Hi Bernice -- There were no generally widespread epidemics in 1813 America. The most common local epidemics to afflict colonial and early American settlers were: Yellow fever, Smallpox, Cholera and Diphtheria This is based on disease/ epidemic outbreaks recorded in a number of sources on the www. The timing of 1813 in northern states, especially in counties near the present Canada-US border, does suggest the possibility of disease transmission associated with movement of military and volunteer forces involved in the War of 1812-1814. It is a fact recorded in several histories of this war that various diseases caused significant loss of life for some units and in some locales. Jefferson County was a major "marshaling area" for troops that fought the British and their allies in this war.... and 1813 was the year of the battle of Sackets Harbor. You might check out how Antwerp was involved with that War effort in 1813. Here are a few other suggestions that might help confirm the probability of some epidemic being the cause of death. To search for evidence of local epidemics, where there appear to be no records, check local cemetery records (transcriptions, on-line databases, etc) or church burial records (and online databases) for "clustered deaths" that take several members (especially children and the elderly - e.g. grandparents) in the same family within a short period of time. This could be over several months as a disease works its way progressively through a dispersed population of a small farming community. A nearby example of a locale epidemic is in this record from Herkimer County: "WILLIAM ALEXANDER, ... died January 3d, 1813, aged 37 years, of an epidemic fever, which prevailed pretty extensively in the county, and carried off a great many of the adult inhabitants." source: Chapter Thirteen, Benton's History of Herkimer County [found at <http://www.global2000.net/fortklock/Chapter13.htm>] // Gord Hines (in Regina SK Canada) BAnnMunsey@aol.com wrote: Subject: 1813 EPIDEMIC? Resent-Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 07:32:59 -0700 Resent-From: NYJEFFER-L@rootsweb.com Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 10:32:46 EDT From: BAnnMunsey@aol.com To: NYJEFFER-L@rootsweb.com > In the winter of 1813, Samuel BAILEY, Olive (__)BAILEY, and at least three of > their children (Joshua, Alison, Lewis) all died within one month. Is there a > record of a "plague" that hit Jefferson County, NY at that time? Did it hit > a particular village or area of the county? One daughter, Nancy BAILEY > survived and married John KINGSBURY ca. 1827 and they lived in Antwerp. > Thank you for any information. > Bernice