December 19, 1768, declared: ‘We hear from Reading, in berks County, that the small pox rages with great violence in that town, having carried off near sixty children, in less than two months.’”[2] (John Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, 1879, p. 100.)

Source

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

[1] P. 100 is in Chapter II, “Smallpox.”

[2] Cites, in footnote, 62: Massachusetts Gazette, No. 337, December 19, 1768.