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 24
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ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL, MEMPHIS, November, 1878.
My Dear Sir: Complying with your request to furnish information relative to the illness and death of the late Rev. Louis S. Schuyler, volunteer priest from Hoboken, N. J., I beg to say that Mr. Schuyler arrived in Memphis on Sunday the eighth day of September, the Rev. Dr. Dalzell, of Shreveport, having arrived the day before. Both were assigned to the Peabody Hotel, there being no bed in my house not occupied already by a fever patient. Only Dr. Dalzell, however, went to the hotel. Mr. Schuyler preferring extemporized accommoda- tion in the parlor. The four days during which he was able to stand up at all were days of great activity and usefulness. He was frequently in my room, and reported from time to time his acts. On Wednesday, the 11th, he came in and found visiting me Drs. Dalzell and Green, both physicians. Complaining of an uncomfortable feeling, he was examined by Dr. Dalzell, who pronounced him already siek with fever, and directed that he go with him at once in his buggy to the infirmary, where he could be better cared for than was possible at my hous ... He expressed a preference to remain at my house even under the discomforts of it, but, yielding to the advice of the physician, he joined Dr. Dalzell in his buggy, and was taken to the infirmary. Being myself ill, I was unable to see him afterward, and can not give you any of the incidents of those last days of a devoted life. Very respectfully, GEO. C. HARRIS.
Another letter in the same regard reads :
Deur Dr. Harris : When I was first told that Rev. Mr. Schuyler was ill, I asked permission to have him brought here to St. Mary's, for, although I was myself ill at the time, and there was no Sister here who coukl nurse him, I thought he would be happier, being somewhat under our care. The doctor toll me not to propose this, as he would really be better cared for at the Physicians' Infirmary. I sent constantly to inquire concerning him, and was always answered that he had every thing he could need, and that he had a splendid nurse. Very sincerely, SISTER HUGHETTA, S. S. M.
Mr. T. P. Holland, for several years foreman of the Evening Ledger, died Saturday morning, October 12th, after a short illness, of the prevailing fever. He was highly esteemed by all who knew him, especially his fellow-craftsmen. Ile left a large and almost helpless family.
Dr. Mitchell, in an address delivered before the Howard Medical Society, Wednesday evening, October 9th. said " that the society should recommend to boards of health the necessity of refusing aid from physicians or nurses who have never had the yellow fever. The fearful record of sacrificed lives that Memphis conbl show was a terrible warning, which should not go unheeded in the future. He knew the danger, and had not accepted the proffered service of any physician without first having warned him of the peril he underwent by remaining."
Mr. Phillips, superintendent of Elmwood Cemetery, replies to a local article in the Appeal, and says: " I forgot to say there was more to blame in the undertakers or their assistants than at Elmwood. While I worked the ceme- tery, up to September 10th, many orders came to me from them for single graves. when I knew the people owned lots, or had relatives who would have them buried in their lots, rather than single graves. So I buried them in the lots. and paid no attention to the undertakers' orders. The new men could not know this, and went by the orders from town. Give every one justice."
At half past one o'clock, October 17th, Dr. T. M. Keating, of New York.
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breathed his last. Not one of all the volunteer physicians more endeared himself to the people of Memphis, and his untimely death cast a shadow over a community bowed down with the weight of woe.
Aralanche, 17th .-- " Tonight we write with hope filling our breast. The death record in the city is the smallest since the fever was declared epidemic on
the 23d of August last. At last we can see the beginning of the end. Every thing looks favorable. A heavy rain, which began falling at 9 o'clock. still continues, with in lications of the weather turning cold, and bringing the frost that will end our present woes. The absentces can not watch with greater anxiety the progress of the fever, than do we who are here in the very midst of death; and every favorable turn of the epidemic is to us the knowledge that we will soon be joined by loving friends. Their return will be hailed with joy and gladness, but in the happiness of the meeting many a familiar face will be missing. Elmwood, that ' silent eity of the dead,' contains the loved forms of hundre Is who, in their devotion to the cause of suffering humanity, paid with their lives the love they bore their fellow-man. Their noble sacrifice may perhaps be rewarded in the Great Beyond. They fell martyrs, and their mem- ories shouli ever be revered by the living. for whom they died."
