315 –~2,500

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1876

Document created by Wayne Blanchard Feb 2015; revised Dec 2019 for website: Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-Of-Life Events. https://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–2,513-2,520 Blanchard tally based on limited State and/or locality breakouts below.

California (482) May 19-July 1, 1877

–482 Kraut, Alan M. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace. 1995, 82.

–482 Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in [SF’s]Chinatown. 2001, p. 57.

Illinois, Chicago ( 28) US National Board of Health. Annual Report of…1883. 1884, p. 134.[1]

Massachusetts ( 31) Boston Medical…Surgical Jour. Vol. CIX, July-Dec 1883, p. 498-499.

Michigan ( 76) MI Secretary of State. Sixteenth Annual Report…Year 1882. p. 269.

New York City (315) Annual Rpt. Dept. of Health…City of [NY]…Years 1911-1912., p. 227.

Ohio (927-934) Especially Cincinnati (915-929)

–927-934 Blanchard tally based on breakouts below.

–929 Cincinnati. Blanchard based on OH Bureau of Labor Stats. Rpt. of 1,651 deaths 1875-76.[2]

–927 “ Twitchell. “The Prevention of Smallpox.” Lancet-Clinic, V. LVI, 1906, p. 693.

–915 “ Davis for Jan-Feb and National Board of Health for March-December.

–~494 Jan-Feb. Davis. Address to Graduating Class of Miami Medical College.[3]

— 421 Cincinnati. National Board of Health Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 28, 1-7-1882, p. 229.^[4]

–… Jan –96 March –101 May –25 July –4 Sep –13 Nov

–… Feb –85 April — 80 June — 2 Aug –3 Oct –12 Dec

–305 Jan. Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH. 2-12-1876, p. 2.[5]

— 2 Portsmouth, Feb 1 burial, Jessie Neeks, 18; Feb 12 burial, George Tersie, 22.^[6]

— 3 From family living between Sardis and Barnesville.^[7]

Pennsylvania (493) Especially Philadelphia (407), Pittsburgh (86)

–407 Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia. Annual Report (Vol. III), 1907, p. 100.^[8]

— 86 Pittsburgh. Sanitarian. “Editor’s Table.” Vol. V, No. 53, Aug 1877, p. 377. [421 cases]

Wisconsin (161)

–161 Statewide. Griffin, E. L. M.D. “Supplementary Report on Small-Pox.” 1876, p. 93.

— 29 Milwaukee, June. Sanitarian. “Editor’s Table.” Vol. V, No. 53, Aug 1877, p. 375.[9]

Narrative Information

California

Kraut: “California Caucasians blamed an epidemic of smallpox on the Chinese. Some 1,646 cases of smallpox were reported to the San Francisco Health Office between May 19, 1876 and July 1, 1877; 482 died, including 77 Chinese.” (Kraut. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace. 1995, p. 82.)

Shah: “The first two [smallpox epidemics were devastating, claiming 760 lives in 1868 and 482 lives in 1876….In 1876, nearly 40 percent of the 1,646 reported cases died…” (Shah. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. 2001, p. 57.)

Ohio

Columbus. Reported to have “wholly disappeared” from Columbus in late Jan. (Athens Messenger, Athens, OH. “State News.” 1-27-1876, p. 1.)

Twin Township. Reported to have “entirely disappeared” in late Jan. (Athens Messenger, Athens, OH. “Ross.” 1-27-1876, p. 1.)

Bureau of Labor Statistics: “…in the two cities of Cincinnati and Cleveland, the tendency appears to be to crowd families together under one roof, until health, decency, and morality must each and all suffer. No adequate idea of the condition of the homes of workingmen in the two cities named can be had by correspondence; it will require a thorough personal investigation by parties fully empowered to make such investigation. This Bureau has been unable to make such an investigation during the year, but, fortunately, is in possession of data collected by the Board of Health of Cincinnati, which must convince every unprejudiced mind that legislation on the tenement-house system has become an absolute necessity, before its proportions become so great as to become another ‘social evil,’ which no laws seem to be able to reach.” [p. 983]

