lornajarrettblanchard

About lornajarrettblanchard

Posts by :

1771 — May-July, Scarlet Fever (especially children), Duxbury, MA — >10

— >10  Blanchard number.[1]

 

Narrative Information

 

Caulfield: “The first good evidence of severe scarlet fever in New England is the newspaper account of a Duxbury epidemic during the spring of 1771. It is worth noting that this, too, was primarily a childhood disease; which is indirect evidence that scarlet fever had been more or less prevalent in New England from 1753 to 1771, even though very few records have been found.

 

Duxboro [Duxbury], July 5, 1771

 

A very malignant putrid Fever has, for some Time past, much prevailed in this Town; about 150 Persons, chiefly Children, having had it in the Course of a few Months; to a considerable Proportion of whom it has proved fatal. More especially of late its Malignity has very much increased. And in one Family in particular, (Mr. Benjamin Wadsworth’s) five Children out of Six have died of it in the short Space of a Week; the only one surviving being now dangerously sick.—This Fever seems to differ from what has been usually called the Scarlet Fever only in Point of Malignity; the Appearances in those who have it favourably being in all Respects the same. It is remarkable that though it has made its Appearance in every Part of this Town, scarce a Family or Person in any of the neighbouring Towns have as yet been visited with it.[2]

 

“The deaths of five Wadsworth and three Soule children in Duxbury during May and June, 1771, and of three Fuller children from “canker rash” in East Haven, Connecticut, during 1773 suggest a malignant type of scarlet fever, one capable of causing multiple deaths.”

 

Source

 

Caulfield, Ernest. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 35, April 1942, pp. 4-65. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/865

 

 

 

[1] Our number. Caulfield notes eight deaths in two families during May-June. We extrapolate from “A considerable Proportion” of “about 150” stricken “of whom it has proved fatal” to conclude that at least two others died.

[2] Essex Gazette, July 16, 1771.

1770-71 — Winter, Influenza Epidemic “took scores of lives,” Philadelphia, PA — >40

—>40  Blanchard translation of “scores” (a “score” means 20), into a number from Hawke, 83.[1]

—    ?  Duffy writes that “Philadelphia was ravaged by an influenza epidemic.”[2]

 

Narrative Information

 

Duffy: “In the winter of 1770-71 Philadelphia was ravaged by an influenza epidemic, “An account of which I have preserved in my notebook,’ wrote a contemporary physician, ‘and have found it to agree exactly with the histories of the Influenza in this and other countries.’” (Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1979, pp. 199-200.)

 

Hawke: “Rush…estimated that when he began to practice, the annual death rate in Philadelphia was at least one in every twenty-five citizens (in contrast with one in fifty in 1809)….The next winter, 1770-1771, influenza took scores of lives.” (Hawke. Benjamin Rush. 1971, p. 83.)

 

Sources

 

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

 

Hawke, David Freeman. Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfly. Indianapolis & New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1971. Google preview accessed 4-12-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=z1u9-0UX1E4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] If the plural of “score” is to be taken literally, then there would have been at least two-score (or at least 40) deaths.

[2] While this does not answer the question of how many people died, we know from other colonial experiences with influenza epidemics that many elderly and weakened-by-some-other-malady people died during these epidemics.

1770 — Nov, new Cushing, ME boat, The Industry, lost on first trip to Boston, MA     —   >13

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 8-27-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

— >13  Snow. “The Industry.” Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England, 1943, p. 184.

Blanchard note: Snow names thirteen people onboard, but writes that “Those on board included…” which leaves open the possibility  that there were more than thirteen. This is why we use the symbol >, meaning “at least.”

Narrative Information

 

Snow. “The Industry.” Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England, 1943, p. 184:

 

“One of the wrecks recounted around the firesides during the last century was that of the Industry, built at Packards’s Rock, in what is now Cushing, Maine. She was commanded by David Patterson, 2nd, who had previously coasted for some time with Reuben Hall.

 

“No one ever learned what happened to the Industry. She was launched late in the fall, and sailed for Boston on her first trip in November 1770. Wreckage began to come ashore along Cape Ann some time later, but no one from the Industry was ever seen again. Those on board included Major Fales and his son from Massachusetts, George Briggs, John Porterfield, Robert Gamble, John Mastick, David Malcolm, Alexander Baird, Samuel Watson, Mrs. Benjamin Packard and her child, and Abagail Patterson [12 names, to which one must add Capt. David Patterson.] The captain’s brother had been lost two years before at Mosquito Harbor with seventeen persons, all perishing.”

