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 58
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It is befitting that I should mention some of the citizens of Grenada who were in those trying days conspicuous for their courage and humanity. First of all upon this rull of honor should be placed the names of that devoted band of home physicians, every one of whom perished in their zeal to relieve the sick and distressed. The follow- ing are their names : Dr -. W. E. Hughes. W. W. Hall, - Woolfolk, - Gillespie, - -- Hawkins, B. W. May, J. L. Milton, J. R. Wilkins, and - Ringgold. The last was the health officer. Of the clergy, Rev. John McCampbell, Rev. Dr. J. G. Hall, Rev. J. K. Armstron .. ar i Rev. A. S. Haddick shared the fate of so many of their people. Rev. W. C. MeCracken was throughout the pestilence always on duty, doing all in his
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power to relieve the afflicted. Mr. Will. Avers, of the Odd-Fellows, died working faith- fully for the sick. Thos. F. Marshall, telegraph operator, was very kind and courteons. Wyatt C. Redding succeeded him, and worked every night till two o'clock in the moru- ing. Ile was kind-hearted to the last degree. Mr. Wilshire, of Memphis, assisted in the telegraph office. All three died. Mr. R. A. Armstead, express agent, was exceed- ingly useful. . The steward of the Chamberlain House, Mr. - -, remained at his post. and though attacked with the fever, kept that hotel open throughout the epidemic: had it not been for this there would have been no place where the doctors, the nur -. .. and the Howard, could have been fed. The Relief Committee, consisting of Meats. Robert Mullin, John Powell, and Judge Thos. Walton, rendered invaluable services. To their high integrity and excellent business qualities it was largely due that the over- flowing charity, which relieved the sick and suffering of Grenada, was wisely and faith- fully disbursed. Judge Walton has passed beyond the reach of my poor thanks, but I shall always gratefully remember hi- many kindnesses to me. General Walthall, who gave so generously, and labored so zealously to secure money for the relief of his pro- ple, can not be too warmly praised.
There were many noble examples of fortitude and endurance among the nurses, buth those from Memphis and New Orleans. There were some whose fidelity can not be too highly praised. Among the best may be mentioned Mrs. Kelly, who nursed Mrs. Jude . Gray and family; Robert Butcher, who nursed at Mrs. W. A. Cromwell's: Madam Ba- shorn, of New Orleans, who nursed at Mrs. George Lake's; Mrs. Angelina Wolf, who nursed at Mrs. Huffington's; and Mrs. Karr, who nursed at Mr. Ingraham's; Pat. Ford, who nur-ed at W. A. Dejarnett's, and others, and Thos. Watkins, who nursed at A. J. Gerard's. There were many others who deserve honorable mention, but whose names have slipped my memory.
There could have been no more deveted and faithful men than the doctors with the from New Orleans and Mobile, who have already been referred to.
It is but my duty to add that, notwithstanding the Memphis Howards were recog- nized as in charge at Grenada, the New Orleans Howards responded to our calls for doc- ters and nurses with the greatest promptitude and generosity.
My noble co-worker of the Memphis Howards, Colonel Butler P. Anderson, needs no praise from me. All know of the courage and devotion with which he met and worked through the pestilence of 1873. He volunteered to go to Grenada in the same philanthropic spirit, and there faced a plague many times more horrible than that of 1573, with the same steadfastness, and the same untiring zeal in relieving its terrible suffering and distress. He was a brave, tender, and great-hearted man. When forced to leave Grenada. I left him in that impenetrable gloom as valiant and cheerful as ever. In a few days he also was stricken, and died at the post of duty. I shall never cease to mourn his loss as that of a brother and a comrade in arms.
Respectfully submitted, W. J. SMITH,
First Vice-Pres. Howard Association.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE INFIRMARY.
NEAR BEAUVOIR STATION, HARRISON CO., MISS., ? April 19, 1879. A. D. Langstaff, President Howard Association of Memphis:
MY DEAR SIR .- In consequence of a misapprehension with regard to your request for an account of my observations and experience of the yellow fever epidemies of 1573 and 1878, at Memphis, its preparation has been postponed until actually, as I presume, the very last day at which it can be of any service to you. It must necessarily, there- fore, be hurried and imperfect.
