Medical Facts

The "Narrative of the 1873 Cholera Epidemic in the United States" (KY Section)

Epidemics  in American History

In case you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain period in history, this might help.

 Epidemics have always had a great influence on people - and thus  influencing as well, the genealogists trying to trace them.  Many  cases of people disappearing from  records can be traced to their  dying during an epidemic or  moving away from the affected 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
 1732-3  Worldwide Influenza
 1738    South Carolina Smallpox
 1739-40 Boston Measles
 1747    CT,NY,PA,SC Measles
 1759    N. America [areas inhabited by white people]      Measles
 1761    North America and West Indies Influenza
 1772    North America Measles
 1775    N. America [especially hard in NE] epidemic       Unknown
 1775-6  Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] Influenza
 1783    Dover, 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 [one of the worst] Yellow Fever
 1803    New York Yellow Fever
 1820-3  Nationwide [starts Schuylkill River and spreads] "Fever"
 1831-2  Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] Asiatic Cholera
 1832    NY City and other major cities Cholera
 1837    Philadelphia Typhus
 1841    Nationwide [especially severe in the south] Yellow Fever
 1847    New Orleans Yellow Fever
 1847-8  Worldwide Influenza
 1848-9  North America Cholera
 1850    Nationwide Yellow Fever
 1850-1  North America Influenza
 1852    Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer]   Yellow Fever
 1855    Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever
 1857-9  Worldwide [one of the greatest epidemics]       Influenza
 1860-1  Pennsylvania Smallpox
 1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans} {Smallpox
  Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC} Cholera and a series of recurring
 epidemics of: Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, Yellow Fever
 1873-5  North America and Europe Influenza
 1878    New Orleans [last great epidemic] Yellow Fever
 1885    Plymouth, PA Typhoid
 1886    Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever
 1918    (high point year) Influenza   Worldwide more people were
 hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic 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    New York
 1851    Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains, and Missouri

 

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