Subject: Re: Summer of 1838 Epidemic?Resent-Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 08:32:12 -0800 (PST)
Resent-From: PAFAYETT-L@rootsweb.com
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 10:49:20 -0500
From: Bill Reace
To: PAFAYETT-L@rootsweb.com
I saw the following note on Epidemics in another Mailing list. It doesn'tanswer your question, but
note that Typhus was strong in Philly in 1837, soit is probably
reasonable to suppose that it could
affect western PA alittle later. Bill Reace
-------------------------------------------------------
I ran across the following article from Sept-Oct, 1997 Newsletter -Genealogical Society
of Santa Cruz County may be of interest: Many cases of people disappearing from records can be
traced to dyingduring an epidemic or moving away from an infected area. Some of the major
epidemics in the United States are listed below:
1657 Boston Measles
1687 Boston Measles
1690 New York Yellow Fever
1713 Boston Measles
1729 Boston Measles
1732-33 Worldwide Influenza
1738 South Carolina Smallpox
1739-40 Boston Measles
1747 CT, NY, PA, SC Measles
1759 North America areas inhabited by white people Measles
1761 North America Influenza
1772 North America Measles
1775 North America esp New England Epidemic (unknown)
1775-76 Worldwide Influenza One of the worst flu epidemics
1788 Philadelphia, NY Measles
1793 Vermont Influenza and a "putrid fever"
1793 Virginia Influenza (killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks)
1793 Philadelphia Yellow fever (one of the worst)
1783 Delaware "extremely fatal" bilious disorder
1793 PA (Harrisburg Middletown) many unexplained deaths
1794 Philadelphia Yellow fever
1796-97 Philadelphia Yellow fever
1798 Philadelphia Yellow fever (one of the worst)
1803 New York Yellow fever
1820-23 Nationwide "fever" (starts on Schuylkill River, PA and spreads
1831-32 Nationwide Asiatic Cholera(brought by English immigrants)
1832 New York and other major cities Cholera
1837 Philadelphia Typhus
1841 Nationwide Yellow fever (especially severe in the south)
1847 New Orleans Yellow fever
1847-48 Worldwide Influenza
1848-49 North America Cholera
1850 Nationwide Yellow fever
1850-51 North America Influenza
1852 Nationwide Yellow fever(New Orleans 8,000 die in the summer)
1855 Nationwide Yellow fever
1857-59 Worldwide Influenza (one of greatest flu epidemics)
1860-61 Pennsylvania Smallpox
1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis, and Wash. D.C.
A series of recurring epidemics of smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet fever, & Yellow fever
1873-75 North Am & Europe Influenza
1878 New Orleans Yellow fever (last great epidemic of the disease)
1885 Plymouth, PA Typhoid
1886 Jacksonville, FL Yellow fever
1918 Worldwide Influenza (high
point year) More people hospitalized in WWI from Influenza than wounds. US Army training camps
became death camps with 80% death rate in some camps. Finally, these specific instances of
cholera were mentioned:
1833 Columbus, OH
1834 New York City
1849 NewYork
1851 Coles Cty, IL
1851 Great Plains
1851 Missouri
Barbara Allison lemuela@worldnet.att.net