 

Sources

 

Snow, Edward Rowe. “The Industry.” Pp. 183-184 in Great Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Boston: Yankee Pub. Co., 1943.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1770 — Oct 20, storm, maritime losses off coasts of MA, NH and possibly RI             — ~100

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-22-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–100  Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. The Storm of October 20, 1770.” Cites Perley.

–100  Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: Salem Press, 1891, p. 91.

            —       2  Captain Benjamin Parson and crewman; schooner off Thatcher’s Isl., MA

—       1  Skipper of schooner driven onto rocks eastern point of Duck Island, MA

—       1  Body of fisherman washed onto beach between Nantasket and Hingham, MA.

–40-50  Plymouth, MA. Sixty-one vessels driven to shore.

—      11  Fishing schooners from Rye lost in or off the bay at Portsmouth, NH.

 

Narrative Information

 

Perley: “One of the most violent and destructive storms of wind and rain that ever occurred on the New England coast prevailed on Saturday, October 20, 1770. It began Friday night and continued most of the following day, the wind blowing from the north-northeast.

“At noon the tide rose to an extraordinary height, being greater than any that had occurred since the famous tide of 1723, and within a foot as high as that. The tide floated off vast quantities of salt hay from the marshes of Lynn and towns south of Boston, also lumber, wood, and many other things from wharves, and by wetting spoiled valuable stores of salt and sugar. The wind blew down stores, barns and sheds, unroofed houses, and tore up fences and trees. Along the coast it caused a large number of vessels to be wrecked and many lives to be lost. The principal damage was of course done along those shores that lay most exposed to the sweep of the wind. The coasts of Maine and Connecticut were so sheltered that but little if any injury was done in those parts.

“Off the Isles of Shoals, fourteen schooners were engaged in fishing when the storm came on. One of these, a small vessel, belonging to the Shoals, Richard Randall, skipper, with four men on board, was anchored as soon as the gale was upon them, but the wind blew and the waves beat so furiously that the only way of escape that seemed open to them was to lessen as much as possible the surface upon which the wind could exert its force. The mainmast was thereupon cut away, but before this could be done the anchor had been lost, and the vessel was driven through the merciless sea until the wind abated and the storm was past. They were soon afterward overtaken by a sloop from Maine which towed them into the harbor of Salem, Mass. Two of the schooners off the Shoals were driven ashore at Cape Ann, and the men saved. Another, belonging to Kittery, Benjamin Parsons, skipper, was staved to pieces on the rocks near Thatcher’s island, and the captain and one of the men were drowned. Still another was driven on the eastern point of Duck island, and dashed to pieces. The skipper was drowned, but the rest of the men got ashore in safety, though their legs, arms and other parts of their bodies were very much bruised. Several vessels were riding at anchor in the Shoals road, and they were sunk at their moorings. Three or four other small schooners were lost off the Shoals in the same storm.

 

“In the bay at Portsmouth, N. H., two schooners from Rye were out fishing, and were seen about sunset Friday night, but were never again heard from. On one of the vessels were six men, John Sanders and his son John, John Yeaton, William Thomas and two others and two boys; and on the other were Samuel Sanders, Joshua Foss, Samuel Sanders, jr., and two boys. Six of the men left wives and a number of children. How many wives were made widows and children orphans by this storm is not known, but the number must have been large. In the joy and glow of youth and the strength of manhood, the men sailed out from the town, and the widows and the fatherless day after day eagerly watched the offing hoping against hope to witness the approach of the vessels on which their loved ones had gone out; but all in vain….

 

“A new ship, Captain Dunlap, master, left Newburyport as the storm came on, and was driven on Plum island. While pursuing its wayward course it struck a sloop belonging to Newbury, and stove it to pieces.

 

