USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 25
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The appearance of twenty-two new cases of smallpox in Marble- head late in 1773 crystalized the local feeling against "Castle Pox." Whether the infection was spread from the hospital is not known, but the people attributed it to this source. A storm of indignation broke, and the mob threatened to lynch the proprietors of the enter- prise. It is said that Colonel Jonathan Glover, one of the proprie- tors, wishing neither to be lynched nor tarred and feathered, mounted two brass cannon in the front room of his house, and defied the people to come and get him. Finally, however, in answer to public opinion, the hospital was closed.
Even the closing of the hospital did not satisfy the townspeople, for on January 26, 1774, a body of men visited Cat Island and burned the building. For this act of violence, John Watts and John Gulliard were arrested and put in the Salem jail. When news of the arrest reached Marblehead, a mob of townsmen went to Salem and stormed the jail, breaking down the doors and releasing the prisoners. The sheriff organized a posse of five hundred for a march to Marblehead to recover the prisoners, but so many Marbleheaders turned out to defend them that the expedition was called off, a pitched battle being feared. Watts and Gulliard apparently went unpunished.
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Another act of violence which demonstrated the feeling that the inoculation hospital controversy had stirred up in Marblehead was an unmerciful public flogging administered by a mob to a man named Clark, one of the four who had previously been tarred and feathered for stealing probably infected cloth from Cat Island, for a repeti- tion of his offense. The ringleader of this mob was arrested later on.
From 1776 to 1780, when smallpox was prevalent, inoculation became very general in most of the towns of Essex County, although a great deal of opposition was still evident. In 1776 the disease had reached epidemic proportions in Newbury and Newburyport, which caused the hospitals at the Great Pasture and Plum Island to be repaired. The next year smallpox was prevalent in Lynn, Gloucester, Haverhill, Bradford, Danvers, and several other towns, and con- tinued until well into 1779. On page 342, in the "History of Lynn," by Lewis and Newhall, Boston, 1865, the following excerpt is found :
"Lynn, May 14, 1777. There was a company of us went to Marblehead to have the small pox. We had for our doc- tors, Benjamin B. Burchstead and Robert Deaverix, and for our nurse, Amos Breed. Hired a house of Gideon Phillips."
A bitter struggle over inoculation occurred in Haverhill at this time. In 1777 the presence of smallpox in nearby towns caused a town meeting to be held to see if the town would provide an inocu- lating hospital. At this meeting the petition was denied, even a pri- vately conducted hospital being prohibited. After much agitation, it was voted to allow inoculation in June, 1778, but in July the per- mission was revoked. In September of that year the meeting voted to prosecute those who were inoculated illegally. Late in 1778 inocu- lation was again allowed in Haverhill. The opposition had the upper hand shortly after, however, for in 1792 several Haverhill people were inoculated in Boston for lack of local facilities. That year another petition for the right to provide an inoculation hospital was refused in town meeting.
In Gloucester a similar situation existed in 1778, but, after a bit- ter struggle, inoculation was allowed. In 1779 two people are sup- posed to have died out of one hundred and ten who took the treat- ment. In Danvers it was voted in May, 1778, that Captain Derby's house be set apart for inoculation, and Daniel Jacobs, Major Caleb
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Low, and Major Samuel Epes were appointed to see that the proper measures were taken. Only two weeks later, however, on the peti- tion of Ezekiel Marsh and others, inoculation was condemned. It was not until 1792 that it was again permitted in Danvers.
The severe nature of smallpox inoculation made its effective use as a means of stamping out the disease practically impossible, for many people preferred to take the chance of catching the disease in an epidemic, even though the mortality in the latter case was greater. It was not until Dr. Jenner's discovery of the fact that infection with cowpox, a harmless disease in human beings, brought immunity against smallpox, that a really effective means of combating the dis- ease was to be had. This treatment came to be known as vaccination.
Vaccination was first used in Essex County about 1800, when it was introduced in Salem by Dr. Thomas Pickman, Dr. Edward A. Holyoke, and others. The first patient was Garland Chamberlain, a boy of thirteen, who was vaccinated by Dr. Pickman. The boy had a slight headache and a little soreness of the arm as consequences of his treatment. From this time forward vaccination spread rapidly.
