19th Century

1822 — Summer, “Bilious [“Intermittent”] Fever” Epidemic, Louisville, KY –140-232

— 232 Yandell, Professor; in Wynne. Report on Epidemic Cholera… 1852, p. 19.

— >140 Baird, Nancy D. “Epidemics,” pp. 271-274 in The Encyclopedia of Louisville.

— Blanchard note.[1]

Narrative Information

Baird: “Another frequent complaint during the antebellum era [another being smallpox] was ‘bilious remitting fever.’….In the summer of 1822 the destroyer struck. Called ‘bilious fever’ but probably yellow fever, it swept away at least 140 of Louisville’s 4,000 residents [3.5%]. In his monumental work of 1850 on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America, midwest physician Daniel Drake recalled that the fever scourged the town ‘almost to desolation’ by slowing the town’s growth and economic development. The town trustees appointed a Board of Health – the community’s first – to examine the malady’s cause and make suggestions for a remedy….” (p. 273.)

Collins and Collins: “Louisville scourged by a terrible epidemic, an aggravated bilious fever, which some call yellow fever.” (p. 30.)

Yandell: “Intermittent fever was a regular annual visitant [to Louisville]; and occasionally a form of bilious fever prevailed, rivaling yellow in malignity, and threatening to depopulate the town. He most fatal of these endemics broke out in the summer of 1822, after a hot, rainy season; the number of victims from it, out of a population less than 5,000, was 232. In a family consisting of 20 persons, 19 were sick at one time and in some families every individual died. At this time only one street in Louisville was paved, and within its limits were at least eight ponds of greater or less dimensions, most of which, in the course of the autumn, were dried up, exposing foul bottoms to the sun.” (Professor Yandell in Wynne, p. 19.)

Newspapers

Aug 12: “Fever at Louisville (Ky.)–At this place the deaths in one week, ending on the 12^th ult. [last month] were 20, of which 14 were of what they denominate bilious fever. This for a population of 4,000, is a great mortality.” (Milledgeville Georgia Journal. “Fever at Louisville (Ky.).” 9-24-1822, p. 7.)

Oct 1: “The Louisville, Ky. Post of the first of October in relation to the health of the people of that town, says–We are again flattered by the change of weather, with the prospect of a cessation of the prevailing fever–whilst we have been labouring under this most afflicting dispensation of Providence, our sympathies have been excited for the sufferings of our fellow-citizens generally of Kentucky, for never has disease been so prevalent or so fatal in this State, as during the past Summer.–In Ohio, a great mortality has prevailed.” (Maryland Herald, Hagers-Town. 10-22-1822, p. 2.)

Sources

Baird, Nancy D. “Epidemics,” pp. 271-274 in The Encyclopedia of Louisville, John E. Kleber, editor. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Accessed 2-16-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=W7EeBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Collins, Lewis and Richard H. Collins. Collins’ Historical Sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky By the late Lewis Collins, Judge of the Mason County Court. Revised, Enlarged Four-Fold, and Brought Down to the Year 1874, by his son Richard H. Collins (Vol. I). Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1882. Accessed 2-16-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xMM6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Maryland Herald, Hagers-Town. 10-22-1822, p. 2, col. 3. Accessed 7-14-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/hagerstown-maryland-herald-and-hagerstown-weekly-advertiser-oct-22-1822-p-2/

Milledgeville Georgia Journal. “Fever at Louisville (Ky.).” 9-24-1822, p. 7. Accessed 7-14-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/milledgeville-georgia-journal-sep-24-1822-p-7/

Wynne, James, M.D. (Chairman of the Medical Department of the National Institue and Chairman of the First Committee of Public Hygiene of he American Medical Association). Abstract of Report on Epidemic Cholera, as it Prevailed in the United States in 1849 and 1850. Appendix (C.) to Report of the General Board of Health on the Epidemic Cholera of 1848 & 1849. London: George E. Eyre and William Spottiswood, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1852. Accessed 3-4-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Da2lh3WZnwYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

[1] Have chosen to list separately from Yellow Fever entry for 1822 in that it was referred to as Bilious Fever and in that it was not included in books and reports which discussed yellow fever in 1822 by George Augustin, J.M. Keating, John Monette, George M. Sternberg (U.S. Public Health Service), and the U. S. Marine-Hospital Service.

19th Century

1821 — Aug, Smallpox, Baltimore, MD — 47

lornajarrettblanchard August 1, 1821

–47 Quinan, John R. M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608-1880… 1884, p. 30.

Narrative Information

Quinan: “August. Smallpox brought into Baltimore by ship Pallas from Liverpool. 47 deaths.”

Source

Quinan, John R., M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore From 1608-1880, Including Events, Men and Literature, to Which is Added A Subject Index and Record of Public Services. Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xNcRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

19th Century

1821 — Summer-Fall, Yellow Fever, esp. Norfolk, VA (160); St Augustine, FL (140) — >414

lornajarrettblanchard June 1, 1821

—>414 Total Blanchard tally based on State and locality breakouts below.

Alabama ( 7)

— 7 Mobile Oct Augustin 1909, 443; AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic History. 2013.

Florida (172) (Sep-Dec, especially Oct 1-15)

–172 St. Augustine. Townsend, Peter S., M.D. An Account of the Yellow Fever… 1823, p. 382.

–140 St. Augustine Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 458; U.S. MHS 1886, 434.

Louisiana ( >7)

— >7 New Orleans. Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 92.

Maryland ( 42)

–42 Baltimore, Aug 21-31. Ohio Repository. Sep 13, 1821, p. 2.

New York ( 16)

–16 NY Marine Hospital U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. Annual Report. 1886, 434.

North Carolina ( >10)

—>10 Wilmington. July 12 -Sep[1] Blanchard estimate based on review of Hill and Wood.[2]

–1 “ Autumn. Man working near wharves after arrival of brig John Loudon.[3]

–1 “ Aug. First patient of Dr. Hill.

–1 “ Mrs. Morrison, sister of Dr. McRee, few miles south in Smithville.[4]

–1 “ At least one man who seemingly had recovered, only to “expire.”[5]

–1 “ Mr. Charles Wright, lawyer; had evacuated but came down upon return.[6]

Virginia (~160)

–~160 Norfolk, ~Aug 1-~Nov 1. Archer. “History of the Yellow Fever…Norfolk…1821,” p. 61.

–106 Adults.

— 53 Females.

— 30 Blacks

— 60 Foreigners.[7]

–1 Norfolk Aug 1, first case, warehouse clerk, Mr. Price, who later died.

–1 “ Aug 9, Black female cook, who became sick same day as Mr. Price.

Narrative Information

Norfolk, Virginia

Archer on Norfolk epidemic: “On the 20^th of July, a vessel from Point Peter, Guadeloupe…arrived in the harbour. Having discharged her cargo at an upper wharf, her bilge water was pumped out on the dock between Southgate’s and Warrin’s wharves, which was found to be so putrid and offensive, as to render it expedient that the doors and windows of a neighbouring house should be closed, in order to exclude the effluvia arising from it. This and Southgate’s warehouse were about equally distant from the vessel, say 15 or 20 yards, one on the east, the other on the west side of the dock.

“On the 1^st of August, Mr. Price, acting as clerk in the warehouse, was taken sick with fever, strongly marked with symptoms of malignancy, and died on the —-. On the same day a negro woman, cook to the family occupying the other house, was attacked and died on the 9^th. On the 4^th, two ladies of the family sickened, the elder of who died on the 10^th. About the same time a boy, aged 16, and an infant in the same family were attacked, but both recovered. On the 9^th, a lady of the house had a slight attack, from which she soon recovered; and the only one who escaped of the whole family, seven in number, was the master of the house, whose duties fortunately took him from home at the time the bilge water was discharged. Young Piercey, who had assisted in pumping the vessel, and a boy by the name of Andrews, who had frequently been about her at the time, both sickened and died, one about the 15^th day of the disease, the other within 48 hours after the attack….” (Archer. “History of the Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Norfolk during the Summer and Autumn of 1821,” pp. 62-63.)

St. Augustine, Florida

Dr. Francis in Townsend: “Dear Sir. — I send you an account…of the malignant fever which devastated St. Augustine….

“St. Augustine, prior to the late fever, had been remarkable for the salubrity of its climate and the health of its inhabitants. There is, I believe, but a solitary instance of its having at any time before the late calamity, been subjected to the ravages of a pestilential disorder….

