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Cholera Epidemic
Missouri Biographical Dictionary:
In January 1849 the fearful cholera epidemic afforded the medical profession
a prolific field for the exercise of energy, ambition and medical research
during its prevalence. For long, weary months the trial upon physicians and
nurses was a sore one, but by then watchful care and the sanitary measures
of the Board of Health, the dread scourge was finally overpowered and the
city assumed its wonted healthful status.
The year 1849 will be long remembered as the year of death in St. Louis,
when that fearful scourge, the cholera, swept the city as with a beson of
destruction. Citizens left the city in crowds, and even some of its
officials gathered their families together and hurried away. It was a
thrilling emergency, one calling for prompt action; death was stalking the
streets and staring in at windows; pestilence breathed from the alleys, and
a day’s delay might give the demon opportunity to enter every domicile. The
citizens held an indignation meeting, and demanded the return of the city
officials (without whom no measures of safety could be inaugurated) or in
case of failure, to resign their offices and give way to men that would do
their duty. In answer to the request of the citizens, the counsel (absent
members having returned), convened, and passed an ordinance June 27, 1849,
No. 2215, establishing “The Committee of Public Health”. Every man of the
committee dared death for duty, and for one terrible month fought the
destroyer, until their vigilance and the careful attendance of their doctors
and nurses drove the foe from the city and re-peopled the desolated streets.
After faithfully performing their duties daily during the scourge, the Board
of Health on August 1, 1849 declared the city free of cholera, and
adjourned.
In 1866, the Board of Health was again called into service in the city of
St. Louis, during the awful cholera scourge.
Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901:
Richard Ferral Barret served as the first city physician during the Cholera
epidemic of 1849, and established the first quarantine in St. Louis.
Cholera appeared in epidemic form in St. Louis in 1832, when, with a
population of about 8,000 there was for several weeks an average of about
twenty deaths per day. Again it was prevalent in 1833, though in a far less
malignant form. In 1848 a fatal contagious disease, the ship fever, was
brought there by foreign immigrants arriving by boat, but soon disappeared.
The severest visitation of cholera was that of 1849, by which time the
population within the limits of St. Louis had increased to 63,471 as shown
by a census taken in February of that year. From a report made in 1849 by
Robert Moore, civil engineer, the facts in regard to this terrible epidemic
are here given: “The disease had been brought to New Orleans on emigrant
ships in December 1848, and in a few weeks was carried to all the principal
cities on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. During the last week in December
several boats with cholera on board arrived in St. Louis, one of them being
the steamer “Amaranth”, which arrived on the 28th with no less than thirty
cases among its passengers and crew. On January 23, 1849 the steamers “Aleck
Scott” and “St. Paul” arrived here, having left New Orleans on the 26th
ultimate. The former reported forty-six cases of cholera for the trip, six
of them fatal; the latter, twenty-six cases and four deaths. On the 7th the
steamer “General Jessup” arrived from the same port, having had “many cases”
of cholera on her trip, six of them fatal. Each of these steamers brought
many immigrants, who were landed at the wharf with all their baggage and
scattered throughout the city in boarding houses, without the slightest
hindrance or seeming to care on the part of the city authorities. It is no
surprise, therefore, when in the morning paper of the 9th we read that
“several cases of cholera were reported in the city yesterday, one or two
fatal”. The editor adds however, that they were “caused by cabbage”, and to
many of his readers this explanation was perhaps sufficient. The cholera was
now fairly planted, and for the next four years, including the years 1849,
1850, 1851 and 1852, it was never wholly absent from the city, except for
three short intervals of four weeks each. It did not however, at once become
an epidemic. The deaths from cholera in January were thirty-six. In February
there were but twenty-one, a decline which led the “Republican” to announce
that there was no ground for alarm, there being “no cholera in the city”.
During the next month however, in spite of this assurance, the deaths from
this same cause were seventy-eight, or over double the number of January;
and in April there was a still further increase to 126. All this time
nothing was done by the city authorities, either to prevent the spread of
the disease within the city or to stop the stream of infection which kept
pouring in from New Orleans. For example, the “Republican” of April 12th
records the arrival from New Orleans on the night before of the steamer
“Iowa”, with 451 deck passengers, mostly English Mormons, and that during
the trip there head been nine deaths from cholera. Of course, in view of
such facts, the disease could not help spreading, and during the first week
in May the deaths this cause amounted to seventy-eight. By this time the
city had become thoroughly alarmed. The Board of Health, which consisted of
a physician and a committee of the council, by proclamation urged the
“disinfection of back yards and damp places with chloride of lime”. Even the
newspapers now admitted the disease to be on the increase – “perhaps
epidemic”. The city was also reported to be filled with hundreds of
immigrants, besides those en route from other States to the gold fields of
California. On May 9th the circuit court adjourned for three weeks on
account of the difficulty of getting jurors. Twenty-four new cases of
cholera and six deaths are also reported for this day; and the same paper
which contains this record notes the arrival of the steamer “America”, on
which there had been twenty-two deaths since her departure from New Orleans.
