1822 — Yellow Fever, esp. late Sum-Fall, esp. NOLA/Marietta OH/NYC/Pensacola –1,519-2,741
–1,519-2,741 Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.
Summary of State, Local and Maritime Fatalities Below
Florida (249- 271) Esp. Pensacola ~Aug 12-Oct 10
Louisiana (800-2,000) Esp. New Orleans Esp. Sep
New York (251) New York City ~July 10-Nov 1, esp. Sep-Oct
Ohio (95) Marietta June-Nov
South Carolina ( 2) Charleston
Maritime (122) (US Brig Enterprise and US Frigate Macedonian.)
Breakout of Fatalities by State and Locality (or Place)
Florida (249-271) (~Aug 12-Oct 10)
–249-271 State. Blanchard range based on sources below.
— ~70 Barrancas (U.S. soldiers). Balt. American, 11-27-1822, p. 3.[1]
— 7 Fort Barrancas. Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 454.
— 280 Pensacola, Townsend 1823, p. 250.[2]
–237-259 Pensacola. Blanchard range for tally.
— 259 “ U.S. Marine-Hosp. Svc. Annual Rpt…. 1896, 434.
–237-257 “ Aug-Oct. Lipson 2012, pp. 12-13.
— 257 “ Keating 1879, p. 84; Sternberg 1908, p. 719.
— 237 “ Aug 12-Oct 10 Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 456.
— ~150 “ 20 days up to ~Sep 6. Republican Compiler. Gettysburg, 10-16-1822, 2.[3]
— ~124 “ and Barrancas, Aug 15-Sep 11. Republican Compiler, 10-23-1822, p. 1, col. 5.
— 5 St. Marks Aug, 1st case Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 458.
Louisiana (800-2,000) (esp. Sep)
–800-2,000 State Blanchard range (given large N.O. range we do not use Baton Rouge).
— 60 Baton Rouge. Keating. A History of…Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878… 1879, p.84.
–800-2,000 New Orleans. Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 64.[4]
— ~1,700 “ Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 65.[5]
— 1,400 “ Dr. Pierre F. Thomas, cited in: Carrigan. 1961, p. 64.
— 1,400 “ Louisiana Gazette. Cited by Duffy (ed.), Medicine in La., I, 367.[6]
— 808 “ Barton. The Cause…Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans. xlix.[7]
— 808 “ Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of… 1855.[8]
— 239 “ Keating 1879, 84; Kohn, 2001, 62; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896.
— 237 “ Augustine 1909; NOLA Public Library, “Yellow Fever Deaths.”[9]
— 32 “ Sep 19-20. Republican Compiler, Gettysburg. “Fever at New Orleans,” 10-23-1822
New York (251) (~July 10-Nov 1, esp. Sep-Oct)[10]
— 366 NYC, total Putnam. The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. 1851, p. 605.[11]
— 251 “ Townsend 1896, p. 40. (See Street, case and deaths breakout below.)
–>250 “ NY State Board of Health. First Annual Report…, 1881, p. 33.[12]
–~250 “ Monette. Observations…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez… 1842, p.52.
— 230 “ Barrett 1863; Keating 1879, 84; NYT, 10-7-1888; Sternberg 1894, 42;
— 230 “ US Marine-Hospital Service, 1896, p. 434.
— 166 “ NYC Dept. Health… Summary of Vital Statistics 2009. Dec 2010.[13]
— 6 “ Quarantine Station, U.S. brig Enterprise, July. La Roche 1855, Vol. II, p.431-432.[14]
— 58 “ Aug Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 49.
— 110 “ Sep Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 49.
Individual deaths at the beginning:
–1 July 16. Andrew Thomas, NY Hosp. Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever… p. 27.
–1 July 16. Caroline Reder. Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever… 1896, p. 32.
–1 July 22. John Reder, 16. Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever… 1896, p. 121.
–1 July 24. Louisa Rose, little girl [7], near Reder home. Townsend 1896, pp. 33, 123.[15]
–1 July 29. Mrs. Waters, “had sickened” morning of 25th at Rose house, taken to Brooklyn.[16]
Deaths and cases by Street:
Street Cases Deaths
Albany 2 2
Ann 1 1
Beaver 5 2
Beaver-lane 4 4
Broad 14 7
Broadway 33 20
Carlisle 3 1
Cedar 8 7
Chamber 1 0
Cheapside 46 28 (“Persons who lived in or frequented the vicinity of Cheapside.”)
Courtlandt 12 8
Dey 1 0
Dutch 6 2
Ferry 1 1
Front 5 4
Fulton 4 2
Garden 1 0
Greenwich 22 11
John 2 1
Liberty 16 9
Lumber 11 7
Maiden-lane 10 4
Mill 1 0
Moore 2 0
Nassau 10 2
New 3 2
Old-slip 2 2
Pearl 13 8
Pine 2 1
Rector 19 11
State 3 1
Stone 3 1
Thames 6 4
Washington 27 18
Water 19 14
William 11 4
visitors 65 34 (i.e. lived elsewhere but had “frequented the infected district.”)
