History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 94

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 94

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

During the week ended July 20 two fatal cases occurred. Josiah Stagg was attacked on Sunday morning, soon after he had eaten his breakfast, and died six or eight hours later. Mrs. McHenry was taken ill about ten o'clock on Monday morning, and expired the following Tuesday evening. 'There is no cause for alarm, soothingly remarked the State Journal, but many people took the alarm nevertheless, and fled to Delaware, Mount Vernon and other neighboring towns, where several of the fugitives were very soon afterwards attacked, some of them fatally. The patients were treated mainly with calomel, the stock prescription of that period, from the effects of which those who convalesced usually suffered for a long time afterwards. The socalled " steam doctors " of that day mostly quitted the town with the fugitives. Their principal remedies were pungent drugs such as Cayenne pepper, number six, and several other " numbers." They made free use of lobelia as an emetic and purgative.

On July 23 three clearly defined cholera deaths occurred, and from that time on until the end of September fatal cases were reported almost daily. Many of the persons attacked with choleraic symptoms recovered. In the Penitentiary, then containing 203 convicts, there were thirtyfive welldefined cases and eleven deaths up to the second of August. By the tenth of that month the prison was

720

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

reported to be entirely clear of the pestilence. In the course of its dismal mor- tuary reports the State Journal of September 14 makes the cheerful observation that the convicts continued to be entirely exempt from the cholera. " A large detachment of them," continues the paper, "are employed daily on the new edifice, and a heartier set of men we have never seen. We understand that they are fed exclusively on bread and salt meat, but whether this is the sole cause of their exemption we are unable to say."

On October 12 the State Journal made this reassuring announcement : " We have the satisfaction to state that no case of cholera has occurred in this town since our last publication, to our knowledge. Columbus may now be considered entirely free from disease, and as healthy as in the most favorable seasons." The final report of the Board of Health, published November 2, gave the following " list of deaths by cholera in the town of Columbus " from July 14 to September 29, inclusive, the figures indicating the dates of decease :

July -14, Josiah Stagg; 17, Margaret Henry, Sophie Brickle; 23, M. Bigwood, Mrs. West, Mrs. Mills; 25, two children of Mrs. Hiesler, M. Worley ; 26, J. Woods, Mrs. Woods ; 27, William Johns ; 29, Henry Jewett.

August-4, child of H. D. Little; 5, Mrs. Wise; 6, second child of Mr. Little ; 7, Mrs. Tobin, Mr. Morningstar; 9, Ann Howard; 10, Joseph Bishoe; 12, son of N. Rochester, son of B. Henley, B. Henley, Mr. Maynard ; 14, C. Widle, C. Otstot, E. Flagg, N. Rochester ; 15, H. Howard ; 16, child of Mr. Logue ; 17, Mrs. Carr ; 18, Mr. Winkelpleck ; 19, child of Mrs. Carr, Henry Combs; 21, child of Mr. Logue, H. Howard, Mrs. Vanatta; 22, William Waters; 25, J. S. Whyte, Mrs. Skater ; 26, C. Loring, B. Switzer, Mr. Smarts; 28, Mr. Storrs, William Sterritt; 30, Mr. Rammelsburg, Mrs. Wood, Isaac Wood, Thomas Wood.

September-3, daughter of Jarvis Pike; 4, Ephraim Sells, C. C. Beard ; 5, Mrs. Beard, Mrs. Eswine, child of C. C. Beard; 6, P. Sweet; 8, Mrs. Britton, Mrs. Harding, Miss Harding; 9, Mrs. Walker, child of Mr. Schödinger; 11, Mrs. Bau- croft ; 12, child of Mr. Sweet, J. L. Turner, W. T. Martin, Junior; 13, Mrs. Black- man, Mrs. Jett ; 14, Mr. Campston, Mr. Schodinger; 18, child of Mrs. Filler, Mrs. Calvin; 21, S. Suydam ; 28, Mrs. Sweet ; 29, E. Stewart.

These names were exclusive of six colored persons, eleven convicts, and eight other fatal cases within three miles of the town, making in all, one hundred deaths attributed to cholera.

During the summer of 1834 the cholera again visited numerous towns in Ohio, as well as in other states, but the Scioto Valley was singularly exempt from the pestilence. There is no record of any cases in Columbus. Again, in 1835, the epidemie appeared, particularly in southern and northern Ohio, but the capital was not visited, and the general health of its citizens was exceptionally good. Ordinances were passed in 1834 and 1835 forbidding the sale of unripe fruits, estab- lishing a Board of Health and providing for the prevention and removal of nuisances. In February, 1837, some cases of varioloid gave rise to alarming reports, but the disease seems not to have made much headway at the capital. The members of the Board of Health at that time were S. Parsons, M. B. Wright, R. Thompson, G. Jeffries and P. B. Wilcox. In the spring of 1842 a great deal of

Willard P. Carpenter M. D.

