Epidemics
Epidemics
Below is a compilation of epidemics that ravaged parts of the United States, listing the year, the place and the disease. Possibly if your "brick wall" stops at one of these places/dates, this might be the reason. Many times deaths were so many they went unrecorded, and burials were communal, or bodies burnt, in the belief it would stop the disease from spreading.
1657 Boston Measles
1687 Boston Measles
1690 New York Yellow Fever
1713 Boston Measles
1729 Boston Measles
1732-3 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 N. Amer and West Indies Influenza
1772 North America Measles
1775 North America [especially hard in NE]
Unknown epidemic
1775-6 Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics]
Influenza
1783 DE ["extremely fatal"] Bilious
Disorder
1788 Philadelphia and New York Measles
1793 Vermont [a "putrid" fever]
and Influenza
1793 VA [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks]
Influenza
1793 Philadelphia one of the worst epidemics
Yellow Fever
1793 Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths]
Unknown
1793 Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths]
Unknown
1794 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1796-7 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever
1798 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever [one of
the worst]
1803 New York Yellow Fever
1813 Tennessee, Maury County Black Tongue
epidemic killed several
1820-3 Nationwide
1831-2 Nationwide [brought by English emigrants]
Asiatic Cholera
1832 NY City and other major cities Cholera
1833 Columbus, OH Cholera
1834 New York City Cholera
1834 Tennessee, Maury County, occurred southeast
of Columbia Cholera
1837 Philadelphia Typhus
1840 Tennessee, Stewart County, Dover Hard
times in the area attributed to the national
depression of 1837. Malaria, cholera, smallpox
frequent epidemics, widespread.
1841 Nationwide [especially severe in the
south] Yellow Fever
1844 February and March Tennessee Maury County,
killed several in Columbia Black Tongue epidemic
1847 New Orleans Yellow Fever
1847-8 Worldwide Influenza
1848-9 North America Cholera
1848 July Decatur County, Tennessee, area
of Bear Creek Baptist Church Smallpox
1849 New York Cholera
1850 Nationwide Yellow Fever
1850 July 17 Gainesboro, TN Cholera
1850-1 North America Influenza
1851 Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains, and
Missouri Cholera
1852 Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in
summer] Yellow Fever
1854 Tennessee, Giles County unknown epidemic
1855 Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever
1857-9 Worldwide [one of the greatest epidemics]
Influenza
1860-1 Pennsylvania Smallpox
1862 Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis Yellow-fever
1862 Illinois in the vicinity of Metropolis
measles and pneumonia
1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans
Smallpox
1865-73 Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC
Cholera
1866 United States Cholera
1865-73 Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC
A series of recurring epidemics of Typhus
Typhoid Scarlet Fever Yellow Fever
1873-5 North America and Europe Influenza
1873 Tennessee, Rutherford County Murfreesboro
cholera
1878 Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis yellow
fever more than 5,000 fatalities 25,000 persons
in crazed flight, and 5,000 more sheltered
in concentration camps
1878 New Orleans [last great epidemic] Yellow
Fever
1878 Tennessee, Hamilton County, Chattanooga
Yellow Fever
1885 Plymouth, PA Typhoid
1886 Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever
1918 Worldwide [high point yr] Influenza more
people were hospitalized in WWI from Influenza
epidemic than wounds. US Army training camps
became death camps, with 80% death rate in
some camps
1924 Tennessee, Stewart County, Dover Typhoid
fever epidemic
The great Cholera epidemic was spread by
immigrants from Europe. The major years were
1832, 1849, 1866, and 1873. By 1890, the
disease was practically controlled.
--Malaria was also of epidemic proportions
in the late 1800's. The hottest summer on
record was 1886, and later 1887. Mosquitoes
were out of control in the Ohio and Mississippi
Valleys, as well as tributaries. This went
on for years. --TB was also of epidemic proportions
at the time. Children ages 5-15 rarely died
from the "adult" epidemics, as
this is a period of "Natural Immunity."
European epidemics introduced into the southeastern
United States in 1540 by the Desoto expedition
are estimated to have killed at least 75%
of the original native population. How much
the Cherokee suffered from this disaster
in unknown, but their population in 1674
was about 50,000. A series of smallpox epidemics
(1729, 1738, and 1753) cut this in half,
and it remained fairly stable at about 25,000
until their removal to Oklahoma during the
1830s.