In both these years it fell to my lot to be on duty in Memphis, as representative of the "Can't-Get-Away Club" of Mobile, in charge of a band of nurses, selected and sent by that association. With regard to the operations of the former year. I avail myself of an incomplete report made to the Club soon after my return from Memphis.
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1873.
This document, after a recital of the facts concerning the first appearance of the fever, about the latter part of Angust, 1878, the official announcement of its epidemie character by your Board of Health, on the 13th of September, etc., etc .- all of which, I presume, appears elsewhere in your narrative -- proceeds as follows :
[ Extract from report to Can't-fit-Away Che of Mobile.]
The above outline of the incipient history of the epidemic has been given in order to a correct understanding of the subject matter proper of this report; that is, our own action thereon. Accounts of the rapid progress and threatening aspect of the fever having reached us through telegraphic reports, and other sources of information. on the 17th of September, I was, as Secretary, instructed by the president of the Cht, telegraph to the mayor of Memphis, offering our -ervice- in selecting and sending ex- perienced and competent nurses, it desired. In anticipation of an immediate an- wer. ? meeting of the Club was at the same time called for the next morning. No answer bad been received, however, when the Club convened. nor was any thing heard from Mer. phis in reply until the afternoon of that day (the Isth ., when the mayor of Mobile re civel a telegram from the " Howard Association " of Memphis, asking for ten nurses. Mayor Moulton promptly replied to this dispatch, referring the Howard Association to the Can't-Get-Away Club, which had already made a tender of its services in the matter. The final result was another dispatch from the Howard Association to the thib. re- ceived late in the evening of the Isth, asking for fifteen experienced female nur- - an increase from the number specified at an earlier hour of the same day, which was it-cli of some significance.
The president, on receipt . f this last dispatch, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, immediately ordered a meeting of the Club for the next morning, and at the -atne time published a call for nurses. The Club, as you are well aware, at its meeting on that day the 19th of September) approved the action of the president and secret ry by taking measures for the prompt engagement of nurses. They were carefully. and. a- the result proved. most judicion-ly, selected by the Executive Committee, which went into permanent ses-ion for the day. This action was taken about ten o'clock of the morning, and at six o'clock of the afternoon of the same day, the full complement of fifteen nurses having been completed and got ready, they set off for Memphis, under charge of your senior secretary, who had tendered his services to the Club for that duty.
We arrived at Memphis near midnight of Saturday. the 20th of September. A. you have already been informed. my own first impressions were those of surprise at the absence of the usual signs of the existence of a severe epidemic. Even at that late hour the streets, in that part of the city through which we passed, presented an appear- ance of animation altogether unlooked for. Lager beer -aloons and other places of resort were still open, lighted a- brilliantly as usual, and not by any means destitute vi groups of per-on- in pursuit of pleasure or amusement. The next morning wa- san- day. and business was. of course, to a great extent suspended, but there were no -mler- ficial indications of a public calamity or general distress. The churches and Smrlay- schools were open; ladies. ladies maids, and children were passing to and fro, or enj ving the lovely weather in the shades of the public parks; there were the familiar groups vi loiterers about the hotels and news-tands, and the effect of the whole was an impressive that the danger and distress had been nich magnified by imagination. [Perhaps in my own mind this impression was deepened by pre-occupation with recollections of the great prestilonee in Norfolk, and the contrast presented to the aspect of that city on my arrival there, when the ordinary avocations of life were entirely suspended -- tores. shops, banks, new-paper offices, and even churches closed-not a lady, nor a chill to be seen in the street- - and when a visible pall of funereal desolation envelopai the city like a shroud.] This favorable and cheerful impression was, however, but tempo- rary. I had not yet seen the infected district.
The first place to be sought for, on Sunday morning, was the office of the Howard Association, in order to repart my arrival with our nurses. This office I found in a small, semi-subterranean apartment in West Court Street. The Association. originally organized in 1867, had been virtually disbanded, or suspended. When reorganized. a few days before my arrival, there were only six or seven active members remain ..... These had already set to work with great zeal and energy, to meet the emergen. v. though little aware at the time to what extent their labors and resources were to ix called forth.