“About the beginning of September…some cases of a disorder of an unusual character made their appearance; but shortly after they became more frequent, and excited more general alarm. The disease was at its height from the first to the fifteenth of October, during which period the greatest mortality prevailed. Towards the close of December, the fever ceases.

“The disorder attacked, in an especial manner, persons of a full and robust constitution; and, without a single exception, was confined to new comers from higher latitudes. The emigrants from the northern parts of the United States were those particularly who were subjected to its influence. It is stated that not a single individual from the West Indies [Caribbean], or native of the country, nor any one who had previously suffered from yellow fever became its victim….

“The fever was strongly characterized by all the prominent symptoms of the yellow fever as it has occurred in the sea ports of the northern states. It was marked with great prostration of the muscular system and disturbance of the intellectual powers: in a majority of cases it invaded suddenly, and generally terminated fatally within the third, fourth, or fifth day from the attack. Sometimes death took place on the second day; very rarely was the disease protracted to the sixth. The peculiar yellow suffusion of the surface, and injected state of the vessels of the eye, as they are exhibited in yellow fever, were often observed; and that precordial anxiety, so uniformly noticed in the same complaint, was found to occur in a large majority of the cases of the fever of St. Augustine. In many instances the black vomit terminated the sufferings of the patient.

“Forty or fifty deaths occurred among the newly arrived emigrants before the alarm became general. Eleven deaths was the greatest number that happened in any one day. This mortality took place in October.

“Of the inhabitants of St. Augustine, about two hundred were exposed to the influence of the disease. Of this aggregate, one hundred and forty were attacked, of which one hundred and thirty-two died. In these deaths are included three blacks. The fever also afflicted the troops in garrison: forty deaths took place in a body of one hundred and twenty soldiers. The total number of deaths from this malignant fever, was consequently one hundred and seventy-two.” (Dr. Francis “Letter of Dr. Francis on the Yellow Fever of St. Augustine in 1821. New-York, December 31^st, 1822.” Appendix No. XI, Pp. 380-382, in Townsend, Peter S., M.D. An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822. NY: O. Halsted, 1823.)

Wilmington, North Carolina

Hill on Wilmington Yellow Fever: “….either of these causes [filthy dock area and putrid cellars of houses unoccupied for summer season] might well explain the existence of fever in its most aggravated form. Yet such has been our situation for years; and the greater malignity of our disease this season depends upon some peculiar chemical action or constitution of the atmosphere, or other causes beyond my scrutiny….it has been thought that the fever was imported her from the Havanna [sic] by the brig John Loudon, which arrived on the 25^th of July….She arrived here, after a passage of twelve days, with a cargo of sugar and molasses, was boarded by the health-officer, and her mate found labouring under slight febrile symptoms; but nothing appearing to warrant the enforcement of quarantine, she was permitted to unload. The next day I was called in attendance upon this man, and found him sick of jaundice, to which he said he had been subject, with its deep golden colour of the skin, clayey stools, and absence of those peculiarly distressing symptoms which characterize yellow fever. He recovered….This was the only case of sickness on board the vessel at her arrival or during her stay here….

“I attended one of the first victims of the disease, and he assured me solemnly, on the day previous to his death, that he had never been on board the vessel….He had been sounding along our wharves to the bottom of the river, searching for barrels of naval stores, and other articles of value, which in the course of time had been lost and sunk there….He died of black vomit, but no one of his attendants sickened….

“The fever did not spread extensively, or excite alarm, until about the —- of August, when two cases occurred upon the same day. One of these I attended, and although from the commencement it was marked by symptoms the most threatening and malignant, yet as such instances occur almost every season, I neither suspected nor observed any thing peculiar in its character, until the third evening, when I was alarmed by the yellow suffusion of the eyes and neck, intolerable irritability of the stomach, ejecting a dark grainy coffee grounds fluid, great pain and confusion of the sensorium, suppression about the praecordia and singultus, with a languid sinking circulation. These symptoms continued until the ensuing morning, when he expired.

“It did not appear to have any respect to age, sex or colour; and its attack was generally preceded by listlessness and lassitude, weakness or pains about the knees, sometimes by excessive preternatural perspiration with a creeping chilly sensation or motion; pains of the head, shoulders, neck and loins, affecting indeed the whole spinal chord; often by nausea and a disagreeable taste in the mouth….

“…in a few instances, when the attack was more sudden and violent, the vital principle seemed so furiously assailed, as to sink at once under the morbid influence, probably by the ingorgement [sic] of some essential viscus. In such instances, the extremities lost their natural temperature, and became covered with a cold clammy moisture, always indicating extreme imminent danger.

“The appearance of the tongue was as various as the circulation, frequently loaded with a brown bilious fur from the commencement, sometimes clean and moist, at others, dry and shining. These symptoms usually continued for a day or two, when a typhoid state of the system and a new train of symptoms supervened. The gastric irritability increased to a most distressing degree, so that the stomach was, as justly as emphatically, called by Doctor Warren, ‘the seat and throne of the disease.’ The eyes and neck now assumed their yellow copperish livery, which quickly spread itself over the whole body. The tongue and teeth became encrusted with a dark, dirty sordes [sic], and the breath, as well as whole body, emitted a most offensive effluvia. The bowels were usually torpid, and the urinary discharges thick, red and turbid. Hemorrhages seldom occurred in my practice towards the conclusion of the disease, nor did I observe an instance of what might properly be termed petechiae.[8] The period of suffering, was usually terminated, either in health by perspiration, with an abatement of all the incidental distresses, or in death, by an unrestrainable vomiting, accompanied with dark and fetid passages, coma or delirium, and hiccough….” (Hill. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Autumn of 1821,” pp. 86-90.)

Wood on Dr. McRee and Wilmington Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1821: “The Yellow Fever of 1821.[9]

“Dr. McRee was 27 years of age when he faced the epidemic of yellow fever of 1821. This was a very severe visitation. The period of incubation of this epidemic was from the 12^th of July to the 9^th of August. His sister, Mrs. Morrison, died of the disease at Smithville.[10]

“….Dr. McRee’s account of it to Dr. John H. Hill was that there were many ‘walking cases.’ A man would feel as if he had recovered entirely of the disease, get up, put on his clothes, walk down street as though nothing was the matter with him; meet his friends and be congratulated on his recovery, return home, and in a short time expire. One case he related of Mr. Charles Wright, a prominent lawyer of that time, who had avoided the exposure of the contagion by residing on the Sound (8 miles from Wilmington). After the epidemic had ceased he came up to town, on his way to Duplin county. Dr. McRee met him and cautioned him by not means to go into his office, as his servant had been sick there and recovered, since which the office had been closed without ventilation. He remarked that his papers were in the office and that he must get them as it would be useless for him to go to court without them. He did so, went to court, and, after being there a few days, was taken sick with symptoms of the fever, started home, but got no further South than Washington, from which place he sent for Dr. McRee, dying before he could get to him….” (Wood. “James Fergus McRee, M.D.” pp. 14-16.)

Sources:

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History (citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925 as source). Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

Archer, Robert, MD. “History of the Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Norfolk during the Summer and Autumn of 1821.” Pp. 60-73 in The American Medical Recorder, Vol. V, No. I, Philadelphia: James Webster, January 1822. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4TSgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

Hill, John, MD. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Autumn of 1821,” pp. 86-92 in The American Medical Recorder, Vol. V, No. I, Philadelphia: James Webster, January 1822. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4TSgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

McRee, Dr. James Fergus. “The Yellow Fever of 1821,” North Carolina Medical Journal, Wilmington, NC, Vol. 29, No. 1, Jan 1892, p. 14-15. Google digital preview accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=GWEsAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ohio Repository, Canton. “The Storm,” Sep 27, 1821, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=5578903

Townsend, Peter S., M.D. “Appendix.” An Account of the Yellow Fever as it Prevailed in The City of New-York, in the Summer and Autumn of 1822. NY: O. Halsted, 1823. Google preview accessed 4-17-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=pfsOAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#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

Wood, Thomas F. “James Fergus McRee, M.D. (A Biographical Sketch with Portrait.” Pp. 10-20 in North Carolina Medical Journal, (Thomas F. Wood and Georg Gillett Thomas (eds.).) Vol. 28, No. 1, Jan, 1982, Jackson & Bell Steam-Power Printers. Google preview accessed 3-22-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=GWEsAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Wood writes of the “incubation” period starting July 12, which I take it means the first illness. Hill notes deaths in August, and the autumn, which leaves me to believe the epidemic extended at least into September. Usually, once an epidemic starts, it only ends in late Fall, when the deep frosts kill or drive into hibernation the mosquitoes which are the vector.