“At Salem, Mass., the wind prostrated fences, tore up trees, and injured bridges. On the south shore of North river, for a distance of mile or more, firewood, timber, all sorts of lumber, as boards, shingles and plank, also staves, barrels, hogsheads, canoes, boats, and other articles belonging to many different persons were so promiscuously thrown together that the owners could not ascertain which of them were each one’s particular property. About fifty cords of wood and fifteen or sixteen hundred bushels of sand for scrubbing floors were carried off from Mr. Barr’s wharf at the North bridge. At the south side of the town, where most of the business was then done, the confusion and destruction were much greater, vast quantities of lumber of various kinds and many boats being violently driven to the opposite shore. All the wharves were overflowed, and salt, sugar, and other perishable articles in the storehouses, of which there was a great amount, were destroyed by the water. The bridges over Forest river, one being on the same site as the present bridge, at the lead mills, and the other farther up the stream, were so much damaged that they were impassable. A large bridge at Danversport was also totally mined. At Salem much damage was done to the vessels in the harbor and at the wharves. A schooner of large size broke away from her mooring, and dashed up against North bridge, being kept off the top of it with difficulty. The bridge was considerably injured. Another schooner, which was fastened at a wharf farther down the stream, also broke her cables and drove over a small sandy beach up on the grassy upland. Still another schooner of nearly eighty tons burden, that had lately arrived from the West Indies, broke away from the wharf and was driven in a similar manner up on the land to so great a height that it lay with its keel considerably above the usual high-water mark. In the southern section of the harbor were anchored a ship, a snow,1 a brig, and nine other vessels. They were driven from their anchorage, and forced up Forest river toward Captain Gardner’s mills, which then occupied the site of the lead mills. Several of these vessels were laden, and ready to sail for the Straits and the West Indies. The brig, which was commanded by Captain Warren, and a schooner by Captain Wather were much damaged. Another schooner, commanded by Captain Motley, was driven so far on the land that it seemed impossible for the waves and wind to have performed the feat. The schooner of Capt. Samuel Webb was forced from its wharf across the harbor, and some distance up on the land of the opposite shore. With great difficulty the other vessels were prevented from leaving the wharves. Only one ship in the harbor out-rode the storm successfully, and that was the Antelope, which was commanded by Captain Putnam.

 

“In the harbor of Marblehead, twenty-one brigs, schooners and sloops were cast ashore, but none of them were very much injured.

 

“Boston, most of the wharves were overflowed, much lumber was floated away, and quantities of sugar, salt, and other stores were destroyed. The water came up King street (now State street), as far as the head-tavern of Admiral Vernon, into Dock square, about the drawbridge, and into the streets nearest the seaside at the northern and southern portions of the town, so far that it ran not only into the cellars, but into the shops and rooms of dwelling houses, compelling several families to retire into their chambers. Some of the stores on the wharves were almost filled with water. Fifteen or sixteen vessels were cast ashore on the several islands in the harbor, but few of them were materially injured. A schooner, with no one on board, was driven on Deer island, it being supposed that it had drifted from Lynn or Marblehead. The men-of war and other shipping in the harbor received little or no damage, A day or two after the storm was over, a chest was found floating in the bay. It was brought on shore, and found to contain a number of papers, among them being private accounts with Hezekiah Blanchard of Boston in 1759, and copies of several orders from Secretary Addington to a committee of the General Court bearing dates 1706, 1707 and 1708, for printing some bills of credit for the Province. The chest was carried to Cape Cod. Where it came from, and to whom it had belonged, was a mystery.

 

“A ship from Glasgow, but last from Newbury, commanded by Captain Dun, was lying at anchor in Nantasket road when the storm began. The cable that held it parted and it was driven upon the flats in Braintree bay, but the masts being cut away it was prevented from driving farther ashore.

 

“All the small vessels at Hingham were carried on shore, and one or two of about forty-five tons burden were floated upon a wharf, which common high tides never covered.

 

“Between Nantasket and Hingham a small fishing boat was sunk. The pump which it carried, a mast that had been cut away, and a boat or canoe came ashore, the other mast that the craft carried, holding to the rigging of the boat. The body of a fisherman washed ashore on the beach, but it was not identified. He was of large size, about six feet in height, wearing thick boots and an under and outer jacket. In his trousers’ pocket was found a fish-hook, and a small knife with two letters cut in the handle.

 

“At Nantasket, Captain Higgins, commanding a sloop bound to Connecticut, was obliged to cut away his mast and bowsprit; and the captain of another sloop was forced to do the same. A ship bound to Africa, commanded by Captain Bennet, was the only vessel at Nantasket that successfully rode out the gale….

 

“At Plymouth, Mass., many of the stores were blown down, and considerable other damage was done by the wind. Sixty-one vessels were driven ashore there, and from forty to fifty lives were lost. One of the vessels was bound from Rhode Island lo Boston, commanded by Captain Ellis. Another was a new schooner of about twenty or thirty tons burden, built wholly of black birch, castaway at Monument Point, and the vessel, with the men and everything on board was lost, bodies of two of the men being found on the sand near the wreck, probably having washed ashore. In a pocket of the jacket on one of them was found a small leather pocket-book, which contained some papers, very much torn, — one being a bill of sale of the schooner Defiance from Lemuel Lattimore to Damon Lattimore of Mount Desert, and another a letter, dated at Mount Desert October 8, 1770, signed by Lemuel Lattimore and Lucretia Lattitmore, and directed to their mother at New London, whose christian name (that being the only one discovered) was Ruth.