James 6. KroEsen .. 162.

721

CLIMATE AND HYGIENE. II.

sick ness prevailed, popularly attributed to the wetness of the season. There is no account, however, of any pestilential scourge. In the summer of 1843 the disease called influenza reappeared, and in the autumn of that year some cases of smallpox were reported. Alarming rumors of smallpox were current in January, 1847, but Doctor I. G. Jones, Secretary of the City Board of Health, reported that only four cases had occurred.

The appearance of the Asiatic cholera in New York in 1848 eaused so much alarm as to impel the City Council to pass an ordinance, in February, providing for the appointment of a Board of Health consisting of seven members, who should serve without compensation, each for one year. The board was empowered "to take the most prompt and efficient measures to prevent the introduction of con- tagious, malignant, dangerous and infectious diseases into the city, and for the immediate and safe removal of any person or persons who may be found therein infected with any such disease." The members of the board, appointed by the Council, were as follows: Doctors Robert Thompson, John B. Thompson, R. L. Howard, Samuel M. Smith and S. Z. Seltzer, Isaac Cool, John L. Gill, Alexander E. Glenn, James Cherry and Uriah Stotts. In an appeal to the citizens the board says: "There is scarcely a street, lane or alley in the city but needs more or less cleaning. Many lots and grounds attached to dwellings are in a filthy con- dition, and caleulated at all times to excite disease."

During the carly days of January, 1849, two hundred cholera deaths were reported in New Orleans, and eleven cases in Cincinnati. Yet the people of Columbus seem to have been strangely careless of sanitary precautions. The offal of slaughter houses, to say nothing of other filth, was dumped upon the surface of the ground, and allowed to lie there and putrefy until the inhabitants of the neigh- boring dwellings, to adopt the language of a current newspaper report, were " greatly incommoded." In the course of an editorial admonition to " prepare for the cholera," the Ohio Statesman of April 5, 1849, said :

Every day we are admonished by the near approach of this fell disease to prepare for its reception. If it be true that dirty streets and alleys, and stagnant pools of water are aids to its fearful ravages, then there is most assuredly a rich harvest awaiting it here. In stroll- ing around the city a few days since we were truly astonished to learn from ocular demonstration, that our citizens, notwithstanding their pride of place, allowed their streets and alleys to become so filthy and stinking as to startle one whose olfactory nerves were unused to the stench.

Speaking of the general vileness of the alleys, the State Journal affirms that just east of High Street, the one between Town and State streets, has " piles of manure, etc., in every part of it." A contributor signing himself "Sonth Colum- bus" writes to the same paper of June 27 :

Several thousand dollars have lately been appropriated to build a fine sewer down Broad Street to carry the filth from the Lunatic Asylum [then on East Broad Street] and deposit it in the river with that which comes from the Neil House, the American Hotel, and several other places about the city. This nauseous matter is lodged at the foot of town by the Feeder dam, and we who live in that part of Columbus are almost driven from our homes by the offensive miasma which rises from the stagnant matter. Almost every case of cholera that has occurred in town has originated in this neighborhood.

722

ILISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

On May 27, Allen W. Turner, who had arrived by stage a day or two before from Cincinnati, died of cholera contracted in that city. This was the first case of the year 1849 in Columbus. The weather at this time was ideally seasonable - gentle and sunny during the day, and just cool enough for fire in the evenings. " The health of our city," remarks the State Journal of May 30, "continues good. We feel warranted in saying that never, at any time, was it better than at present."

This reassuring statement was probably intended to allay manifest apprehen- sions soon to be verified. On June 21 the pestilence made its unmistakable advent in what was known as the Jewett Block, near the point, says Martin, where it originally appeared in 1833. A six-year-old son of George B. Smith was claimed as its first victim, and died on the date just named. The next day, June 22, both the parents of this child, and also a Mrs. Kinney and a Mrs. Saunders, dwelling in the same locality, were carried off. The whole town immediately took the alarm, and something like a panic prevailed. The Ohio Statesman of June 23 said :

As usual in such cases, the rumors in the streets are terrible. Men, women and child- ren are attacked with cholera and killed off, and sometimes buried, without their knowing it. The truth is bad enough without making it worse. . . . As yet the disease is confined to a particular section, the west end of Rich Street, in the buildings owned and erected by the late Colonel Jewett. All the houses in which the cholera has appeared up to the hour of writing (Saturday afternoon) are located on the same lot. . . . Many of our citizens are flying its approach, and seeking refuge in the country, or in neighboring villages.