In company with Mr. Lang-taff, president of the Association, a great part of thi- first day Sunday, September 2let: was spent in visiting the house of the intel district-including " Happy Hollow "-and assigning our nurses to duty, where they
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were most urgently needed. To one who has never seen the boundary lines of local infection as clearly and distinctly drawn as they were in Memphis, it would be impos- sible to communicate an adequate conception of the startling contrast presented by appearances within and without those limits. Some idea of their extent and location may be obtained by these familiar with the topography of Memphis, from the statement that the fever was at this time chiefly confined to that part of the city lying north of l'oplar and west of Third or Fourth Streets. Beyond these boundaries there was then scarcely a case, or, at farthest, only a few scattered cases, of an origin clearly traceable to the inivetid region. It is wonderful, to anticipate a little, how long the disease lingered within these bounds. Intangible as they were, they comed -ufficio it to repel the efforts of the fever to overleap them ; or, rather, sated with the supply of victim- within, the fever itself seemed comparatively indifferent as to further progress for days or weeks after spreading thus far. In fact, it never did obtain the same full control of the remainder of the city, and to the very last. even after it had spread into wery nook and corner of Memphis, by far the greater part of the mortality occurred within the limits which have been described. Within these, no accounts that have been written have exaggerated the frightinl realities. They embraced an extent of perhaps fifteen or twenty squares, most of them closely and compactly built. Some of the dwellings in certan parts of this area are of the better class, but it is largely occupied bi small retail shops an i groceries, drinking saloon-, boarding-houses, and the crowded dwelling- of the very poor. In these might be seen the sick, the well, the dying, and the dead. haddled together sometimes in the same room. A cooking-stove would be steaming within a few feet of the mattress of some suff erer during the heat of the day, while at night the same patient would be exposed to the chilling intinence of the north winds that whistled through the crevices of the dismal dwelling. Add to this the effects of the excessive terror inspired by the unwonted malignancy of the disease. paralyzing the energies, stupetying the intellect, and, in some instances, obliterating the domestic charities and humane impulses of those still in health. Remember, also, that many of the inhabitants of this district were isolated and homeless-boarding in the homes of persons boand to them by no ties of kindred or affection-and you may form some idea of the distress within the " infected district."
This distress was but partially known outside of its local boundaries ; and for a long time the illusory. but not unnatura!, hope was indulged. that the fever would spread no further, and that the worst was even then over. For more than a week after my arrival the suggestion of asking pecuniary contributions from abroad was hardly tolerated, and the rapid subsidene of the fever was confidently looked for by many.
The effect upon my own mind of that first day's observations was very different. It was obvious that the fever was one of unnsnal, perhaps unexampled, malignity, and that it would continue to advance with greater or less rapidity, unless it should falsify the precedente of all past experience, or unless the weather should become pre- maturely cold. It was evidently necessary that there should be an enlargement of means and appliances for meeting what was coming, as well as what was already exist- ing. With this view. I urged upon the gentlemen of the Howard Association (as far as was proper in consideration of my merely advisory position the importance of two measures-the enlargement of their membership, and the establishment of a temporary hospital or infirmary for the sick. both of these objects were ultimately accomplished, the latter sooner than the former.
The subject of a hospital had been already under consideration, both by the How- ard Association and by other-, before iny arrival in Memphis. The Board of Health had resigned their functions abont that time, partly on account of failure to obtain suficient support to carry into effect a proposition of that sort. The Israelites of the city. some of whom were among the very foremost in benevolent activity, from begining to end of the affliction. had made arrangements for the establishment of one, but had been met both by injunctions at law and by threats of personal violence. and had abandoned the enterprise. The opposition to the very idea of a yellow fever hospital among the mon ignorant and turbulent classes of the population, although utterly unreasonable. was intense and violent, to a degree which it is hard to comprehend, and which. I con- 1 .--. I did not at all comprehend or realize at first. Under these circumstances, the Howard Association had been considering the feasibility of taking possession of a large, isolated, and unoccupied edifice-originally a warehouse, or something of that sort, but entirely destitute of the conveniences and comforts so necessary for the pur- pose intended. It was fortunate that this idea was not carried into execution.