Total 401 230
“In addition to which, 11 deaths occurred out of the city, and 10 after the Board of Health had adjourned. (Oct. 26.)….” [pp. 39-40]
Ohio ( 95)
— ? Marietta Aug 1-Nov La Roche. Yellow Fever (Vol. 2). 1855, p. 417.[17]
–~95 Marietta & vic. Late June-Nov. Williams. History of Washington Co., OH. 1881,426-27.[18]
— 2 June [Williams notes that this list is not complete.]
— 1 July
— 7 Aug
–32 Sep
–25 Oct
— 2 Nov
— 2 Jonathan Guitteau and Joseph Babcock of Marietta, dates of death not noted.
South Carolina ( 2)
— 2 Charleston Keating 1879, p. 84; U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. 1896, p. 434.
Maritime (122)
— 2 Eliza Ann Havana to NYC. Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever…NY…1822, p. 23.
— 19 U.S. Brig Enterprise. La Roche. Yellow Fever (Vol. II), 1855, pp. 431-432.[19]
–101 US frigate Macedonian. De Kay. Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922. 322
–101 US frigate Macedonian. La Roche, Rene´. Yellow Fever (Vol. II). 1855, p. 429.
Cuba
“Letters from Havana by the same conveyance [Steamship Robert Fulton][20] represent it as very sickly in that city – 10 or 12 dying daily with the Yellow Fever.” (Adams Centinel, Gettysburg, PA. 7-24-1822, p. 3.)
Florida, Pensacola
Lawson, August 7. “Bilious remittent or yellow fever appeared at Pensacola on the 7th August,[21] and soon extended over the whole city. Between the 13th and 20th of the month, 20 deaths occurred; and on the 26th, the troops abandoned the town and encamped on a dry and elevated position in the vicinity. As some men were necessarily left behind to guard the public property, most of the cases occurred among them. The total number of cases was 52, of which 11 proved fatal—a relative mortality much lower than that among the civil. Population. (Lawson, Sickness and Mortality in the Army of the United States, 1840, p. 36.)
Lawson, August 13. “On the 13th, the board of health publicly announced the existence of the disease, and warned all the inhabitants able to remove, to retire to the country….the board caused fires to be kept continually burning in every direction, by which the heat of the atmosphere, already excessive, was redoubled. The pestilence, however, became more rife, and the disease acquired new malignity. Between the 13th and 20th, upwards of 20 deaths took place. The disease now spread rapidly, and with a degree of malignity rarely equaled in the annals of this destructive malady. Out of a population of 1,000 souls, upwards of 200 have already become its victims. Neither age, sex, complexion, occupation, or residence, has afforded any exemption from its fatal ravages. The old and the young, the native and the emigrant, the white and the black, have been alike subject to its baleful influence.
“On the 26th the troops evacuated the town. Up to this period, their health remained unusually good. A knowledge of this fact prevented many citizens from retiring, and thus many valuable lives were sacrificed. Believing that this singular exemption of the soldiery was due to their peculiar habits and mode of living, whiskey and salt pork were now considered as prophylactics—and, as might have been anticipated, all those who had recourse to the supposed preventives, fell speedy victims to the disease….
“At the barracks there were 9 deaths, of which 7 arose from bilious remittent fever.” (Lawson, Sickness and Mortality in the Army, 1840, 37. 39.)
Townsend: “…That some of us do not possess this immunity in a higher degree seems strange, when we recollect that Pensacola is in 30° 30ʹ north latitude, New-Orleans and St. Augustine in 29°58ʹ and Havana in the island of Cuba, 23°12ʹ, which is only a little more than six degrees farther south than the two last mentioned sea ports of the United States. But that this peculiar difference between the islands of the West-Indies [Caribbean] as well as the towns on the continent within the tropics (such as Vera Cruz, Carthagena, &c.) and the sea ports of the United States, does actually exist, every year, almost, furnishes strong and positive proof; and particularly in what occurred this very season [1822] at the little town of Pensacola. Though the greatest number who perished of the yellow fever which recently made such dreadful havoc in this small town, were emigrants from the northern states; the old residents and natives also, ‘such as the Spaniards and French, and even the Creek Indians themselves, who are the aborigines of the soil, as well as a considerable number of Negroes fell victims to the disease! The epidemic broke out on the 25th of July, about ten days after the arrival of a vessel from Havana, that came directly up to within a few feet of the town, and landed a cargo of damaged fruit. There were then one thousand inhabitants. Six hundred fled a few days after into the woods, leaving about three hundred Spaniards, French, Negroes and Indians, and one hundred Americans, Irish and English. Of these there perished up to the 1st of October:[22]
200 whites 100 American and Irish Adults and children.
100 French & Spaniards Adults and children.
50 Negroes Adults and children.
30 Indians 30 Creek Indians Adults and children.
—– —–
280 280
—– —–
“It is remarkable that from Oct. 1st to Oct. 26th, out of the three hundred of all descriptions then remaining in town, there were one hundred and twenty who had died, nearly all of whom were children of Creole (i.e. native) parents, and who on that account, from being natives of the town, had been considered safe!
