EPIDEMICS

"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 dying during an epidemic or moving away from the affected area. Some of the major epidemics in the United States are listed below:"

YEAR	LOCATION	EPIDEMIC
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	Smallpox epidemic killed more than 130,000 people
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.
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 FeverYellowFever
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 Co, Chattanooga	Yellow Fever
1885	Plymouth, PA	Typhoid
1886	Jacksonville, FL	Yellow Fever
1889 - 1890	Russia and United States	Asian Influenza (aka Russian Flu) Killed 1,000,000 people
1918 - 1919	Worldwide	Influenza; more people were hospitalized in WWI from flu epidemic than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps, 80% death rate in some camps; 40,000,000 to 100,000,000 people died worldwide
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.

------------------------------------