In going through the " infected district" with Mr. Lang-taff. I had been struck with the adaptation to the desired object of a large dwelling, originally created by the United States Government a- a residence for the commandant of the navy-yard, at the period when a navy-yard existed at Memphis. It had recently been occupied as a first-
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class boarding-house. Early in the epidemic, the proprietor and his wife -- among the first cases, perhaps the very first outside of "Happy Hollow "-had both died of it. The other inmates bad abandoned the house, and it was now entirely unocenpied. It had cisterns, kitchen, laundry, gas-burners, window-blinds, and, indeed, almost every requisite, except lack of sufficient room for the probable demand. Moreover, it was in the very midst of the infection. The sick, the dead, and the dying lay all around, ex- cept in front-for it fronted on a street that runs along the very brow of the bluff, with no dwelling's between the Wall and the river. There could, as it seemed, be ne possible opposition in the establishment of a hospital there, and it would be eminently convenient to the sufferers for whose accommodation it was designed.
So impressed was my mind with the necessity for this enterprise-regarding it, however, as probably only a beginning -- that I offered to take personal charge of it, at all events until it was fairly on foot, provided the Mobile nurses were given me, or at least a sufficient number of them to perform the duty that would be required.
Mr. Lang-taff concurred in these views, but feared it would be impracticable to oh- tain possession of the building. It is needks, however, to enter into further detail of the difficulties that were to be encountered. Let it suffice to say that they were all over- come, and the project of the Infirmary fully resolved upon in the course of a day or two.
There were further difficulties, however, before the design could be excrutel. One of the most serious of these was that of obtaining the requisite medical attention. The experienced physicians of the city were already fully occupied, and it was not de- sirable to entra-t this important duty to one who was inexperienced. This difficulty was providentially and most happily solved by one of those seemingly fortuitoy- oe- enrrence, which sometimes settle difficulties for us when the best efforts of our own ingennity have failed.
On the evening of the 23 of September, the third day after my arrival in Mm- phis, "happening " into the editorial office of the Memphis Appeal, in the hope of find- ing a Mobile newspaper, I there met Dr. Luke P. Blackburn, of Louisville, Ky., who had just arrived, having been deputed by a number of the merchants in that city to he- stow his services upon the sufferers in Memphis, or wherever else they might be muost needed or most desired. A very few minutes' conversation satisfied me that Dr. Black- burn was the very man, of all others, for the place to be filled. So prompt and so i :- cible was this impression, that I begged him to remain in the Appeal office until I could find President Langstaff of the Howard Association. Mr. Langstaff was found, desom- panied me to the Appeal office, and the result was the engagement of Dr. Blackburn's services for our Infirmary-a most fortunate step, as it afterwards proved.
THE INFIRMARY.
It would occupy too much of your space to continue in detail the narrative from which the foregoing extract is taken." I can but briefly condense the remainder of it.
Our Infirmary was opened on the 25th of September, and the first patient was re- ceived.ยบ Meantime the opposition to the movement from a portion of the inhabitants of the vicinity had grown to a point which afforded a singular illustration of that p .- culiar frenzy, amounting to a species of insanity, which sometimes takes possession of the minds of the ignorant in time of public danger or calamity, and of which we read so much in the records of the plagues of former ages. To such persons, the establish- ment of a yellow fever hospital, instead of a measure for relief, appeared to present the idea of a measure for fixing, propagating, and perpetuating the pestilence in their vicin- ity. Dr. Blackburn and myself being both strangers, who had made our appearance in the bad company of the dreadful visitant, there were some wild ideas as to the sinister character of our objeets. Intimations were made of a purpose to tear down the bei: :- ing, and the first few days of its occupancy was a period of some anxiety, requiring the performance of guard duty at night, as well as the care of the sick who were beginning to be brought in. The Hon. John Johnson, then mayor of the city, who took :, warm and most efficient interest in every measure of relief, placed a detachment of armie! police at my disposal, who were stationed within convenient distance for prompt service
* This first patient brought in was also the last taken out. He was a man somewhat advanced in 1.a. known as " Major Burd." and said to have been an officer in the Frterad army during the late w # H . reat vered of yellow fever, and became well enough to walk, but remained in the Infirmary, suffer. ENEL the sequelp, or more pronas'y from some constitutional infirmity. until the Ist of Noveniber-alter te epidemie was over-when he He was brought the W. J. B. Lanche, then a member of [ Hw- ard Association, who returnit to Memphis alom the close of the late pidene . f . after tue dea'h' ns fther, mother, and brother, and contracted the lever, and died, although he hui bron a frequent visitor : the Infirmary, and otherwise actively on duty and freely exposed to infection in Is73.