“From facts like these, we are constrained to believe that yellow fever is indigenous to no part of the territory of the United States, and that it has never appeared in any of our cities without having been brought there from some West-India port.” (Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822. 1823, pp. 249-250.)
Newspapers on Florida Yellow Fever
Aug 15-Sep 11: “The latest accounts of the fever at this place are truly appalling. The U. S. schooner Amelia, Capt. Baker, arrived at New Orleans from St. Marks, East Florida, and informs that death and desertion had nearly depopulated Pensacola! A list of deaths at that place and Barrancas, from the 15th of August to the llth of September, has been furnished, containing 84 names, and it was supposed there had been about 40 others., whose names could not be ascertained.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg PA. “From Pensacola.” 10-23-1822, p. 1, col. 5)
Sep 6 report: “Private Correspondence. Barrancas, near Pensacola, September 6, 1822…a terrible epidemic has visited Pensacola, and committed great devastation among the Americans in that place, the Creoles being generally exempt from it. About a hundred and fifty have, in twenty days, been consigned to the tomb, and as many as eighteen have fallen in a single day. Never, perhaps, was a fever more universally fatal, utterly defying the aid of medicine; no instance of a recovery after an attack has occurred, and persons who have lived in New Orleans- and the West Indies, pronounce its mortality and rapid termination unexampled.
“Among its victims are Dr. Bronaugh, Mr. J. D. Simms, Navy Agent, Mr. Harrison, Attorney for the territory, and his lady, and a long list of respectable persons, who I presume are unknown to you. Such was the alarm, that many of them were conducted to the tomb without a single attendant but the man who conveyed them in his cart; and sunk on the bed of pain and despair without a single friend to shed a tear, or soothe their last moments with offices of sympathy and kindness.
“This work of destruction has somewhat abated, not that the disease has at all diminished in its malignity and violence, but because fewer subjects remain for it to operate upon – all who had it in their power seeking safety by flight. I saw the danger at an early period of the disease, and deemed it most prudent to avoid it by a timely retreat.
“In a country so thinly settled, it was not easy tor fugitives to obtain shelter, the neighboring houses are consequently much crowded, and many of the poor are compelled to be exposed to the wide expanse of the heavens. The Legislative Council and troops retired to the country among the latter some cases of fever have occurred. There will be no safety in returning to the town, until the occurrence of one or two white frosts, which may not be probably expected before November.” Nat. Intell.” [National Intelligencer].
Sep 22 letter: “Doctor Elliot died on the 2d inst. and there is not now a physician remaining in the place. It is impossible to give you an idea of the extent of the calamity which has befallen Pensacola; out of a population of fourteen hundred, which it was said to contain when we arrived, short of four hundred now remain; the rest have either died or made their escape. We are the only American family that remains alive in the place, and there are but very few other Americans here. The disease is still raging among the Creoles, and a severe mortality attends it. All our authorities have either died or deserted; we have no governor and council; no police, no post office, no printing office, nor in short any other office. There are only two or three stores open in the town. Nothing can exceed the deadly gloom that pervades everything here. You may cast your eyes for hours every day round and not see an individual moving, save the hardened carman with his heavy loaded hearse. The fever has now broke out among the troops which were removed about three miles from town, and I understand great numbers die daily. Many of the Officers whom I knew have died. Two of the Judges of this place have died, the others fled.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Extract of a letter from Pensacola, dated Sept. 22.” 11-6-1822, p. 4, col. 1.)
Louisiana, Baton Rouge:
Lawson: “The report from Baton Rouge presents the usual mortality; the average strength of the command was 245, the total number of cases 281, and the deaths 29. Of intermittent fever there were 101 cases, and of remittent 45.” (Lawson, Sickness and Mortality in the Army, 1840, p. 39.)
Louisiana, New Orleans:
Carrigan: “By August of 1822 a number of cases had occurred, and at the beginning of September the disease suddenly reached epidemic proportions. Raging violently until the end of October, the pestilence for a time carried off as many as thirty persons per day.[23] A Frenchman, residing in the vicinity of New Orleans, wrote his sister in mid-September: ‘The terrible yellow fever has made ravages in the city since the first of the month, the unfortunate strangers being the principal victims.’ In his opinion, the malady had been transmitted from Pensacola to New Orleans by the Americans. ‘The foreigners who can are leaving,’ he remarked, ‘and the fight will end for lack of fighters.’[24] At the beginning of the outbreak the mayor of New Orleans proclaimed that the necessary means would be provided for evacuating indigent unacclimated strangers to the other side of Pontchartrain until the conclusion of the sickly season.[25]
“The Louisiana Gazette in mid-September [Sep 14] advised all strangers to leave the Crescent City until the fever subsided. Although continuing the standard policy of delayed reporting and understatement, some newspaper editors had recognized the fact that when an epidemic was well
under way and could no longer be ignored, a diminution of the unacclimated in the city meant less fuel for the fever and hence a more rapid dying out of the pestilential fire. Sometimes, however, the dispersion of the strangers only served to spread the disease. At any rate, the fever found ample fuel to keep it raging in New Orleans through October, and sporadically through November….