[2] See Narrative Information section below for Wilmington. Hill writes of many cases and deaths. Wood writes “This was a very severe visitation.”

[3] Hill. “Some Observations on the Yellow Fever, as it prevailed in Wilmington, North Carolina in…1821, “ p. 88.

[4] Wood. “James Fergus McRee, M.D.” North Carolina Medical Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1, Jan 1892, p. 14.

[5] Wood, p. 15.

[6] Wood. P. 15.

[7] I realize the numbers add to more than 160. The text is: “During that time [Aug-Nov 1] there died, as nearly as can be ascertained, 160 persons, of whom 53 were females, 30 negroes, 106 adults, and 60 foreigners. Europeans, and particularly the Irish, were most obnoxious to the disease; next to these…natives of the northern and eastern states.”

[8] Plural of petechia, or purple spot on the skin caused by a minor bleed from broken capillary blood vessels.

[9] In footnote, Wood notes that: “Wilmington in 1821 was a small village of 2,500 inhabitants, doing a considerable commerce with the West Indies….” (p. 14)

[10] Smithville is a few miles south of Wilmington.

19th Century

1820 — May-Dec, Yellow Fever, Savannah GA/New Orleans/NYC/Philadelphia –1,335

lornajarrettblanchard May 1, 1820

–1,335 Blanchard tally based on numbers below.

Georgia ( 700)

–700 Savannah May-Dec Childs 1886, 82; His. Marker Data Base. “Yellow Fever…”

–669 “ Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 465.

–119 “ by end of July Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Savannah in the Old South. 2003, 200.

Louisiana ( 400)

–400 New Orleans Barton. The Cause…Prevention of Yellow Fever… p. xlix.[1]

–400 New Orleans Sanitary Com. of New Orleans. Report of… 1855, p. 465.

— 82 New Orleans Keating 1879, p. 84.

New York ( 152)

–152 New York Keating 1879, 84.

— 2 NY Marine Hospital U.S. Marine-Hosp. Svc. Annual Rpt…FY 1895. 1896, 434.

Pennsylvania (83-84)

–84 Philadelphia Keating 1879, 84.

–83 “ July 24-Nov Augustin 1909, 555; Macomber;[2] US MHS 1896, p. 434.

–83 “ Barton. The Cause…Prevention of Yellow Fever… p. 48.

–67 “ Independence Hall Assoc. in Philadelphia. “Philadelphia Timeline, 1892.”

Narrative Information

Augustin: “Savannah….1820. Population, 5,000. The disease made its appearance in May. A death occurred on the 7^th, another on the 10^th, and another on the 30^th of that month. In June, the mortality was augmented to a death on every second day, and the whole sum, at the end of the month, amounted to 14. In July, the number of deaths ran up to 39, being an advance to more than double the devastation of June. In August, it amounted to 111; in September to 241; in October to 208; in November to 50, and in December to 3. The degree of mortality, on the surface of this statement appears to have undergone a gradual reduction after the month of September. But when it is considered, that in the course of this period, the population had been greatly diminished by absence and death, it becomes evident, that, so far from having sustained any diminution, it was really increased throughout the month of October. The whole aggregate of deaths resulting from the epidemic, from its commencement in May, to its conclusion in December was at 669.” (Augustin. History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 465.)

Childs: “The yellow-fever raged in Savannah during the summer and autumn, carrying off about 700 hundred of the inhabitants. Many of the people fled, leaving three hundred and forty-three houses unoccupied.” (Childs 1886, p. 82)

Sources:

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.

Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Digitized by Google. At: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Savannah in the Old South. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=jhIDPWkpurkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Historical Marker Database. “Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1820” (Savannah GA). Accessed October 7, 2008 at: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5330

Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia. “Philadelphia Timeline, 1892.” UShistory.org. Accessed 10-15-2011 at: http://www.ushistory.org/philadelphia/timeline/1892.htm

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

Macomber, Robert. “My Worst Fears Have Been More Than Realized: Yellow Fever Hits The Union.” Huntingdon, TN: Civil War Interactive (website). Accessed 8-15-2013 at:

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ArticleYellowFeverMacomber.htm

Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1855. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100633711

[1] Out of total death toll of 1,766 and a population of 27,176.

[2] Macomber notes that this was out of 125 patients.

19th Century

1820 — Jan-March (mostly), Scurvy, Cantonment Missouri (Army), Council Bluff, NE–190

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1820

–190 Nichols. “Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri, 1819-1829.” Nebraska History, V49, 1968, 346.

–160 NebraskaStudies.org. “Fort Atkinson.” Accessed 5-23-2018.

–157 McDowell. Vitamin History, the Early Years.

Narrative Information

McDowell: “1820-Scurvy in Nebraska (USA) — Scurvy broke out in a Nebraska infantry fort; of 788 soldiers, 500 developed scurvy and 157 died. The disease was controlled by consumption of wild onions.”

NebraskaStudies.org: “In 1819, Colonel [Henry M.] Atkinson led a force of 1,126 riflemen up the Missouri River….The parties spent the winter in two camps, Atkinson’s troop in Camp Missouri near Council Bluffs…Through the winter, Atkinson lost 160 soldiers to the bitter cold and scurvy….Fort Atkinson was the earliest and largest town in what was to become the Nebraska Territory, and over one thousand soldiers and their families lived at this remote outpost from 1820-1827.”

Nichols: “….In present Nebraska, an outbreak of scurvy among the troops at Cantonment Missouri during the winter of 1819-1820 caused the first recorded epidemic within the state. [p. 333]

“The scurvy resulted from the unusual troop movements in 1818- and 1819, which carried American soldiers far beyond the fringes of existing settlement in an attempt to decrease the tensions and friction between frontiersmen and Indians in the Missouri River Valley….

“…By October 1819, nearly eight hundred officers and men had arrived near the site of present Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, hundreds of miles beyond the nearest frontier settlements. [pp. 334-335]

“The men of the Sixth Infantry Regiment had traveled over twenty-six hundred miles from their former position at Plattsburgh, New York, to their destination…. [p. 335]

“Because the ration [mostly salted meat] failed to provide the men proper nutrition, it became a health hazard.

“The established system of supplying the army created a second, related problem. Rather than allow the quartermaster general or the commissary general of purchases to buy foodstuffs, the army depended upon civilian contractors. Unfortunately, frontier merchants often sold diseased or poorly slated meat, spoiled flour, and scrawny, run-down cattle to the army. This poor quality merchandise made the task of keeping the troops healthy difficult, as the experience of the Missouri Expedition proved…. [p. 337]

“The strenuous work necessary to complete the camp buildings [by cutting down nearby trees and quarrying nearby limestone for foundations] helped to weaken some of the men. On October 3, 1819, they began clearing land for their quarters and hurrying to erect their shelters before the full force of a Nebraska winter struck….During October, November, and December, 1819, the cantonment took shape…. [p. 338]

“…by January, 1820 the regimental surgeons…noted that scurvy had become the most important health problem at the camp…. [p. 339]

“Surgeon Gale described the symptoms among the soldiers in his regiment as follows:

The victim of this dreadful malady is characterized by his extreme feebleness and debility, his pale and bloated complexion; his spongy black and ulcerated gums; by his loosened teeth; his {feted} urine and offensive breath; by the {watery} swelling of his legs; the livid spots on his skin and the universal discolouration of the limbs; by his stiff and swollen joints; his rigid and contracted tendons; his loss of locomotion and by wandering and excruiciating {sic} pains. [p. 340]

“….The scurvy outbreak began with a few reported cases during January, 1820, and by February ‘nearly the whole regiment [Sixth Infantry] sand beneath its influence.’ Late that month Surgeon Gale reported that 280 men were sick and that nearly all of them had scurvy. By March 10, this had increased to 360 men, and less than two weeks later the count stood at 345 men sick and 100 dead. On April 1, he noted that 100 infantrymen and 60 riflemen had died.[1] From these figures, it may be seen that the scurvy epidemic incapacitated or killed well over half of the garrison during February and March, 1820…. [p. 343]

“Of the one hundred [sick] men taken down river to Fort Osage by boat on March 25, at least twenty died enroute.

