—>414 Total Blanchard tally based on State and locality breakouts below.

Alabama ( 7)

— 7 Mobile Oct Augustin 1909, 443; AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic History. 2013.

Florida (172) (Sep-Dec, especially Oct 1-15)

–172 St. Augustine. Townsend, Peter S., M.D. An Account of the Yellow Fever… 1823, p. 382.

–140 St. Augustine Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 458; U.S. MHS 1886, 434.

Louisiana ( >7)

— >7 New Orleans. Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 92.

Maryland ( 42)

–42 Baltimore, Aug 21-31. Ohio Repository. Sep 13, 1821, p. 2.

New York ( 16)

–16 NY Marine Hospital U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. Annual Report. 1886, 434.

North Carolina ( >10)

—>10 Wilmington. July 12 -Sep[1] Blanchard estimate based on review of Hill and Wood.[2]

–1 “ Autumn. Man working near wharves after arrival of brig John Loudon.[3]

–1 “ Aug. First patient of Dr. Hill.

–1 “ Mrs. Morrison, sister of Dr. McRee, few miles south in Smithville.[4]

–1 “ At least one man who seemingly had recovered, only to “expire.”[5]

–1 “ Mr. Charles Wright, lawyer; had evacuated but came down upon return.[6]

Virginia (~160)

–~160 Norfolk, ~Aug 1-~Nov 1. Archer. “History of the Yellow Fever…Norfolk…1821,” p. 61.

–106 Adults.

— 53 Females.

— 30 Blacks

— 60 Foreigners.[7]

–1 Norfolk Aug 1, first case, warehouse clerk, Mr. Price, who later died.

–1 “ Aug 9, Black female cook, who became sick same day as Mr. Price.

Narrative Information

Norfolk, Virginia

Archer on Norfolk epidemic: “On the 20^th of July, a vessel from Point Peter, Guadeloupe…arrived in the harbour. Having discharged her cargo at an upper wharf, her bilge water was pumped out on the dock between Southgate’s and Warrin’s wharves, which was found to be so putrid and offensive, as to render it expedient that the doors and windows of a neighbouring house should be closed, in order to exclude the effluvia arising from it. This and Southgate’s warehouse were about equally distant from the vessel, say 15 or 20 yards, one on the east, the other on the west side of the dock.

“On the 1^st of August, Mr. Price, acting as clerk in the warehouse, was taken sick with fever, strongly marked with symptoms of malignancy, and died on the —-. On the same day a negro woman, cook to the family occupying the other house, was attacked and died on the 9^th. On the 4^th, two ladies of the family sickened, the elder of who died on the 10^th. About the same time a boy, aged 16, and an infant in the same family were attacked, but both recovered. On the 9^th, a lady of the house had a slight attack, from which she soon recovered; and the only one who escaped of the whole family, seven in number, was the master of the house, whose duties fortunately took him from home at the time the bilge water was discharged. Young Piercey, who had assisted in pumping the vessel, and a boy by the name of Andrews, who had frequently been about her at the time, both sickened and died, one about the 15^th day of the disease, the other within 48 hours after the attack….” (Archer. “History of the Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Norfolk during the Summer and Autumn of 1821,” pp. 62-63.)

St. Augustine, Florida

Dr. Francis in Townsend: “Dear Sir. — I send you an account…of the malignant fever which devastated St. Augustine….

“St. Augustine, prior to the late fever, had been remarkable for the salubrity of its climate and the health of its inhabitants. There is, I believe, but a solitary instance of its having at any time before the late calamity, been subjected to the ravages of a pestilential disorder….

“About the beginning of September…some cases of a disorder of an unusual character made their appearance; but shortly after they became more frequent, and excited more general alarm. The disease was at its height from the first to the fifteenth of October, during which period the greatest mortality prevailed. Towards the close of December, the fever ceases.

“The disorder attacked, in an especial manner, persons of a full and robust constitution; and, without a single exception, was confined to new comers from higher latitudes. The emigrants from the northern parts of the United States were those particularly who were subjected to its influence. It is stated that not a single individual from the West Indies [Caribbean], or native of the country, nor any one who had previously suffered from yellow fever became its victim….

