1843 — July-Nov, Yellow Fever, esp. Mobile AL (240-750), New Orleans (487-700)–758-1,481

–758-1,481 Blanchard tally based on State and locality breakouts below.

 

Alabama         (240-750)        (Aug 18-Nov 5

— 750  Mobile, Aug 24-Nov 5.           Augustin.  History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 444.

— 240       “      Aug 18-Nov 5.            Keating 1879, 87; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 16;[1]

USMHS 1896, 436.

—      9      “      Oct 3                           Washington Globe. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.

—      7      “      Oct 4                           Washington Globe. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.

—    21      “      Oct 8-14                      Washington Globe. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, p. 3.

 

Louisiana       (487-700)        (July 5-Oct 16)

–700  New Orleans                 Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 78, citing Jones, NOMSJ.[2]

–700        “                              Jones. New Orleans Medical & Surg. Jour., Vol. VI, 1879, p. 699.[3]

–487       “   July 5 start          Keating 1879, 87; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, 436

—  62       “   Sep 24-30.          Washington Globe, DC. (Yellow Fever, NOLA). 10-11-1843, p. 3.

–104       “   Sep 30-Oct 7.      Washington Globe, DC. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, p. 3.[4]

—  14       “   Oct 2.                  Washington Globe, DC. (Yellow Fever, NOLA). 10-11-1843, p. 3.

—  12       “   Oct 6.    Washington Globe, DC. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.[5]

—    8       “   Oct 7.    Washington Globe, DC. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.[6]

—  10       “   Oct 8.    Washington Globe, DC. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, p. 3.[7]

—  11       “   Oct 9.    Washington Globe, DC. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, p. 3.[8]

—    8       “   Oct 11.  Washington Globe. “Health of New Orleans and Mobile.” 10-21-1843, 3.[9]

—    7       “   Oct 16.  Washington Globe. “Health of New Orleans and Mobile.” 10-28-1843, 3.[10]

 

Mississippi      (         26)         (Oct-Nov)

—  26  Rodney.            Natchez Gazette. “The Late Mortality in Rodney.” 11-22-1843.

—    ?  Vicksburg.        Moore, Sue B. “Yellow Fever in Jefferson County, Mississippi” website.[11]

 

New York       (           5)   N.Y. Marine Hospital.      Keating 1879, 87; USMHS 1896, 436.

 

Narrative Information

Alabama, Mobile:

 

Augustin:  “Population, 11,500. The first case of the epidemic of 1843 occurred on August 24, followed by a second case on the 26; both terminated fatally. It was not generally known that the disease had broken out, the public being kept in ignorance of the fact. About September 10, many cases, accompanied by black vomit, were observed, and the disease soon became widespread. Last case erupted November 5. Cases, 1,350; deaths, 750.” (p. 444 in reprint and p. 785 in electronic version.)

 

Oct 19 report:  “We are glad to notice an improvement in the health of our sister city, and trust

that it may continue. On Friday last, there were but three cases of yellow fever reported to the Board of Health, and seven on Saturday. The number for Thursday was five. The interments for the week ending Saturday amounted to forty five; of which, twenty-one were of yellow-fever cases.”  (Washington Globe. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, p. 3.)

 

Louisiana, New Orleans:

 

Oct 6-7 reports: “The Picayune of the 6^th instant says:  We feel ourselves called upon to repeat our admonition to strangers and persons who are not acclimated: Keep out of the city. The epidemic is malignantly rife among us, dragging to the grave, with fearful speed, most of those on whom it lays its prostrating hand. We say not this to alarm the present, but to caution the absent. The changing season will soon neutralize the virus of the fever; till then, all who hold life in account will keep away from New Orleans.”  (Washington Globe. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.)

 

Mississippi, Rodney:

 

Moore: “Rodney and surrounding Jefferson County endured the ravages of yellow fever numerous times and in varying degrees of severity in the nineteenth century…. The first major epidemic occurred in Rodney in 1843 and was so dire that its destruction made national newspapers. The deaths began in early September.  The Cleveland Herald on Oct. 25, 1843, reported, “Up to the 12th Inst., the yellow fever was on the increase at Vicksburg and was very malignant with foreigners.  It was also prevailing at Rodney.” The Philadelphia Inquirer and National Gazette, Oct. 26, 1843, noted, “The Fever at Rodney – The last New Orleans papers say that at Rodney, Miss., the yellow fever continued to rage in its most fatal form.  All the physicians, without exception, have been taken down with the disease.  The death of Dr. J. H. Savage is reported, and Dr. Hulser, Dr. Pickett, Dr. Williams, Dr. Todd, and Dr. Andrews were all down sick.”  (Moore, Sue B. “Yellow Fever in Jefferson County, Mississippi.” Jefferson County MSGenWeb Project website. Accessed 8-23-2013.)

