50, FL– 263

lornajarrettblanchard August 1, 1877

–263 Blanchard tally based on numbers below.

Florida (261)

–112 Enterprise, Volusia Co. Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, p. 454.

— 94 Fernandina, Nassau Co. Aug-Oct. Merritt. A Century of Medicine in Jacksonville… 1949, 107.

— 5 Jacksonville.

–1 “ Sailor from schooner Kit Carson. Morning Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN. Sep 21.

–1 “ ~Oct 30. Merritt. A Century of Medicine in Jacksonville… 1949, 109.

–3 “ Nov 1-14. Daniel ltr. in Merritt. Medicine in Jacksonville. 1949, p. 110.[1]

— 50 St. Augustine, St. Johns Co. Nov 9 start. Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 458.

New York ( 2)

–1 New York City, at hospital, Aug 29. Male, off of steamer from Fernandina, sick on arrival.[2]

–1 “ Cpt. Leach, Whaling schooner Charles Thompson; had stopped at Fernandina.[3]

Narrative Information

Merritt on Fernandina: “It is difficult to imagine the hardships which Jacksonville’s neighboring city [Fernandina] encountered during the summer and fall of 1877. On October 27 it was announced that eight hundred families there were helpless,[4] while a few days later Dr. Blackburn reported that the fever was at a standstill among the white population because there was ‘no material for it to work on.’ A census of Fernandina taken a month earlier, on September 28, showed that out of a population of sixteen hundred, more than eleven hundred had the fever. There were ninety-four deaths, a mortality rate of about 5½ per cent of the total population. Among the white people the mortality rate was about 16 per cent, whereas among the Negroes it was less than 1 per cent.

“Physicians and nurses came from many parts of the United States to lend aid, and contributions from widespread areas to the relief fund amounted to more than $26,000. Nevertheless, suffering was intense. The epidemic left the people of the town almost destitute while business, which depended chiefly on shipping, was utterly prostrate.”[5] [pp. 106-107]

Merritt on Jacksonville: “While the people of Fernandina were suffering intensely during the summer and fall of 1877, the residents of Jacksonville were faring somewhat better….” [p. 108]

“…on September 18, the following report appeared in a local paper:

City Health Report, Jacksonville, September 17, 8:30 p.m.

Hon. T. S. Eells, President Board of Health

Sir: Under recent resolution of Duval County Medical Society, that their president should…make a daily report to the public, through you, as to whether any of the members of this society have found in their practice, or have any knowledge of any case simulating yellow fever I would respectfully report none up to this date.

Your obedient servant

P. Daniel

President, Duval County Medical Society.[6]

“This report was repeated in substance and issued as a bulletin in a local paper nearly every day up to and including November 3.[7]

“Despite these efforts, however, business activity in Jacksonville continued to decline. On October 9 the following ‘document,’ intended for publication in the Philadelphia newspapers, was forwarded to Mr. W. S. Boyd, the mayor of Jacksonville, who was ill in Philadelphia:

To the Public

This is to certify that there is no contagious or infectious disease existing in the city of Jacksonville, Florida…that there has not been a case of yellow fever or anything resembling a case of yellow fever this season…and that the city is in all respects healthy.[8]

“The city authorities and health officials were probably protesting too loudly. Eight or more illnesses resembling yellow fever had appeared in Jacksonville, and there was sufficient reason for the rumors that were being circulated. On October 27 the first typical case of yellow fever occurred, and a few days later the patient died. Following that date the disease became common, and deaths occurred frequently.[9]

“When it became apparent that there was an unusual amount of fever in Jacksonville, some members of the medical profession felt that the public should be informed. Just as in 1857, however, the health officials, newspaper editors, and business men of the city were eager to avoid a panic.[10] Hence no public statement was made.

“On November 10 the daily health bulletin was discontinued, the reason given to the public being ‘the cool change and present health of the city.’[11] A few days later, however, those members of the medical profession who felt the truth should no longer be withheld from the public prevailed. To Mayor Boyd, who had returned to Jacksonville, Dr. Daniel wrote the following letter:

Hon. W. Stokes Boyd Jacksonville

Mayor & Nov 14^th 1877.

