Sufferers’ Land
Cholera Strikes Again
by Dave Barton
The summer of 1849, Cholera struck a second devastating blow across the Firelands. Sandusky, being the largest town in the region, was again the hardest hit. Over a period of sixty-eight days, three-hundred-and-fifty-eight people died out of a population of two-thousand-three-hundred. Thirty-three people died on Monday, July 30, the worst day of the epidemic. [1]
In a letter dated July 19, a woman by the name of Priscilla Smith informed her sister that their father had died from the disease. Duty calls me to perform the painful task of informing you that our dear father is no more. He breathed his last at 12:00 o’clock tonight. We did not consider him dangerous until about three o’clock this afternoon when he grew very sick from being thrown into the last stages of the cholera. [2]
By this time, Norwalk had sufficient population density for the disease to take hold and spread. Soon the streets of the village were silent except for the rumble of wagons carrying the dead to their graves.
All summer and into the fall, the disease continued to terrorize the village. It finally ended with the first frost, and the survivors returned to their homes, wondering if it would reappear the following year.
Footnotes:
[1] History of the 1849 Cholera outbreak in Sandusky is from The Firelands Pioneer, July 1878, pp. 26-27.
[2] Letter from Priscilla Smith to her sister is from The Firelands Pioneer, New Series, Volume XXIII; April 1925; p. 327.
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This post was first published on this blog in 2009.
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Filed under: Cholera, Norwalk, Ohio, Ohio, Sandusky ohio, Uncategorized | Tagged: Cholera, Cholera 1849 1854, Firelands History, Norwalk Ohio History, Sandusky Ohio History, Sufferers' Land History |
How incredibly devastating that must’ve been for them.
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It is hard to imagine how terrifying it was.
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I can’t imagine going through something like that. There’s this book called “The Ghost Map” that I read about cholera, and the history/science of figuring out what actually caused it during a London outbreak. You might find it interesting if you haven’t already read it. Great post.
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Thanks for your comment and your suggestion. I’ll check it out.
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what a very scary time that must have been!
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What a horror; can you imagine waiting to hear who was the next victim to fall prey to that terrible disease?
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That’s right. They had no idea what caused the disease, so they stayed home and prayed for the best, all the while drinking water that was contaminated.
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And fearing it might be you.
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A devastating plague, more so in those days when medical knowledge was limited, and health and hygiene was not so limited by conditions in those days, Priscilla’s letter to her Sister, would have been echoed throughout the land in many similar situations. informative historical post.
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Thanks for your comment and your kind words
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How very tragic…it must have been so horrifying…makes me feel so blessed to be living in this time and place…thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thanks for your comment.
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