I'm attempting to put together a chronology of epidemics that hit
Decatur County and killed a number of people. I have references from
a variety of secondary sources to deaths from cholera, typhoid, flu
and cow fever epidemics from neighboring counties, but not much from
Decatur County. I'd be grateful for any evidence from list members'
files. (I'll eventually add this to the history page on Decatur
GenWeb. Note that it's not based on any scholarly research on my
part, but is merely a compilation of what's readily available.)
What I have so far suggests that there were epidemics that affected
Indiana in the following years:
In 1830, a milk fever epidemic broke out in Indiana, so the Lincoln
family set out for Illinois (Lincoln's mother having died in the milk
fever epidemic of 1818). "You got it from drinking the milk of an
infected cow. And you didn't know the cow was infected until several
days after the cow ate the poisonous snakeroot plant that grew in
wooded areas. The cow would often die after a few days. This often
happened in droughts when cattle would forage in shaded areas looking
for food. . . Secondly, when young children reached their second
summer, they often were affected with 'summer complaint'. It has
various names. My mother told me about when she almost died of the
complaint. This was when a baby was weaned from the mother (usually
at one year) and began drinking cow's milk." (Helen Keusch)
1831-2 Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] Asiatic Cholera -
Cholera epidemic prevails throughout Indiana in October 1832;
Governor Noble proclaims second Monday in November as day of fasting
and prayer (Indianapolis Indiana Journal, October 27, 1832). Dubois
Co IN has a cholera graveyard where several died within a short
period. Jacob Sells died 10 Feb 1832 age 8 years, during a cholera
epidemic, Rush Co., Indiana and was buried in Sells Cemetery, Homer,
Rush Co., Indiana; several Sells children died in the 1832/33
epidemic. In 1832 William J Logan's father went from Rush County to
Cincinnati to engage in a pork packing establishment and intended to
soon return, but that dread epidemic, cholera, was raging and he was
never heard from afterward. There was a major cholera epidemic in
1832 in Jefferson County, and settlers fled the disease, not
understanding that poor sanitation was the cause. 1833 Worldwide
cholera epidemic reaches Bloomington; Indiana College students
abandon town for a month. In Springersville, Fayette Co, three of
Joseph Walker's siblings died in July and August 1833, and his nephew
(son of Henry) died in July. Indpls Board of Health instructions at
members.nbci.com/generanch/disaster/cholera.htm
1836 Four Rayburn children died between March 3 & 21 (3rd, 7th,
11th, 21st), 1836 in Marion Twp., Decatur Co. Newton Putnam came
with his father and the whole family from Cavendish, Vermont in 1836;
in 1837 there was an epidemic that killed his three brothers so Dad
and the survivors headed right back to Vermont in 1837.
1848-9 North America Cholera - 1848 typhoid in Shelby Co 1848
Hanover College swept by epidemic of cholera. "May, 1849, just
previous to the great cholera epidemic of that year (Jefferson Co)"
July 1849 large number of deaths in Tippecanoe Co IN
www.rootsweb.com/~intippec/chlradths.htm Aug 1849 letter discusses
epidemic in Wayne Co. 1850 International cholera epidemic reaches
Midwest (Carruth, p140).
1850 Nationwide Yellow Fever -
1850-1 North America Influenza
1852 Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer] Yellow Fever
1854 Autumn - typhoid epidemic in Adams Co. Teacher at St. John,
Indiana died Sep 21 1854 in cholera epidemic. Oct - typhoid deaths
in Perry Co.
"Louis Kimmel reached Lafayette, Indiana in August 1854, with his
wife, children and mother, after a very trying ocean voyage. Hoping
to meet friends they had known in Germany, Kimmel to his dismay,
discovered all of them had died in a cholera epidemic then raging in
the city. This was just the beginning of Louis's distress for, within
three weeks of the Kimmel family's arrival, most of them fell victim
themselves to cholera. In the short span of three days most of
Louis's family succumbed to the deadly epidemic: only Louis and one
son survived."
dcwi.com/~yannerdr/profile.html
1855 Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever
1855-57 Rush Co: cholera epidemic took the lives of John Sells and
several children 1856 - Mass grave for cholera victims in Boone Co.
IN
www.hill-ky.org/Reports/PatrickGullion.pdf
1857-9 Worldwide [one of the greatest epidemics] Influenza
1859 "In 1859 Shelbyville was visited by the dreadful scourge, the
Asiatic Cholera, and a year later by another dreadful epidemic."
(Shelbyville Democrat, 2 Jan 1879)
1865-73 Nationwide, starting in Northeast and New Orleans: Cholera
and a series of recurring epidemics of Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet
Fever, Yellow Fever 1871 - St Meinrad in Spencer Co IN saved from
smallpox epidemic
[I'm particularly interested in this one since my gggfather died at
St Omer in 1866 and both of his sons disappear between then and 1870]
[I haven't chronicled the improvements in public health after this
time that led to a decline in the traditional epidemics.]
1890 John McCabe and his daughter died in Addison Twp, Shelby Co in
Aug during a malaria epidemic
1893 Muncie smallpox epidemic
1916 Nationwide: over 7,000 deaths occurred and 27,363 cases were
reported of polio (infantile paralysis) in America's worst polio
epidemic.
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. March-Nov., nationwide: outbreak of Spanish influenza killed
over 500,000 people in the worst single U.S. epidemic. Due to
influenza epidemic, Indiana Board of Health issues order banning all
public gatherings in the state until October 20 (Indianapolis Star,
October 10, 1918).
1949 Nationwide: 2,720 deaths occurred from polio, and 42,173 cases
were reported.
1952 Nationwide: polio killed 3,300; 57,628 cases reported; worst
epidemic since 1916.