USA > Tennessee > Shelby County > Memphis > A history of the yellow fever : the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, in Memphis, Tenn., embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere > Part 17
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Ser 2 Bit further. The the realandpersonal property. and fund - ani re- enno of said Association, ami the administration of it as shall be under the exclusive direction and control of the active m ano irs of sant HOWARD ASOFIAHos OF MEMPHIS. That
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it a status worthy of its name and the purposes had in view, and strengthened it in the respect and confidence of the public abroad, as well as at home. Thus constituted a body corporate, with powers adequate to any emergency of epidemies and the scope of their work, the Association was reorganized. with a greatly enlarged and influential membership. But the "changes and chances" of life in four years reduced their numbers. Some had removed from the city; others had died, so that, on the 14th of September, 1873. when the roll was called, in obedience to a sununons to work, only eight re- sponded : Messrs. J. G. Lonsdale, Sr., Dr. P. P. Fraime, A. D. Langstart. W. J. B. Lonsdale, J. P. Robertson, E. J. Mansford, A. G. Raymond, and Fred'k Gutherz. On the 14th of September, two days after the Board of Health de- clared yellow fever epidemie, these gentlemen met and organized for a campaign, the dread results of which no one of them could then foresee. They found ju-t $130 in the treasury, all that remained of the fund subscribed in 1867. They, therefore, made an appeal to their fellow-citizen, of the other cities and States through a mass-meeting, held on the 16th of the same month, and the result was the almost immediate supply of a sum sufficient to enable them to begin work. A call was then made for recruits. This, too, was promptly re- sponded to, and they were enabled to reorganize on as efficient a basis as the necessities of the occasion demanded. The new members, who thus swelled the list of the Association to something like the proportions necessary to grapple with the disease and prove successful ahnoners of a nation's bounty. were: J. J. Murphy, B. P. Anderson, J. G. Simpson, W. J. Smith, W. P. Wilson, G. W. Gordon, J. H. Smith, E. B. Foster, A. E. Frankland. W. S. Rogers, W. A. Holt, F. F. Bowen, J. F. Porter, R. T. Halstead. T. R. Waring, S. W. Rhode, W. J. Lemon, W. G. Barth, L. Seibeck, J. E. Lan- phier, J. H. Edmondson, John Johnson (Attorney), J. W. Cooper, F. A. Tyler, Jr., C. A. Leffingwell, F. G. Connell, P. W. Semmes, D. E. Brettenum. and D. B. Graham. Strengthened by this company, many of whom, like Ander- son and Smith, survived to win imperishable renown by their devotion and kill in 1878, the Association nobly and honorably illustrated what self -- acriticinz philanthropy is through many weeks, during which they were subjected to weariness of soul, as well as body; to the anguish of heart inseparable from an overwhelming calamity, to mitigate which it seemed sometimes as if they
the parties named in the first section of this Act, or any five of them, may call the subser;Ler- of said Association together. after having given tive diys' notice in some daily paper pub: shed in the city of Memphis, and proceed toorganize the same, by electing a President. (waVice Pres- idents, Treasurer. Secretary, and six Directors, who shall constitute an Executive ( ommer. five of whom shall be a quorum, who shall conduct the affairsof the Association. and who shall continue in office until a new election is made The regular election for officer- shall be made on the first Monday in Aprit. IS, of which dute notice shall be given in a dai v : Aler published in Memphis The members of vad HOWARD ASSOCIATION OF MEMPHIShailake such by-laws and regulations for the admission of members and the government of the two- ciation as they may deem necessary: Provided, That no by-laws, rules, or regulations shall, Int any wise, be contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State of Tennessee or the United States.
SEX B. Bo it further enacted. That all the effects, real. personal and mixed, of every descrip- tion, belonging to the said HOWARD ASSOCIATION. that may be remaining on bail at the expiration of this charter. shall be turned over to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Memphis, or to whomsoever may hp the representatives of the people of said city at that time, for the benefit of the poor and destitute prople thereof.
SEC 10. Be it further enreed. That the foregoing Act shall take effect from and after its pas- F. S. RICHARD -.
Speaker of the House of Representatives. D. W. C. SENIER. Speaker of Senate
sage.
Passed January 23. 1:69.
