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 20
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A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
The body of a negro woman, name unknown, was found back of the Appeal office in an out-house, defaced beyond recognition, and half the body caten by rats, hundreds of which were lying dead near by. The yellow fever proved too much for them, at least in that shape.
Avalanche, September 6th. --- " New cases in the city, only thirty-six reported (several physicians not reporting). Deaths, ninety-two. The physicians have no time to make out lists of new cases, so the reporter ha- to search for him- self. Verbal reports show at least one hundred and fifty new cases not officially reported."
There were but five operators on duty at the telegraph office September 6th- the chief and one assistant by day, and the chief and two assistants by night.
September 5th, a singular-looking genius made his appearance on Main Street, dressed in a semi-Greek costume, with a large sponge tied about his neck. He kept to the middle of the street, and attracted the attention and excited the risibilities of the few bystanders.
A physician who died of fever, when first taken, called on a neighbor, on whose family he had waited like a brother, but the neighbor made no response, and the good doctor passed away, filled with mortification at the conduct of his one-time friend, who in a few days sickened and died, too.
The force was so small at the post-office, that some of the letter-carriers were called in.
Mr. W. S. Brooks, of the Appeal editorial corps, was taken down with the fever September 6th. He stood to his post to the last, doing all that he could to assist in getting out the paper. Enough can not be said in praise of his courage and devotion to duty.
Avalanche, September 7th. - " Total new cases reported in the city, ninety- five. Deaths, one hundred. These new cases were reported by eight physi- cians only. Verbal reports from twenty-three more (out of duty) reported three hundred cases. Dr. Mitchell (Medical Director) gave it as his opinion, at eleven o'clock last night, that the new cases would aggregate for yesterday (sick who had not seen a doctor before) fully six hundred. It is terribly dark, as the record reads to-day."
Avalanche. September 8th. - "Total new cases in the city, reports very meager. Deaths reported, ninety seven. Another black leaf turned! An- other chapter in our book of misery turned! As castaways on desert isle each day for occupation's sake enter up in their 'log' the monotonous record of the dreary day. so we sit down to our log-book to-night. The day's record is horrible. The few new cases reported are not a tithe of those which have occurred. . The nurses in two more days can not attend one-half thesick."
Appeal, Sept. Sth. - Rev. C. C. Parsons, rector of Grace and St. Lazarus churche-, died Sept. 7th, after six days of fever. From the first day of the epi- demic he labored incessantly among his parishioners, knowing no rest so long as there was good to be done. Mr. Parsons was a graduate of West Point, and served during the war in the Federal army with distinction, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of artillery, which he surrendered to take a place in the. ranks of the ministry of the Episcopal Church. He was first settled in charge of a parish, we believe, in New Jersey, then in New York. whence he came to this city about three years ago. He was not long in making his way to the hearts of our people. All classes learned to love and confide in him, and to look to him as one of the most gentle of Christian ministers. He was chap- lain of the Chickasaw Guards, and was beloved by his comrades as the unit of all that was strong, noble, manly. refined. and Christ-like. His loss was: deeply deplored. not alone by the members of his own, but by those of other communions by whom he was beloved.
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Sister Alphonsa, Mother Superior of St. Agnes, died on September 6th. She was the seventh of her order that succumbed to the dreaded scourge.
Mrs. Butler P. Anderson died at Hernando, Mississippi, and Captain J. Harvey Mathes, editor of the Ledger, was taken down with the fever Sep- tember 7th.
Most of the drug-stores were closed by September 7th, very much to the in- convenience of the doctors, and to the endangering of the lives of the sick. Druggists, like doctors, owe it to the public to stand to their posts at a time like that; but if they do not, they must expect to see others take their places.
A. J. Wheeler, past grand master of Masons of this State, and editor and proprietor of the Masonic Jewel, died September 7th, of yellow fever. Mr. Wheeler had devoted himself unflinchingly to the work of succoring the sick -- not only of the craft, of which he was a distinguished light, but of all societies and conditions, and literally worked himself' down.