“To treat the remaining men thought to have a chance for survival [but to sick to move by boat], the physicians decided to move them out of the cantonment. Apparently they did this for two reasons. First, they hoped that a change of scenery would improve morale among the sick. Second they wanted to get the men out of the filthy, disease-ridden camp. The medical officers supervised moving the sick soldiers to the woods about three miles from the cantonment, where they erected a hut and tent city called Camp Recovery. There the men found wild onions[2] and got fresh meat by hunting. These additions to their died helped to end the scurvy epidemic. The stay at Camp Recovery brought what some considered near miracle recoveries. Dr. Mower cited several cases in which patients taken there in a ‘seeming moribund state’ recovered. Some of the men had already lost all of their teeth, while on others ‘large portions of the lips had sloughed off.’ In all of these cases the men recovered and eventually returned to duty…. [p. 344]

“The scurvy epidemic and a cut in military appropriations in 1820 caused at least one positive response. Colonel Atkinson had suggested that frontier army units could reduce War Department expenditures for food and keep themselves healthy if they got a part of their meat ration from hunting and if they could raise livestock and fresh vegetables to supplement their died. On April 10, 1820, Secretary of War John Calhoun concurred. By October of that year, Atkinson reported that the men at Cantonment Missouri had harvested 250 tons of hay for livestock, 13,000 bushels of corn, 4,000 bushels of potatoes, and 4,000 to 5,000 bushels of turnips. Apparently these vegetables and feed for livestock to provide fresh meat did help, because army deaths from scurvy dropped from 190 in 1820 to only five the next year. In fact, excluding the scurvy epidemic of 1820, there were only eleven deaths from scurvy in the army from 1819 to 1838….”[3] [pp. 345-346]

“….the Nebraska scurvy epidemic of 1820…[which] killed or weakened nearly one tenth of the entire [US] army, stands alone.” [p. 347]

Sources

Levine, Victor E. “Scurvy in Nebraska: The Epidemic of Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri (Fort Atkinson), Nebraska, 1819-1820.” American Journal of Digestive Diseases,” Vol. 22, Issue 1, Jan 1955, pp. 9-17. Preview accessed 5-23-2018 at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02881510

McDowell, Lee R. Vitamin History, the Early Years. University of Florida, 2013. Google preview accessed 5-23-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=bb9xPf6JqLgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

NebraskaStudies.org. “Fort Atkinson.” Accessed 5-23-2018 at: http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0400/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0400/stories/0401_0131.html

Nichols, Roger L. “Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri, 1819-1829.” Nebraska History, Vol. 49, 1968, pp. 333-347. Accessed 5-24-2018 at: https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1968Scurvy.pdf

Additional Resource

Reals, William J. “Scurvy at Fort Atkinson, 1819-1820, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 2, March-April 1949, pp. 137-154.

[1] Including just one officer. (p. 343)

[2] A good source for vitamin C.

[3] Cites: Risch, Quartermaster Support, p. 204.

19th Century

1819 — Yellow Fever, esp. Baltimore/Charleston/Mobile/Natchez/New Orleans/NYC–2871-3019

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1819

–2,871-3,019 Blanchard range (using Keating for low-end and our tally of states for high end).

–1,157-3,019 Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.

— 2,871 Keating 1879, pp. 83-84.

Summary of State Breakouts Below

Alabama Mobile ( 274)

Georgia Savannah ( ?)

Louisiana New Orleans (425-2,190)

Maryland Baltimore ( >47)

Massachusetts Boston ( >18)

Mississippi Natchez ( 180-250)

New York NY City ( 23-50)

Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( 13)

South Carolina Charleston ( 177)

Breakout of Fatalities by State and Locality

Alabama ( 274) (Aug 15-Nov 30). (Toner 1873, 16)

–274 Mobile. Keating 1879, 83-84; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 16;[1] USMHS 1896, 434.

–274 “ Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History. Submitted by K. Torp.[2]

District of Columbia ( ?)

–? Georgetown. La Roche cites a Dr. Blair to the effect that yellow fever was present in 1819.[3]

Georgia ( ?)

–? Savannah. Sternberg. Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. 1908, p. 719.[4]

–? Savannah. “Reviewed Works…The late fever in Boston.” The NAR, 10/27, Apr 1820, 407.[5]

Louisiana (425-2,190) (mid-Aug-Jan 1820)

–425-2,190 New Orleans. Blanchard.[6]

–2,190 New Orleans. Augustine, History of Yellow Fever. 1909.

–2,190 “ Keating. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878… 1879, p. 84.

–2,190 “ New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” 10-7-1888.[7]

–2,190 “ Sternberg. Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. P. 44.

–2,190 “ US Marine Hosp. Svc. (Treasury). An. Rpt. for FY 1895. 1896, p. 434.

–1,200 “ Childs 1886, p. 80.[8]

–1,138 “ Total mortality. Sanitary Commission. Report of… 1855.[9]

— 425 (2,138 total deaths). Barton. The Cause…Prevention…Yellow Fever…New Orleans. 1857.[10]

Maryland ( >47)

—>47 Fell’s Point, Baltimore, July 1-Oct 20. Quinan. Medical Annals of Baltimore… 1884, 29.[11]

Massachusetts ( >18)

—>10 Boston. Blanchard estimate based on “The late fever in Boston.” New Eng. Med. Jour.[12]

— ? Boston. La Roche (p.269) notes yellow fever was present in Boston in 1798 and 1819.[13]

Breakout of Boston (and area) fatalities:

— >3 “ Late June. The first cases in late June “were very speedily fatal.”[14]

— >5 “ July. Notes late June deaths were “not…so great as it was about a month later.”[15]

— 3 “ Aug. Crewmembers of the Ten Brothers after getting sick in Boston.[16]

— 1 “ Aug. Mr. Daniel Badger, after going aboard Ten Brothers at Boston.[17]

— 1 “ Fort Hill, Aug 2, Mr. Wilds.[18]

— 1 “ Fort Hill case, Aug 7, grandchild of Mr. Wilds (taken to Acton and died).[19]

— 1 “ Fort Hill case, wife of Mr. Wilds “sickened on the seventh…died” in Acton.[20]

— 1 “ Fort Hill case, daughter of Mr. Wilds, about same time as mother.[21]

— 1 “ Aug 10. Brother of Harriet Bryant, who had worked several days on the ship.[22]

— 1 “ Aug 15. Harriet Bryant, who had nursed her older brother.[23]

Mississippi (180-250) (Sep 4-Dec 1, Monette 1842, p. 64)

— 250 Natchez. Macomber. “My Worst Fears…Yellow Fever…” Civil War Interactive.

— 200 “ Monette. Observations…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez…1842, p.64.

— 180 “ Keating 1879, 84; Sternberg 1908, 719; US Marine Hosp. Ser. 1896, 434.

New York (23-50)

–50 New York City. La Roche. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical… 1855, p. 750.[24]

–37 “ Keating 1879, 84; US MHS 1896, 434.

–23 “ Putnam. The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. 1851, 605.

Specific Deaths.

— 1 New York City Aug 13. Passenger from brig Eliza from Charleston, dying day of arrival.[25]

— 1 “ Sep 5. “Reviewed Works, The North-American Review…, 10/27, Apr 1820, 402.[26]

— 6 “ Poor removed by Board of Health to Fort Richmond, Staten Island.[27]

— 1 “ Sep 22. Capt. Cary of sloop Union at the Marine Hospital.[28]

— 1 “ Oct 6. Capt. of brig Eliza.[29]

Pennsylvania ( 13)

— 13 Philadelphia Keating 1879, 84; US MHS 1896, 434.

South Carolina ( 177)

–177 Charleston Keating 1879, 84; Sternberg 1908, 719; US MHS 1896, 434.

Narrative Information

Alabama (Mobile)

“Reviewed Works…Contagion and the fever of the last season,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, 1820: “At Mobile the yellow fever was more destructive in its ravages, in proportion to the population, than perhaps it has ever been in any other place in the country. The committee appointed after its termination to investigate the causes and extent of the sickness, confidently referred it to the contamination of the atmosphere by the putrefaction of vegetable substances, abundant sources of which they pointed out. The fever was also severely felt at New Orleans. But the opposite opinion has been adopted respecting its origin…. [p. 408.]