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worked in vain, and as if their heaven-appointed labors would prove barren of results. For more than two months they confronted death and bore witness, in their self-denial and devotion, that heroism did not die with the age of chiv- alry, that it still lives, purer and loftier, just as our age and time is purer and better than any that have preceded it. Many of them had had, on other occa- sions, some experience of the heart-rending scenes and sufferings that make up the horrors of an epidemic. Besides the eight old members that held together since 1867. who were the nucleus of the reorganization of an association, whose work is a monument of human love, some of the new had also encountered the fever elsewhere, and two of the oldest of them not only nursed in 1867, but also in 1855, when. as has been previously remarked, there was no organization, and the people had not learned how dreadful a scourge yellow fever is under conditions favoring its propagation and spread. These two members-one of them Major F. F. Bowen, advanced in years and well-spent in life, and the other, General W. J. Smith, a soldier of two wars-have survived attacks of the disease, passed through the last epidemie, and survive, to live, it is hoped, many years among the highest and noblest examples of constancy in labor, per- sistoney in duty, and cool, cahn courage in the face of danger. Butler P. Anderson, who, in 1878, immortalized himself and made for the Asso- ciation a name far beyond the limits it set for itself, was also among the new members. A man of positive convictions, noble impulses, and the highest sense of honor, he entered enthusiastically upon the work, and so fearlessly and thor- oughly performed every duty assigned him, that, before the close of the cam- paign of 1873, he was regarded by his fellow-soldiers as just the man to lead a forlorn hope like that of Grenada in 1878. They looked up to him as to a born leader, a man in whom they recognized all those qualities essential in a successful commander. They had been with him in the imminent and deadly breach, and saw how cool he could be, concerned only for those whom he had volunteered to succor and to save. They were proud of him ; proud to be associated with a man so self-sacrificing, so indifferent to his own safety, so pure, not merely in intention, but in the entire dedication of self to a serv- ice whose recompenses were limited to an approving conscience. They were not surprised, therefore, when, in 1878, he volunteered with General W. J. Smith, and went down to almost certain death at Grenada .* This step was in
# The Memphis Ledger, of the 8th of April ( 1879), thus pays tribute to these worthies: " Butler P. Anderson was a martyr to his humane impulses and his sense of duty. He did not go to Grenada, as some have supposed. in a spirit of romance and adventure, but from a stern sense of duty, when others would not go. When the mayor of that stricken city sent an appeal to the Howards of Memphis for nurses, Gen. W. J. Smith and Col. Anderson and other Howards found it a difficult matter to find them at once. Several hours were spent in the effort. and. finally, ton were assembled at the depot to take the special train. They were inexperienced nurses, the most of them, and without a head would have been useless. The question arose as to who should go with them. One after another had reasons for saying. 'I pray thee, have me excused.' General Smith, as the first vice-president of the Howard Association, said he would go. No one else volunteered. It was a critical moment. At the last minute Col. Anderson stepped on the train and said: 'I will go myself.' After making the decision, he had
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keeping with the promptings of a nature moved by the most humane impuises. It was in keeping with his life, part of the best years of which he devoted to the amelioration of the condition of the poor, the in-ane, the blind, the deaf and the dumb, and all whom affliction had made dependent upon public charity ; to the cause of public education and the advancement especially of the negro, recently made free. He was a tower of strength to the Association, in whose well being he always took the liveliest interest. Physically a splendid type of the men of the south-west, he was es good and pure as he was handsome. I --- ciated with him, besides Major Bowen and General Smith, there were many other old citizens of equal character and weight. Working day and night they found themselves unequal to the demands made upon them. They, there- fore, called for help. Nurses, as well as money, clothes, and provisions, were at once sent by the other cities of the country, New Orleans and Mobile vieing with each other, and New York rivaling both. Dr. Luke P. Blackburn. of Kentucky, a gentleman, whose skill in the treatment of yellow fever had long before secured him proéminence among his profession at home and abroad. with Major W. P. Walthall. of Mobile, were put in charge of an infirmary, which was of great advantage to the Howards, as it secured prompt and proper treat- ment for a class of patients who already crowded the city hospital under Dr. Thornton, city physician and surgeon in charge of the Marine Hospital. Other societies and organizations aided in the work of cooling the fevered how and closing the eyes of the dead. Conspicuous among them, the Odd Fellows. the temperance lodges, the Free Masons. Knights of Pythia -. Knights of Honor, and Christian Churches, the Hebrew Synagogues, the police and fire- men, the telegraphers and typographers. The ministers of religion were, many of them, especially conspicuous, as much so as the physicians, in ministering to the wants of the sick and needy. relieving the widows and orphans, and carry-
only time to send a verbal message to his family. That was the last ever seen of him alive in Memphis." He and General Smith found the city in the wildest confusion and fright. They went to work, forgetting themselves, and bent only on relieving the sick and dying. They often worked from early morning until long after midnight. The mayor fell the day after they arrived. and soon dicd. The six physicians of the place who remained all died. The mortality was appalling. They could not leave. The highest -en-e of duty and humanity impelled them to remain as they did, until one i-il at hi- post and the other was brought away with the fever throbbing in every vein. And incidentally here we will say, that all the terrible trials and emergencies of the yellow fever period of 197- did not develop a nobler, braver, and more unselfish man than General W. J. Smith. Of English birth and ideas, entertaining political opinions ar variance with those of most Southern people, he had been the object of dislike and coolness. But when the occasion was presented. he went to the relief of those who. in a sense, might have been considered his enemies at the risk of his life. From this gir- cum-tanee we may learn a lesson of forbearance and wisdom that should never be for- gotten."
