1732 — Smallpox, esp. Cheshire, CT (~18), and Albany (68) & Kingston (22), NY –104-118

 

— >109-113  Blanchard tally from State (colony) and locality breakouts below.

 

Connecticut    (14-18)

–18  Cheshire. Gillespie and Curtis. An Historic Record…of the Town of Meriden. 1906, p. 237.[1]

–17  Cheshire. Connecticut State Grange Committee. The Connecticut Granges. 1900. p. 199.

–1  Nathaniel Bunnell. Brown (compiler). Old Historic Homes of Cheshire, 1895, p95.

–1  Captain John Hotchkiss, Jr.  Rockey. History of New Haven County, CT, 658.[2]

–17  New Cheshire/Wallingford. Atwater (Compiler). Centennial of Meriden. 1906, p. 223.

–14  Wallingford. Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953 and 1979, p. 55.

–14  Wallingford. Purvis, Colonial America to 1763. 1999, p. 173.[3]

 

New Jersey     (      1)

–1  Piscataway, March 1. Elisabeth Randolph. C. F. Randolph. A History of Seventh Day…, 440.

 

New York       (   >91)

–68  Albany, Albany County. Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953 and 1979, p. 80.[4]

–22  Kingston, Ulster County. Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953 and 1979, p. 80.

—  1  New York City, Jamaica area. One of 160 people inoculated in 1732. 104.

—  ?  Upper NY. Iroquois and Canadian (Ontario area) First Nation Mississaugas.[5]

 

Pennsylvania  (      3)

–1  Philadelphia, son of Pheasant-Kakawatchekee, at a council meeting. Greene IV, 2014, 107.

–1       “          Kwassenung Pheasant, at council meeting in Philadelphia. Greene II, 2008, p. 99.

–1        “          Kakawatchekee, at council meeting in Philadelphia. Greene II, 2008, p. 99.

–?        “          During the summer of 1732, a smallpox epidemic scourged Philadelphia…”[6]

 

Narrative Information

 

Connecticut

 

Centennial of Meriden: “….in 1723 the district first called the West Farms of Wallingford, was constituted a distinct society by legislative grant. It then received its name of the ‘Parish of New Cheshire,’ by which name it was known and recorded until the incorporation of the town of Cheshire in the year 1780….

 

“In the year 1732 the smallpox broke out in this infant settlement [apparently New Cheshire[7]] and out of a population of about 400 souls, 124 of their number were sick with this disorder, of which number seventeen died. So many were sick at one time that it was impossible to obtain nurses to care for the sick or even help sufficient to bury their dead. Some of the most influential of this society died. Of this number Nathaniel Bunnell (a direct ancestor of Meriden’s honored townsman, H. W. Lines) Thomas Brooks and others were sadly missed. At a meeting of the General Assembly a short time afterward fifty pounds was appropriated for the benefit of the sufferers at New Cheshire. From this time forward the population of the parish grew very fast; large families were the rule in those days. The children of both sexes married and settled largely in the same locality. From a population of about 400 in 1732 the population increased to 1,933 in 1774. The population of Wallingford at that time was 2,133, only 200 more than the Cheshire society and Meriden’s population at that time was 852…” (Centennial of Meriden, pp. 222-223.)

 

Connecticut State Grange Committee: “Cheshire. The Town.

 

“The town of Cheshire was settled under the jurisdiction of Wallingford, from which it was set off as a town in 1780, after having sustained the relation of a parish from 1723….

 

“It was known as the ‘West Farms,’ the ‘West Society,’ and New Cheshire. The town is about seven miles long north and south, and four miles wide from east to west….

 

“In 1732 there was a terrible and remarkable scourge of smallpox. The population at that time amounted to about 350, out of which 124 were ill with this dread disease. Seventeen died, the list including several of the most prominent and influential people of the colony.” (Connecticut State Grange Committee. The Connecticut Granges. 1900. p. 199.)

 

Duffy: “….an outbreak at Wallingford, Connecticut [occurred] at Wallingford, Connecticut, where fifty or sixty cases caused fourteen deaths in the spring of 1732.” (Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, p. 55.)