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in case of necessity. These precautions, the failure of the malcontents to obtain any sympathy outside of their own very small circle, and the warin, hearty, and generous support extended us by all classes of the community, as soon as the facts became known, speedily and effectually suppressed this temporary and very limited opposition. After a futile effort to obtain a legal injunction against the Infirmary, it subsided alto- gether, and our work went on throughout the whole period of the prevalence of the fever, not only withont molestation, but with the zealous approval and cordial coopera- tion of the whole community.
The Infirmary was soon filled to the ntmost extent of its too limited capacity, and for several weeks the demand for accommodation was beyond our ability to meet it. From the 25th of September, when our doors were opened, to my departure from Men- phis on the 28th of October, when they had been closed against new admissions-the fever being virtually at an end-the records of the Infirmary give the following results :
Of 167 patients admitted, 76 had died; 70 had been discharged, cured; and there were 21 remaining, nearly all convalescent. Of those then remaining, from informa- tion subsequently received, it is believed that 3 died and 18 recovered. Of these ad- mitted, 107 were males and 60 females. Of the deaths, there were 62 males and 17 females. Among the admissions were 20 children between the ages of 4 and 16 years, of whom 5 died and 15 recovered. Eight of whole number admitted were colored, of whom two died. The principal items may be tabulated as follows:
Admissionz :- Males, 107: females, 60; total
Discharged :- Males. 45: females, 43; total .88
Died :- Males, 62; females, 17; total.
167 167
It is to be borne in mind that even to a greater extent than nsnal in hospital treat- ment, on account of the dread of the Infirmary at first prevailing among the more igno- rant classes, a large proportion of the patients were not brought in until they were already in a moribund condition, many of them dying within a few hours -- in one case within one hour-after their reception. Deducting those cases whose removal from their dwellings should never have been permitted. as they were already beyond hope of relief by human treatment, there can be no doubt that the total mortality (about 47 per centum) would have been reduced at least to an equality with that shown by the female patients (28 per centum), although many of these were in a like hopeless condition when received. These considerations, conjoined with that of the almost unprecedented malignity of the fever. leave us good ground for satisfaction with the degree of success attained by the operations of the Infirmary-a success which was fully recognized by a friendly and appreciative public opinion.
These results are mainly to be attributed to the incomparable skill and efficiency of Dr. Blackburn, with whom my relations were those of unbroken harmony throughout the whole prevalence of the epidemic. In this gentleman, professional knowledge and experience were combined with sound practical judgment, a diagnostic insight into dis- ease which seemed to be intuitive, extraordinary capability of physical endurance, and a cheerfulness and kindliness of heart, which are better than medicine to the suffering patient. I had a corps of excellent nurses, whose fidelity deserves more than this pass- ing notice. A rigorous discipline was maintained. My assistant, Mr. Parker, who vol- unteered his services soon after the Infirmary was opened, and continued in the faithful discharge of his duties to the close, merits a large degree of whatever credit may have been awarded to the institution. All would have been of no avail, however, but for the con- fidence bestowed upon the management and the cordial support rendered us by the Howard Association, under whose authority we were acting.
It is proper to state that accessions made from time to time to the numberof nurses, furnished me by the Can't-Get-Away Club, made the whole number on duty, in Memphis, twenty-six-all females, except one. Only a part of these, however, were employed in the Infirmary, the others being engaged in nursing in private houses. Among all these there was only one decided case of yellow fever, and that not a fatal case.
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