A very unfortunate incident that tended to retard its general acceptance occurred in Marblehead in 1800. Smallpox broke out in the town that year, and Dr. Elisha Story, a local physician, having heard of Dr. Jenner's discovery, sought to introduce vaccination. He obtained from England what he thought was cowpox virus, and treated his own children and those of friends with it. To the horror of Dr. Story and the community, all the children became violently ill with genuine smallpox and from them a new epidemic, which was fatal to sixty-four people in two months, spread through Marble- head. The townspeople were furious, and there was sentiment among the more violent element to lynch the unfortunate physician.
Vaccination was introduced into Newburyport at an early date, and on June 27, 1803, Dr. Lane received permission to take persons who had been inoculated with cowpox to the hospital in Common Pasture, where they would come in contact with several smallpox vic- tims. Apparently this experiment, designed to show the effectiveness of vaccination, was a success, and doubtless many people in this part of Essex County were persuaded to allow themselves to be vaccinated by the demonstration.
One of the first Essex County towns to provide facilities for vac- cination to its citizens was Danvers. In 1815 Dr. Fansher offered to
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vaccinate the townspeople at the rate of twenty-five cents for each case. The town accepted the proposition, with the proviso that the doctor should receive no further remuneration after 600 vaccina- tions had been performed. At that time two unusual resolutions were passed, which read as follows :
"Resolved; That this town entertain a high opinion of Vaccination and consider it (when conducted by skillful and experienced hands ) a sure and certain substitute for the small Pox.
"Resolved; That this meeting deems it the indispensable duty of a community to make use of the means that Divine Providence has given us to guard against every impending evil to which we are exposed, especially those which involve the health or the Lives of the Inhabitants."12
From this time forward, the age old plague of smallpox was steadily reduced. Sporadic outbursts have occurred, but during the early part of the last century the disease was definitely brought under control.
Another epidemic disease which caused a great deal of suffering until comparatively recent times was diphtheria. It was, as a rule, accepted as a curse on mankind, and made little impression on his- tory. One epidemic, however, of an extremely virulent nature, attracted great attention, as it swept away a large proportion of the children in many towns in this vicinity. It broke out in 1735, and raged in Essex County for the next two or three years, arousing more interest and comment, in all probability, than any other epidemic that visited this section during the eighteenth century. It was known at that time by such names as "throat distemper" and "Plague of the Throat," and has generally been diagnosed by modern physicians as a type of diphtheria.13 According to George W. Chase, in the "His- tory of Haverhill," on page 301, "the disease was attended with a sore throat, white or ash-colored spots, an efflorescence on the skin, great general debility, and a strong tendency to putridity."
An interesting account of the origin and scope of the epidemic
12. "History of Essex County," p. 444. D. H. Hurd, J. W. Lewis & Co., Boston, 1888.
13. See "History of Medicine in Massachusetts," Samuel A. Green, A. Williams and Company, Boston, 1881, p. 69.
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of "throat distemper," which commenced in Essex County in 1735, is found in "A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury," by Joshua Coffin, on page 204 :
"In May this year a disorder called the throat distemper appeared in Kingston, N. H. The first person who took the disease was a Mr. Clough, who, having examined the swelled throat of a dead dog, died suddenly, with a swelling in his throat. In about three weeks, three children, about a mile from Mr. Clough's, were attacked, and died in thirty-six hours. In fourteen towns in New Hampshire 984 died between June, 1735, and July 16, 1736. In Massachusetts, the mortality was nearly as great as in New Hampshire. A particular account of the number in each town in the two states was.published by the reverend Mr. Fitch, in Portsmouth, and the reverend John Brown, of Haverhill. Of the mortality in Newbury, Stephen Jacques thus writes :
"'A sickness began by the water side about September at Thomas Smith's, which carried off two of his children and prevailed among the children, so that by the middle of Feb- ruary there died from Chandler's Lane [Federal Street] with the falls eighty-one persons. John Boynton lost eight chil- dren. Benjamin Knight had three buried in one grave.
"'Thursday, October 29th, my wife went into a chamber that was locked to fetch candles, that was in a bushel under a bed, and as she kneeled down and took her candles and laid them on the bed and thrust back the half bushel, there came out a child's hand. She saw the fingers, the hand, a streked boy's cote or sleeve, and upon search there was no child in the chamber. On Thursday a fortnight after, my Steven's son Henry died. The next Monday morning his eldest son Stephen died.' "
This disease apparently spread in all directions from Kingston, in the north and east reaching the British provinces, and arriving in New York in two years' time. It was particularly severe in Haver- hill and Bradford. In Haverhill more than one-half of the children under fifteen years of age succumbed. Children were lost in one hun- dred and thirty-nine families, the total number of victims being two
.