 

“At the back side of Eastham, on Cape Cod, a vessel, commanded by Captain Scott, and bound from Turk’s island to Boston, being laden with salt, was driven ashore. A Rhode Island sloop, which was homeward bound from a whaling trip, was wrecked at nearly the same place. Another sloop, belonging to Plymouth, was driven ashore at Race point. The people that were on these vessels were all saved. A whaling schooner, which belonged in Wareham, was beaten to pieces on a sand bar at the entrance to the harbor of Chatham, the crew and oil being saved.

 

“At Tarpaulin cove, on Martha’s Vineyard, a brig belonging in Providence, R. I, and a schooner in Newport, both returning from whaling, were also cast away.

 

“As far inland as Providence, R. I., the storm did some damage to the small vessels, and history relates the wreck at Fisher’s island of a sloop commanded by Captain Vredenburg, that had come up from Newport, the greater part of the cargo being lost.

 

“At Newport, R. I., the spindle on the tower of Trinity church was broken off a little below the upper ball, but was prevented from falling by the lightning rods on the building. Though the town was not much exposed to the storm, two or three stores and stables were blown down, and several vessels were driven ashore, some of them receiving considerable injury, but none were lost.

 

“This storm was more disastrous to the commerce on our coast than any other had been up to this date. Many valuable cargoes went to the bottom of the sea, more than a hundred vessels were wrecked, and a hundred lives lost.”

 

Sources

 

Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. The Storm of October 20, 1770.” Cites Perley. Accessed 7-22-2024 at: http://www.colonialsense.com/Society-Lifestyle/Signs_of_the_Times/New_England_Weather/The_Storm_of_October_20,_1770.php

 

Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: The Salem Press, 1891. Google Preview accessed 7-22-2024 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=twkAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1770 — “Chin” (Whooping) Cough epidemic esp. children, Salem (pop. ~5,000), MA — 37

–37  Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions, 1942, pp. 39-40.

 

Narrative Information

 

Caulfield: “The worst epidemic so far encountered [whooping cough section of paper] occurred in Salem during 1770, when there were thirty-seven “chin-cough” deaths in a population of about five thousand.”[1]

 

Source

 

Caulfield, Ernest. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 35, April 1942, pp. 4-65. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/865

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Caulfield previously notes that whooping cough primarily killed children.

1769 — Aug-Sep, Flux (Dysentery) and Fever Outbreak, esp. children, Boston, MA — ~108

—  180  Krawczynski. Daily Life in the Colonial City. 2013.

–~108  Blanchard estimate based on Duffy and subtracting expected deaths during two months.

 

Narrative Information

 

Duffy: “ ‘In the Months of August and September last,” reported a Boston newspaper in 1769, ‘an epidemical Fever and Flux prevailed among the young children in this Town: The Burials have been…in the whole 165 Whites, 14 Blacks.’[1] The severity of the outbreak is shown by the fact that the annual death rate in Boston only averaged around four hundred and twenty-five at this time.”[2] (Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1979, p. 220.)

 

Krawczynski: “1769…Dysentery outbreak in Boston kills 180 people.”[3]

 

Webster: “The dysentery was epidemic and fatal in 1769, (p. 257)

 

Sources

 

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

 

Krawczynski, Keith. Daily Life in the Colonial City. Santa Barbara, CO and Denver: Greenwood (An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC), 2013. Google preview accessed 1-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=E_QgVyPcmIAC&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] Cites, in footnote 33, p. 220: Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post Boy and Advertiser, No. 634, October, 9, 1769.

[2] The monthly rate, based on an annual rate of 425, would be 35.4. Multiplied times 2 months = 70.8 (~71). Subtracting 71 (which could be expected) from 179 (actual), derives 108, the figure we use to give a sense of the mortality of this epidemic.

[3] Table 12.1. “Epidemics in the Cities.” This is the number of deaths reported in the press at the time, and noted in Duffy. We, however, subtract the number of deaths which would have been anticipated for a two-month period to derive our smaller number of ~108.

1769 — Throat Distemper (diphtheria), especially children, New York City, NY — >10

— >10  Blanchard minimum estimate based on descriptions in sources below.[1]

—     3  Deaths of children in one family early in the epidemic. (Duffy. 1953 and 1979, p. 128.)

 

Narrative Information

 

Duffy on diphtheria in New York City: “New York was attacked in 1769 and suffered heavily. Dr. Samuel Bard, a professor of medicine at King’s College, wrote an article in 1769 entitled ‘An Enquiry into the nature, cause and cure of the Angina Suffocation, or Sore Throat Distemper, as it is commonly called by the inhabitants of the city and colony of New-York.’[2] His introduction indicates the motive for his work: ‘I have determined,’ he wrote, ‘to attempt the history of a disease which has lately appeared among the children of this city, and which, both as an uncommon and highly dangerous distemper, well deserves an attentive consideration. The work is largely technical, but Bard indicates the high fatality rate by citing the case of one of the first families to experience the disorder. All seven children in the family were infected and only four survived the attack. This high mortality ration probably indicates diphtheria.” (Duffy. 128.)