The epidemic was now fairly established, and for seven days ending May 14th
the average number of interments due to this cause was over twenty-six per
day. On the night of May 17th occurred the great fire, in which twenty-three
steamboats and many blocks of buildings in the business part of the city
were consumed. After the fire the mortality from cholera fell below twenty
per day for a couple of weeks, and a hope sprang up that the cholera had
spent its force and would soon cease. But it was short-lived, for on
Saturday the 9th of June, the deaths from cholera rose again to twenty-six,
and on the 10th, to thirty-seven. For the week ending June 17th, the burials
due to this cause were 402, or over fifty-seven per day. Meantime the
importation of fresh cases from New Orleans continued without abatement. On
the day last named – June 17th – the steamer “Sultana” arrived with between
300 and 400 immigrants. Twenty-five deaths had occurred during the trip, and
on her arrival she had six dead bodies still on board. During the next week,
ending June 24th, the deaths from cholera rose to 601, or eighty-six per
day. By this time the alarm had deepened, until we hear of a popular
subscription to clean the streets, and a patriotic citizen offers $20 worth
of sulphur for purposes of disinfection. On the 25th a mass meeting was
assembled at the courthouse, at which the propriety of quarantine was at
last suggested, and the authorities were strongly denounced for their
inaction. A committee of twelve, two from each ward, was appointed to wait
upon the city council and urge immediate action. The latter body was not at
that time in session, and many of its members had sought places of safety
outside the city. By vigorous efforts however, they were hastily assembled
on the afternoon of the next day – June 26th – and audience given to the
prayer of the committee. By way of answer an ordinance was passed at the
same sitting and then approved by the mayor, James G. Barry, by which the
city government was virtually abdicated in favor of the petitioners. The
committee of twelve appointed by the mass meeting of the day before,
composed of T.T. Gantt, R.S. Blennerhasset, A.B. Chambers, Isaac A. Hedges,
James Clemens, Jr., J.M. Field, George Collier, Luther M. Kennett, Trusten
Polk, Lewis Bach, Thomas Gray and William G. Clark, were made a “Committee
of Public Health”, with almost absolute power. Authority was conferred upon
them to make all rules, orders and regulations they should deem necessary
and any violation of their orders was made punishable by fine up to $500.
This authority was to continue during the epidemic. Vacancies in the
committee were to be filled as they themselves should determine, and $50,000
was appropriated for their use. The committee, thus suddenly clothed with
the sole power and responsibility, at once took up their task. At their
first meeting, held on Wednesday, June 27th, certain school houses in each
ward were designated as hospitals, and physicians appointed to attend them.
They also provided for a thorough cleansing of the city, to be begun at
once, with an inspector or superintendent for each block. Among these “block
inspectors”, as they were termed, were many of the best citizens of the
city, who entered into the work with the utmost zeal and declined afterward
to receive any pay. On the next Saturday, June 30th, the committee
recommended “the burning, this evening at 8 o’clock throughout the city, of
stone coal, resinous tar and sulphur”, a measure which seems to have met
with much favor, for in the next day’s paper we are told that on the night
before, “in every direction the air was filled with dense masses of smoke,
serving, as we all hope, to dissipate the foul air which has been the cause
of so much mortality”. The committee also appointed Monday, July 2nd, to be
observed as a day of fasting and prayer – a recommendation in with which, as
with that for bonfires, there was general compliance. The committee,
however, did not content themselves with prayer and smoke alone. Thus we are
told that on Sunday the block inspectors continued their work of
purification without regard to the day, and on the very day of fasting and
prayer appointed by themselves, the committee dictated to the city council
an ordinance, which was passed the same day, establishing quarantine against
steamboats from the South, and the steam boatmen were at once notified to
govern themselves accordingly. On the next day – July 3rd – a quarantine
station was established on the lower end and west side of Arsenal Island,
with Dr. Richard F. Barret as visiting physician, and the detention of
steamers and the uploading of immigrants and their baggage at once began. On
the 10th of July there were over 300 people at quarantine. Meantime, the
mortality kept steadily increasing until on the last day mentioned, two
weeks after the appointmet of the committee, the total deaths reached the
alarming figure of 184, of which 145 were from cholera. After this date,
however, the death rate rapidly declined until on the 1st of August the
committee of public health, in a proclamation signed by Thomas T. Gantt,
chairman and Samuel Treat, clerk, declared the epidemic to be over and that
there was no longer any danger in visiting the city. At the same time they
closed their accounts, having spent $16,000 out of the $50,000 at their
disposal, resigned their trust and adjourned sine die”. But for the three
succeeding years the city was not without the dreadful pestilence. In each
of the twelve months of 1850 it was the cause of more or less mortality,
there being 883 deaths during the year, more than half of which, however,
occurred in July. Nearly as many – 845 – were recorded during 1851, but the
following year there were but few, and those sporadic cases. In 1865, there
was another cholera alarm and the suitable sanitary precautions were taken,
although there were few, if any, fatal cases. However the following year
cholera appeared in a malignant form, and there were 684 fatal cases. In
1872 there was an epidemic of smallpox. Out of 3,759 cases reported the
mortality was 1,591 and the following year there were 837 deaths from this
disease, which continued to rage in certain quarters during 1874-5, in which
two years there were 1,050 deaths. Cholera entirely disappeared in 1874. The
year 1878 was memorable for a heated term, from July 10 to July 20th, during
which 172 persons died from the heat. The same year the yellow fever broke
out in the South, and 125 cases were brought here of which forty-five were
fatal. There were ten local cases. Several cases occurred at quarantine
during the two succeeding years. Smallpox again appeared in the city in
1881, and there were 115 deaths from that disease, all occurring at the
quarantine hospital, to which the patients had been removed. In April 1882
it again broke out, continuing the entire year and causing 233 deaths.
During the years 1886-7, diphtheria prevailed alarmingly, the mortality
being 1,840. The dreaded disease again made its appearance in 1895, there
being 3,196 cases of which 526 were fatal. In 1892, owing to the pollution
of the water supplied from the reservoirs by the discharge from Harlem Creek
and the Prairie Avenue sewer, typhoid fever made its appearance in epidemic
form in that neighborhood. Out of 3,624 cases there were 514 deaths.”
Charles W. Francis
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