Louisiana (New Orleans)

Carrigan: “Although the records of yellow fever’s visits in the early 1800’s are rather sketchy and sometimes contradictory, during the first two decades of the century New Orleans experienced at least five major outbreaks of the disease: 1804, 1809, 1811, 1817, and 1819.” [P. 40.]

Monette: “In 1819, the yellow fever raged with great violence in New Orleans, from and after the middle of August. Cases had occurred occasionally on board the shipping and about the wharves as early as June. Toward the middle of August it raged severely among the shipping and

spread to the adjacent streets, and also to the boats which had descended the river. Not a ship escaped without the loss of one or two hands, and some lost their whole crews; many steamboats became infected, and lost, many of their passengers and crews. It was not entirely destroyed until January following.”[30] (Monette 1842, p. 64.)

Massachusetts (Boston)

New England Medical Journal: “The cities of the United States have exhibited a curious spectacle during the last year. In most of our principal towns, a malignant and fatal disease, long known as the yellow fever, has prevailed to a greater or less extent; at the same time that in the greatest part of them a rigid system of quarantine has been put in execution in each, to prevent [end of p.386] the importation of the same disease from the others. Philadelphia, forgetful of her reputation for kindness and hospitality, with a few cases within her own borders, carried the system of exclusion so far, as to prohibit all intercourse with her neighbour, Baltimore, refused a shelter to those who were seeking a refuge from the disease, and denied admittance, or even liberty to pass through, to all who had visited any part of that city….

“At the same time Boston was equally engaged in enforcing the same precautions towards her sister cities. Her health officers were not prevented, by the prevalence of the fever in its most fatal forms, in a small part of the town, and occasional cases of it in almost all the other parts, from yielding to the dread of importing it from abroad [e.g. England], but applied to the southern cities the same system of quarantine, which some of them had enforced against us…. [p. 387]

“In Boston this fever has appeared in three different years. Each time of its appearance, the summers have been unusually hot; and the fever has been principally confined to a small section of the town…. [p. 395]

“In the year 1802, the same disease appeared within much narrower limits [than 1798]. It was confined to the neighbourhood of Fort-hill; that is, it appeared in its mildest form in Liberty square, which is on the north side of the hill, and in a more severe form in Purchase street, the lower part of Summer street, and a little in Sea street and High street….

“ ‘The fever, which has appeared this year [1819] has been confined to limits still more narrow than those in 1802. It has been around Fort-hill, but mostly within one small square on the south-eastern side of the hill. The longest side of this square is about twenty five rods in length. This square is bounded by Purchase street, High street, Griffin street, and Gibb’s lane. The disease did not even extend over the whole of this square; but has been almost confined to the half nearest Purchase street. There have, however, been a few cases in the vicinity of this square, and perhaps two or three on the other borders of the hill. It has likewise happened now, as in 1802, that persons who have contracted the disease on the ground above described, have sickened elsewhere; but the disease has not in this way been extended to other persons. Since the above statement was drawn up, scattered cases of the disease have appeared over a larger extent, but still in a circle around Fort-hill. These cases have been somewhat milder than those which occurred in July and August. The fatal ones have not terminated so early, as happened in most of the other cases. The most strict investigation in respect to some of these later cases, has shown that the disease had not been derived from those previously sick.’ N. E. Med. Journ. Vol. viii, p. 380.

“The first cases of the disease occurred about the last of June, and were very speedily fatal. The number was not, however, so great as it was about a month later, after a longer period of very warm weather. In the mean time a new source of the disease appeared. On the 26^th of July the ship Ten Brothers arrived at quarantine ground in the harbour, and on the first of August came up t the town. This ship had been absent nearly a year on a voyage to the coast of Africa. The captain and a boy had died of fever on board at Prince’s Island in February and March; and a man in July of some other disease. On her return she had taken in a quantity of Indian corn, which was discharged at [end of p. 396] Martinico [sic], and she brought home only a small part of a cargo of any sort….

“…. ‘The ship remained on quarantine ground as long as the law, and the regulations of the board of health, require vessels to remain similarly situated. Said ship was washed with vinegar, and every night fumigated in her cabin, and between decks, while on quarantine, and every cleansing and purification of said ship and articles on board, was used, in the most faithful manner that has ever been thought to be necessary of proper, with vessels arriving at quarantine, similarly situated.’

“All this, as we have seen, must have been done between the twenty sixth of July and the first of August. It does not appear that any examination was made of the state of the lower hold of the ship; and no part of the cargo was removed. Yet this cargo was in a state very far from healthful; and it is matter of common remark that no ship has arrived in our harbour for many hears in so foul a state as the Ten Brothers. The interstices between her timbers were filled with corn and coffee, in the most putrid state; and the gunny bags and the coffee of her cargo were filled with insects. We are told by the author of ‘the late fever,’ that ‘it has been stated by people of veracity that the ship was extremely foul, so as to be offensive to the senses, even when coming up the harbour, and of course before her cargo was started.’

“After some remarks, the board proceed:

When Capt. Cobb left quarantine ground, with the ship, his wife, two of his sons, and a nephew went in the ship with him up to Boston; the ship laboured much, and the crew were wet and much fatigued, after leaving quarantine, and before they arrived at the wharf in Boston. On arriving at the wharf, Capt. Cobb, [end of p.397] under the inspection of the late Mr. Eaton, one of the officers of the customs, delivered from said ship some articles of clothing…belonging to Capt. Mayo, late master of said ship; and on Tuesday, {the 3d} the day before the said ship was unladed at the wharf, the late Mr. Daniel Badger received from said ship a box containing brushes, and a handkerchief containing common slop clothes…and returned in said ship. The crew of the said ship did not assist in unlading her at the wharf, but they all slept on board her, on Sunday night, when she first arrived at the wharf, and on that Sunday and Monday following, they were all taken sick and left the ship; three of them died, during the week, after leaving Boston, and two recovered. On Wednesday, {the 4^th} after the said ship arrived at the wharf, and when unlading, a white scum was discovered on the bilge water in her lower hold, and an unusual stench from the water pumped out of her; putrid corn was also discovered to be scattered in her timbers under her ceiling.’ [p. 398]

“….From these two sources arose the disease which occasioned a considerable number of deaths, and gave so much alarm in Boston the last summer. Many persons were on board the Ten Brothers soon after her arrival; and within a few days, several of them were attacked with violent symptoms of fever, which to most of them, in a short time, proved fatal. These persons, as well as some of those who received the disease on Fort-hill, were sick in various parts of the town and in other towns, but they did not communicate the disease to others….

“Mr. Badger, who has been mentioned, sickened and died at Portsmouth….” [p. 399]

[Blanchard: Goes on to note, after describing the deaths of several of his family, that there were some other “fifty or sixty cases that occurred in the town.” A “case” however, does not mean a death.]

“We are obliged to speak thus loosely of the number of cases, because we have no means of knowing the exact number. So defective is our system of public health, that there are no records to show the extent to which the disease prevailed. No returns of diseases are ever made until after death has taken place; and then only such as the sexton can collect [end of p. 399] from the friends of those whom he goes to bury. Even this system, bad as it is, does not include those who die at the Almshouse, or at the quarantine ground on Hospital Island.

“From all these circumstances, it is evident that the disease which arose from the ship Ten Brothers was as purely local in its origin, as that upon Fort-hill….

“As to what is said of the nature of the disease [omitted here], we beg, for the credit of the physicians on Boston, that it may be distinctly remembered, that there is no physician in the board of health. If the board or their committee were unable to obtain any definite and satisfactory [end of p. 400] information, it is because they did not seek it from that class of men who are generally supposed to be the best acquainted with the characteristics of diseases….

Mississippi (Natchez)

La Roche: “Quarantine was established at Natchez in 1819, as soon as it was heard that the fever prevailed at New Orleans. It was rigidly enforced. Notwithstanding this, the epidemic began on the 1^st day of September with several cases at the upper end of Maine Street. No boat, with fever from New Orleans, had arrived. The Alabama, with cases on board, stopped at Vidalia, opposite Natchez, but no one crossed over.”[31] (La Roche. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical… 1855, p. 542.)