 

Smith: “…The literary history of diphtheritic angina, in the State of New York, has its epoch anterior to the American Revolution. The first accounts of the disease were from the pens of Dr. Jacob Ogden, of Long Island, and Dr. Samuel Bard, of the city of New York. The former gentleman describes the disease in two letters addressed to Mr. Hugh Gaine, of New York, one dated in October, 1769, and the other, in September 1774, and which are preserved in the New York Medical Repository; and the latter, in an essay entitled ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Angina Suffocativa, or Sore Throat Distemper, as it is commonly called by the inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York.’ This essay is published in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and has attracted great attention on both sides of the Atlantic….

 

“Dr. B’s essay, can scarcely fail, we think, to produce the conviction that the disease he describes is the diphtherite of Bretonneau.[3] A few passages from his paper will show some of the more striking features which indicate the identity of the two diseases.

 

“‘In general, says Dr. Bard, ‘this disease was confined to children under ten years old, though some few grown persons, particularly women (while it prevailed), had symptoms very similar to it. Most of those who had it were observed to droop for several days before they were confined. And the first symptoms, in almost every case, were a slightly inflamed and watery eye, a bloated and livid countenance, with a few red eruptions here and there upon the face, and in one case a small ulcer in the nose, whence oozed an ichor so sharp as to inflame and erode the upper lip. At the same time, or very soon after, such as could speak complained of an uneasy sensation in the throat, but without any great soreness or pain. Upon examining it, the tonsils appeared swelled and slightly inflamed, with a few white specks upon them, which, in some, increased so as to cover them all over with one general slough; but this, although a frequent symptom, did not invariably attend the disease; and some had all the other symptoms without it. The breath was either so ways offensive, or had only that kind of smell which is occasioned by worms; and the swallowing was very little if at all impaired.’ With these symptoms was a slight fever which sometimes continued five or six days, and also in some, a difficulty of breathing which occasionally suddenly increase, threatening suffocation.

 

“‘This stage of the disease was attended with a very great and sudden prostration of strength; a very remarkable hollow dry cough, and a peculiar change in the tone of the voice; not easily described, but so singular, that a person who had once heard it, could almost certainly know the disease again by hearing the patient cough or speak. In some the voice was almost entirely lost, and would continue very weak and low for several weeks after recovery.’ In some the pulse was quick, soft, and fluttering, and there was a tendency to coma, and towards the close of the disease great restlessness, languor, and dejection expressed in the countenance, subsidence of the swelling of the face, sometimes a purging, and the patient died apparently of suffocation at the end of the third or fourth day, and occasionally within thirty-six hours. Cases occurred which ‘had not the difficulty of breathing, but in its stead very troublesome ulcers behind their ears. These began with a [end of p. 174] few red pimples, which soon ran together, itched violently, and discharged a great deal of very sharp ichor, so as to erode the neighboring parts, and in a few days spread all over the back part of the ear, and down upon the neck.’ In some, however, in which there were ulcers behind the ears, there was a slight difficulty of breathing. ‘These ulcers would continue for several weeks and appeared covered in some places with sloughs, resembling those on the tonsils.’

 

“Dr. Bard met with but two cases in adults. One resembled an inflammatory angina, but on the third day the tonsils were covered with thick sloughs; he had a low and feeble pulse, a moist skin, dejection of spirits, but no great difficulty of breathing. In the other case the tonsils were swelled and covered with sloughs, similar to those in children, the breath was more offensive but the breathing not suffocative.

 

“In three instances Dr. Bard had an opportunity of studying the pathological anatomy of the disease by dissection [an autopsy]. ‘One was a child of three years old. Her first complaint was an uneasiness in her throat. Upon examining it the tonsils appeared swelled and inflamed, with large white sloughs upon them, the edges of which were remarkably more red than the other parts of the throat. She had no great soreness in her throat, and could swallow with [end of p. 175] little or no difficulty.’ Subsequently the pulse was quick and soft, heat of the body moderate, face swelled, strength prostrated and breathing difficult. These symptoms increased and with some others continued till the third night, when, after several loose stools, she died early in the morning.

