1712-13 — Oct 1712-Sep 1713, “Malignant Distemper,” Waterbury, CT –21-30
–20-30 Trumbull in Vaughan. Epidemiology and Public Health. 1922, Pp. 87-88.
— 21 Caulfield. “The Pursuit of a Pestilence.” Proceedings…American Antiquarian Soc., Apr 1950, 34.
— >20 Pritchard. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, Vol. 1, p. 285. (Names 18.)
–1 Oct 1712, John Richardson, north side of West Main street.
–1 17 days later, Nathaniel Richardson (soldier and brother of John).
–1 11 days later, Thomas Richardson, Grand proprietor, in same house as Nathaniel.
–1 Week later, Mary Richardson, wife and mother, same house as Nathaniel.
–1 Dec 18, 1712, Israel Richardson (same Richardson family).
–2 Short time later, wife and daughter of Israel Richardson.
–1 Next house eastward, Mary Bronson, widow of Grand proprietor John Bronson.
1713
–1 March, Hannah Judd, 16, daughter of John Judd.
–1 Same day, Hannah Judd, 14, daughter of Deacon Judd.
–5 Hikcox family members.
–Samuel Hikcox, first settler of Naugatuck.
–Samuel, son of Samuel the elder.
–3 sons of William Hikcox.
–2 Wife and son (Ebenezer, 20), of Benjamin Barnes.
–1 Daniel Warner, at Judd’s Meadows.
Narrative Information
Caulfield: “A ‘Second Breaking out of the Malignant Distemper that proved so Mortal…the last winter;[1] especially in Hartford, Weathersfield, and Glassenbury,’ appears to have reached its peak during September or October, 1712. The two outbreaks caused two hundred deaths in these three towns alone; and forty more were said to have died in Windsor between August and November. The Reverend John Southmayd, apparently writing from memory in 1729, sent to Thomas Prince when the latter was gathering material for his Chronological History a letter describing the sickness in Waterbury during which twenty-one persons died between October 1712, and the following September. ‘The sickness was so great that there were hardly enough well to tend the sick.’ There are some indications in the vital records that Southmayd included deaths from all causes during this interval and that this ‘Great Sickness’ which Noah Webster guessed was ‘a species of putrid pleurisy’ may have been caused by two distinct diseases, one prevailing in the autumn and the other the following spring. At all events the sickness in Waterbury has gone down in history while the other Connecticut epidemics have mostly been forgotten simply because Noah Webster happened to overlook them.
“These epidemics in Connecticut and Springfield [MA] have been included in this article on influenza because many of them had epidemiological characteristics of that disease. It is probably only a question of time before confirmatory evidence becomes available, but until it does the diagnosis must remain in doubt.” (pp. 34-35.)
Pritchard: “…illness and death…befell it [Waterbury] from October 1712, to September 1713, in which time more than twenty persons died. Mr. Southmayd gives us no hint of the origin of this ‘great sickness,’ but it perhaps was the same ‘camp distemper’ that caused the troops to turn back so frequently. It began in Waterbury, in so far as we may tell, by the illness and death of John Richardson in October of 1712, in the third house (east from Willow) on the north side of West Main street — to be followed in seventeen days by the death of his soldier brother, Nathaniel, in the house next eastward; and that death in eleven days more, by theat of Thomas Richardson, the Grand proprietor, in the same house; while but a week later, from the same home was borne forth the weary-hearted wife and mother, Mary Richardson — she, who, when living in a cellar, became the mother of the first-born child of Mattatuck. In less than a month, on the 18th of December, Israel Richardson, another son of the same family, was taken — to be followed in a brief while by his wife and their daughter. In the next house eastward, died Mary, the widow of the Grand proprietor, John Bronson — while in the following March a most unusual event took place in the Burying yard on Grand street — it was the burial of two young girls who died on the same day, and who bore the same name — Hannah Judd — the one was the sixteen-year old daughter of John Judd; the other the fourteen-year old daughter of Deacon Judd. Of the Hikcox family, five members died. Samuel, the first settle of Naugatuck, and his son Samuel, and three young sons of William Hikcox, who occupied his father’s homestead — now crossed by Prospect street. In the next house, on the corner of North Main street, before the year closed there died the wife, and son Ebenezer, aged twenty, of Benjamin Barnes. Every death that occurred I the village, of which we have record, took place in the row of houses on the north side of West Main street, between Willow and North Main streets, supplemented by the two houses, close by, of Samuel Standly and Stephen Welton on the east side of the Green, and that of Deacon Judd at the west end. To these must be added the death of Daniel Warner, at Judd’s Meadows. We have no means of estimating the number of those who were ill, but Dr. Porter’s ability must have been tested to the utmost, and the need of another practitioner was felt, for we find the proprietors urging Dr. Ephraim Warner to ‘live among them’ and coaxing him with the use of all the school lands for three years, and ten acres in the sequester, and other alluring morsels of meadow, or ‘swamp that would make meadow.’ Dr. Warner was coaxed and came, and proved professional enough, on occasion, to assist Dr. Porter in his ‘protesting cases.” (pp. 285-286.)
Vaughan (citing Trumbull): “With reference to the same epidemic [which Webster noted], Trumbull, in his History of Connecticut,[2] says:
In 1712, on the 15th of October, began a great sickness in the town (Waterbury) which continued until 12th of September, 1713, and was so general that there were scarcely a sufficient number well to attend the sick, and bury the dead. Between 20 and 30 persons died of the sickness.[3]
“We learn from the same authority that Waterbury was vested with town privileges in 1686 and that the number of freeholders at that time was about 28”[4] (Vaughn, pp. 87-88.)
Webster: “In October 1712 commenced a mortal sickness in the town of Waterbury, in Connecticut, which raged for eleven months. It was so general that nurses could scarcely be found to tend the sick. What the disease was, I am not informed; but not improbably it that species of putrid pleurisy, which has so often made dreadful havoc in America.” (p. 223.)
Sources
Caulfield, Ernest. “The Pursuit of a Pestilence.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1950, pp. 21-52. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807204.pdf
Prichard, Sarah J. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, From the Aboriginal Period to the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Five, Volume 1 (edited by Joseph Anderson). New Haven, CT: Price & Lee Co., 1896. Google preview accessed 4-8-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=U_QLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Trumbull, Benjamin. A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical (Vol. 1). New-Haven, CT: Maltby, Goldsmith and Co. and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818. Republished by Applewood Books (Carlisle, MA). Google preview accessed 4-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=NGDxIRllxdcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Vaughan, Victor C., MD assisted by Henry F. Vaughan and George T. Palmer. Epidemiology and Public Health: A Text and Reference Book for Physicians, Medical Students and Health Workers Vol. I, Respiratory Infections. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Co., 1922. Google preview accessed 4-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=duUxAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases; with the principal phenomena of the physical world which precede and accompany them, and observations deduced from the facts stated (in two volumes). Hartford, CT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799. Accessed 1-7-2018 at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:11?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
[1] See our 1711-12 Malignant Distemper (Influenza?), CT listing.
[2] P. 367 in Benjamin Trumbull. A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical (Vol. 1). New-Haven, CT: Maltby, Goldsmith and Co. and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818. Republished by Applewood Books (Carlisle, MA).
[3] Trumbull cites: Manuscripts of Mr. Southmayd.
[4] Thus, even twenty-six years later, Waterbury was probably still a sparsely populated place.