Appeal, September 7th .- " To lose over 1,200 men, women, and children in twenty-seven days, ont of a population of 19.000 white and black, and to be expending over $10,000 for 1,200 nurses and forty doctors, and for medi- cines and food, for more than 3,000 siek and 10,000 indigent, was a sad reality. enough to move even a Stoic to tears. But besides this there comes the tales of individual sorrow ; of whole families swept away in a week. leaving not even one of the name; of nurses dying at their posts ; of priests and ministers and good sisters following those they succored so fast as to appall the stoutest heart and ' give us pause' amid the general wreck and ruin. No pen can do these scenes and sights justice; no tongue exaggerate them. Lisping childhood, hoary and venerable old age, the vagrant and the mer- chant, the man of God and the unbeliever, all are taken, all are claimed alike by the awful pestilence. It thins all ranks, and brings sorrow to the mansion, the cottage and the cabin. The cry of the fatherless was heard every hour, claiming the pity, the sympathy, and the tears of the most hard- ened veteran. In this office, as we write, there are but two left of all who a month ago were employedl in the editorial, counting, and composing-rooms, and our pressman is down with the fever. Strangers to the office, as to the busi- ness, are attending to our affairs, while the only editor left on duty alternates, through sixteen hours a day, between his desk and a case. This is our per- sonal measure of the dreadful epidemic, and surely it is a sad one. It has moved us to tears many a time the past ten days, although we are not used to the melting mood. Our experience is one we will never forget, and it is a common one. The fifth epidemic we have passed through, this surpasses them all in the horrors it has uncovered. Men have dropped dead on the streets. while others have died neglected, only to be discovered by the death-spreading gases from their bodies. Little children clamoring for the food she could no longer give, have appealed to the dead mother, who gave up her spirit as she gave birth to her last, in an agony of the fever. Ministers of the gospel car- rying messages of peace, hurrying from house to house, have had their weary feet arrested and their work stayed by the pestilence that walks in the noon- day as at night. The priest, administering the extreme unction, and the bride of Christ, wiping the death-damp from the forehead of those whose friend- and kinfolk are far away, are almost paralyzed in the sacred aet, and die even before we know they are sick. The business of the hour is the succor of the sick, the burial of the dead, and the care of the needy living. The last words of those who are well. are at night farewells to the dead, and the first in the morning ' who lives, and who has died? All day, and every hour of the day. this question is repeated and the heart sickens at the reports, and the soul grows weary over the repetition. And yet there is no relief nor any release. Wor-e
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and worse the epidemic has grown, until to-day it has capped the climax, and the hearts of the brave men who have stood in the breach are blanched with fear, with a dread that annihilation awaits us, and that we are destined to be blotted from the earth. Fear sits on every face and dread on every heart. We work. not in the shadow, but in the very face of death. We meet hinton every hand and at every moment in the names of his victims and in the deso- lation he has spread about us. Hope, we have none. We despair of any re- lief, but we are nerved for the end. We pray blessings upon the generous who have helped us in all the States; we pray for the safety of those who have come among us to nurse the sick and minister to the dying, and we ask that the names of the women and the men who have laid down their lives for us shall be handed down forever as among the brightest and best of the earth."
September 8th, Dr. Willett, in medical charge of the Catholic La Salette Academy, reported as convalescent Sisters Dominica, Cecelia, Alberta, and Reginald. All these were reported dangerously ill at one time.
September 8th, another of the horrifying incidents, which >tartle people at home as well as abroad, and leave one dazed with amazement that hunrt beings can be so cowardly, occurred on one of the streets of the originally infected district. A man and his wife and one chill occupying a nice home, saw their little girl taken down with the fever, whereupon the wife, full of the heroism of which her sex had made so many displays during this epidemi ... advised the husband to leave, which he did without delay, and from a house only across the street saw the bodies of his child and faithful wife carried by strangers for interment in Elmwood Cemetery.
At Camp Joe Williams a woman was taken sick, who, with her husband, had been occupying snug-looking quarters. When she was being taken to the hospital the physician remarked to the husband that he could follow to nurse her. He demurred, and repeatedly objected, when finally, all but overcome by the doctor's importunities, he, pointing to the dog. said: "No; if I goes, who takes care of my dog?" The brute should have been kicked out of camp right then. He is not fit to live.