“In 1868, there were, in the city of Cincinnati, 1,410 tenement houses, containing six or more families to each house….The total number of rooms in these 1,410 houses, was 16,197, an average of over eleven and one-half rooms to each house. These rooms were occupied by 9,894 families, comprising a population of 38,721 persons, an average of a fraction over seven families to each house, and a fraction over twenty-seven persons to each house. Four thousand two hundred and eighteen (4,218) families, numbering 15,604 persons, had but one room to a family, in which to cook, eat, sleep, etc. Three thousand five hundred and seventy one of these rooms thus occupied, had but one window to each room; 4,469 families had two rooms each….

“It is in such crowded tenement-houses where diseases of every name and character are most prevalent and fatal, and these are the foci from which pestilential and contagious diseases spread over the whole city.

“The figures, as given, were collected by the Sanitary Police, and so impressed the Board of Health that, in the first year of its existence, it prepared and presented to the General Assembly a bill designed to prevent the growth of the evil, and eradicate as much of the existing evil as possible; but the bill failed to be considered, and the evil has continued to grow, as will be proven by statistics yearly collected by the Board of Health.

“In 1869, Cincinnati was the most densely populated city in the United States, and was more densely populated than the city of London. New York city has twenty-two square miles, of 32,068 inhabitants to the square mile; Philadelphia has 129 square miles, or 6,200 inhabitants to each square mile; Brooklyn, twenty-five, or 17,388 persons to the square mile…while Cincinnati had an area of only seven square miles, or 37,142 persons to the mile, or fifty-eight and one-twenty-eighth to the acre….” [pp. 983-984]

“In 1871, there were, in the city of Cincinnati, 306 dwellings without water, 862 without yard space, 251 without privies, and 480 cellars used as dwelling places, and, in addition, 1,116 were found to be in bad sanitary condition.

“In 1873, that dread plague, cholera, visited Cincinnati, and from June 14, to October 18, 207 persons died of the disease, of which number 142 were residents of tenement-houses and boarding houses, while but thirty-four died in private residences, the balance dying in the hospitals or their residences not ascertained….” [p. 985]

“During 1875 and 1876 the small-pox ravaged the city to the extent of 1,651 deaths. Five wards furnished 33.9 per cent. of all the cases in 1875, and the same five wards gave 41 pr cent. of all the cases in 1876….The five wards referred to contain a vast number of tenement houses….” [p. 987] (Bureau of Labor Statistics (OH). Second Annual Report…Part II. 1879.)

Sources

Athens Messenger, Athens, OH. “Ross.” 1-27-1876, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=18813278

Athens Messenger, Athens, OH. “State News.” 1-27-1876, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=18813278

Board of Health. Annual Report of the Board of Health of the Department of Health of The City of New York for the Year Ending December 31, 1912. NYC: 1913. Google preview accessed 11-26-2019: https://books.google.com/books?id=XqMGqwcyOp8C&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=1871&f=true

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. Vol. CIX, July-December 1883. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1883. Google preview accessed 4-27-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp0EAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bureau of Labor Statistics (OH). Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Made to the General Assembly of Ohio, for the Year 1878. In Annual Reports for 1878, Made to the Sixty-Third General Assembly of the State of Ohio, at the Adjourned Session, Commencing January 7, 1879. Part II. Columbus, OH: Nevins & Myers, State Printers, 1879. Accessed 2-5-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=KdZBAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