In the death of Mr. John G. Lonsdale, Sr., which sad event occurred on the 2d of October, Memphis lost one of ber oldest and most reputable citizens. For thirty years he had been engaged in the fire insurance business, and dur- ing that time had maintained a high character for capacity and integrity. He was a member of the Howard Association, and from the beginning of the epi- demic hal labored with a devotion worthy a much younger and stronger man, in behalf of the sick and destitute.
One of the terrible results of the epidemic was the large number of de- mented people developing from the effects of the yellow fever.
Of the entire police force of forty-eight men and officers, there were only thirty-one wbo remained on duty when the fever broke out. Of this number, ten died, fifteen had the fever and convaleseed, and five escaped altogether. Of those who resigned and left the city, two took the fever and died in their place of refuge.
W J. B. Lonsdale, the last of the family of the late lamented John G. Lonsdale, Sr., died on the night of November 3d, after a comparatively short attack of the fever. He returned to the city before it was officially announced that it was safe to do so, and paid the penalty of such imprudence with his life.
" Let sweet-voice I Mercy plead for her. who calmly sleeps beneath the sod; nor erring man in pride usurp the promise of her judge, her God." This is a beautiful sentiment, the inspiration of one who fell with " his face to the en- emy" during the epidemic of 1873. The tombstone on which it is engraved marks the burial place of a fallen woman, but one whose charities and good deeds far outnumbered hor sins. The author, whose charity for that woman's sins was thus worded, diel during the epidemic just past. Hundreds knew him and hundreds mourn his loss.
Ira Trout, of 192 Poplar, a working Howard, while in the heat of fever. in the absence of the nurse, got ont of his bed and crawled on his hands and knees to a wa-hbowl of ice-water and drank over a quart and finished off with a half bottle of port wine, and yet be recovered.
J. Kirchener, a shoemaker, well known in Memphis, after nursing several of his family, who died, took the fever, but did not take off his clothes until he recovered. He nursed himself and refused the attendance of a doctor or nurses. He cooked his own food, although suffering from a severe attack, and ate it when and in what quantities he chose, and yet recovered.
Dr. MeGregor, of Covington, Tenn., against the remoustrances of his
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nurses, and perfectly sane, went into the yard to a pump and drank heavily of water, but diod very suddenly from the effects of his indiscretion.
Mr. Fred. Brennan, local editor of the Apped, was in bed ten weeks, per- haps the worst case of yellow fever on record. He had black vomit three times and the hiccoughs twice-once for twenty-four hours and once for eight hours -and yet recovered. A vigorous constitution and a will that nothing could break down brought him through.
Miss Clay, residing on Washington Street, who had the yellow fever in 1873, attended with black vomit, also had a severe attack of the fever in 1878, with black vomit and hiccoughs for thirty-six hours, yet she recovered.
Maria Hayden, residing on Alabama Street, while her temperature was 104°, went to the pump and drank freely of water, ate ice, pound cake, and drank condensed milk out of the original package, also drank champagne and porter. It was impossible to keep the clothes on her, or prevent her from getting up while the fever was at its height, and vet she recovered.
Miss Mary Sandberg, of Winchester Avenue, had a severe attack of fever, and, as her nurse describes, small pimples resembling small-pox covered her entire person. Her father bled her, yet she recovered. Her father, an oid sailor, who had seen yellow fever in the West Indies, believed in blood-letting, and in operating on himself with a razor cut the jugular vein and died in fif- teen minutes.
A little son of Mr. Goldsmith (broker) had black vomit and hemorrhage for three days and recovered.
John Latsch, whose kidneys were in an abnormal condition-creating an en- tire suppression of urine-was treated with poultice of onions on abdomen, and after three days of this treatment, and walking him up and down the room, the secretions were started, but too late for his recovery. Ile died while on one of his pedestrian tours.
James Duffey, 12 Alabama Street, after having black vomit six hours, got up from his bed, washed himself, changed his underclothing, dressed himself, and went down town. The next day he did the same thing, taking a body bath, and went on the Raleigh Road a half mile, vomiting black vomit all the way. He died a few minutes after his return home from his last trip.
in the middle of August, many people pawned watches, diamonds. and even silver spoons to raise money enough to get away from the city. Many small depositors drew their respective accounts from bank and departed. Persons went away with as little as ten or fifteen dollars, as their total worldly possessions.