“The fever was strongly characterized by all the prominent symptoms of the yellow fever as it has occurred in the sea ports of the northern states. It was marked with great prostration of the muscular system and disturbance of the intellectual powers: in a majority of cases it invaded suddenly, and generally terminated fatally within the third, fourth, or fifth day from the attack. Sometimes death took place on the second day; very rarely was the disease protracted to the sixth. The peculiar yellow suffusion of the surface, and injected state of the vessels of the eye, as they are exhibited in yellow fever, were often observed; and that precordial anxiety, so uniformly noticed in the same complaint, was found to occur in a large majority of the cases of the fever of St. Augustine. In many instances the black vomit terminated the sufferings of the patient.

“Forty or fifty deaths occurred among the newly arrived emigrants before the alarm became general. Eleven deaths was the greatest number that happened in any one day. This mortality took place in October.

“Of the inhabitants of St. Augustine, about two hundred were exposed to the influence of the disease. Of this aggregate, one hundred and forty were attacked, of which one hundred and thirty-two died. In these deaths are included three blacks. The fever also afflicted the troops in garrison: forty deaths took place in a body of one hundred and twenty soldiers. The total number of deaths from this malignant fever, was consequently one hundred and seventy-two.” (Dr. Francis “Letter of Dr. Francis on the Yellow Fever of St. Augustine in 1821. New-York, December 31^st, 1822.” Appendix No. XI, Pp. 380-382, in Townsend, Peter S., M.D. An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822. NY: O. Halsted, 1823.)

Wilmington, North Carolina

Hill on Wilmington Yellow Fever: “….either of these causes [filthy dock area and putrid cellars of houses unoccupied for summer season] might well explain the existence of fever in its most aggravated form. Yet such has been our situation for years; and the greater malignity of our disease this season depends upon some peculiar chemical action or constitution of the atmosphere, or other causes beyond my scrutiny….it has been thought that the fever was imported her from the Havanna [sic] by the brig John Loudon, which arrived on the 25^th of July….She arrived here, after a passage of twelve days, with a cargo of sugar and molasses, was boarded by the health-officer, and her mate found labouring under slight febrile symptoms; but nothing appearing to warrant the enforcement of quarantine, she was permitted to unload. The next day I was called in attendance upon this man, and found him sick of jaundice, to which he said he had been subject, with its deep golden colour of the skin, clayey stools, and absence of those peculiarly distressing symptoms which characterize yellow fever. He recovered….This was the only case of sickness on board the vessel at her arrival or during her stay here….

“I attended one of the first victims of the disease, and he assured me solemnly, on the day previous to his death, that he had never been on board the vessel….He had been sounding along our wharves to the bottom of the river, searching for barrels of naval stores, and other articles of value, which in the course of time had been lost and sunk there….He died of black vomit, but no one of his attendants sickened….

“The fever did not spread extensively, or excite alarm, until about the —- of August, when two cases occurred upon the same day. One of these I attended, and although from the commencement it was marked by symptoms the most threatening and malignant, yet as such instances occur almost every season, I neither suspected nor observed any thing peculiar in its character, until the third evening, when I was alarmed by the yellow suffusion of the eyes and neck, intolerable irritability of the stomach, ejecting a dark grainy coffee grounds fluid, great pain and confusion of the sensorium, suppression about the praecordia and singultus, with a languid sinking circulation. These symptoms continued until the ensuing morning, when he expired.

“It did not appear to have any respect to age, sex or colour; and its attack was generally preceded by listlessness and lassitude, weakness or pains about the knees, sometimes by excessive preternatural perspiration with a creeping chilly sensation or motion; pains of the head, shoulders, neck and loins, affecting indeed the whole spinal chord; often by nausea and a disagreeable taste in the mouth….

“…in a few instances, when the attack was more sudden and violent, the vital principle seemed so furiously assailed, as to sink at once under the morbid influence, probably by the ingorgement [sic] of some essential viscus. In such instances, the extremities lost their natural temperature, and became covered with a cold clammy moisture, always indicating extreme imminent danger.

“The appearance of the tongue was as various as the circulation, frequently loaded with a brown bilious fur from the commencement, sometimes clean and moist, at others, dry and shining. These symptoms usually continued for a day or two, when a typhoid state of the system and a new train of symptoms supervened. The gastric irritability increased to a most distressing degree, so that the stomach was, as justly as emphatically, called by Doctor Warren, ‘the seat and throne of the disease.’ The eyes and neck now assumed their yellow copperish livery, which quickly spread itself over the whole body. The tongue and teeth became encrusted with a dark, dirty sordes [sic], and the breath, as well as whole body, emitted a most offensive effluvia. The bowels were usually torpid, and the urinary discharges thick, red and turbid. Hemorrhages seldom occurred in my practice towards the conclusion of the disease, nor did I observe an instance of what might properly be termed petechiae.[8] The period of suffering, was usually terminated, either in health by perspiration, with an abatement of all the incidental distresses, or in death, by an unrestrainable vomiting, accompanied with dark and fetid passages, coma or delirium, and hiccough….” (Hill. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Autumn of 1821,” pp. 86-90.)