President Board of Health

Sir:

Within the last two weeks a number of cases of fever have occurred in and around the city, principally in the western suburb, on the south side of the Pond, and in the neighborhood of The Waverly House; several of these have proved fatal. Drs. Mitchell, Sabal, Knight, Holt, Fernandez and myself have all had one or more cases.

Our duty to the authorities, the community and ourselves, compels us to recognize the undoubted features of yellow fever in these cases.

We have conscientiously withheld this fact from the public up to this time, earnestly hoping and trusting that the late period of fall would have given us such a temperature ere this as would have stamped out all fevers; and feeling that a few additional days of exposure would, by not means, jeopardize the health and lives of this community as much as would the probable panic and its consequences if our convictions had been made public.

And now, whilst we have no right to withhold the truth, we still sanguinely hope that a very few additional days of risk will carry us out of danger.

Respectfully

P. Daniel

President Duval County Medical Society[12]

Panic

“In the same issue of the paper in which this letter was published, Mayor Boyd inserted a bulletin addressed to the citizens of Jacksonville, requesting them to remain quietly at home and not to become panic-stricken.[13] Words of caution and warning, however, were of no avail. Almost immediately there was much excitement on the street, and it was estimated that within thirty-six hours nearly eight hundred people left the city by boat and train.”[14] [pp. 108-110]

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

Merritt, Webster. A Century of Medicine in Jacksonville and Duval County. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1949. Accessed 4-25-2018 at: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00103093/00001/51x

Morning Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN. “Deaths from Yellow Fever.” 9-21-1877, p. 1, col. 4. Accessed 4-26-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/fort-wayne-morning-gazette-aug-21-1877-p-1/

New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division. Yellow Fever Deaths in New Orleans, 1817-1905. Accessed 3-7-2010 at: http://nutrias.org/facts/feverdeaths.htm

Philadelphia Times. [Yellow Fever NYC; boat from Fernandina] 9-13-1877, p. 1, col. 5. Accessed 4-26-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-times-sep-13-1877-p-1/

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Yellow Fever in New York.” 9-4-1877, p. 4, col. 1. Accessed 4-26-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-sep-04-1877-p-4/

[1] Our number based on statement of “several” deaths previous two weeks, in letter dated Nov 14.

[2] Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Yellow Fever in New York.” 9-4-1877, p. 4, col. 1.

[3] “The whaling schooner Charles Thompson, of Provincetown, arrived at New York yesterday from a cruise, via Fernandina. September 3, Captain Leach was taken sick with yellow fever and died; on the 4^th the second mate and on the 7^th the first mate were taken down with the fever…[not clear that they died, however].” (Philadelphia Times. 9-13-1877, p. 1, col. 5.)

[4] Cites in footnote 31: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 10-12-1877.

[5] Cites in footnote 34: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 12-8-1877; Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1877 (New York, 1863), new series II, 298, 299.

[6] Cites in footnote 2, p. 108: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, “The Board of Health in Session,” 9-18-1877.

[7] Cites in footnote 3, p. 109: Ibid., multiple September, October and November dates.

[8] Signed by T. S. Eells, Pres. Jacksonville Board of Health, A. W. Knight, Jacksonville Health Officer, T. A. Willson, Mayor Protem, and R. P. Daniel, President, Duval County Medical Society. Merritt cites, in footnote 4, p. 109: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 10-9-1877.

[9] Cites in fn. 5, p. 109: R.P. Daniel, MD, “Report on Yellow Fever in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1877,” 1878 Session.

[10] Blanchard note: This is, in my opinion, putting it in a too favorable light. Typically financial interests drove decisions to tamper down news of epidemic diseases.

[11] Cites in footnote 6, p. 109: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 11-11-1877.

[12] Cites, in footnote 7, p. 110: Original letter of Dr. R. P. Daniel to Mayor W. Stokes Boyd, November 14, 1877, in the library of Mr. Richard P. Daniel, Jacksonville, Florida.

[13] Cites, in footnote 8, p. 110: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 11-16-1877.

[14] Cites, in footnote 9, p. 110: Jacksonville Daily Sun and Press, 11-17-1877.