Lengthy, populous streets in Memphis were left without a dozen families re- siding thereon. The occupants disappeared as if by magic, Some streets were wholly deserted by their white inhabitants, only colored servants-not deemed liable to the disease-remaining.
A doctor called to attend an Irishman, residing in Fort Pickering, abont a mile from Court square, found his patient far advanced in the convalescent stage and disposed to be humorous. He told the doctor, also an Irishman, that he was very mad the day he was taken with the fever. He said that on that day the last of three of his friends had died, and he called in a negro man and gave him ten dollars to wash and dress the corpse. This he did satisfac- torily. Having been paid and dismissed, the narrator bethought him that his dead friend had expressed a desire to be laid out and buried in the regalia of the society he belonged to. He, therefore, ran after the negro, overhauled him, told him what he wanted, promising him five dollars additional for its performance. When they got back to the house, he told the negro to look in the wardrobe and he would find the regalia, which, he said, must be put on immediately, as in a few minutes the hearse would be there. The colored man went to the wardrobe, took out what he supposed was the regalia, put it on,
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and reported the performance of his task. When the undertaker arrived and was abont to screw down the lid of the coffin, he looked and saw a very laugh- able sight. He called the friend of the dead man, who said to the doctor, " What d'ye suppose I saw ? The bloody ould stupid naggar had put a harle- quin costume on me friend, the one he wore last Mardi-Gras." "And did you bury him in it?" asked the doctor. "Begorra, we did. The undertaker didn't have time to wait for the change to be made, and I didn't want to make the change if he had, and so Dennis wint to glory all colors and spangles."
Two little children, Sallie and Luln Lester, were left by their father at the Citizens' Relief Committee's headquarters, and immediately the father di-ap- peared. The little girls were taken in charge and carried to Camp Joe Wil- liams, where they were made wards of the Bluff City Grays-" Daughters of the Regiment."
A visitor of the Howard Association encountered a horrible scene upon en- tering a house on Commerce Street. Sunday, Angust 25th. Upon a lad lay the living and the dead-a husband cold and stiff, a wife in the agony of dis-,- lution. On the floor, tossing in delirium, were two children of this pair. and beside them their cousins, two little girls, themselves sick. To complete the repulsiveness of the scene, and give it a touch of disgusting horror. a drunken man and a drunken woman, parents of two of the little fever-baked girl -. were reeling and cursing, and stumbling over the dying and the dead.
A sick man's lady friend wrote : " Please let me come." When his friends thought the die was cast, they consented to his summoning her. Boldly she laid aside her hat, pushed back her hair, and foreing a smile to her lips. entered the room. Some of his male friends stood outside on the door steps and inquired " how the dear old boy was getting along."
" I remember," says Mr. H. I. Simmons, a Howard, "one sight we visited in the neighborhood of the Louisville depot. The air was horribly soaked with the sickening odor of dead bodies. We went into one house where six persons had already been reported, down. A new case was reported here, and we called to remove it, as our rules were to take every body to the infirmary when sick less than twenty-four hours, and, after that, to the hospital, if their con- dition would permit. This poor devil had been lying on the floor thirty-six hours. We put him in an ambulance and drove away, but had not gone far when he called to us to ' Stop, for God's sake, stop!' I made the driver halt. The sick man gasped a little, and said, 'I am going, sir ; stop the driver here, for I will soon die.' In seven minutes he was dead."
One night in August, one of those beautiful nights when the harvest moon shone with a brilliancy peculiar to the tropics, a Howard visitor was making his way through the deserted and gloomy streets on an errand of mercy to receive the last messages of a dying colleague. While walking along in an aimless, mechanical sort of a way, his ears were saluted with the voice of a woman singing a melody which had lulled him to rest in his mother's arms during infancy. He halted in h's tracks, and was so impressed by the singular occur- rence that he determined to follow it up and ascertain from whom it pro- ceeded. Guided by the voice, he reached a neat cottage en route to his desti- nation, and, peering through the open window, saw a middle-aged woman caressing a child, and pacing the floor as she sang. Prompted by -ome irresistible impulse, he turned the door-knob, and, entering the room, accosted the inmate. She paid no attention to his salutation, and then be observed by her peculiar manner, her wandering eye, and general appearance, that she was crazed. Hurrying out into the street, he procured the assistance of a negro woman and returned to the house of sorrow. After some delay she was quieted temporarily, and being relieved of that which she held in her arm -. it was found to be an infant a few months old, dead, and in a condition of decom-
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position. The mother was coaxed out of the room after a prolonged effort, and her child prepared for burial. She is now said to be a confirmed lunatie, and in the retreat to which she has been committed she pares the ward with a bundle in her arms crooning a lullaby to what she imagines is her living babe. Her husband had died a few days previous to this occurrence. her family had one by one been carried out to the "trenches," and, her last hope dying with her last born, her mind, already shattered, became a hopeless wreck.
