Yellow Terror - The Plague of the 19th Century

Yellow Fever Pandemics- The Plague that bankrupted Memphis

Diseases and epidemics of the 19th Century included smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever, cholera, and yellow fever. Yellow fever accounted for the largest number of 19th-century epidemic outbreaks. Yellow fever earned many nicknames, including Yellow Jack, the Yellow Plume of Death, Yellow Terror, and Bronze John, based on its symptoms.


Nashville Tennessean Magazine, Jan. 22, 1956, Newspapers on Microfilm Collection.

During the 1800s, Memphis was a swampy area and held the reputation as one of the filthiest and most foul-smelling cities on earth. Open sewers, thousands of privies that emptied into the Mississippi River, decaying wooden walkways, and no organized service to dispose of garbage for thousands of residents combined to create a terrible aroma and the perfect breeding ground for Yellow Fever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Memphis,_Tennessee

In 1828, 1855, 1867, and 1873, steamers brought Yellow Fever north from New Orleans to Memphis. In July of 1878, it hit again after a man who escaped a quarantined steamboat visited a restaurant on the shore of the Mississippi. On August 13th, restaurant owner Kate Bionda became the first Memphis resident to die of yellow fever, and the infection spread rapidly. Most of the residents who were able to leave left within a week, and approximately twenty-five thousand people fled to other cities, spreading the diseases as far away as Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky.

https://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/yellow-fever/yellow-fever.html

In the heat of the summer, those who were left to take care of the sick believed that the disease was spread by bad air. Even though the temperatures were close to one hundred, residents boarded the windows and kept fires burning. When people died, their clothing and beds were dragged into the streets and burned. An average of two hundred people died every day through September, and almost half of the city's doctors perished.

https://haywoodcountyline.com/the-yellow-fever-epidemic-of-1878/

Dr. John Erskin was one of 110 doctors who tended to the sick and dying in 1878 and was one of the thirty-three physicians who died from the disease.

The epidemic ended with the first frost in October, leaving 20,000 people dead in the Southeast. In the aftermath, open sewers and privies were cleaned up, which destroyed mosquito breeding grounds and prevented further epidemics.

https://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/yellow-fever/yellow-fever.html

Orphans Evacuated

https://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/yellow-fever/yellow-fever.html

Father Joseph Kelly of St. Peter's Parish was another selfless caregiver who worked among the victims of the epidemics of 1873 and 1878, evacuating orphans. These stories of tragedies and the selfless acts of the caretakers inspired a fictitious orphanage, the Counting Stars Children's Home, located in a rural setting outside of Memphis.

Best Friends Bound by Tragedy

After researching the pandemic of 1878, I was surprised to learn that I had little recollection from my history lessons about this 19th-century pandemic. My imagination turned to the plight of orphans during this time period. I was inspired to begin writing about the lives of women and children affected, and Heaven Inspired Matrimonial Matches was born. Though bound by tragedy, each story is intended to show how beauty can come from ashes. I hope it will leave you with a smile.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7JC1LBC




Fans of historical romance set in the late 19th -century will enjoy stories combining, History, Humor, and Romance, emphasizing Faith, Friends, and Good Clean Fun.

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