 

“‘Upon examining the body, which was done on the afternoon of the day she died, I found the fauces, uvula, tonsils, and root of the tongue interspersed with sloughs, which still retained their whitish color….The whole trachea, from the larynx down to its division in the lungs, was lined with an inspissated mucus, in form of a membrane, remarkably tough and firm; which, when it came to the first subdivisions of the trachea, seemed to grow thin an disappear. It was so tough as to require no inconsiderable force to tear it, an came out whole from the trachea, which it left with much ease; and resembled more than anything, both in thickness and appearance, a sheath of thin chamois leather. The inner membrane of the trachea was slightly inflamed; the lungs too appeared inflamed as in per-pneumonic cases; particularly the right lobe, on which there were many large livid spots, though neither rotten or offensive; and the left lobe had small black spots on it, resembling those marks left under the skin by gunpowder.’” [p.176]

 

 

Sources

 

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

 

Smith, Joseph M. MD. Report on the Medical Topography and Epidemics of the State of New York. Philadelphia: Collins, Printer, 1860. Google preview accessed 3-31-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=wtHmfz7Z4RwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

 

[1] Duffy notes high fatality rate.

[2] New York, 1771, reprinted in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1769-71 (Philadelphia, 1789), I, 388-404.

[3] Pierre Bretonneau was a French medical doctor (1778-1862).

1768 – Dec 4, gale, “coaster,” bound for Pownalborough, ME, lost, Kennebec River, ME–12

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-22-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–12  Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. 1768 Gale – December 4.” Cites Perley.

–12  Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: The Salem Press, 1891, p. 73

Narrative Information

Perley: “On Sunday, December 4, 1768, occurred a southeast rainstorm accompanied by a violent gale…. A coaster commanded by Captain Patterson had been sailed for several years between Boston and the Kennebec river, and on Thursday, three days before the storm, sailed from the last named place, having on board a number of passengers belonging to Pownalborough, Me., who had been up the Kennebec to procure the winter’s supply of provisions for their families, and were now returning with their purchases. They were Captain Thomas Allen, Ralph Chapman, John Barker, Mr. Perry, John Pierce, Mr. Hersey, Mrs. Jonas Fitch and Mrs. Stilfin, a Dutch woman. The crew consisted of Captain Patterson, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Kinney and a negro man belonging to the captain. In the darkness of the night and the terrific gale, they were cast away before they had reached Pownalborough, and the vessel with its freight and every person on board were lost. Mr. Chapman left a widow and seven children, and Mrs. Fitch five children. Only a few things of any value washed ashore, among them being several chests that were dashed to pieces before they could be secured, except the captain’s which was strapped with iron.”

 

Sources

 

Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. 1768 Gale – December 4.” Accessed 7-22-2024 at: http://www.colonialsense.com/Society-Lifestyle/Signs_of_the_Times/New_England_Weather/1768_Gale.php

 

Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: The Salem Press, 1891. Google Preview accessed 7-17-2024 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=twkAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

1768 — Fall-Winter (two months), Smallpox, especially children, Reading, PA — >60

–>60  Blanchard. (If nearly 60 children died, a few adults also probably died.)

–~60  Children, two months. John Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, 1879, p. 100.

 

Narrative Information

 

Duffy: “Other than Philadelphia the only Pennsylvania town to suffer from the disease[1] was Reading. A report from Philadelphia dated December 19, 1768, declared: ‘We hear from Reading, in berks County, that the small pox rages with great violence in that town, having carried off near sixty children, in less than two months.’”[2] (John Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, 1879, p. 100.)

 

 

Source

 

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

[1] P. 100 is in Chapter II, “Smallpox.”

[2] Cites, in footnote, 62: Massachusetts Gazette, No. 337, December 19, 1768.

1768 — Jan 10-11, Stump massacre of Native men/women/children, Penn Twp, Cumberland Co., PA– 10

–10  Baer, et al. The Stump Massacre. Susquehanna Univ., Central Susquehanna Valley History Proj.

–10  Godcharles. “Today in Pennsylvania History…” Altoona Mirror, PA, 1-10-1924, p. 11.

–10  PA Colonial Records. Minutes…Provincial Council of Pennsylvania…Vol. IX, 1852, p.420.

–10  Rowe. “The Frederick Stump Affair, 1768…” Pennsylvania History, 49/4, Oct 1982, p.259.

–10  Volwiler. George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741-1782. 1926 & 1971, p. 217.