Macomber: “In 1819, in the town of Natchez, Mississippi, the yellow fever was so deadly that the general population fled in a panic and only nine hundred and ten stayed behind to take their chances. Of those, two hundred and fifty died.” (Macomber. “My Worst Fears…”)

New York City

“Reviewed Works, Art. XX.–1 The late fever in Boston.”: “It does not appear that the number of cases, or the degree of fatality, was much greater in New York than it was in Boston. But perhaps from its being more in the centre of population and business, or from some other cause, the alarm which it produced was much more extensive. By the middle of September most of the inhabitants had removed, not only from the sickly district as defined by the Board of Health, but also from the immediate vicinity; and before the end of the month about four hundred removals of places of business of various kinds were advertised. Some of these persons carried the seeds of the disease with them, and were sick after their removal. We have no means of ascertaining how [end of p.402] many instances there were of this kind. Of an hundred and fifty of the poor who were removed by order of the Board, to Fort Richmond on Staten Island, six sickened and died there….” (New England Medical Journal. “The late fever in Boston,” Oct, 1819. In: “Reviewed Works, The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418.)

Sources

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History (citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925 as source). Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.

Barton, Edward H., MD, Chair, Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. New Orleans: By Authority of the City Council of New Orleans, 1854. Google preview accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=_EQJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 1 of 2). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1855. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Fsg1AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Macomber, Robert. “My Worst Fears Have Been More Than Realized: Yellow Fever Hits The Union.” Huntingdon, TN: Civil War Interactive (website). Accessed 8-15-2013 at:

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ArticleYellowFeverMacomber.htm

Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov

New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” October 7, 1888. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D03EFD81F38E033A25754C0A9669D94699FD7CF&oref=slogin

Putnam, G. P. (Ed.). The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. NY: G. P. Putnam, 1851. Digitized by Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=qz9HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. Washington: GPO, United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Dept., 1890. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LpYaAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sternberg, George M. “Yellow Fever: History and Geographic Distribution,” pp. 715-722. Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences by Various Writers, Thomas L. Stedman, (ed.). New York: William Wood and Company, 1908. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (University of Northern Iowa), Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. “Reviewed Works: The Late Fever in Boston ; Case of the Ship Ten Brothers; Being the Report of a Committee of the Board of Health, Unanimously Accepted, and Published by Order of the Board ; A Statement of the Occurrences during a Malignant Yellow Fever in the City of New York, in the Summer and Autumnal Months of 1819 ; Observations on the Epidemic of 1819, as It Prevailed in a Part of the City of Baltimore by David M. Reese.” Accessed 3-15-2018 at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25121454?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Toner, Joseph M. (M.D., President, American Medical Association). “The Distribution and Natural History of Yellow Fever as it has Occurred at Different Times in the United States” (Paper read before the American Public Health Association, November 12, 1873). Washington, DC: 1873, 33 pages. Accessed 8-23-2013 at: http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/LSUBK01/id/10240/rec/19

[1] Cites: P. H. Lewis, N.O.M.J., vol. 1, No. 4, 1845, p. 284.

[2] Notes that the yellow fever was also at Fort St. Stephens, July 4-Dec 1, and at Fort Claiborne, July 4-Dec 1.

[3] “Dr. Blair remarks that, although some of the inhabitants of Georgetown, who passed through the epidemics he describes, had resided there during the fever of 1819, there was no instance of a sufferer from the latter being attacked in 1837 and following years.” [Blanchard: In that yellow fever was present in nearby Baltimore, it should be no surprise that there were cases and possibly deaths in Georgetown, DC.]

[4] No note on deaths. Writes “Georgia.–At Savannah epidemics are recorded in the years 1800, 1807, 1808, 1817, 1819, 1820….”

[5] “The late fever in Boston” was in New England Medical Journal, Oct, 1819 and reviewed as “Reviewed Works” in The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (Univ. Northern IA), V.10/N.27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. While writing of yellow fever in New York and Baltimore, notes “It [yellow fever] also prevailed in Charleston and Savannah, but in a degree much less destructive than in many former years.”

[6] We cannot reconcile large discrepancy between Barton and Sanitary Commission of New Orleans in 1854, and the other sources we cite, including the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Dept., which agree on 2,190. Perhaps they all mistook total mortality in New Orleans for yellow fever mortality. Perhaps their numbers are better. Perhaps their numbers included deaths elsewhere in Louisiana, in that yellow fever has a great tendency to spread as infected people leave the area and are then bitten by a mosquito which bites someone else thus spreading the disease.

[7] NYT notes as well that the yellow fever also broke out in Alabama and Louisiana, but noted deaths only for NO.

[8] “…during a period of sixty days…”

[9] “Comparative Table: Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st–of Yellow Fever.”

[10] “Comparative Table [Yellow Fever and Cholera]. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st — of Yellow Fever.” (p. xlix)

[11] We add the “at least” to the 47 given the description: “July 1. Yellow fever begins, as did the epidemic of 1794 and 1800, at Fell’s Point, in Wolf, Pitt, Ann, George, and Lancaster streets. Oct. 20. Epidemic ceased. Total cases reported by Board of Health only 1005, while Drs. Wm. H. and A. Clendinen alone report 630 cases and 47 deaths in their practice from July 1 to Nov. 1.”

[12] See breakout below and Narrative section on Boston for our estimate of at least ten deaths. The original article “The late fever in Boston” was in New England Medical Journal, Oct, 1819. It was reprinted as “Reviewed Works” in The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (University of Northern Iowa), Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. On p. 399 it is written that there was “a considerable number of deaths…”

[13] At page 376 La Roche refers to “The epidemic of 1819” as having broken out “and prevailed in nearly the same localities” [as 1798, viz. “a short distance from the water’s edge…the town dock, Codman’s Stoddart’s and other wharves, as also about State Street, Liberty Square, the market place around Fort Hill, and some similar situations.”

[14] For the purpose of contributing to a tally we convert first very speedily fatal cases into at least three.

[15] No hint as to the extent of mortality is given. Thus, we again, in order to contribute to a tally, speculate on the number. If the mortality in July was greater than it late June (which we put as at least 3) we assume at least 5 in July.

[16] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 398. On p. 399, it is written that “The sailors, who were taken sick, were carried to Brewster [Barnstable County], where, as we have seen, a part of them died, and some persons were sick at Marblehead.”

[17] It is noted that he “sickened and died at Portsmouth.”

[18] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399.

[19] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399. It is noted she was taken to Acton, Middlesex County, where she died.

[20] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399.

[21] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399. Written: “Their daughter was taken about the same time [as mother] and removed to her brother’s in Back street, where she remained three days, and was then removed to Acton, and died there.”

[22] Ten Brothers. “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Jour., 10/27, Apr 1820, 401.

[23] Written that “Previously to his death he vomited upon his pillows a large quantity…dark coloured grumous [?] blood….The day following that event, Harriet took them, ripped them open, and picked over the feathers with her fingers, as they were matted together by the blood and other matters thrown from the stomach….she was attacked on Thursday evening the twelfth and died the Sunday following.” “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 401.

[24] “In New York…in 1819 there were only about one hundred and fifty cases, and fifty deaths.” Notes in “had sickened on Saturday evening, the seventh of August, after having worked several days on board the ship, and died on Tuesday the tenth.”

[25] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 404.

[26] First NYC resident death.

[27] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[28] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[29] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[30] Cites: Medical Repository, New Series, Vo. Vi, pp. 6-20.

[31] Cites: Barton’s Medical and Physical Journal, ii, 26.

19th Century

1818 — Sep 12-13, Hurricane, Galveston Island and ships in the area (14 lost), TX <1000

lornajarrettblanchard September 12, 1818

— ~1,000 Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Pubs., 1991, p. 47.

— <1,000 Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. 1-17-2010 update, p. 8.

Narrative Information

Cartwright: “A slave trader named Randall Jones who visited the Island [Galveston] in the summer of 1818 reported that a number of foreign schooners were anchored in the harbor, including a Yankee Clipper from Boston that came to swap potatoes and cured pork for sugar, cocoa, coffee, and wine. More buccaneers were arriving daily, some with women. Many seamen took black mistresses from the populations of slaves kept in Galveston to do domestic chores and handle cargo. New huts were being constructed all across the eastern end of the island; the population had swelled to nearly 2,000.

