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EPIDEMICS  in  U. S.,  1657- 1918

In the history of the United States, epidemics had a great influence on our ancestors and now these epidemics affect the research of genealogists trying to trace their ancestors.   There are many instances where our ancestors simply disappeared from the records.  In some of these cases, we need to consider that they may have died during an epidemic or perhaps they simply moved away from the affected area.   So your know your ancestor didn't die from an epidemic ... so what killed them?  See Diseases.

Some of the major epidemics that have been recorded in the United States are:

1657 Boston:  Measles

1687 Boston:  Measles

1690 New York City:  Yellow Fever

1713 Boston:  Measles

1729 Boston:  Measles

1732 -33 Worldwide:  Influenza

1738 South Carolina:  Smallpox

1739-40 Boston:  Measles

1747 Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania & South Carolina:  Measles

1759 North America (areas inhabited by white people):  Measles

1761-62 North America & West Indies:  Influenza

1772 North America:  Measles

1775 North America (especially hard in New England):  Epidemic unknown

1775-76 Worldwide:  Influenza

1781-82 Worldwide:  Influenza  (one of the worst flu epidemics)

1788 Philadelphia & New York City:  Measles

1793 Vermont:  Influenza and a 'putrid fever'

1793 Virginia:  Influenza  (kills 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks)

1793 Philadelphia:  Yellow Fever  (one of the worst)

1793 Delaware (Dover):  'Extremely fatal' bilious disorder

1793 Pennsylvania (Harrisburg & Middletown):  Many unexplained deaths

1794 Philadelphia:  Yellow Fever

1796-97 Philadelphia:  Yellow Fever

1798 Philadelphia:  Yellow Fever (one of the worst)

1803 New York City:  Yellow Fever

1820-23 Nationwide:  'Fever'  (starts on Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania & spreads

1831-32 Nationwide:  Asiatic Cholera  (brought in by English emigrants)

1832 New York City & other major cities:  Cholera

1833 Columbus, Ohio:  Cholera

1834 New York City:  Cholera

1837 Philadelphia:  Typhus

1841 Nationwide:  Yellow Fever  (especially severe in the South)

1847 New Orleans:  Yellow Fever

1847-48 Worldwide:  Influenza

1848-49 North America:  Cholera

1849 New York City:  Cholera

1850 Nationwide:  Yellow Fever

1850-51 North America:  Influenza

1851 Coles Co., Illinois:  Cholera

1851 The Great Plains:  Cholera

1851 Missouri:  Cholera

1852 Nationwide:  Yellow Fever  (New Orleans: 8,000 die in summer)

1855 Nationwide (many parts):  Yellow Fever

1857-59 Worldwide:  Influenza  (one of the disease's greatest epidemics)

1860-61 Pennsylvania:  Smallpox

1865-73 Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Memphis & Washington D.C.:  A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever, & Yellow Fever

1873-75 North America & Europe:  Influenza

1878 New Orleans:  Yellow Fever  (last great epidemic for this disease)

1885 Plymouth, Pennsylvania:  Typhoid

1886 Jacksonville, Florida:  Yellow Fever

1918 Worldwide (Pandemic of 1918):  Influenza (high point year)  -  More people were hospitalized during World War I for Influenza than wounds.  U.S. Army training camps became death camps with up to 80 percent death rates in some camps.

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 Date of last edit:   Saturday, June 03, 2006
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