“Mortality estimates for 1822 ranged from 800 to 2,000.[26] Niles’ Weekly Register reported in October [26th] that 700 to 800 persons had died on the fever in September alone. The final tally of Dr. Pierre F. Thomas, on the scene at the time, set the total yellow fever mortality at 1,400, a figure concurred in by the Louisiana Gazette.[27] The willingness of the journal editor to accept this total probably indicates that several hundred should be added to it.” (Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, pp. 62-65.)
Sep 15: “By an arrival at New York from New Orleans, papers of the latter city to the 18th September inclusive have been received. The accounts in them not only confirm the statements heretofore published of the existence of the yellow fever at New Orleans, but show an alarming increase in its ravages upon the lives of the population. The Board of Health, on the 15th, announced ‘that it has become their painful duty to state to their fellow citizens, that the number of cases of yellow fever reported within the last three days, have increased. The cases as yet, without exception, so far as they have been reported to the board, are confined to strangers unacclimated. They would therefore again advise all strangers to leave the city till the fever subsides.’” (Maryland Herald and Hagers-town Weekly Advertiser, Hagerstown. “New Orleans,” 10-22-1822, p. 2.)
Sep 19-20: “There were 47 deaths in New Orleans, on the 19th and 20th of September – 32 of which were by Yellow Fever. Amer. Sen.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Fever at New Orleans,” 10-23-1822, p. 4, col. 4.)
Sep 25 and 27 reports: “Baltimore, Oct. 17. Sickness at New Orleans. The accounts of the ravages of the fever[28] at New Orleans, are truly distressing. Private letters of the 25th and 27th ult.[29] state, that between 7 and 800 had died from the 1st of September up to that dale;[30] on the 24th there were 60 cases reported to the Board of Health; and it was supposed that about 1200 of those who were considered liable to take the fever yet remained. Of one vessel from this port, it is said that but one of the crew, (sixteen in number, exclusive of the captain,) had survived.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Sickness at New Orleans,” 11-6-1822, p. 4, col. 1.)
Maritime — U.S. Macedonian:
“The story of the Macedonian’s horrific 1822 cruise in the Caribbean is drawn largely from the records of the court of inquiry called to investigate James Biddle’s charges against Isaac Hull, as reported in Niles’ Weekly Register, November 30, 1822, supported by additional data in Sailor-Diplomat, a Biography of Commodore James Biddle 1783-1848, by David F. Long (Boston, 1983); The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull, by Linda M. Maloney; and History of Boston Navy Yard, 1797-1874, by George Henry Preble (National Archives). Although the ordeal of the Macedonian was extreme, it was hardly unique. David Long cites Charles L. Lewis, who observed in 1941 that ‘of all the wars it had fought up to that date, the U.S. Navy lost from yellow fever in the Caribbean during the early 1820’s more officers and men, in proportion, than in any service in which they were engaged,’ and Long adds that the generalization was still true after including World War II, Korea, and Indochina. The particularly virulent strain of yellow fever of 1822 that cost the Macedonian 101 dead also killed 588 in New York that same summer.” (De Kay, James T. Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2000, p. 322.)
La Roche: “Much more…deserving of our serious consideration, is the case of the prevalence of the yellow fever on board of the frigate Macedonia, in the summer of 1822. This case gave rise to much controversy, and resulted in a Court of Inquiry, from the record of which the following narrative is derived.
“The Macedonia, under the command of Captain James Biddle, sailed from Boston, at the navy-yard, of which she had recently been fitted out for the West Indies, on the 2d day of April, and reached her destination with a healthy crew, about the close of the same month. While in the harbour of the Havana, where she lay from the 28th of April to the 4th of June, with the exception of one day, and which, like Cape Haytien and Port au Prince, where she subsequently touched, was remarkably healthy, malignant yellow fever broke out aboard. The first case occurred on the 8th of May, and ended fatally on the 11th; another died on the 19th, after which the disease extended rapidly among the crew, and carried off several of the officers. On the 4th June, the ship sailed for the island of St. Domingo, and on the passage the disease continued to prevail; though the number of new cases lessened, and the sick appeared better while at sea. Bu at Cape Haytien and Port au Prince, the sickness and mortality continually increased, and the ship became so infected that there was no reasonable ground for expectation that the crew could be relieved but by change of situation or climate. The captain, therefore, after returning to the Havana, and staying there a short time, sailed for the Chesapeake, on the 24th of July….
“From…various circumstances the inference is natural that the disease, which carried off one hundred and one individuals out of a complement (including officers) of three hundred and seventy-six, arose from the operation of causes located in the vessel itself….” (La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 2 of 2). 1855, pp. 428-429.)
