Thought this list of epidemics might prove helpful to someone... Best regards, Jacquelyn (Erhard) Bean jebean@ccape.net MAJOR AMERICAN EPIDEMICS 1657 - 1918 1657 Boston Measles 1687 Boston Measles 1690 New York Yellow Fever 1713 Boston Measles 1729 Boston Measles 1732-3 Worldwide Influenza 1738 South Carolina Smallpox 1739-40 Boston Measles 1747 CT,NY,PA,SC Measles 1759 North America [areas inhabited by white people] Measles 1761 N. Amer and West Indies Influenza 1772 North America Measles 1775 North America [especially hard in NE] Unknown epidemic 1775-6 Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] Influenza 1783 Dover, DE ["extremely fatal"] Bilious Disorder 1788 Philadelphia and New York Measles 1793 Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and Influenza 1793 VA [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks] Influenza 1793 Philadelphia [one of the worst epidemics] Yellow Fever 1793 Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths] Unknown 1793 Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths] Unknown 1794 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever 1796-7 Philadelphia, PA Yellow Fever 1798 Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst] Yellow Fever 1803 New York Yellow Fever 1820-3 Nationwide [starts-Schuylkill River and spreads] "Fever" 1831-2 Nationwide [brought by English emigrants] Asiatic Cholera 1832 NY City and other major cities Cholera 1833 Columbus, OH Cholera 1834 New York City Cholera 1837 Philadelphia Typhus 1841 Nationwide [especially severe in the south] Yellow Fever 1847 New Orleans Yellow Fever 1847-8 Worldwide Influenza 1848-9 North America Cholera 1849 New York Cholera 1850 Nationwide Yellow Fever 1850-1 North America Influenza 1851 Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains, and Missouri Cholera 1852 Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer] Yellow Fever 1855 Nationwide [many parts] Yellow Fever 1857-9 Worldwide [one of the greated epidemics] Influenza 1860-1 Pennsylvania Smallpox 1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans Smallpox Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC Cholera - [A series of recurring epidemics of: Typhus Typhoid Scarlet Fever Yellow Fever 1873-5 North America and Europe Influenza 1878 New Orleans [last great epidemic] Yellow Fever 1885 Plymouth, PA Typhoid 1886 Jacksonville, FL Yellow Fever 1918 Worldwide[high point yr] more people were hospitalized in WWI from this epidemic than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps SOURCE: ROOTS-L Digest, Volume 98 : Issue 328 Today's Topics: [RICH WIGHT richmwight@home.com]