"The Ledger is mi-taken in this. Col. Anderson returned to the city after some days of hard laber at Grenada, butonly remained for twenty four hatte. He went back to his seli-selected post. where as master of the situation. he continued, until the fever seixal him. to administer to the necessities of the sick and the dying, acting as mayor and chief of all departments and societies.
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ing consolation to all who were desolated and oppressed by the hand of the destroyer. All classes of the community suffered, and terror, dismay, and sor- row were universal. Heroes and heroines abounded in every rank of society. More than one ontcast, more than one waif, who had strayed far from the admonitions and teachings of early life, vied with the religious pastors and masters in sacred ministrations. A. death levels all, so in the presence of death all are leveled. The whole community stood face to face with, and in awe of, this King of Terrors, and there was no time to ask questions, there was no time to weigh the nice distinctions of social life. Whoever offered life a willing sacrifice on the altar of duty was hailed and treated as brother or sister. There was but one standard of justification -works. Those who gave the cup of water were mustered among the faithful; they were the lights that lighted up the gloom: they were the rich and blessed product of disease and death. Calm amid despair, brave in presence of a relentless foe, deliberate where Death himself was hurried, they practiced the sablimest lessons of Christian charity, and added fresh luster to the record of human endurance. In this campaign, the terrors and hardships of which were unparalleled by any then known experience in the annals of the South- west, only five of the members of the Association contracted the fever, all of whom, it is pleasant to record. recovered. This amount of casualty out of a membership increased from eight to thirty-seven, by prompt response to the calls for new members, was little less than miraculous. When the fact is recalled that out of a population estimated at not more than 15.000. half of the number negroes, more than 7,000 sickened. and more than 2,000 died, it was little less than miraculous-in view of the dangers of the pestilence. the lurking contagion in every stricken house, the suddenness of the fever's attack. the almost fiendish cagerne-s with which it prostrated, and the almost lightning speed with which it killed -- it was little less than miraculous. that. returning to fever-haunted beds, after sometimes many nights and days spent in the sick- room, the nervous system .all unstrung, their clothes loaded with the never-to- be-forgotten stench of the fever, and often stained from head to foot with black vomit, they did not all die, as warnings against a temerity that would risk life in what most regarded as a forlorn hope. But they were mercifully spared -- spared for still more harrowing seenes, spared, many of them, to seal with their lives, during the greater calamity of 1878, their sublime devotion in 1873.
VII.