 

Oct 7 report:  “We learn (says the Picayune of the 7^th instant) by the steamer Arkansas, which arrived here yesterday, that twenty cases of yellow fever had occurred on the 4^th instant at Rodney, Mississippi, and that two deaths had already taken place from that disease.”  (Washington Globe. “The Epidemic.” 10-16-1843, p. 3.)

 

Oct 19 report:  “Rodney. — This village, about forty miles above Natchez, has been visited by the yellow fever in a malignant form. The inhabitants have all fled from their residences; even the apothecary — doubtful, we suppose, of the efficacy of his own drugs — is not “at home” to his customers.-Picayune.” (Washington Globe. “The Yellow Fever.” 10-19-1843, 3)

 

Nov 22 report: “The hand of the yellow tyrant of the tropics was sore and heavy upon our neighboring city of Rodney, especially when it is considered that most of the inhabitants fled, and that during the mortality, the population of the village, white and black, probably did not exceed one hundred souls.  The following list of the names of the victims was politely furnished us by Mr. A. G. Carpenter, who volunteered, as Druggist, to accompany Dr. Benbrook, who went to Rodney in the darkest night of their peril, to risk life in the fearful combat against a disease which had prostrated nearly every physician in the place.  Mr. Carpenter stayed much longer than Dr. Benbrook, and did not leave until every vestige of the epidemic had vanished.  These gentlemen deserve the very highest commendation for their self-sacrificing zeal in favor of suffering humanity.  The only reward they have as yet obtained, as far as we know, is the approbation of their own consciences, and the applause of their fellow citizens, who trembled for their safety while they were absent on their perilous errand of mercy.

“Mr. Carpenter derived the following list of the dead from Mr. Thornsbury, the mechanic who assisted in making the coffins. It is probably as correct as the disturbed and frightful state of affairs in the depopulated village could permit anyone to furnish.

 

List of the Dead:

 

Dr. James Andrews’ daughter;

Mrs. Montgomery;

Messrs. Busk, Jeter, Ira;

Mrs. Skinner;

William Ballantine;

Mrs. Ballantine;

John Groves;

Mrs. Earls;

Mr. Wood, of the firm of Murray, Wood & Co.;

James Ricks;

Harrison Logan;

Robert Logan;

Mrs. Logan;

Mrs. Green T. Martin;

John Evans;

Dr. John H. Savage;

Mrs. Love;

James M. Berry;

Anthony Cokelin;

John Whitworth;

Gertrude Martin;

Charles Stewart;

Mrs. Divine;

Josiah Lawton”

 

(Natchez Gazette. “The Late Mortality in Rodney.” 11-22-1843.)

 

Sources

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Moore, Sue B. “Yellow Fever in Jefferson County, Mississippi.” Jefferson County MSGenWeb Project website. Accessed 8-23-2013 at: http://jeffersoncountyms.org/yellowfever.htm

 

Natchez Gazette. “The Late Mortality in Rodney.” 11-22-1843. Transcription accessed 8-23-2013 at: “1843 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Rodney, Jefferson County, Mississippi,” at: http://www.old-new-orleans.com/Rodney_Yellow_Fever_1843.html

 

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] Cites Drake, p. 191.

[2] Notes the population was “over 100,000, and after epidemics which carried off nearly 2,000, the outbreak of that year could only be considered a rather moderate one.”

[3] In table on yellow fever deaths in New Orleans by year from 1817 to 1878.

[4] Represents yellow fever burials for the week, beginning at noon on 30^th till noon on 7^th, out of 180 total burials.

[5] At Charity Hospital. Same day 18 yellow fever patients admitted and 9 discharged.

[6] At Charity Hospital. Same day 25 yellow fever patients admitted and 6 discharged.

[7] At Charity Hospital. On this same Sunday, 9 yellow fever cases were admitted and 9 discharged.

[8] At Charity Hospital. Twenty-two yellow fever cases were admitted and 10 discharged.

[9] At Charity Hospital. Notes “Ten new cases of yellow fever were reported to the Mobile board of health on the 12^th instant.”

[10] Notes ten new cases were admitted to the Charity Hospital, where the seven deaths occurred, on the same day.

[11] Cites The Cleveland Herald, 10-25-1843 to the effect that “Up to the 12^th Inst., the yellow fever was on the increase at Vicksburg and was very malignant with foreigners.”