September oth, another sickening case of desertion came to light. A man mamed Town-ley lost a chill by fever, immediately after the funeral of which his wife and little danghter Florence, twelve years of age, were taken. In despair he told the neighbors he was going to make away with him-elf, and has not since been heard of. After he thus basely deserted his wife, she died and was buried, and his little Florence and his youngest child, a boy, were wards in the infirmary.
Mrs. Brooks, wife of W. S. Brooks, of the Appeal, was buried Septem- ber 8th, Mr. J. M. Keating and Eugene Moore alone forming the funeral party.
John T. Moss, September 9th, found three little girls in a house sick with the fever, who had lost their parents two days before by the scourge. No one was in the house to assist the little ones, and Mr. Moss kindly procured food, medicines and a nurse for them.
Thomas Hon, a volunteer telegrapher. from Philadelphia, died Sept. 9th. Appen', September 9th .- Parents have deserted children, and children parents, husbands their wives, but not one wife a husband.
.Apper, September 9th .- Let it be recorded to their credit that the negro militia and policemen have discharged their duties zealously and with discre- tion. We are proml of them. They proved their title to the gratitude of the people of Memphis.
General Charles A. Adams, one of the ablest members of our bar, died on September 8th, of the prevailing epidemic, after a brief illness.
Mr. Jesse Page, who had been constantly on duty with the Howards, deing
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noble service, was taken with the fever September 10th. He Imiried his father and brother, who, died of the same disease, only a few days before.
Appeal, September 10th .- Dr. Mitchell reports that 686 new cases of yellow fever have been reported to him by the physicians employed by the Howard Association for the forty- eight hours embracing Sunday and Monday. If re- ported to him, why not to the Board of Health, charged with the duty of compiling stati-ties of the growth, as well as results, of the disca-e ? The pub- lic demands that the names and residences of all new cases shall be given, and we have urged that daty upon all the physicians, Dr. Er-kine, the health offi- ver, threatening, by public advertisement, the full penalties of the law for every case of neglect to report. In the face of this, we have here a statement of 686 new cases for forty-eight hours, for which time the Board of Health re- ports only 137. This does not look well, to say the least of it. We appeal to Dr. Mitchell to see that the physicians under his directions make reports to the Board of Health promptly." We must all of us obey the law to the letter.
Appeal, September 10th. - Rev. E. C. Slater has gone to his reward as a faithful servant of Christ. He died yesterday. No man did more than he in behalf of the sick. He carried consolation to the afflicted, and hore the blessed assurance of Jesus to the dying. Night and day he traveled from one bedside to another, knowing no relief so long as there remained one unattended who needed his ministration. A faithful minister of the Methodist Church, he went wherever called, knowing no divisions among Christians; as he said hin- self many times, knowing " nothing but Christ, and him crucified." The years of his ministry in Memphis were full of grace to him and his people, though he passed with them through the epidemie of 1873. and so far through this. Endearing himself to all classes, the presiding elder of the district, viell- ing to a general desire, left him with us as one who had done, and was still capable of more good. Genial and full of sunshine; gentle, but strong in his religious convictions, he was at all times an example of the true Christian minister. No one ever knew him but to love him, and none can name him but to praise.
Avalanche, September 11th .- " A stricken city! Alas, fair Memphis! What sights meet the eve of those who yet remain in your midst! . On every side is met the bowed form of some citizen who has lost a relative or a friend. The small burnt piles of bedding that are seen on every street but tells the passer-by, .A death has occurred here.' These blackened spots are growing in number daily. During the day there is bustle and confusion. Doc- tors are hurrving by. The hearse is met on every square. Each day brings its changes. The form that but yesterday was seen in the full vigor of manhood, to-night lies tossing upon a bed, aching with fever. Who will be left to tell the tale to-morrow?"
Appeal, Sept. 12th .-- Annie Cook, the woman who, after a long life of shame, . ventured all she had of life and property for the sick, died Sept. 11th, of yellow fever, which she contracted while nursing her patients. If there was virtue in the faith of the woman who but touched the hem of the garment of the Divine Re- deemer, surely the sins of this woman must have been forgiven her. Her faith hath made her whole-made her one with the loving Christ, whose example she followed in giving her lite that others might live. Amid so much that was sor- rowful to an agonizing degree, so much that illumined the graces of a common humanity, and so much that disgraced that humanity, the example of that brave woman stands by itself, singular but beautiful, sad but touching, the very expression of that hope the realization of which we have in the words, " Inasmuch as ve have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ve have done it unto me." Out of sin, the woman, in all the tenderness and true full- less of her womanhood, merged, transfigured and purified, to become the
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healer, and at last to come to the Healer of souls, with Him to rest forever. She is at peace.