Numerous instances are recited where the dying and sick were measured for grave-clothes and coffin- from ten to twelve hours before dissolution, the patients being fully conscious of all that was taking place.
The poor and many of the middle classes often died unattended. Some breathed their last in the streets, and others in their own houses, where the stench arising from their dead bodies and the fermenting of medicines or other preventives they had taken made the first discovery of their deaths. A feeling of extreme terror existed in the breasts of every body, and it was always regarded that whom _Esculapius. Hippocrates, or Galen, were they living, might pronounce in good health at sunrise, might be dead at sunset. Instances were related where the Howard visitor, on following a street to discover a dead person, found that the moment a door leading to it was open the body would burst. A dead Chinaman, when discovered. was much eaten by rats. Revolting as these cases may be, they form their part in the horrible history of the plague at Memphis.
A scene behind a door at No. 32 St. Martin Street, illustrated the manner in which many negroes neglected the sick of their race. A dead negro boy lay upon the floor, and a tottering, fever-burned victim was handing a dipper of water to a delirious man lying on an old ragged quilt. Negroes, well men, lived in scores of houses around, but not one could be prevailed upon to enter the place. Abrave white lady, disgusted with so much inhumanity, herself entered the house, taking oil and mustard. This, however, was no rare case.
Those who were buried in the trenches were all coffined, and these were packed as close to each other as possible. It would not be possible to identify or disinter the remains of any particular person who sleeps in these pits. Mounds have been shaped over the trenches, which give all the external appear- ance of the regular mode of burial, but there will average about three subjects to every two mounds.
A printer was allowed to die by the nurse in attendance, also a patient in Hopefield, Ark., who was obliged to leave a sick bed and compel the flight of a drunken nurse at the muzzle of a gun. Such instances were not numerous, but the Howards used every precaution to prevent their repetition, and finally succeeded in weeding out the unreliable and incompetent nurses the epidemic brought forth.
C. G. Fisher, President of the Relief Committee, labored incessantly night and day in the discharge of his official duties, as did Lonsdale, the Treasurer, and Clark, the Secretary. The consequence was that, when stricken, their sys- tems were too exhausted to sustain the shock, and they died before a favorable reaction could be produced.
" There was no factor in the sum of elements that contributed more nebly and effectually to sustain the fading hopes of this people than the press," wrote the correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, "and to the editors of the daily journals, more than to any other personal efforts, i- the city under obligations for the absence of riot. rapine, bloodshed, and chaos. These brave men stood to their posts when death stalked amid their ranks and took their choicest spirits."
Mr. Langstaff. Mr. Johnson, Louis Daltroof. Mesers. Simmons, Hargrove, and several other members of the Howard Association, accompanied the writer [a correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal ]ou a visit to the beautiful Elmwood Cemetery. The drive from the Peabody Hotel to the graves is about
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four miles. Almost every house along the route had its melancholy history, and many brief and sad incidents were related as we passed the desolated man- sions of the wealthy, the dwellings of the prosperous merchants, the homes of the mechanic and the cottages of the laboring men. Each had presented a different and peculiarly touching scene, which was vividly recalled by mem- bers of the party as we rode along. The character of these scenes and incidents may be learned by a few which were jotted down by one of the party for me at random :
"There lived Mr. - , who became delirious, jumped out of that second- story window, and killed himself. His wife died the same night, and they were both buried the next day."
" Three persons died in that little cottage."
"Nine person- were taken to the potters' field, all in one load, from that dwelling across the way."
"In that neat little dwelling, surrounded by flowers and shrubbery, lived a happy family, consisting of father, mother, and four children-they are now all in the cemetery."