 

Blanchard note: There are varying accounts of location. We rely on Rowe for the placement of this atrocity given that Penn Township is relatively close to Carlisle, where Stump was jailed.[1]

 

Narrative Information

 

Godcharles: “….Frederick Stump…was a notorious character. He was born in 1735 in the neighborhood of Stumpstown,[2] and in 1768 was living near the mouth of Middle creek in what is now Snyder county.[3] On Sunday morning, Jan. 10, 1768, six Indians went to the house of Frederick Stump…They were White Mingo, Cornelius, John Campbell, Jones and two squaws. They were in a drunken condition and behaved in a suspicious manner. Stump endeavored to get them to leave, but without success. Fearing injury to himself, he and his servant, John Ironcutter, killed them all, dragging their bodies to the creek, where they cut a hole into the stream. Then fearing the news might be carried to the other Indians, Stump went the next day to their cabins, fourteen miles up the creek, where he found one squaw and two girls and one child. These he killed and threw their bodies in the cabin and burned it.

 

“The details of these murders were told by Stump to William Blythe, who found the charred remains of the four in the cabin ruins. Blythe testified to these acts before the Provincial authorities in Philadelphia, Jan. 19, 1768.

 

“One of the bodies which Stump pushed through the hole in the ice floated down the Susquehanna until it finally lodged against the shore on the Cumberland county side, opposite Harrisburg, below the site of the present bridge at Market street. The Indian had been killed by being struck on the forehead with some blunt instrument, which crushed in his skull. His entire scalp, including his ears, was torn from his head. In inquest was held Feb. 28, 1768, at the spot where his body was found. John Balir Linn, in his ‘Annals of Buffalo valley,’ places the scene of this crime on the run that enters the creek at Middleburgh, known by the name of Stump’s run to this day….

 

“Captain William Patterson led a score of his neighbors to assist in arresting Stump and Ironcutter. On their approach Stump fled to the woods, but Patterson pretended that he wanted Stump to accompany him to Great Island to kill Indians. This appealed to Stump, who returned to the house, when Patterson arrested and bound him and took him and his servant to Carlisle, where they were lodged in jail, Saturday evening, March 23, 1768.

 

“But justice was to be cheated. The magistrates fought over the place of Stump’s trial, and it was decided to try him in Philadelphia. On Monday morning following his arrest, the sheriff proceeded to do his duty, but was restrained by the magistrates. On Wednesday, forty of the country people assembled on the outskirts of Carlisle, and sent two messengers to the jail, but when they learned Stump was not to be sent to Philadelphia for trial, they dispersed.

 

“On Friday a company from Sherman’s valley, where Stump had lived, marched toward Carlisle, about eight entering the town. Two of them went to the jail and asked the jailer for liquor. As he was serving them the others entered with drawn cutlasses and pistols and demanded he make no outcry. Sixty others now surrounded the jail. Stump was taken from the dungeon, the handcuffs removed and he was released.

 

“The sheriff, Colonel John Armstrong, and others attempted to restrain the mob, but in the struggle which ensued Stump made his escape, as did his servant Ironcutter.

 

“The governor was angered at this escape and issued instructions for his re-arrest and then a formal proclamation offering a reward of £200 for Stump and 100£ for Ironcutter.

 

“After their rescue from the Carlisle jail both Stump and Ironcutter returned to the neighborhood of their bloody crime, but as their presence was no longer agreeable to the inhabitants, Stump soon left and went to the residence of his father at Tulpehocken and Ironcutter was spirited away by friends.

 

“They were never again arrested, for the settlers generally sympathized with them, but Stump and his servant both went to Virginia, where it is known that Stump died at an advanced age.” (Godcharles. “Today in Pennsylvania History. Old Stumpstown and Its Founder, Frederick Stump, Who Murdered Ten Indians, Jan. 10, 1768.” Altoona Mirror, PA, 1-10-1924, p. 11.)

 

Rowe: “In January, 1768, Frederick Stump, a thirty-three year old German settler in Penn’s Township, Cumberland County, methodically killed, or helped to kill, ten Indians: four men, three women, two young girls, and a female infant. In quick succession Stump was captured, incarcerated, and rescued from jail by an armed mob. He was never thereafter brought to justice…. [p. 259]

 

“By December, 1767, Anglo-Indian relations on Pennsylvania’s western frontier were again tense. Frontier families and “long hunters” persisted in settling lands prohibited to them by treaty. Not only did these aggressive westerners violate treaties with the Six Nations, but also to the great consternation of Pennsylvania authorities and royal officials alike they frequently preyed upon local tribes. Murders were not uncommon…. [p. 260]

 

“During this tense period six Indians visited the home of Frederick Stump in Cumberland County at the mouth of Middle Creek. Stump, who two years before had become embroiled with John Penn himself over the matter of Indian lands, killed the two Seneca men, their wives, and the two male Mohicans, and scalped at least one of the males. He dragged the bodies to the nearby creek and after breaking the ice which covered it pushed the bodies in. The following day, accompanied by his nineteen year old German servant, John Ironcutter, Stump walked fourteen miles up Middle Creek to several Indian cabins. Finding there a woman, two young girls, and a female child, Stump and Ironcutter killed them, placed their remains in the cabins, and burned the buildings to the ground. They then returned home where they “freely confessed” their exploits to neighbors.