New York City:
La Roche: “Scarcely less important than the preceding [account of the Macedonian] is the history of the outbreak of the yellow fever on board of the U.S. brig Enterprise, in 1822. This case has been cited by contagionists, and supporters of the exotic origin of the disease, as one strongly illustrating the correctness of their views; while, by others, it has been more correctly regarded as showing the origin of the disease from sources of infection located in the vessel itself. The Enterprise arrived at the New York quarantine, on the 8th of July, from a cruise in the West Indies, via Charleston. Twenty-four days previous to her arrival, she had been three days off the Moro Castle, Havana, when she sailed for Charleston, somewhere between the 20th and 24th of June. She remained at Charleston eight days. The disease broke out in her the day she reached there, in the person of one of the lieutenants. He died on the 1st of July. The cases soon multiplied, so that by the time the vessel arrived at New York, they amounted to ten. On the next day they increased to thirteen, all of whom were transferred to the Marine Hospital, Staten Island. On the 11th, the number of cases had reached to twenty. It was then thought proper to bring all the men ashore, and to have the brig thoroughly whitewashed and cleansed, and her hold daily fumigated with nitrous oxide gas. Lime was slacked in her limbers,[31] her iron ballast was whitewashed, and she was well ventilated by four windsails hoisted constantly in her hatchway.
“Dr. Joseph Bayley, the health officer, in an official communication to the President of the Board of Health, says:
The crew were so intemperate during the few days that they remained on shore, that we were under the necessity of sending them on board. The brig had been purified in the interim. But it was soon evident that she was still an infected vessel, for in six days after the crew were sent on board, four men were taken sick with yellow fever, and, in the course of five days, seven more had the same disease, making one-fourth of all the men on board; and five of the eleven taken sick died. These persons must have been infected after their return to the brig, and subsequently to her purification, otherwise the disease would have been excited in them, as it was in the case of some of their shipmates, from their irregular living, and exposure to the weather, by lying on the ground at night….
This fatal evidence of the cause of the disease still lurking in the Enterprise, induced us to have the crew brought on shore again, and recommence her purification, which was done by using two more casks of lime, by letting into her hold daily several feet of water, and keeping up windsails. Six men were left in charge of her, whose duty it was to pump out the water and trim the windsails [La Roche adds they were instructed not to sleep below in the hold.]
On the 2d of August, twenty-five days after her arrival, and after repeated whitewashing, letting in water, and constant ventilation, one of the sailors obtained permission of a lieutenant to take his wife on board; this woman was taken sick with yellow fever on the 9th of August, and she died in the Marine Hospital on the 18th of that month.[32]
(La Roche. Yellow Fever (Vol. II), 1855, pp. 431-432.)
Monette: “…we will cite one case which is full of instruction to those who preside over the port police of our cities. We mean the “yellow fever” of New York in the summer and fall of 1822. This epidemic, if it could be so called, commenced by scattering cases from the 15th to the 20th of July, and cases multiplied gradually until the 15th of August, when it was considered epidemic. The whole number of yellow fever cases, from the 15th of July until the 1st of November when it ceased was about four hundred and thirty: of whom about two hundred and fifty died. It began in Rector street, near the wharf, where four ships’ cargoes had been discharged from infected vessels a few days before. From this point it spread very slowly over several squares in the vicinity, having extended only a few squares in thirty days; while the remainder of the city was unusually healthy. The squares over which it prevailed most fatally, were bounded by wide, clean, and airy streets, and the most substantial buildings in the city; no filth could be found in the vicinity…” Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at:
http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov
NYT: “…in June it broke out along Rector Street, a part of the town hitherto exempt. The old story of panic, flight, suspension of business, and desertion was repeated. ‘You cannot conceive the distressing condition of the whole town,’ wrote William L. Stone to his wife. ‘The fever is worse every hour. I saw the hearse pass the office an hour ago with seven sick in it. Thus the dead are carried to the grave and the sick out of town to die on the same melancholy carriage’.
“The pestilence continued with increasing virulence into 1823. The mortality reached the rate of 140 deaths a day. All that part of the town below City Hall was deemed ‘an infected district’ and shut off by high board fences. The residents within it who were unwilling to leave their homes were forcibly removed.
“Robert M. Hartley, a celebrated philanthropist, who founded many of the charitable institutions of New-York, and whose thirty-four volumes of reports are still authoritative on many economic and social subjects, wrote as follows of the plague:
It has utterly desolated the lower part of the city; thousands have left and other thousands are daily leaving. Stores, dwellings, and warehouses are closed and deserted. The Custom House, Post Office, all the banks, insurance offices, and other public places of business have been removed to the upper part of Broadway and to Greenwich Village, the region about being mostly occupied by merchants in buildings temporarily erected for their convenience. Such a motley scene as is exhibited defies description. There are carts, cartmen, carpenters, carriages, dust, and dry goods to the end of the alphabet (New York Times, “The Epidemics of New-York,” Feb 16, 1896)
Townsend: “The poison, contagion, or infection of yellow fever, by whatever name it may be termed, was this season introduced into the city of New-York, at the foot of Rector-street, from the port of Havana. It commenced at that spot, and in conformity with the same laws which have always governed it heretofore, slowly diverged or radiated from the point where it first sat out, multiplying itself by becoming compounded with, and diffused through the air, until it had spread over nearly one half the city…. [p. 3]
“The disease began at the two opposite corners of Rector-street where it terminates on the wharf in Washington-street, July 10th, 1822. As Washington-street has but one row of buildings, fronting the wharf, Rector-street, terminating also here, has but two corners. The N.W. corner was the cooper-shop of a Mr. Reder, and his house, a neat two-story building, stood next to the shop on the same lot but in Rector-street. The opposite corner was a building occupied as a grocery, by a Mr. Falkner. The first cases were Reder’s two little girls, the one named Amanda aged 11, the other named Caroline, aged 9, and Andrew Thomas, a young Scotchman, aged 23, of a robust, hale constitution, who had only been in this country three or four months, and who was clerk in Mr. Falkner’s grocery. They all sickened July 10th, 1822. Dr. Walters was called to see Reder’s two daughters the following day, July 11th. Thomas was sent immediately to the New-York hospital, without having been attended by any physician, and died there july 16th, with black vomit, but was not reported to the board of health, nor recognized in that institution, according to the best of my information, as a case of yellow fever….