President A. D. Langstaff, of the Howard Association, one of our foremost heroes, was taken with the fever on Wednesday morning, September 11th, ahont three o'clock, after the hardest day's work he had done during the epidemic. Perhaps it was the strain on his nervous system, consequent upon so much work, that brought on the fever. Any way he was down, very much to the sorrow of every body in the city, especially the Howard Association, to whom he was as a tower of strength, and by whose members he was considered equal to any work that might be devolved upon him.
Mr. Catron, local agent of the Western Associated Press, was taken with the fever September 11th.
Sister Vincent died, September 11th, of the fever. She has done her duty, and has gone to her reward.
Colonel Knowlton, the efficient assistant postmaster, who was appointed postmaster after the death of Mr. R. A. Thompson, was stricken with the fever, September 11th.
Avalanche, September 12th .- " The contest has been sharp and decisive. The battle-ground is strewn with dead bodies, and the Grim Monster still advances. The aged and the young, the rich and the poor, the high and the lowly, all share the same fate-death. What a sight will greet the absent ones when they return and count the little mounds that have been raised over the spot where the heroic garrison lie buried."
Dr. Avent, one of our best and oldest physicians, has paid the penalty of his devotion to duty. He died at his residence, 309 Vance Street, September 12th.
Judge Robert Hutchinson, who was a candidate on the Democratie ticket for Circuit Court Judge, died September 12th of the fever, at the residence of Judge Halsey, on the Poplar Street Boulevard.
Captain A. T. Lacey, at one time the most opulent merchant of Memphis, and always a well-to-do business man, died of yellow fever, September 12th, at his residence in Chelsea.
Appeal, September 13th. - Mr. Herbert Landrum, local editor of the Avalanche, died September 12th of the fever, at the residence of his parents. Like his father, the reverend pastor of the Central Baptist Church, he knew no fear where duty was to be performed. He stood to his post, and braved all the terrors of the epidemie, not only performing his own accustomed labors, but taking on cheerfully the load that others dropped as they died or fled from the plague. How tenderly and with what watchfulness he nursed the late Mr. Thompson, to whom he was very much attached. all who knew him are cognizant of. Falling from exhaustion when his brother editor died, he recuperated, and again took his place as the only one of the fralunche staff left. There he staid, doing double duty until the fever took him. After a comparatively brief battle he succumbed, and is now numbered with those who fell with their faces to the foe. The most promising man in the profession. his triumphs were only limited by the demands which each day made upon him. Quick, witty, sparkling. and bright, he bade fair to outshine all his contemporaries as a paragraphist and chronicler of city affairs. He never knew a dull moment, and grasped as eagerly the points of others as he spontaneously made those of his own. Cut off in the bud and promise of a useful career in a profession to which he seemed to be born, it will be difficult to replace him. To the mental qualities and readiness of pen which distinguished him, he added diligence and sobriety. No man could be more earnest or more industrious. He knew what was valuable as news by instinct, and grasped it without delay. To the members of the profession he was always courteous, kind, and affable. They reeipro-
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cated fully his good feeling, and promptly as he won it, recognized his place in the profession. His death was deeply mourned, and all earnestly condoled with his parents upon the loss of a son who gave promise of a most useful and honorable career.
Some of the Howard physicians report finding the dead bodies of negroes in the fields in the suburbs of the city. One body, so found, was actually caten to the bones in many places by carrion birds. These negroes, no doubt, when attacked by the fever, dropped, and, without the care of physician or nurse, died neglected and alone.
Avalanche, September 13th .- "In the city, 203 new cases reported, ninety- eight deaths. The eup of sorrow has been drained to the dregs. Now we are nerved to any fate. Death has lost its terrors. It has been witnessed so often of late, so many dear friends have been stricken, no longer is felt the pain of the wounded and bleeding heart. The dart is embedded and the shaft protrudes, but the sense of feeling has gone. The eves have wept until the fountain has gone dry. The undertakers find it impossible to bury the dead fast enough. The keepers of cemeteries can not have graves dug in time to receive the coffins brought, and often it is that sorrowing friends must wait until the narrow tombs can be made which is to hold the form of the departed."