"That store is the one in which there died four clerks who had succeeded each other rapidly in that capacity. After the death of the fourth one, none could be found to accept the place."
" Five corpses were taken out of that old shanty one night after 12 o'clock." And so on in a similar strain to the end of the trip.
Four dead bodies were found, on the 2d of September, at various places within the city, all doubtless of persons who died without attendance of any kind. . One was found in the rear of a residence, his face partly consumed by rats. Two others were lying in the oldl library building, on Jefferson Street, and another in a house on Union Street.
A man by the name of Townsley deserted his wife and child, while sick at 27 Main Street. President Langstaff, of the Howards, took the child in his arms, put the mother in an ambulance, and saw the pair comfortably located at the infirmary.
A kind-hearted lady was going to see a sick friend when she heard her name called. Turning, she saw a slender girl, dressed in mourning, advancing toward her. As the child came nearer, she recognized in her the daughter of a neighbor who had died the day before near the city. The little girl threw her arms about the lady, and, sobbing, cried : " You aren't afraid of me, are you ?" " No, my dear," was the soothing response. "Every body else is," said the poor child. "They won't come near me because papa died of the fever, and we were with him, I and mamma." The little girl's heart was stung by the chilling repulsion which came to her in so deep a sorrow.
Seven men employed in one store were stricken down in one day, and the establishment closed.
The giant Death struck heavily when he took Mr. Ed. Worsham, who de- parted this life on Sunday, September 15th. None stood more manfully to their posts than he. He was a prominent Mason, and was active and untiring in behalf of the poor, the sick, the destitute, and the dying.
A man by the name of Callahan-a widower-a carpenter, who had borne a good character here, left his children at the beginning of the epidemic, went to Louisville, married again, and sent back, like several others, "Take care of my children." Those children were all dead or dying, but the cautious parent took good care not to put in a personal appearance. .
On the 17th of September, died J. W. Heath, an active member of the Howard Association, who was conspicuous for his untiring labors in the cause of suffering humanity; also Vincent Baccigaluppo, one of our leading Italian citizens, and long a resident of this city.
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" Last of all in this sad drama of death, of whom I have to speak," wrote the correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal, "is the undertaker, he who carried corpses to potter's field, and buried many in Elmwood. John Walsh, at No. 341 Second Street, Memphis, next door to the post-office, had the contract for burying paupers in Memphis and Shelby County, and had charge of all interments of that class during the fever. An interview with him disclosed the fact that very many persons of means and high social positions were handed to him for the potter's field, merely because there were no living friends of the deceased at hand to have them 'put away' in a different manner. Immediately after any death the whole neighborhood became clamorous for the instant removal of the corpse, and it was owing to this constant urging that many were hurried to an humble grave, who, under a different state of affairs, would have slept in choice lots at Elmwood. As many cases of the above description exist, I give the particulars of a few of the most prominent, as related by Mr. Walsh: Dr. Nelson, a man of con- siderable wealth, Thos. F. McCall, a merchant of some prominence, and Mr. Kinney, a cotton planter and speculator, who resided a part of the year at Memphis, and spent the other portion at some point in Arkansas, all died of fever, and now sleep in unknown potter's fields. A cotton broker, named Flack. and his whole family, consisting of seven persons, are dead and in the potter's field, except one child, which was buried in Ehnwood Cemetery. In the family of Rev. Mr. Arnold, a Methodist minister, were five persons, all
of whom died, and four of whom were put in pauper,' graves; the other, a child, was sent to some one of the graveyards and placed in a marked grave. Nine-tenths of those who are buried in the potter's field sleep in unknown graves. Those which are known were marked by friends who were present when the bodies were brought out, and simply wrote the name on a piece of plank and placed it at the head of the grave for future identification. There were no trenches dug at the potter's field, but every body taken there was placed in a separate grave, which was dug five feet deep. The largest num- ber of pauper funerals in one day was one hundred and nine. Mr. Walsh buried in all, as pauper undertaker, from August 15, 1878, to October 1, 1878, two thousand bodies. During this period he also attended to five hundred calls on private contract. The establishment employed, during the period above given, about one hundred and thirty hands. They paid their grave- diggers two dollars per day, and twenty cents per hour extra for night-work. They lost by fever fourteen grave-diggers, one coffin-trimmer, one stable-man, and two coffin-makers."
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