About this time a Board of Health was thought of, and was appointed. Its members were Isaac Dalton, N. W. Smith, George B. Harvey, W. W. Pollard and James Cherry. They were " diligent," we are told, in "procuring medical and other assistance " and " made daily reports." They doubtless did all they could ; a board composed of stalwart scavengers, appointed earlier in the season, would certainly have accomplished more.

Mrs. Clark, wife of the druggist Sumner Clark, and daughter of Samuel Had- dock, an old citizen, was the next victim, and died June 24. Mary Young, a girl of fifteen, residing with Mrs. Clark, died the same day at the house of Mrs. Hunt- ington, whither she had been removed. This intensified the popular aların, and caused a fresh hegira. The Ohio Statesman of June 27 said :

The city continues to be filled with all sorts of rumors in relation to cholera cases. Every person attacked with diarrhea or vomiting is reported to be suffering with cholera. . . . One of our physicians familiar with the disease in 1832 . . . informed us that he has frequently, within the last few days, been called upon to prescribe for cases of diarrhea, with the rice- water discharges, attended by vomiting, and although several of these cases, if not checked in the very first of the disease, would have run into cholera, yet he has not yet met with a case which he would be willing to call the Asiatic cholera in the city.

As to the genuineness of the pestilence this physician probably soon afterwards changed his mind, although it is very probable that much of the alleged cholera was mere fright. Mrs. May, a daughter of Mr. Smith, who was one of the first victims, died June 26. Mrs. Domigan, dwelling in the same neighborhood, was carried off

723

CLIMATE AND HYGIENE. II.

the same day, and, on the twentyninth, John E. Thompson. The first two deaths in the Penitentiary occurred June 30. The panicky condition of the people at this time had some eomic illustrations. A mason dwelling on one of the Public Lanes sickened from an overdose of whisky, and was believed by his neighbors to have been seized with choleraic vomiting. Immediately, says a contemporary account,

A gener.il stampede commenced in the neighborhood. Pots, kettles, beds and bedding, chairs and children, bedsteads and babies were hastily bundled inte all the extemporary vehicles of the vicinage, and a general flight commenced. So frightened was one poor fellow - the father of the boy who went to rally the medical faculty - that he refused to check his retreat to take up his son in the street, but heroically abandoned him to the underwriters, and dashed ahead to save the rest of his family from the contagion which he believed to be at his heels, in hot pursuit.ª

From the beginning of July the contagion spread rapidly. Up to July 3, there had been thirteen cholera deaths in the town ; on July 9, sixteen took place in the Penitentiary alone. Doctor Lathrop, the regular prison physician, was assisted by Doctors Matthews, William Trevitt, John B. Thompson, Robert Thomp- son , B. F. Gard, J. Morrison, Norman Gay, several medical stu lents, and some citi- zens who volunteered their services as nurses.6 These physicians labored heroically, and two of them fell victims to the pestilential enemy. Doctor B. F. Gard was seized at eleven P. M. of the night of July 10 and died at 1:30 P. M., July 11. Doc- tor Horace Lathrop, the Prison Physician, died on the morning of July 16. These men were martyrs to their professional devotion, and should be forever remem- bered in the shining list of those who have given their lives for the benefit of their fellow creatures. Doctor Gard is described as a man of stalwart physique and usually robust health. Hle sacrificed, as did also Doctor Lathrop, all that a man could sacrifice for the poor prisoner in distress. When the Columbus of the future shall erect enduring memorials to those who have honored the name of the capi- tal let these noble men not be forgotten.

The State Journal of July 13. says :

Since the prevalence of the epidemic there have been eightyone deaths of cholera and two of other diseases. Of those who have died, forty suffered in consequence of relapses brought on by their own imprudence. Out of about 450 convicts but between seventy and eighty have escaped an attack. . . . While our unfortunate prison has been the witness of scenes terrible beyond description, there is reason to thank God that it is no worse.

On July 12 a meeting of citizens was held at the Courthouse, and a committee was appointed to cooperate with the officers of the prison in staying the epidemic. The members of this committee were Peter Hayden, Edgar Gale, John Greiner, David W. Desbler, R. Larimore, D. Adams, Thomas Stockton, A. H. Pinney and H. F. Huntington. The members of another committee which the meeting appointed to confer with the City Council as to sanitary measures were Samuel Medary, Robert Riordan, Samuel D. Preston, M. P. Howlett and John Grabam.