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hundred and fifty-six.14 Five children each were lost in the families of John Bradley, Abner Chase, Thomas Corlis, James Holgate, and Joseph Page, while a far greater number of families lost four or less. In Bradford, now a part of Haverhill, only two families escaped the disorder, and forty-seven children and nine adults died.
Rev. John Brown, of Haverhill, who lost three children himself, prepared an address to the bereaved parents, which was published in Boston in 1737. The pamphlet was prefixed by "A Brief Relation" of thirty-four "Comfortable and Remarkable Instances of Death" among the children. According to Mr. Brown, these thirty-four cases showed "extraordinary spiritual insight and Christian resignation."15
Throat distemper was prevalent about this time in every Essex County community. At the little settlement of Sandy Bay on Cape Ann thirty-one children died in the twenty-seven families that lived there. The total population was but one hundred and forty. Ips- wich, Lynn, Salem, Salisbury, and Amesbury all suffered heavily. It is estimated that over 1,400 children died of the throat distemper in Essex County between 1735 and 1740. In the old cemeteries a great number of children's graves dated about that time and most of them similarly marked, can be found.
From a diary written in verse by Ephraim Fellows, of Ipswich, son of Ephraim and Hannah Fellows, the following stanza, referring to the epidemic, has been copied :
"By Sad Distempers in the Throat Children Afflicted was Throughout The Land: Thereof Did many Die, And one out of our family."
Another and more ambitious attempt in verse, inspired by the epidemic of throat distemper, was published in Boston in pamphlet form, consisting of seventeen pages of rhyme. It appeared in 1738. The two verses following are good specimens of this work :
"To Newbury O go and see To Hampton and Kingston To York likewise and Kittery Behold what God hath done.
14. "Essex Antiquarian," Vol. I, pp. 10-II.
15. Ibid.
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"The bow of God is bent abroad Its arrows swiftly fly Young men and maids and suckling babes Are smitten down thereby."16
Other epidemics of diphtheria, or throat distemper, have occurred at more or less frequent intervals, but never with the severity of the one just described. In 1762 and 1763, and again in 1793 and 1794, serious epidemics caused many deaths in Essex County. Haverhill and Bradford suffered in the former years, twenty-three dying in Bradford alone, while in 1793 sixty-two children succumbed to the disease in Rockport. Bradford was visited again in 1794.
Another epidemic of a very unusual type which occurred in Essex County was the "yellow fever" of 1796. John J. Currier describes it as "a malignant fever, similar to, if not identical with, the yellow fever of the South."17 Three years before this time the same dis- ease had visited Boston, having been introduced in that place by the fleet of Sir Francis Wheeler, which arrived in June, 1793, from the Barbados, where the disease was prevalent. It is believed that the infection which reached Newburyport in 1796 came by ship from the West Indies. Starting in June that year, the disease claimed fifty- five lives in this town alone, before it died out with the coming of cold weather. Among those who succumbed was Dr. J. Barnard Swett, one of the foremost physicians of this section.
At the height of the epidemic, Dr. Francis Vergenies De Bouis- chere, who had had experience with yellow fever in the West Indies, arrived in Newburyport and led the battle against the disease. Dr. Vergenies, as he was known in Newburyport, was born in France in 1747, and was for many years a practitioner at Guadeloupe, where he was an extensive property owner. In the confusion which fol- lowed the French Revolution and the declaration of war between France and England, he was one of the large number of Frenchmen who left the West Indies to seek a fresh start in New England. The first record of his arrival in Newburyport was a short notice in the September 3, 1796, edition of the "Impartial Herald," a newspaper published in this town. The article read: "We understand that
16. "A Sketch of the History of Newbury," p. 208. Joshua Coffin, Samuel G. Drake, Boston, 1845.
17. "History of Newburyport, Mass.," p. 117. John J. Currier, Newburyport, 1906.
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Monsieur Vergenies, an eminent Physician late from Guadaloupe, has arrived in town and resides at Capt. William M'Hard's."
The skill of Dr. Vergenies, and his remarkably pleasant profes- sional manner, in a short time had made him very popular. On April 3, 1797, the town meeting made the following resolution :
"Voted unanimously that the thanks of the town be given to Doctor Vergenies for his prompt assistance & advice the last summer when the town was visited by a malignant disorder."18
After the epidemic of yellow fever, Dr. Vergenies practiced in Newburyport for many years, until old age and failing sight com- pelled him to retire. He died in 1830, at the age of eighty-three, and bequeathed his extensive library, including many medical books, to the Massachusetts Medical Society.
