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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 [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.
 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 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.

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