“…a few days afterwards an alarming number of persons took sick of the very same disease, most of whom died, in the houses in Rector-street, next to Reder’s, and to the grocery. We see that the lighters had been discharging their cargoes at, above, and below the wharf directly at the foot of Rector-street, and not more than fifty feet distant from the houses where the three first cases happened, up to the day before than on which they all sickened….” [pp. 26-27]
Townsend notes a number of people who became sick in the dock vicinity near Reder home in late July, then writes: “As none of these cases after those reported by Dr. Walters, were designated to the board under the appellation of yellow fever, and as the Resident Physician, the official adviser of the board, and who had seen these, as well as the first cases, strenuously persisted from the beginning, that there had been no yellow fever in the city, the citizens lulled themselves with these assurances into a fatal security, until the 31st of August, when two of the cases at Mrs. Rose’s were now announced by Dr. Neilson, to the board, as having developed unequivocal symptoms of yellow fever. Six out of the whole number of reported cases having now died after a few days illness, and the board remaining still unconvinced, the public became alarmed at their extraordinary apathy, and feeling no longer that implicit confidence in their decisions which they were wont to in previous years, began to judge for themselves on the measures most prudent to be adopted, to stay the pestilence or escape its ravages….” [p. 33]
(Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822.)
Newspapers at the Time on Yellow Fever in New York City
Aug 14 report: “The Yellow Fever has made its appearance in New-York.” (Adams Centinel, Gettysburg, PA. “Summary.” 8-14-1822, p. 2, col. 4.)
Aug 17-21: “New York. – On Saturday last,[33] two cases of yellow fever were reported to the Board of Health; on Sunday, three cases; on Monday, six cases; on Tuesday, three cases; and on Wednesday, seven cases. –Dr. Floyd, who removed from No. 130, Greenwich-street, in the infected district, died on Sunday with yellow fever, at Jersey City.” (Newport Mercury, RI. “Health of Our Cities.” 8-24-1822, p. 2, col. 5.)
Oct 16 item on Judgment of God: “We have been credibly informed, that a clergyman residing in the country, not more than sixty miles from New York, who is a Doctor of Divinity, and for whose talents and character we have been led to entertain a high respect, stated publicly from his desk, a few days since, that the yellow fever was doubtless a judgment sent from God upon the inhabitants of the city, in consequence of the opposition manifested by them to the attempts of the clergy something more than a year ago, to prevent what they conceived to be a profanation of the Sabbath. – N.Y. Statesman.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Illiberality.” 10-16-1822, p. 1, col. 5.)
Oct 16 report: “As one of the means of removing the cause of Yellow Fever, the grave yards of New York have been strewed with lime. It is said that the workmen employed in this operation, upon Trinity Church yard, were made sick, while so engaged, by the noxious effluvia arising from the immense mass of animal matter under their feet. In that burial place alone, upwards of one hundred thousand persons have been interred! 170 burials had taken place in it during the 50 days prior to the 10th of August. York Recorder.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Fever.” 10-16-1822, p. 1, col. 5.)
Ohio
Williams: “Epidemics. Marietta has suffered from three epidemics in 1807, 1822 and 1823….
“The epidemic of 1822 exceeded that of 1807[34]… The summer of 1822…was very dry and hot….The Ohio and Muskingum were reduced by the drouth, so that ‘they were mere brooks as compared with their usual size.’ The water was covered with a foul scum, and a green mould gathered upon the rank grass which grew along the shores and down into the beds of the streams. Dr. Hildreth’s opinion was that ‘the fever had its origin from the sandbars and beaches of the Ohio river laid bare by the great drought.’….The fever varied from the mildest intermittent types, up to the genuine yellow fever. Ague, cholera morbus and dysentery were also prevalent. At one time, within a single square mile containing a population of about twelve hundred souls, four hundred were sick with some form of disease attributed to the drought and hot weather. Dr. Hildreth had about six hundred cases to care for between the first of July and the close of November. The fever was most widely disseminated in September. It first appeared upon the ‘plain’ or higher ground in June, but in July most of the cases were in Harmar, and it did not become troublesome at the ‘Point’ until August. The proportion of deaths was about one to sixteen of the number of persons affected.