The epidemic that brought Dr. Vergenies to Newburyport was well localized to that town, although some cases appeared in other Merrimac Valley communities. As far up river at Haverhill it is recorded that a "malignant fever" appeared in August, 1796, but there it was not very prevalent, only a few deaths from this disease being reported.
Many of the diseases which appeared in epidemic form during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries were so poorly described and understood that it is hard to determine their true nature. It is certain, however, that such diseases as typhus, typhoid fever and the ordinary afflictions of childhood were common. Influ- enza, of which little is definitely known at the present time, doubtless accounts for several epidemics.
An early reference to "influenza," whether the same disease that the name denotes at present is not certain, is found in Chase's "His- tory of Haverhill," under the date of February, 1826, which states that "a remarkable influenza prevailed in many of the towns in New England."19 In Newburyport it is said that three out of every five families were affected.
A severe epidemic of influenza occurred in 1889, and caused a good deal of suffering in Essex County. According to the late Dr. John W. Rand, of Amesbury, who wrote for the "Municipal History
18. John J. Currier : "History of Newburyport," Newburyport, 1906, Vol. I, p. 119. 19. George W. Chase : "The History of Haverhill, Mass.," Haverhill, 1861, p. 495.
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
of Essex County": "In 1889 first appeared the epidemic of influ- enza, which was characterized by fever, chills, muscular pains and general prostration; while severe, it yet differed from the later epi- demic expending its action, not on the respiratory organs, but more on the heart and nervous system."20 This form of the disease was particularly severe among middle aged and elderly people.
In 1918 came the worst of all influenza epidemics. The disease was extremely prevalent in the congested, poorly heated military training camps, where thousands of young men were crowded together under conditions particularly conducive to the spread of respiratory diseases. From the camps the disease spread generally throughout the country, and hundreds succumbed in Essex County alone. Schools were closed in most towns and cities, and emergency hospitals were provided everywhere to take care of the many cases that the over- crowded established hospitals were unable to accommodate. Dr. Rand describes the conditions as follows, with particular reference to Amesbury :
"The great epidemic or pandemic of 1918 was character- ized by its severity and rapidity of attack, and in its singling out of the young, particularly people from 20 to 40 years of age. Its special force was on the respiratory organs, in the form of broncho-pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy, many cases of pneumonia proving fatal in from two to four days. The dis- ease spread so rapidly and attacked so many that it aroused the general public to combat its ravages. It was soon learned that many of the sick were not receiving sufficient care. This being impossible in their surroundings, and with so many sick to properly care for, a meeting was called of representa- tive and official citizens, and at that meeting was started an emergency hospital in the Y. M. C. A. rooms, with a trained nurse in charge. The general public volunteered to help with food, clothing, bedding, and to do the needed work. It was soon in fair working order, and did much to isolate and con- trol the spread and to save many lives by the care they thus received."21
20. "Municipal History of Essex County in Mass.," Vol. II, p. 716, Benj. F. Arring- ton, ed., Lewis Hist. Publishing Co., New York, 1922.
21. Ibid., p. 720.
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More insidious, perhaps, than the epidemic diseases, has been the incidence of mental disease, since the latter has been in the past, so thoroughly, and often so cruelly misunderstood, both by the public and by the medical profession. To state that mental disease and mental defectiveness have been in evidence in Essex County since its earliest days would be a truism, since no section of the civilized world is exempt from them; yet a study of the early history of this section cannot but emphasize the prevalence of mental disorders.
The class of indentured servants who came to this country with settlers of higher rank were responsible for a great deal of the crime and delinquency in the early days of the colonies. Recruited as they were from the classes lowest in the economic scale in England, often having been released from prison or workhouse under agreement to go to the colonies, it is probable that a large number of the inden- tured servants carried the seeds of hereditary nervous disorders and feeble-mindedness with them. There were also examples of insanity in some of the more prominent families.
The attitude of the general public toward the insane in those days was that the victims were bewitched or possessed by devils. The usual treatment was to confine the violently insane in some cellar, outbuilding, jail, or almshouse. The "harmless" were allowed to go free until they proved themselves to be otherwise. The concept that the insane man was ill, deserving of sympathy and considera- tion, and in need of careful and understanding medical treatment, was apparently unknown in the early days of the colonies, and did not become general until well into the nineteenth century.