 

“On January 12, William Blyth, who knew the slain Indians and had entertained them before they visited Stump, heard of the murders. To confirm the details, Blyth went to the grist mill of George Gabriel which Stump was known to frequent. There he found Stump eager to admit the murders but insisting that the six Indians had been drunk and threatening. Fearing for his life and that of Ironcutter, Stump had killed them. He had later slaughtered the four females because he believed they knew of the visit to his home by the first six Indians and might suspect foul play. By slaying them he sought to eliminate any reprisals against himself or the larger community. Once Blyth had received verification of Stump’s account from men he sent to the burned cabins, he hurried to Philadelphia to warn the colony’s leaders of the likelihood of an Indian war….” (Rowe, G. S. “The Frederick Stump Affair, 1768, and Its Challenge to Legal Historians of Early Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania History, Vol. 49, No. 4, Oct 1982, pp. 260-261.)

 

Volwiler: “….Other causes[4] increased the discontent. Distant tribes found the English trade inadequate and others were dissatisfied with the way in which it was carried on. The English traders and soldiers did not manifest the same tolerant and sympathetic attitude and interest that the French had manifested.[5] Bands of young braves on the war path to attack the Cherokees[6] stole horses on their way through the back country and were attacked by the whites. Instances of murders on both sides occurred. One incident made a deep impression upon the Indians and led to much correspondence among English officials. Stump, a Pennsylvania frontiersman, and his servant were visited by ten Indians — men, women, and children. These Indians were made drunk, killed with an ax, scalped, and their bodies burned. Governor Penn offered a reward of £200 for the arrest of the murderers, but when they were placed in jail a mob of eighty frontiersmen rescued them. Stump was retaken and tried, but the jury refused to convict him.” (Volwiler, Albert T. George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741-1782. Cleveland: 1926; reprinted by MAS Press, Inc., NY, 1971, p. 217.)

 

Sources

 

Baer, Rachel, Sean Loftus, Amber Peretin, Derrek Reitz. The Stump Massacre. Susquehanna Univ., Central Susquehanna Valley History Project. Accessed 1-31-2019 at: http://omeka.susqu.edu/HIST324/exhibits/show/stump

 

Colonial Records of Pennsylvania. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, from the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, Vol. IX, Containing the Proceedings of the Council from October 15th 1762, to 17th of October, 1771, both days Included. Harrisburg: Printed by Theo. Fenn & Co., for the State, 1852, pp. 420ff.

 

Godcharles, Frederic A. “Today in Pennsylvania History. Old Stumpstown and Its Founder, Frederick Stump, Who Murdered Ten Indians, Jan. 10, 1768.” Altoona Mirror, PA, 1-10-1924, p. 11. Accessed 1-31-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/altoona-mirror-jan-10-1924-p-11/

 

Rowe, G. S. “The Frederick Stump Affair, 1768, and Its Challenge to Legal Historians of Early Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania History, Vol. 49, No. 4, Oct 1982, pp. 259-288. Accessed 1-31-2019 at: https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/24348

 

Volwiler, Albert T. George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741-1782. Cleveland: 1926; reprinted by MAS Press, Inc., NY, 1971.

 

 

[1] Compiled by B. Wayne Blanchard 1-31-2019 for: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com

[2] Godcharles notes that Stumpstown later became Fredericksburg.

[3] This would be, as far as we can tell, in the Beaver Springs, Middleburg, Selinsgrove area, with Selinsgrove the most easterly location, on the Susquehanna. If indeed the atrocity occurred here, and Stump was taken to Carlisle, that would entail an trip of about fifty-three miles south and past Harrisburg, then southwest to Carlisle. This would be a much longer trip than the one that would be required from Penn Township to Carlisle, about thirty-three miles.

[4] Preceding paragraph concerned “the encroachment upon their lands with daily threats of more invasions of their property for which they could obtain no justice.” (p. 216)

[5] The end of the French and Indian War in 1763, meant a withdrawal of French forces and many French traders. With no official French competition English and colonial attitudes and behavior toward Natives stiffened.

[6] For a very long time, probably pre-historical, the Five Nations of New York traveled south to attack the Cherokee, and the Carolina Cherokee traveled north to attack members of the Five Nations (or Iroquois Confederacy, consisting of the Mohawks, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, later to be supplemented with the Tuscarora.)

«‹ 521 522 523 524›»