Wood on Dr. McRee and Wilmington Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1821: “The Yellow Fever of 1821.[9]

“Dr. McRee was 27 years of age when he faced the epidemic of yellow fever of 1821. This was a very severe visitation. The period of incubation of this epidemic was from the 12^th of July to the 9^th of August. His sister, Mrs. Morrison, died of the disease at Smithville.[10]

“….Dr. McRee’s account of it to Dr. John H. Hill was that there were many ‘walking cases.’ A man would feel as if he had recovered entirely of the disease, get up, put on his clothes, walk down street as though nothing was the matter with him; meet his friends and be congratulated on his recovery, return home, and in a short time expire. One case he related of Mr. Charles Wright, a prominent lawyer of that time, who had avoided the exposure of the contagion by residing on the Sound (8 miles from Wilmington). After the epidemic had ceased he came up to town, on his way to Duplin county. Dr. McRee met him and cautioned him by not means to go into his office, as his servant had been sick there and recovered, since which the office had been closed without ventilation. He remarked that his papers were in the office and that he must get them as it would be useless for him to go to court without them. He did so, went to court, and, after being there a few days, was taken sick with symptoms of the fever, started home, but got no further South than Washington, from which place he sent for Dr. McRee, dying before he could get to him….” (Wood. “James Fergus McRee, M.D.” pp. 14-16.)

Sources:

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History (citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925 as source). Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

Archer, Robert, MD. “History of the Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Norfolk during the Summer and Autumn of 1821.” Pp. 60-73 in The American Medical Recorder, Vol. V, No. I, Philadelphia: James Webster, January 1822. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4TSgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

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

Hill, John, MD. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Autumn of 1821,” pp. 86-92 in The American Medical Recorder, Vol. V, No. I, Philadelphia: James Webster, January 1822. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4TSgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

McRee, Dr. James Fergus. “The Yellow Fever of 1821,” North Carolina Medical Journal, Wilmington, NC, Vol. 29, No. 1, Jan 1892, p. 14-15. Google digital preview accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=GWEsAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ohio Repository, Canton. “The Storm,” Sep 27, 1821, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=5578903

Townsend, Peter S., M.D. “Appendix.” An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822. NY: O. Halsted, 1823. Google preview accessed 4-17-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=pfsOAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

Wood, Thomas F. “James Fergus McRee, M.D. (A Biographical Sketch with Portrait.” Pp. 10-20 in North Carolina Medical Journal, (Thomas F. Wood and Georg Gillett Thomas (eds.).) Vol. 28, No. 1, Jan, 1982, Jackson & Bell Steam-Power Printers. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=GWEsAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Wood writes of the “incubation” period starting July 12, which I take it means the first illness. Hill notes deaths in August, and the autumn, which leaves me to believe the epidemic extended at least into September. Usually, once an epidemic starts, it only ends in late Fall, when the deep frosts kill or drive into hibernation the mosquitoes which are the vector.

[2] See Narrative Information section below for Wilmington. Hill writes of many cases and deaths. Wood writes “This was a very severe visitation.”

[3] Hill. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina in…1821, “ p. 88.

[4] Wood. “James Fergus McRee, M.D.” North Carolina Medical Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1, Jan 1892, p. 14.

[5] Wood, p. 15.

[6] Wood. P. 15.

[7] I realize the numbers add to more than 160. The text is: “During that time [Aug-Nov 1] there died, as nearly as can be ascertained, 160 persons, of whom 53 were females, 30 negroes, 106 adults, and 60 foreigners. Europeans, and particularly the Irish, were most obnoxious to the disease; next to these…natives of the northern and eastern states.”

[8] Plural of petechia, or purple spot on the skin caused by a minor bleed from broken capillary blood vessels.

[9] In footnote, Wood notes that: “Wilmington in 1821 was a small village of 2,500 inhabitants, doing a considerable commerce with the West Indies….” (p. 14)

[10] Smithville is a few miles south of Wilmington.

1821 — Summer-Fall, Yellow Fever, esp. Norfolk, VA (160); St Augustine, FL (140) — >414