 

Philadelphia, PA

 

Rittenhouse: “During the summer of 1732, a smallpox epidemic scourged Philadelphia and panicky residents fled the city in such numbers that it was almost impossible to keep the Assembly in session.” (p. 7.)

 

Sources

 

Atwater, Frances (Compiled by). Centennial of Meriden, June 10-16, 1906: Report of the Proceedings with Full Description of the Many Events of its Successful Celebration. Old Home Week, Meriden, Conn., The “Silver City.” The Journal Publishing Co., 1906. Google preview accessed 3-23-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Ff4nAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Brown, Edwin R. (Compiler) and John R. Paddock (Illustrator). Old Historic Homes of Cheshire, Connecticut, With an Account of the Early Settlement of the Town, Description of its Churches, Academy and Old Town Cemetery, Places of Interest — Roaring Brook, Scott’s Rock, Barytes and Copper Mines, Ancient Trees, Etc. New Haven: Press of River Printing House, 1895. Google preview accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=qstEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Connecticut State Grange Committee (editors). The Connecticut Granges: An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the Patrons of Husbandry; Sketches of the State, Pomona and Subordinate Granges of Connecticut, with Valuable Statistics, Notices of Prominent Members, Portraits and Illustrations. New Haven, CT: Industrial Publishing Co. 1900. Google preview accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3SI1AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

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

 

Ford, Edward and David Rittenhouse. David Rittenhouse: Astronomer Patriot, 1732-1796. Literary Licensing LLC, 2011. Google snippet view accessed 3-29-2018 at: https://www.google.com/search?biw=1321&bih=791&tbm=bks&ei=q0S9WumdNNKvgge2n4-gDA&q=1732+smallpox+philadelphia&oq=1732+smallpox+philadelphia&gs_l=psy-ab.3…10920.18306.0.18692.22.22.0.0.0.0.118.1564.20j2.22.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0….0.V6A8PMkYRxY

 

Gillespie, C. Bancroft and George Munson Curtis (Compilers). An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden, Connecticut and Men Who Have Made It. From Earliest Settlement to Close of its First Century of Incorporation. A Century of Meriden, “The Silver City.” Meriden, CT: Journal Publishing Co., 1906. Google preview accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=-zQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Greene, Don. Shawnee Heritage II: Selected Lineages of Notable Shawnee. Lulu.com, 2008. Google preview accessed 3-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=svkmCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Greene, Don. Shawnee Heritage, Vol. IV, Pre-1700’s M-Z. Lulu.com, 11-8-2014. Google preview accessed 3-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=WtAeCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Jennings, Francis (Editor). The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Guide to the Six Nations and Their League. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985. Google preview accessed 3-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8A7jlIGe9cwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1999. Google preview accessed 1-9-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=BZRJSx3uMYEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Randolph, Corliss Fitz. A History of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia, Including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville Churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury Church in New Jersey. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2008. Google preview accessed 3-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=XOv2GxjJ1EAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Rockey, J. L. (Editor). History of New Haven County, Connecticut (Vol. 1 of 2). New York: W. W. Preston & Co., 1892. Google preview accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=94g6AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Rosner, David (Ed.). Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City. Rutgers University Press, 1991, 236 pages. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed 3-29-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=o34QxI6lHwAC&pg=PA70&dq=1916+Polio+Epidemic&ei=Cy5DSZWvMIXAMpqalOYN#PPP7,M1

 

 

 

[1] “In those days smallpox was dreaded even more than it is to-day; one terrible scourge devastated the parish of Cheshire in 1732 when eighteen people died in a few weeks….”

[2] “The following account of the early settlers of Cheshire was contributed by Honorable E. R. Brown, of Cheshire ….Captain John Hotchkiss…settled here in 1694….A son, Captain John Hotchkiss, Jr….also resided here, and here died of the small-pox in the year 1732.”

[3] Cites Duffy.

[4] Cites, in footnote 18, American Weekly Mercury, No. 632, February 1-8, No. 676, December 7-12, 1732.

[5] Francis Jennings. The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Guide… 1985, p. 177.

[6] Edward Ford and David Rittenhouse. David Rittenhouse Astronomer-Patriot, 1732-1796. 2011, p. 7.

[7] It is noted that “about 400 souls” resided in the community in question.”