“The people became much alarmed as the season advanced and the deaths became more numerous. On September 15th a public meeting was held at which committees were appointed to visit the sick, and supply them with whatever necessities they might be lacking. Upon the eighteenth another meeting was held…The reports of the committees appointed three days before showed that over three hundred persons were sick in Marietta — a number bearing about the same proportion to the population (two thousand) that twelve hundred would to the present. Resolutions were adopted setting forth that ‘the distressed situation of our fellow-citizens and friends calls for the utmost exertions and deepest humiliation;’ that ‘we will exhort and encourage each other in visiting the sick,’ and that, ‘looking beyond the sword of pestilence to Him who wields it, we humble ourselves before Almighty God, and recommend to our fellow citizens a day of public fasting, humiliation and prayer, imploring the pardon of our sins, individually, and as a people, the arrest of the pestilence which ravages our town, and grace to receive and do all things, as those who have hope in the Lord.’….It was not, however, until hard frosts came in November that the epidemic was stopped. No less than ninety-five persons died in Marietta township during June, July, August, September and October of 1822.
“We are enabled to give a mortuary list for three months nearly complete, and containing the names of some citizens of other parts of the county, who died during the prevalence of the epidemic of 1822:….”[35] [We omit the list, though draw upon it in a breakout of deaths by month in Marietta at the top of this document.] (Williams. History of Washington County, Ohio. 1881, 426.)
Newspapers on Yellow Fever in Ohio
Sep 20 report: “A lamentable state of affliction exists at Marietta, in Ohio. Three hundred cases of fever were reported by the visiting committees in that town, about the 20th of September.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Sickness at Marietta.” 11-6-1822, p. 4, col. 1.)
Sep 29 letter: “A letter, dated September 29, from a gentleman in Columbus, Ohio, to his friend in Baltimore, states that there never had been more sickness in that state than during the present fall. In that small town there have been three buried in one day. Forty to fifty were then lying sick. The inhabitants on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers have the yellow fever to an alarming degree. The report was, that there are more than three hundred cases of yellow fever in the neighborhood of Marietta; they are dying fast; numbers arc removing from the water courses to the highlands.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. 10-23-1822, p. 1, col. 5.)
Sources
Adams Centinel, Gettysburg, PA. “Summary.” 8-14-1822, p. 2, col. 4.
Adams Centinel, Gettysburg, PA. [Yellow Fever at Havana, Cuba] 7-24-1822, p. 3.
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
Barrett, Walter. The Old Merchants of New York City. “Yellow Fever of 1798.” 1863. Accessed at: http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Newspaper/Disasters/YellowFever.html
Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&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
De Kay, James T. Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2000, p. 322. Google digital preview at:
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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
Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (3rd Ed.) NY: Facts On File, Inc., an imprint of Infobase Publishing, 1995, 2001, 2008. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 2 of 2). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1855. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=YTrUAOOJXCAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Lipson, Nicole Marie Bonomo. An Investigation into the Identity and Location of the 1882 Yellow Fever Epidemic Victims in Pensacola, Florida. Masters Thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of West Florida. 2012. Accessed 3-19-2018 at: http://etd.fcla.edu/WF/WFE0000351/Lipson_Nicole_Marie_Bonomo_201301_MA.pdf
Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov
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New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009 The City of New York. Dec 2010. Accessed 12-4-2012: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/vs/2009sum.pdf
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Newport Mercury, RI. “Health of Our Cities.” 8-24-1822, p. 2, col. 5.
Putnam, G. P. (Ed.). The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. NY: G. P. Putnam, 1851. Digitized by Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=qz9HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
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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. Google digital preview at: http://books.google.com/books?id=pfsOAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
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[1] Cites Gettysburg Compiler, PA. We do not use this in our tally given Senate Documents, Vol. 272, “Yellow-Fever Epidemic of 1873,” p. 7, which notes that “with the exception of Barrancas, where the fever manifested itself on the 23d of September, all of the above-mentioned places escaped. The troops of Barrancas were, with the exception of about a dozen, instantly removed to Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, and not a case occurred among them.”
[2] See table of mortality in Narrative Information section below for Pensacola. In that other sources do not use this figure, instead citing either 237 or 257 or 259, we are reluctant to use in our tally.
[3] Notes as many as 18 deaths in a single day.
[4] New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, XXIII (January, 1870), p. 25.
[5] Carrigan writes that if the editor of the Louisiana Gazette was willing “to accept this total probably indicates that several hundred should be added to it.” The Gazette accepted 1,400. For the purpose of a tally we convert “several hundred” into 300 and add that to 1,400.
[6] Cited by Carrigan 1961, p. 64.
[7] In table which notes this was out of a total death toll of 2,734 and a population of 31,706.
[8] “Comparative Table [Yellow Fever and Cholera]. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1st — of Yellow Fever.” Notes that there were 2,734 total deaths, out of a population of 31,706, making this loss the 2nd worst yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans as a ration of total population to yellow fever deaths.
[9] New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division. “Yellow Fever Deaths in New Orleans, 1817-1905.”
[10] Townsend writes that the first case was noted on July 10th and the first death on July 16th. (p. 26_
[11] While 366 is a very specific number, we choose not to view The World’s Progress as a credible source in this instance given the widespread reporting of 230 to just over 250 deaths, including the NY State Board of Health and U.S Marine-Hospital Service.