“A hurricane that hit late in the summer almost wiped out the colony. At the storm’s approach, Lafitte ordered that the women be evacuated to the Island’s highest point, the ridge occupied by La Mansion Rouge and the fort. Then Lafitte and some of his officers went aboard a schooner anchored in the bay to ride out the storm. It was clear that this was a major hurricane. By midnight most of the Island was under water. More than a dozen ships were blown across the bay and torn to splinters. Houses vanished under walls of water. The fort collapsed. La Mansion Rouge stood against the gale, but sometime that night a cannon crashed through the tower floor into a room where the women were huddled. Many were killed[1] and many more maimed, including a quadroon girl named Jeannette, who was either Lafitte’s mistress, his housekeeper, or his daughter, depending on which story one believes. By dawn the storm had passed, but the settlement was in ruins, and hundreds of corpses were strewn along the beach. One historian estimates that at least half the members of the colony died.” (Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991, p. 47.)

Roth: “September 12-14th, 1818:[2] Among the earliest accounts of a direct hurricane strike on the Texas coast was this storm which formed near the Cayman Islands, then moved west into the Bay of Campeche and moved northwest to hit Galvez’s town (Galveston). It was described as a storm of extraordinary violence. Settlers on the island saw the signs of an approaching storm, but did not think anything of it since they had been through similar situations before. They anchored their boats and went to sleep like it was any other night.

“They were awakened by the fierce winds, thunder, and waves crashing against their homes. The entire island was overwhelmed by the storm surge, which flooded the French colony of Champ d’Asile by four feet. By morning, the city had become a “picture of chaos”. As water began to invade the hospital, people moved the sick to Maison Rouge (Red House), the residence of the pirate/privateer Jean LaFitte (Gaillardet).

“All but six buildings were reported destroyed on the Island. The pirate Jean LaFitte was occupying Champ d’Asile at the time and played an intriguing role during the storm, as both a Spanish spy and a hero. The Spaniards had paid him to keep an eye on this French town, located in the heart of Spanish territory. His house was used for the sick during the storm, which earned praise from the community. However, he too suffered losses as most of the ships in his fleet were destroyed; four in all. Wreckage from some of these ships was dug up by a dredge boat building portion of the Texas City jetty fifty years later (Block[3]).

“War ships from Vera Cruz who encountered this storm were put out of commission for months. Ships and boats in harbor dragged their anchors and were carried out to sea. Two of the boats were later found in “six leagues inland”. Altogether, fourteen ships were claimed by the hurricane. After the storm, those who had survived fled to New Orleans, bringing an end to the short history of Champ d’Asile (Gallardet). Estimates of the lives lost during the cyclone approach 1000 (Cartwright)[4].” (Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, pp. 13-14.)

Seline: “….In 1818, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain (Mexico), which was then fighting for independence from the mother country. The Spaniards had settlements at San Antonio de Béxar, La Bahía del Espíritu Santo (present-day Goliad), and Nacogdoches. The total Hispanic population probably numbered less than 4,000. Texas was primarily inhabited by Native Americans….

“In 1816, French privateer Louis-Michel Aury established a base on Galveston Island, a short distance from the Texas mainland. In April 1817, when Aury left to help Francisco Mina invade Mexico, pirate Jean Laffite took control of the establishment. He ran a privateering, smuggling and slave-laundering operation from the island. A visitor who arrived in January 1818 described Galveston as a “wild sand bar with four or five ‘temporary miserable hovels’ for the 50 men, mostly blacks and mulattoes, living there.”[5] Laffite inhabited a two-story frame house built on a slight elevation.

“In early 1818, Laffite and his men were temporarily joined by approximately 100 Bonapartists – mainly French supporters of Napoleon — on their way to found a colony called Champ d’Asile beside the Trinity River. A few months later, after learning that a Spanish force was coming to eject them, the French colonists returned to Galveston Island to wait for transportation to New Orleans. They arrived in July and settled near Laffite’s village. The Champ d’Asile refugees built a small protective earthwork on a three-foot rise about 400 yards from the water. They were still there when the hurricane struck in September.

“On September 10, 1818, a hurricane passed the Cayman Islands. It blew across the Yucatán Peninsula and then veered north towards Texas. The residents of Galveston Island saw the storm approaching on the evening of September 12, but did not anticipate a hurricane. The French refugees were preparing to go to bed when it struck. [Seline quotes from Le Champ d’Asile au Texas]

The raging winds, the rushing waves shook the earth: the rain fell in torrents, the sky was ablaze; the piles supporting our hut broke: the canvas covering it was torn, and I saw a black column, a whirlwind that carried ravage and destruction in its flanks. The sea flowed in from all sides, the wind lifting the waves. A vortex of wind tore off and removed the remnants of the sail that sheltered us. Night passed and faint light, whitening the horizon, announced that day was soon to appear. Complaints and cries could be heard from all sides when the wind ceased for a moment to roar, and then redoubled its fatal efforts.

Day broke, the storm was not yet calm; but since we could see the danger, it was easier to avoid it. We were able to bring relief to those who were hurt and save them from death. We transported them to the strongest dwelling [Laffite’s], around which we had all gathered.

The island of Galveston, invaded by the sea, seemed to be part of it. This scene of desolation became more terrible when we saw that the waves, redoubling to flee, broke the cables that held our boats and dragged them into the gulf; every means of salvation was taken from us; I dared not announce it, the words died on my lips, and my heart broke. However, the wind subsided, and the sea began to re-enter the gulf.

As we were on a rise, the ground was soon dry, and we were able to sit down. What a sight! We all had pale and drained complexions; our soaked clothing seemed to be glued to the skin and forming part of it; a burning thirst devoured us, and seawater was the only refreshment nature offered us.[6]

“By the time the storm was over, only six buildings remained on Galveston, one of them Laffite’s house. At least four of Laffite’s vessels were sunk or driven ashore. Wrecks from the storm were reportedly found five miles inland in the 1820s. Virtually all of the French refugees’ supplies were lost and the island’s wells were contaminated with salt water. The settlers were dependent on Laffite’s generosity for survival.

“Although there is no good estimate of the number of lives lost in the hurricane, many Karankawa Indians reportedly perished.

The great 1818 hurricane is said to have blown a high flood into Aransas and Copano Bays. It is reported to have drowned many Indians and washed a brigantine or brig to the upper end of a creek (Bergantine Creek) that flows into St. Charles Bay, supposedly indicating that the flood was as high, or higher than, the 1919 flood in that bay. … The normal heights of hurricane floods and their plain weather signs must have been well known to the Indians. The drowning of large numbers of Indians indicates an unexpectedly high flood for a hurricane and probably a wide breach.[7]

(Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019.)

Sources

Androbus, Sally. Galveston Bay. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Accessed 7-4-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8URdra-y_bEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991. Google digital preview accessed 12-30-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=RFRu8kYThEcC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=1818%20hurricane&f=false

Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS. 1-17-2010 update. At: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf

Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019 at: https://shannonselin.com/2017/09/texas-hurricane-1818/

[1] Sally Antrobus (Galveston Bay, p. 74.) citing Cartwright, writes “Hundreds of bodies lay on the beach…A dozen ships were smashed in the bay…Perhaps half the colonists were lost.”

[2] We use dating of September 12-13. By accounts, the hurricane “hit” the future Galveston the evening of the 12^th, and “the storm was not yet calm” at daybreak on the 13^th. (See Seline.)

[3] Block, W. T. “Texas Hurricanes of the 19th Century: Killer Storms Devastated Coastline” Beaumont Enterprise 19 Feb 1978, 3.

[4] Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. Atheneum: New York, 1991.

[5] Cites: William C. Davis. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando: 2005, p. 352.

[6] C. D. Le Champ d’Asile au Texas. Paris: 1820, pp. 103-105.

[7] W. Armstrong Price. North Beach Study for the City of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi, TX; 1956, p. 67.

19th Century

1818 — Yellow Fever Outbreaks, esp. Charleston, SC (115) and New Orleans, LA (115)-234

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1818

–234 Blanchard tally based on numbers below.

Louisiana (115)

–1,115 New Orleans. Keating 1879, 31.[1]

–1,115 “ Jones. State of LA Health Board, 1883/84, cxliv[2]

— 115 “ Augustin 1909, p. 486.

— 115 “ Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, pp. 57,[3] 92.