General Edgar Gale, who had been Adjutant-General of Ohio under Governor Shannon, died July 16. To the legion of depressing rumors which flew about the town was added, July 21, a bogus dispatch announcing the death of President Taylor, by cholera, in Washington. Business was stagnant to the verge of total

724

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

suspension. Amusements were out of the question; Welch & Delavan's circus, which arrived in the city July 30, refrained from attempting its advertised exhi- bition. One mode of relief of the general misery seems to have been found in criticising the Board of Health, which was disbanded about the first of August, and reorganized as a "special board " appointed by the City Council. Its mem- bers were James Cherry, President ; Isaac Dalton, Secretary ; George B. Harvey, N. W. Smith and W. W. Pollard.

One of the curious accompaniments of the epidemic was the appearance of no ends of quacks professing the power of cure and prevention. One of these who visited Columbus called himself a native of Morocco, and peddled about the streets what were called " highly aromatic amulets " made of "a berry that grows upon a tree on Mount Lebanon, and in a botanic garden near Jerusalem." These amulets, sold at from one to four dollars each, and worn about the neck, were said to be almost sure preventives of " cholera, scarlet fever and contagious diseases."

As in 1833, the epidemic disappeared first from the Penitentiary. By July 20 the deaths there had almost ceased, although they continued to be reported in the town until September 12, when the Special Board of Health announced that there was no further occasion for its bulletins, and that its labors were ended. The number of cholera deaths which had been reported since the outbreak of the epidemic in June was 162. " There were doubtless some omissions," says Martin, " and the true number may have been between that [162] and 200, beside 116 deaths in the Penitentiary."? The highest number of deaths in the prison on one day was 22, which occurred on July 10. Among the prominent citizens carried off, not already mentioned, were Samuel Preston, Abraham Mettles, William Cook, Robert and Mrs. Thompson, Doctor Isaac F. Taylor, Christian Karst, Joseph Murray, Bernard Berk, Christian Hertz and John Whisker. The epidemic was general throughout the United States and Canada, and in some places, as in Cleveland, assumed the character, after a time, of bilious diarrhea. That Columbus was not the only place where many people became panicky on account of it appears from the following extract from a Sandusky, Ohio, letter of August 3:8

The week ending July 21 commences the record. The railroad train introduced the first cases. On Friday its character became pretty decided. Those attacked were temperate livers, but of weak constitutional habits; they were rapidly disposed of. On Sunday it assumed a decided malignant type. Monday opened darkly. And now ensued a scene which no pen can describe, nor even the imagination conceive. A regular stampede com- menced. Christian professors seemed to take the lead. Friends, family, property, were alike deserted. On Tuesday there was a perfect rush for the boats, up and down ; 1,500 persons, it is estimated, left the town on this and the previous evening. By midweek the population had dwindled down to onehalf. Imagine the consternation, the dread ! The desolate houses, the closed shops, the stealthy tread of those who ventured abroad unnerved the strongest, was death to the weak. Ablebodied, clearminded mnen have assured me the worst thing they had to contend against was this feeling of utter desertion by friends and associates.

In 1850 Columbus was again scourged with cholera, beginning with the death of Mrs. Robert Russell at the United States Hotel July 8. Mrs. Russell had just returned from Cincinnati, where she probably contracted the disease. Her death

725

CLIMATE AND HYGIENE. II.

was followed a few hours later by that of Mrs. Hilliary, on Front Street. From this time on the epidemic gradually spread over the city until it had become as bad or worse than it had been the year before. The number of fatal cases up to July 16 was seventeen. John Knoderer, a Mexican War veteran, was carried off July 21. Finally, on July 24, the City Council was stirred np sufficiently to appoint a Board of Health, the members of which were George B. Harvey, Isaac Dalton, W. W. Pollard and T. J. McCamish. Meanwhile the sanitary condition of the city appears to have been but little better than it was at the outbreak of the epidemic in 1849. Nests of reeking filth and the putrefying carcasses of dead animals lying in the alleys are mentioned in the newspapers. The miscellaneous deposit of garbage was habitual, streetcleaning was a spasmodic virtue; and the drainage of the town was villainonsly bad. The plague demon was greeted by numerous cordial invitations as soon as it arrived, and proceeded to make itself a familiar guest. Many citizens sought refuge in the country, the country people refrained from coming to town, the market was almost abandoned, and the toll- ing of funeral bells became so frequent and continuous as to be complained of as a nuisance. On August 3 fourteen died, and the Ohio Statesman of about the same date said : " The cholera report today is large-double the worst day of last year." The same paper of August 19 remarked :

The last few days have exhibited some of the worst features of the disease. Some of the most temperate and careful livers have parted with there friends in the evening in apparent good health, and by morning they were with the departed.