With this record. possessing the public confidence at home and abroad, the Association, on the fourteenth of August. 1875, was once more summoned to work, this time to face an ordeal, compared with which all previous epidemics were but a brief agony. Between that day and the fourth of No- vember-nearly three months-they were to see 70 per cent. of a population of
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about 19,600 sicken of the fever, and of that number 5,150, or more than 25 per cent., die, the ratio of mortality among the whites being 70 per cent., and among the negroes 8 per cent. In 1873 they expended over $100,000, em- ployed 825 nurses, and furnished doctors, nurses, medicines, and supplies to over 8,000 persons. In 1878 they were to expend over $500,000, employ 2,900 nurses, and furnished doctors, nurses, medicines, and supplies to more than 15,000 persons .* Taking no heed of their own safety, the members of the Associa- tion, placing themselves under the guidance and control of A. D. Langstaff, First Vice-President (who was President in 1873), prepared for the long siege during which they were to be tried as men have seldom been tried in this world. Visitors were at once appointed to the distriets into which the city was mapped, and a census of the sick was taken, revealing a state of things that almost surpassed belief. By the end of the first weck they found more than 1,500 sick, and the mortality averaged 10 each day; by the end of the second they found 3,000 sick, and the mortality had jumped to 50 per day. Con- sternation and panie increased the horrors of the situation, and the fear and dread that sat on every heart increased the difficulties of doctors and nurses in the treatment of the disease. The city hospital was full of poor patients, and the able, humane, and tender-hearted physician in charge, Dr Thornton. was already almost worked down. To relieve him, three infirmaries were estab- lished, but could not, for want of mechanics to fit them up, be made available ear- lier than the middle of September. A medical corps, under Dr. R. W. Mitchell. an experienced and able physician, was organized, and performed a work beyond all praise. With their aid, and such help as the other charitable organizations and benefit societies could give, the Association continued to battle with the pes- tilence, which. aggravated by other diseases, bid fair at one time to decimate the city. Toward the close of August it invaded their own ranks. The heroic General W. J. Smith was back from Grenada prostrate, as a difficult almost
# The work of the Howard Association was conducted systematically through Visitors appointed, two to each ward, whose duty it was to visit every house, and report, as promptly as discovered, every case of fever. They made their tours of duty in buggies, in which they carried a liberal supply of medical stores, such as are most needed in the incipient stages of the fever, and which they distributed as they found it necessary. When the cases were reported at the Medical Director's office, the physician- detailed for the ward in which they occurred were notified, and they gave them immediate attention, reporting at night, at the medical meeting, their whole number of cases, the new ones being partieu- larized. All prescriptions for medicines by Howard physicians were filled at the expense of the Association, and all orders for medical supplies for the convalescents were filled at the depot of supplies, where, as well as the prescriptions at the drug-stores, all such orders were filed as vouchers, to be used in the final settlements which were made at the close of the epidemic. The Secretary received and receipted for all donations of money or supplies, and turned them over-the money to the Treasurer and the supplies to the officer in charge of the depot-taking their receipt therefor. All bills were made payable on theorder of the President and Secretary, which orders, with bills accompanying, were the vouchers of the Treasurer. At the close of the epidemic these were examined by the anditing committee, who passed upon them and certified to their correctness, a> will be seen in the Reports in the Appendix of this book.
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hopeless case. The heroie Butler P. Anderson was on his bed, dying, a martyr to the cause of humanity. W. A. Finnie, W. A. Holt, and J. W. Cooper were down. John Forbes was dead. By this time dismay was visible on every face. It began to dawn on the minds of even the most sanguine, that the city was only on the verge of a fearful visitation. By the middle of September the death-rate averaged 200 per day, and there were fully 8,000 sick, perhaps 10.000. On the 14th of that month the mortality for that day was stated to be 127. It was more than 200. Nineteen Howards, including the president, were sick or dead. New members were called for. Out of a population greatly re- duced, nearly all of whom were engaged in the benevolent work of nursing the sick or burying the dead, eleven responded. every one of them already doing good work as volunteer Howards. They brought an invaluable experience. a courage and sympathy to the work assigned them as members quite up to the reputation the Association enjoyed. Langstaff, who ultimately recovered, went down with the fever on the 12th of September. His place was taken by Ex-Mayor John Johnson, and afterward by General W. J. Smith, who had just recovered. The hero martyr, Butler P. Anderson, whose name is forever to be hallowed with the people of Memphis, died on the first. Elwin B. Foster died on the 15th, and Edward J. Mansford, one of the original members, and a hero of three epidemics, died on the 30th ; A. M. Stoddard was taken on the 20th, but recovered; P. W. Semmes, taken on the 9th, recovered; 1. F. C. Cook died on the 8th, Frederick Cole died on the 9th, and W. D. MeCallum died on the 16th; Nathan D. Menken, the philanthropist, and an honor to the ancient race, whose good name he sus- tained by his life and living, died on the 21 ;* D. G. Reahardt, taken on the 25th, recovered; John T. Moss, taken on the 15th, recovered; C. L. Staffer, taken on the 9th, recovered ; Louis S. Frierson, taken on the 16th, recovered; Jesse W. Page, Jr., taken on the 18th, recovered; Charles Howard, taken on the 15th, recoveredl; James W. Heath died on the 17th, and W. S. Ander- son was taken on the 28th and recovered. Of the honorary members, four in number, Rev. E. C Slater, D. D., died on the 10th; Rev. S. Landrum, D. D., was taken on the 15th, in the midst of a deep affliction for the loss of
* Mr. Menken was in many respects a remarkable person. One of the wealthiest merchants of the city. a man of a very high order of talent and cultivation, and, although deeply devoted to his wife and children. he, long before the epidemic was officially declared to exist, resolved to give himself up to the good Samaritan work of the Howards. He so wrote to his wife in letters that were full of the purest and loftiest sentiments. Conscious of the risk he ran, he advised her of his last wishes, and, thus prepared. entered himself a willing worker in a cause he might have turned his back upon without any question as to his motives. Of a nervous temperament, like many others, he attempted too much, and fell an easy victim to the fever. At first, and for some weeks, he labored by himself, then with the Hebrew Hospital Association, and afterward with the Howard Association; all the time giving of his own bounty, his- purse being as open as his heart. How many he relieved. how many grieis he assuaged. how many widows and orphans he comforted by ready help and a generous sympathy. i- only known to the Good he served sa faithfully. His loss was a severe one, and his death was felt to be a public calamity, only over-badowed by the plague.
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his two sons, but, happily, recovered; Rov. W. E. Boggs, D. D., was taken on the 26th, but recovered ; and Chief of Police Athy was taken on the 31st of August, and recovered. The ranks of the Association were thus, in Septem- ber, literally decimated. By the end of the first week in October, Vice- President Edmondson, John Johnson, Superintendent of Nurses, and J. H. Smith, Secretary, were, of all the officers, alone on duty. By that time the death-rate bad declined to twenty-eight per day ; yet the work was harder, and the demand- upon the time of those who could work were greater than ever. their numbers considered. They were never off duty. save to sleep, and, of that, many of them were cut down to half the usual time. This indneed exhaustion, and invited the plague. John G. Lonsdale, Sr., Treasurer of the Association, atal a hero of four epidemies, died on the first of October, a few days after bury- ing his youngest son and his wife; J. HI. Smith, the Secretary, was taken on the 11th, but recovered; Samuel M. Jobe, conspicuous among the citizens of Memphis for an active benevolenee and a pure and stainless life, died on the 4th ; and W. J. B. Lonsdale, who had done good work in 1573, died on the 21 of November. This was the last death among the Howards, and the last case of fever. Those not thus mentioned escaped; they were-Vice-President J. H. Elmondson, who had the fever in the West Indies in 1865: Ex-Mayor John Johnson, who had the fever in 1873: Major F. F. Bowen, who had the fever in 1847: W. S. Rogers, who had the fever in 1873; T. R Waring. who had the fever in the West Indies: Jacob Kohlberg, and Robert P. Waring, neither of whom ever had the fever. Thus, out of a total -- including honorary members-of thirty-nine, only seven escaped, and, of these, only two of them had not had the fever during some of the preceding epidemies in this country or the West Indies. Twelve of the thirty-two attacked died. On the 7th of October, the fever having diminished to fifty-seven new cases and twenty-four deaths, and the labors of the Association having been correspondingly de- creased, President Langstaff determined to answer the calls of the surrounding communities on a scale equal to their necessities, and, for that purpose, organ- ized relief trains, to be run on the three principal railroads-the Memphis and Charleston, the Mississippi and Tennessee. and the Memphis and Louisville cor. as it is known abroad. the L., N. and Great Southern). The first of these trains went out on the 8th on the latter road, the second on the 9th on the first-named. ant the third on the 13th on the Tennessee road. They carried provisions as well as medical and hospital supplies, medicines, physicians, and nurses, and, although it was late in the epidemic when they started, accomplished a great deal of good. Never were the good gifts of good hearts more heartily welcomed than were the comforts thus dispensed to their needy follow-sufferers by the Mem- phi- Howards. What the people of the small towns along the road- mentioned had endured was beyond belief. Death had in many cases taken nearly one hundredl per cent., leaving only one or two to tell the awful tale. In vain the sublimest heroism was exhibited. In vain every suggestion of science was exhausted. The fever swept past every obstacle and carried all with it who could not withstand the shock-and they were few. From time to time the Memphis Howards had done what they could to relieve these sorely tried and
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