City of Philadelphia. First Annual Message of John E. Reyburn, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia with the Annual Reports of the Departments of Public Health and Charities, Supplies, Public Education, Law, City Controller, City Treasurer, Commissioners of the Sinking Funds, Receiver of Taxes, and Board of Revision of Taxes for the Year Ending December 31, 1907 (Vol. III). Philadelphia: Dunlap Printing Co., 1908. Google digitized. Assessed 12-5-2012: http://books.google.com/books?id=0ihNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Davis, William B., M.D. “Art. 7 – The Statistics of the Medical Profession of Cincinnati for Twenty-five Years, and an Allusion to Preventive Medicine. An Address to the Graduating Class of the Miami Medical College, March 1, 1876, by Wm. B. Davis, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics.” Pp. 308-320 in: The Cincinnati Lancet and Observer. J. C. Culbertson, M.D., Editor. New Series: Vol. CIC, 1876. Google preview accessed 12-7-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=-YgsAAAAYAAJ&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Griffin, E. L. M.D., President, WI State Board of Health. “Supplementary Report on Small-Pox.” First Annual Report of the State Board of Health, of the State of Wisconsin, for the Year Ending December 31, 1876. Madison, WI: E. B. Bolens, State Printer, 1876. Accessed 12-7-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=TVtZqjUcEc4C&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Jeffersonian, Cambridge, OH. “Around About This Region.” 1-20-1876, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=13446868

Kraut, Alan M. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins university Press, 1995. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=EIqwDj9umzYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Michigan Secretary of State. Sixteenth Annual Report Relating to the Registry and Return of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Michigan for the Year 1882. Lansing: W. S. George & Co., State Printers and Binders, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 10-31-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=X8sWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

National Board of Health. National Board of Health Bulletin. Vol. 3, Nos. 1-52, July 2, 1881-June 30, 1882. Washington, DC. Accessed 2-4-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=jVdNqUEYLOQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth OH. “Greenlawn Cemetery.” 3-4-1876, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=8224340

Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH. [Smallpox in Cincinnati in Jan] 2-12-1876, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=8224007

Sanitarian. “Editor’s Table.” Vol. V, No. 53, Aug 1877, pp.372-. Accessed 12-7-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3S2gAAAAMAAJ&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Google preview accessed 12-7-2019 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Contagious_Divides/EwttbU2vnNYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Contagious+Divides:+Epidemics+and+Race+in+San+Francisco%E2%80%99s+Chinatown.&printsec=frontcover

Twitchell, George B, MD (Cincinnati). “The Prevention of Smallpox.” Pp. 693-696 in The Lancet-Clinic (Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery). New Series, Vol. LVI. Cincinnati: Lancet-Clinic Co., Jan-June, 1906. Google preview accessed 4-29-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4RACAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

United States National Board of Health. Annual Report of the National Board of Health, 1883. Washington, DC: GPO, 1884. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=MtuxEGC1Vp4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true

[1] “Table of mortality from small-pox in the city of Chicago from 1851 to 1882, inclusive.”

[2] “During 1875 and 1876 the small-pox ravaged the city [Cincinnati] to the extent of 1,651 deaths.” (p. 987) We subtract the National Board of Health number of 722 smallpox deaths in Cincinnati, to arrive at 929.

[3] Our number based on Dr. Davis at page 318: “…in the four months ending February 29, 1876, there were, in round numbers 1000 deaths from small-pox in Cincinnati; and probably there were 10,000 cases of the disease, This wanton, useless, criminal waste of life is a blot upon the fair name of our State and city.” The national Board of Health (cited herein) notes there were 217 smallpox deaths in Cincinnati on November 1875, and 289 in December, for a total of 506. We subtract this two month total from ~1,000 to derive ~494 for the first two months of 1876.

[4] Table: “Mortality from small-pox in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1872-1881.” Did not have numbers for Jan or Feb.

[5] Highlighted in yellow to denote we do not use, might include December 1875 smallpox deaths.

[6] Portsmouth Times, OH. “Greenlawn Cemetery.” 3-4-1876, p. 3.

[7] Jeffersonian, Cambridge, OH. “Around About This Region.” 1-20-1876, p. 2. (Cites the Monroe Democrat to the effect there were five cases in the Miller family, three of which were fatal.)

[8] Table entitled “Deaths from Smallpox from 1807 to 1907, inclusive, and Rate per 1,000 of Population.” Notes death rate of 0.45 per 1,000 population. Previous year had been 0.08.

[9] “So rapidly did the disease spread that by January 1^st, 1877, four hundred and ninety-two cases were reported, of which one hundred and sixty-one proved fatal.”