[12] “For nearly twenty years, or until 1822, New York was free from any epidemic of contagious disease. The epidemic of yellow fever in the year last named, although numbering five hundred cases, of which more than half were fatal, seems not to have been productive of any further legislation.” Page 33 in: New York State Board of Health. “Report of Standing Committee on Quarantine – External and Internal,” pp. 31-54 in First Annual Report of the State Board of Health of New York (Transmitted to the Governor December 1, 1880). Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., Printers, 1881. Google digitized at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=TGPUmyX6_UgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[13] Chart on cover page entitled “The Conquest of Pestilence in New York City…As Shown by the Death Rate as Recorded in the Official Records of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.” We cannot reconcile this statement with widespread reporting of 230 to just over 250 deaths from credible, including government, sources.
[14] See descriptive narrative below in New York section. One of the deaths occurred before July 8 arrival, on July 1. Another death was a sailor’s wife who came onboard Aug 2 and died in the Staten Island Marine Hospital, Aug 18.
[15] Page 33 has the date of death as the 26th. On page 123 it is written she “had sickened on the 16th of July, and…died on the 24th instant [July].”
[16] Townsend. An Account of the Yellow Fever… 1896, p. 123.
[17] “In 1822, Marietta (Ohio) was visited by a serious epidemic, which carried off many individuals. The disease was characterized by most of the pathognomonic symptoms of the yellow fever — pain over the eyes, in the back, loins, and joints; a paroxysm of forty-eight or seventy-two hours, followed by a metaptosis; light coated tongue; continual and great nausea; anxiety and distress about the praecordia, and incessant vomiting, in the latter stage, of dark-coloured matter mixed with mucus, and resembling coffee-grounds; yellow and saffron hue of the eyes and skin, first commencing in the former, thence about the forehead and neck, and thence over the whole surface. In this instance the disease, as often occurs in true yellow fever, was preceded by excessive drought, heat, and aridity, as well as by swarms of insects. It commenced on the 1st of August, was very general in September, and gave way to the heavy frosts of November.” Cites Hildreth. Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, ix, 110, &c.
[18] In “Epidemics” section, Williams writes of deaths from “The fever [which] varied from the mildest intermittent types, up to the genuine yellow fever.” Adds: “No less than ninety-five persons died in Marietta township during June, July, August, September and October of 1822.” We note approximately (~) 95 deaths in that deaths from other causes than yellow fever could have occurred.
[19] Arrived in New York City on July 22 with yellow fever onboard, from trip from Caribbean.
[20] The preceding note is to the effect of news brought from this ship and related in the Charleston Courier [SC] of July 10, “that it was getting sickly at New Orleans, and the Mayor of that place had recommended a removal, to all those who could make it convenient.”
[21] “On the 7th, a young lady, who had recently arrived from New Orleans, died with the black vomit. Her attending physicians…had no suspicion of the real character of the disease, until this last fatal harbinger of death made its appearance. About the same time, two other cases of malignant fever occurred in a quarter of the town which had been considered the most healthy. As the symptoms in these cases were very mild in appearance, and as the subject of one was a Spanish lady, long a resident in the climate, the physicians labored under the same delusion as in the first case: both patients died on the 12th with black vomit.” (Lawson, Sickness and Mortality, 1840, 37 36.)
[22] In footnote: “See letter of Mr. Barber, of Pensacola, dated Pensacola, Sept. 20, 1822, published in the New-York papers.”
[23] Carrigan, at footnote 62, cites: Pierre Frederick Thomas, Essai sur la Fievre Jaune d’Amérique . . . avec l’Histoire de 1a Épidémic de la Nouvelle-Orléans en 1822 . . . (Paris, 1823), p. 110.
[24] Carrigan, at footnote 63, cites: Ferdinand de Feriet to Janica de Feriet, September 15, 1822, Ferdinand de Feriet Letters, I (1816-1825) (Manuscripts Section, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, New Orleans).
[25] Carrigan, at footnote 64, cites: Thomas, Essai sur la Fiѐvre Jaune d’Amérique, p. 111.
[26] Cites, in footnote 67: New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, XXIII (January, 1870), p. 25.
[27] Cites: John Duffy (ed.). The Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana, Vol. I, Baton Rouge, 1958, p. 367.
[28] Presumably yellow fever.
[29] Meaning the previous month. In that this article is datelined Oct 17, the reference is to September.
[30] Not necessarily all, however, from yellow fever.
[31] Gutters or channels on each side of a ship’s keelson that drain bilge water into the pump well. (Free Dictionary)
[32] La Roche citation 1, p. 432: History of the Proceedings of the Board of Health of the City of New York, in the Summer and Fall of 1822, p. 142; see also pp. 15, 123, of same work, and Bayley’s Report of the Epidemics of 1822, N.Y. Med. And Phys. Journal, i. 426.
[33] This paper is from Saturday, August 24, thus the reference appears to be for August 17.
[34] “The disease [a fever] carried off a considerable number of the people of Marietta and Washington county…”
[35] Cites: “Ole Marietta Papers,” No. SVII, in Marietta Register, by R. M. Stimson, esq.