Epidemics

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This listing was given me in a forwarded email in early 1999. I thought it might be useful to others in their search, so included it on this site. This will show where in the Colonies and eventual States certain epidemics occurred and when.

YEAR WHERE DISEASE NOTES
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 Conn, NY, PA & SC Measles __
1759 North America Measles In areas inhabited by white people
1761 North America & West Indies Influenza __
1771 North America unknown Especially hard in New England
1775-76 Worldwide Influenza One of 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 (Dover) “extremely fatal” bilious disorder __
1793 Pennsylvania (Harrisburg & Middletown) unknown Many unexplained deaths
1794 Philadelphia Yellow Fever __
1796-97 Philadelphia Yellow Fever __
1798 Philadelphia Yellow Fever One of worst
1803 New York Yellow Fever __
1820-23 Nationwide “fever” Starts on Schuylkill River, PA & spreads
1831-32 Nationwide Asiatic Cholera Brought by English emigrants
1832 New York & other major cities Cholera __
1837 Philadelphia Typhus __
1841 Nationwide Yellow Fever Especially severe in 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 summer)
1855 Nationwide (many parts) Yellow Fever __
1857-59 Worldwide Influenza One of disease’s greatest epidemics
1860-61 Pennsylvania Smallpox __
1865-73 Philadelphia; NY; Boston; New Orleans; Baltimore; Memphis; &
Washington, DC
Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, & Yellow Fever A series of recurring epidemics
1873-75 North America & Europe Influenza __
1878 New Orleans Yellow Fever Last great epidemic of disease
1885 Plymouth, PA Typhoid __
1886 Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever __
1918 (High Point Year) Worldwide Influenza More people hospitalized in World War I from influenza than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps – with 80% death rate in some camps.

These specific instances of cholera were mentioned:

YEAR WHERE DISEASE
1833 Columbus, OH Cholera
1834 New York City Cholera
1849 New York Cholera
1851 Coles Co., IL Cholera
1851 The Great Plains Cholera
1851 Missouri Cholera