1837 — Aug-Nov, Yellow Fever Epidemics, Mobile AL; New Orleans LA; Natchez MS-1550-1,930
–1,550-1,930 Blanchard tally from State and local breakouts below.
— 1,072 Keating 1879, p. 86.
Alabama (>230-350) (Sep 20-Nov 30)
— 350 Mobile, Sep 20-Nov. Keating 1879, 86; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 16.[1]
— 350 “ AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic Hist. (citing Time Mag., 7-6-1925)[2]
— 150 “ Sep 20-Nov 30 Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 443.[3]
— 130 “ US Marine Hospital Service 1896, 436.
–>100 Mobile Point and Pass Christian, Creek Indians. Meares 1998.
Louisiana ( 1,300) (Aug-early Nov)
—>1,300 New Orleans. Aug-early Nov Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 72.[4]
— 1,300 “ Jones. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878.” 699.[5]
— 442 “ U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. 1896, p. 436.
— 350 “ July 24, 1st case Keating 1879, 86; Sternberg 1908, 719.
Mississippi ( 280) (Sep 8-Nov 25, esp. Oct)
— 280 Natchez, Sep 8, 1st case. Keating 1879, 86; Monette 1842, 70; Sternberg 1908, 719.
Natchez, Mississippi:
Monette: “The epidemic of 1837. — This began with a few cases called sporadic, about the 8th and 10th of September; and by the 15th it was considered epidemic. Many of the physicians denied the existence of yellow fever in the city until several cases terminated fatally with the genuine black-vomit, which none could dispute. The disease continued to spread gradually and with occasional abatements, until checked by frost about the 25th of November. The number of deaths from this epidemic was about 280, including hospital cases, many of which had been landed in a moribund state from steamboats direct from New Orleans. The epidemic this year was more mild and slow in its advances than usual, until the middle of October, when it began to rage with great malignity. This season the first cases in September frequently assumed some of the symptoms so mild that it was declared by some to be bilious fever.
“The city of Natchez was as healthy as usual until the cases began to multiply; and it must be remembered that there were many cases of yellow fever landed from steamboats direct from New Orleans for ten days before any cases appeared among the residents of the city. The Natchez Hospital had been opened for the reception of indigent boatmen and others; and scarcely a boat passed up from New Orleans at this season of the year, that did not leave some yellow-fever patient at the hospital. It is a well-known fact on the lower Mississippi, that from the time yellow fever begins to occur in New Orleans, almost every boat that passes up leaves one or more yellow-fever patients at Natchez to be removed to the hospital, in passing to which they are carried through the most populous part of the city.
“For several years previous to 1837 the Natchez Hospital had been closed against the reception of sick from the boats; and during this time there was no epidemic. But, a year before, the legislature had made provision for throwing open the hospital to the indigent sick; and it was in full operation when the yellow fever broke out in New Orleans, and scarcely a day passed without the reception of one or more patients from ascending boats, after the first of June; and after the first of August nearly all these were yellow-fever cases.
“It may be worthy of notice here, that in the summer of 1841, when the quarantine was adopted, the hospital was closed, and no patients permitted to land from the boats, unless at private houses. As a general remark, there has never been yellow fever in Natchez unless when the hospital was open for the reception of indigent boatmen and others from the river. When the hospital is open, it is an inducement for all the steamboats passing up to land at Natchez, if for no
other purpose than to relieve themselves of the sick, whom they might have to bury on their way above.” (Monette 1842, pp. 69-71.)
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
Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.
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
Drake, Daniel, M.D., S. Hanbury Smith, M.D. and Francis G. Smith, M.D. (eds.). A Systematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological, and Practical, on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America…(Second Series). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Publishers, 1854. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=AW0_AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
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
Jones, Joseph, MD. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in New Orleans,” p. 683-715 in New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal (S. M. Bemis, W. H. Watkins and S. S. Herrick eds.). Vol. VI, New Series, 1878-ʹ9), March, 1879. Accessed 3-20-2018 at: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/19030340RX28.nlm.nih.gov/19030340RX28.pdf
Meares, Cecil. “Wild West.” October 1998. Accessed at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~texlance/emigrants/monmouth.htm
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
Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever: History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#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
[1] Toner shows dates of Sep 20 to Nov. and cites: Drake, Dis. Interior Valley of North America, p. 220.
[2] “1837. Four cases appeared September 20 at Mobile, but no more at that time. On October 2 a frost fell and those who had left the city returned. On October 10, cases broke out in every section of the city, and the disease was soon epidemic, running to the end of November, 350 deaths reported.”
[3] “1837. For eight years, Mobile was free from epidemic disease. On September 20, 1837, four cases of yellow fever suddenly made their appearance. After this outbreak the disease disappeared, and the public mind was reassured. There was a light frost on October 2, and those who had fled returned to the city, feeling certain that all danger was over. On October 10, cases erupted in nearly every section of the town, and the disease was soon epidemic, running its course until the end of November. Deaths: 150.”
[4] Carrigan, after citing the N.O. Med. & Surg. Journal, which we cite as well, after noting 1,300 deaths, writes “But with the newspapers reporting a daily average of seventy-five to a hundred deaths early in the epidemic and thirty to forty when the malady had abated considerably, it seems that the total should be much higher.” (Carrigan cites the Picayune of Aug 31 and Sep 13, and the Price Current of Oct 2, 1837.)
[5] Jones, Joseph, MD. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in New Orleans.” New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. March, 1879, beginning at p. 683. From table “Deaths from Yellow Fever” by Year.