Major Stephenson, the oldest compositor in Memphis, and for nine years past engaged upon the Appeal, died, it is with regret said, at his residence, September 13th, of yellow fever, after but a few days' illness. His son was convalescing from the fever, and two of his daughters were very ill of it-one of them being insensible-a sad case, but one that had a hundred times been duplicated.
Colonel Knowlton, one of the best of men, who succeeded the late R. A. Thompson as postmaster, died at an early hour September 14th.
One of the saddest instances of family annihilation by the epidemic is that furnished by the Flack family. The widowed mother, two sons and four daughters, were swept away in a few days, the last to go being Miss Louisa, who died and was buried September 14th. Their names and ages are as follows: Mrs. Barbara Flack, 51 years; Mr. Tom Flack, 28 years; Mr. Willie Flaek, 19 years; Miss Laura Flack, 24 years; Miss Louisa Flack, 22 years; Miss Jennie Flack, 20 years; Miss Clara Flack, 18 years. They resided at No. 11 Elliott Street, and were cared for and nursed by H. J. Buhler, the scenic painter at the theater.
The sexton of St. Patrick's Church reported a case where a man was shrouded and encoffined, but who, when the lid was about to be screwed down. opened his eyes and asked those performing the last offices for him, " What are you doing ?" A little trepidated, if not consternated, they lifted him from his close confinement and put him into bed. Treatment was begun again, and. strange to say, he recovered. He was literally rescued from the grave.
A foul smell, September 14th, attracted attention to the Mosby & Hunt building, and the examination of the premises, made by George Hayden, a colored policeman, revealed the discovery, in room 22, of the dead and decom- posed body of H. L. Waring, cotton buyer. The appearance of the body indicated that he had been dead two or three days.
General W. J. Smith, who divided the honors of heroism with Butler P. Anderson, at Grenada, completely recovered from perhaps one of the severest cases of fever known.
Mr. R. W. Blew, publisher of the Western Methodist, with his wife and three children, has paid the debt of nature. He died on Sunday, September 15th. of the fever. He was a quiet, modest, unassuming gentleman, a good citizen and a pious Christian.
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"The need of nurses," writes the Louisville Courier-Journal correspondent, " was known to the country, and, as a distinguished physician put it, 'this fact brought upon us the seum of the nation -- in fact, an invasion of cut-throats, thieves, and prostitutes, of as bad a type as ever trod the earth.' Those people thrust themselves upon Memphis, and the suffering sick were at their mercy. . Every thing depends upon nursing ; a good attendant and a pail of water will accomplish more than all the medicines in the land,' says Dr. Wood- ward. The hope of pecuniary profit brought most of these many uurses to Memphis. This is an undeniable fact. Of their condnet in the sick-room I shall speak presently. Gathering at Memphis after the manner of the human vultures who follow the field of battle, robbing the dead or dying sollier, these villains swarmed by the hundreds into the heart of the yellow fever country. Some few came through noble motives. They were not many. The large majority having resolved to fatten their purses by pilfering the dead, they were not slow in seizing other opportunities to steal or swindle. This was managed by practicing frauds on the employers-the Howards-in spite of whose vigilant watching they made false returns and collected largely in excess of actual services rendered. How much frand was perpetrated in this manner it is impossible to estimate, nor is there any disposition upon the part of interested partie- to say much about it. The conduet of the leader of this brazen hand after reaching Memphis was even more outrageous than before. De mortis nil nisi bonum is all right in its way, but if I uncover any unpleasant odor I sin- cerely trust circumstances may justify. Sooner or later we meet our fate, and Mrs. - came by hers rather suddenly. She will be remembered as the female who wrote a card full of what seemed to be virtuous indignation over the Courier-Journal's truthful story. She would have jerked bald-headed the author of the publication, but the Lord-or, perhaps, the . Lord-knows-who'- had set his eyes upon her, and she was set down for an early doom. This Mrs. would have soared to the front.
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