— 115 “ U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

New York ( 4)

— 4 NYC Marine Hospital U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

South Carolina (115)

–115 Charleston U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

Sources

Jones, Joseph, MD. “History of Quarantine in Louisiana.” Beginning at p. cxiv in Quarantine and Sanitary operations of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana During 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1883. Baton Rouge: State of Louisiana Board of Health. Leon Jastremski, State Printer, 1884. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=qSwPTVLVoiEC&pg=PR144&dq=Yellow+Fever+New+Orleans+1818&ei=PFUzSeT5HoLgywSh3NjqBA#PPP5,M1

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#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, DC: GPO, 1896. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Not used in our tally — appears to be a tally of all deaths, not just those from yellow fever.

[2] “Dr. Bennet Dowler gives the following statistics for 1818: Deaths, while male adults, 324; of female adults, 81; white children, 87; black male adults, 219; black female adults, 162; black children, 277. The mortality augmented in each month until September, in which 166 died. Total whites, 492; total blacks, 658; grand total 1151. Dr. Barton does not include 1818 amongst the epidemic years, and the statistics given by Dr. Dowler evidently relate to all diseases.” (Blanchard note: Thus, we do not use this estimate.)

[3] Carrigan, in footnote 52, cites: New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, New Series, VI, March 1879, p. 699.

19th Century

1817 — June-Dec, Yellow Fever, esp. Charleston SC, Natchez MS, New Orleans–1208-1,233

lornajarrettblanchard June 1, 1817

–1,208 -1,233 Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.

— 1,085 Keating 1879, p. 83.

Louisiana (800-823)

–823 New Orleans. Aug-Dec 30 Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[1]

–760 White male adults

— 63 White female adults

–800 New Orleans. June 18-Dec Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 59.[2]

–800 “ Keating 1879, 83;[3] Sternberg 1908, 719.

–800 “ Marine Hosp. Svc. An. Rpt…1895. 1896, 433.[4]

–600 “ Barton. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans, 1857, p. xlix.[5]

–600 “ Sanitary Com. of New Orleans. Report on Yellow Fever.

— 80 “ June 18-Dec Augustine 1909, 486.[6]

Mississippi (134) (Aug-Nov 15)

–>134 Natchez. Monette. Observations on…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez…1842, p.63.

— 134 “ Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[7]

— 9 “ Keating 1879, 83.

New York ( 4)

— 4 NY Marine Hospital Keating 1879, 83; USMHS 1896, 433.

South Carolina (270-272)

–272 Charleston Keating 1879, 83; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, 433

–270 “ Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[8]

–270 “ NYT. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871

Narrative Information

Natchez, MS:

Monette: “Natchez was a stranger to these visitations [yellow fever] previously to the autumn of 1817, which was soon after the introduction of steamboats on the Mississippi river… this was the first time that Yellow Fever was known as an epidemic in Natchez….

“Epidemic of 1817. — Occasional cases were seen in Natchez as early as August preceding the epidemic; but where they contracted the disease I have not been able to learn….

“`At this time, when the population was highly susceptible, the Washington steamboat reached us from New Orleans, with persons on board, ill of yellow fever, some of whom were landed; and several young men from town went on board, who were all taken sick soon after and died. The disease spread rapidly and with most destructive malignity. For some time it had its sway over the whole city. On the 28th of September the physicians publicly announced the existence of yellow fever, and a large portion of the population retired to the country.’ It continued to prevail with slight interruptions until the 9th of November; and several cases occurred six days later in those who returned after frost to their houses which had been closed during their absence.

“The whole number of deaths in the city, during this epidemic, was one hundred and thirty-four; besides some in the country who contracted their disease in the city.” (Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov )

New Orleans, LA:

“….in 1817 the epidemic period extended from July to late October…In both epidemics [one in 1819] the fever centered its attacks mainly upon Europeans or Americans fresh from the North, but its victims each time included some long-time residents and a few Creoles as well. Not a single Negro was affected by the fever of 1817; some died in 1819.”[9] [p. 40]

Eberle: “The epidemic manifested itself in July. Many symptoms of this disease had, however, been noticed as early as the latter part of June, especially in the city hospital, before the arrival of a vessel from Havana, which had lost a part of her crew by the black vomit, during its passage. The disease increased in its ravages during July; and acquired great malignity in August, on account of the arrival of a great number of Europeans and Americans at that time. In the beginning of September, a violent storm took place, upon which the epidemic abated its fury.—Weather variable until the 20th of this month; at which time the south wind began to blow anew. The heat again became very intense, and the fever still raged with violence, especially among those who had lately arrived. In October, it finally disappeared, after a violent tempest; still, however, reigning in some degree at the hospital, after it was extinguished in the town.” (Eberle. “On Yellow Fever…New-Orleans,” The American Med. Recorder, V2, No. II, Apr 1, 1819, 217)

Sources

Dowler, Bennet, MD. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853, with Topographical, Chronological, and Historical Sketches of The Epidemics of New Orleans Since Their Origin in 1796, Illustrative of the Quarantine Question. New Orleans: The Office of the Picayune, 1854, 76 pages. Accessed 3-16-2018 at: https://ia600300.us.archive.org/18/items/65020990R.nlm.nih.gov/65020990R.pdf

New York Times. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871. Accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0C13F938541A7493CAA81782D85F458784F9

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 preview accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Notes this was out of a “Total mortality for vice months of 1142.”

[2] Carrigan, in footnote 55, cites Jones, Medical and Surgical Memoirs, III, pt. 1, cxliv. She adds that this was “probably a conservative figure.”

[3] Keating notes that “other accounts say mortality for five months 1,142.” (Keating 1879, 83)

[4] Cites S. Chaille, Va. Medical Journal, 1858, p. 498 (Toner.).

[5] “Comparative Table. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st — of Yellow Fever.”

[6] We assume that “80” is a typographical error, given the prevalence of other reports noting “800”.

[7] Cites a Dr. Perlee.

[8] Notes a total mortality of 1,249, citing “Mills’ Statist.”

[9] Carrigan, in footnote 54, cites: Rapport publié au nom de la Société Medicale de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur la Fievre Jaune, qui y a regne Epidemicquement, Durant l’Ete et l’Automne de 1819 (Nouvelle-Orléans, 1820), pp. 7, 35-36.

19th Century

1816 — Smallpox, New York City, NY — 179

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1816

–179 Duffy. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. 1968, p. 248.

–179 Jones. “Introduction of Vaccination into New York, United States of America.” P. 193.[1]

Narrative Information

Duffy: “On December 19, after the weekly bill of mortality showed 17 deaths from smallpox, the City Council appointed a committee to look into the matter. Subsequently, on January 29 the Council granted the Dispensary $1,000 to cover the cost of a general vaccination of th poor, and in conjunction with the Board of Health, began an educational campaign to arouse the public. The Council especially asked clergymen, charitable associations, and ‘intelligent’ persons to spread the good word about vaccination among the poor. Despite their efforts, the best available figures show that smallpox killed 94 persons in 1815 and 179 in 1816. The number of smallpox deaths fell off sharply thereafter, and the intensive campaign of 1816 possibly helps to account for the virtual elimination of smallpox during the next eight years. The very success of these efforts proved self-defeating, for the temporary elimination of smallpox caused apathy to set in, and a smallpox outbreak in 1824 killed almost 400 persons.” (Duffy, John. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. 1968, p. 248.)

Sources

Duffy, John. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Printers, Inc. and Russell Sage Foundation, 1968. Google preview accessed 6-20-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=LAcXAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jones, Joseph, M.D., President of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. “Introduction of Vaccination into New York, United States of America.” Pages 191-193 in: Contagious and Infectious Diseases, Measures for Their Prevention and Arrest. Small Pox (Variola); Modified Small Pos (Varioloid); Chicken Pox (Varicella); Cow Pox (Variola Vaccinal): Vaccination, Spurious Vaccination…(Circular No. 2, Prepared for the Guidance of the Quarantine Officers and Sanitary Inspectors of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana, by Dr. Joseph Jones). Baton Rouge: Leon Jastremski, State Printer, 1884. Accessed 2-12-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3VTboPycbBgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] From a table entitled: “Total Deaths from all Causes, and from Small-Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever and Phthisis-Pulmonalis [TB] in the City of New York during a Period of Fifty Years, 1804-1853.”

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