One streak of sunlight irradiates the dismal scene ; it was the announcement, August 12, that several alleys were being cleaned up-" a late and commendable evi- dence of propriety as well as good taste," remarks the Statesman.

From the time the Board of Health was appointed July 24, up to August 26, the number of choleraic deaths reported was 195. Joseph Ridgway, Junior, a prominent citizen, and Mrs. W. S. Sullivant both died August 23, at Mt. Vernon. Timothy Griffith, another wellknown and highly esteemed citizen, died August 30. The epidemic had been steadily waning some time prior to this date, and on Sep- tember 4, the Board of Health, in announcing the suspension of its bulletins declared the city was again "perfectly healthy." In a population of 17,871, a total of 209 cholera deaths was reported, and probably 225 had actually occurred. The penitentiary had this time been almost if not entirely exempt from the pesti- lence. Among the prominent citizens carried off, additional to those already mentioned, were Elijah Converse, David S. Emanuel and William Doherty, John Willard and son, William G. Alexander, wife and two or three children, James B. Griffith's son and three daughters, John Barens, Robert Owen, Doctor James B. McGill, Henry Wass, Isaac Taylor, Hinman IIurd, William Henderson, Mrs. George B. Harvey, Mrs. Matthew Gooding, Mrs. E. B. Armstrong, and Miss Fanny Houston.9

There was no cholera in Columbus in the year 1851, but it reappeared in 1852, the first victim that year being Philip Link, who died June 16, in the south- eastern part of the city. Among the other citizens carried off by the plague during the season were William T. Berry, Miss Matthews, William English and

726

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

wife, Miss Henrietta E. Gale, daughter of the late General Gale ; John McGuire, Newton Mattoon and Robert Brooks.

In 1853 the general health of the city was good, although much complaint was made of dirty streets, stagnant pools, and especially of certain malodorous slaughterhouses in the southeastern quarter. In June, 1854, the cholera again appeared, first this time in the northern part of the town, but it did not become epidemic. Among the victims it claimed were John Leaf, wife and son, two chil- dren of Mr. Westwater, Jonathan Ream and Jonathan Philips and daughter.10 As might be expected, contemporary complaint was made of bad sewers and intoler- able stenches caused by the imperfect drainage.

About the middle of April, 1855, the epizootice which had already been preva- lent in Cincinnati, appeared among the stagehorses at Columbus, and proved fatal in several cases. " There is but one remedy," said the Statesman, " and that is, bleeding very freely, after which give the horse eight drams of Barbadoes aloes, being very careful not to let him drink cold water." According to news- paper accounts, the decaying bodies of dead animals were still allowed to lie in the streets. On July 13, 1851, we find this remark in the Statesman: " The alley running from High to Third, between Friend and Mound, seems to have been made a depository for all the dead hogs, cats and fowls found in that vicinity."

The reappearance of the cholera in various parts of the country in 1865 prompted measures for the better drainage of Columbus, which will be referred to when that subject comes to be discussed. At a meeting of physicians held November 28, Doctor Awl delivered an address on the sanitation of the city with a view to the prevention of an outbreak of cholera the ensuing summer, and resolutions by Doctor Hamilton were passed urging the City Council to adopt at once such measures as would " secure the best possible condition of the sewerage and drainage of the city, the cleaning of the streets and alleys, the thorough inspection of all cellars and backyards, make prompt and systematic provision for the removal of all slops, filth and garbage, and, in case of the appearance of epidemic cholera among us, make adequate provision for the poor, and especially to provide them with medical attendance." On December 18 an ordinance was passed appointing the following Board of Health : Doctors W. M. Awl, J. B. Thomp- son, J. H. Coulter, H. Mahlman, C. E. Boyle and William Trevitt, and Messrs. John Field, J. E. St. Clair, C. E. Felton, Isaac Dalton and W. W. Pollard. This measure ;resulted, we are told, in a general cleaning-up, and also in considerable discussion as to improvement of the sewerage. During the spring of 1866 the chaingang was employed for several weeks in carting away filth from the streets, and an additional force was employed for the same purpose until the appropriation to pay such a force was exhausted. In August, 1866, reports were current affirm- ing the existence of cholera in the city, but they were not verified. The preven- tive measures which had been taken seem to have been effectual.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 94

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202