A study of the witchcraft delusion from the psychopathic point of view might prove an interesting and valuable effort. In many cases the actions of both the bewitched and the accused can be attributed to some form of nervous instability, and it might be pos- sible to prove that the witchcraft delusion flourished most generally in communities where mental disorders were particularly rife. Cer- tainly, there is no lack of hereditary mental disease among the descendants of the early settlers of southeastern Essex County. Such a study is, however, impossible here.
An important example of the connection which existed between mental disease and witchcraft in some cases is found in connection with Mistress Ann Putnam, wife of Thomas Putnam, of Salem, and
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
her daughter, Ann, who were prominent among the accusers of Rebecca Nurse. Mistress Ann Putnam was one of the Carrs, of Sal- isbury, a daughter of George Carr, the original settler, who operated the ferry between Newbury and Salisbury. The Carrs were a family of good social and economic position in their section of the Colony, being among the first to build vessels on the Merrimac River, but there seems to have been a strain of nervous instability among them, for the first few generations at least. John Carr, a younger brother of Mrs. Putnam, had become insane and died, while still a young man, not long before the trials at Salem, quite possibly a victim of dementia praecox. At the trial of Mary Bradbury, of Salisbury, James Carr and Richard Carr, also brothers of Mrs. Putnam, accused Mrs. Bradbury of bewitching their brother John, and causing him to become insane and die. At the trial, William Carr, another brother, took the part of Mrs. Bradbury, claiming that the incident that caused John's final breakdown was the refusal of his father to allow him to marry Jemima True, of Salisbury. John Fiske, in "Witch- craft in Salem Village," says of Mrs. Putnam and her family: "She was one of the Carrs of Salisbury, a family which for several genera- tions had been known as extremely nervous and excitable. There had been two cases of insanity among her near relatives. The deaths of some of her own children and of a beloved sister, with other distressing events, had clouded her mind."22
The behavior of Ann, daughter of Thomas Putnam, though little different from that of the other "afflicted children," would indicate that the girl had inherited the nervous instability of her mother's family, although her association with her hysterical mother and the growing excitement of the witchcraft mania, with which she chanced to be very closely connected, might have been sufficient to unbalance the soundest child. More will be said of Ann Putnam later.
The apparently insane behavior of Mrs. Putnam is described by Increase Mather, in "A Further Account of the Tryals of the New- England Witches," in connection with the accusation and trial of Rebecca Nurse in 1692:23
22. "Witchcraft in Salem Village," John Fiske, p. 58. Houghton Mifflin, Boston and New York, 1904.
23. "The Wonders of the Invisible World," etc., Cotton Mather, pp. 205-07. John Russell Smith, London, 1862.
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"On Wednesday the 23d. of March I went to Thomas Putuam's, on purpose to see his Wife: I found her lying on the Bed, having had a sore Fit a little before; she spake to me, and said she was glad to see me; her Husband and she both desired me to Pray with her while she was sensible; which I did, though the Apparition said, I should not go to Prayer. At the beginning she attended; but after a little time, was taken with a Fit; yet continued silent, and seemed to be Asleep: When Prayer was done, her Husband going to her, found her in a Fit; he took her off the Bed, to set her on his Knees, but she afterwards sat down, but quickly began to strive violently with her Arms and Leggs; she then began to Complain of, and as it were to Converse Personally with Goodwife N. (Nurse) saying, Goodwife N. Be gone! Be Gone! are you not ashamed, a Woman of your Profession, to afflict a poor Creature so? What hurt did I ever do you in my life? You have but two years to live, and then the Devil will torment your Soul; for this your Name is blotted out of God's Book, . . . After this, she seemed to dispute with the Apparition about a particular Text of Scripture. The Apparition seemed to deny it; (the Woman's Eyes being fast closed all this time) she said, She was sure there was such a Text, and she would tell it; and then the Shape would be gone, for she said, I am sure you cannot stand before that Text! Then she was sorely afflicted, her Mouth drawn on one side, and her Body strained for about a Minute, and then said, I will tell, I will tell; it is, it is, it is, three or four times, and then was afflicted to hinder her from telling, at last she broke forth, and said, It is the third Chapter of the Revela- tions. . . . . I began to read, and before I had near read through the first Verse, she opened her Eyes, and was well; this Fit continued near half an hour."
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