Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter XV The Health Of The City 1910
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Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois

CHAPTER XV

THE HEALTH OF THE CITY



LIKE many other things which were once true of the city but which have largely

passed away, the health of the place, in early times, was by no means good; but

it was never as bad as was represented. The ground was low and the point for six

or eight miles up the Ohio River and twelve to fifteen up the Mississippi was

covered with a very dense growth of trees of all sizes and kinds known to this

section of the country. The undergrowth was almost impenetrable, so much so that

one wonders how Arthur Henrie and his assistants worked their way over the point

in 1807 when they made the first government survey and plat of the township.

Such was the growth upon this tongue of land that the hot sun of the summer was

needed to dry up effectually the fallen rain water and that which might be left

by the receding rivers. But this was not so extreme as has been generally

supposed. The nature of the ground was such that when the rivers reached their

lower stages, the surface water sank rapidly through the sandy soil and soon

reached the level of the water in the rivers. Just as the high rivers force the

subterranean waters through the porous soil and up to the surface, so the

falling rivers no longer sustain the surface water in place but allow it to pass

back freely the way it came. The rain water follows in the same way. To this is

due in large part the healthfulness of the city now. The sandy and gravelly

nature of the whole site of the city, for hundreds of feet in depth, permits the

easy passage of the water through the ground and to the level of the river

waters, and in this way the unhealthful accumulations on the surface are

dissolved and to a great extent carried away. In very wet seasons or years, the

water may have stood here and there possibly for the whole season or year; but

Cairo was never a marsh or anything like one. The pervious nature of the ground

would not admit of it. But there were and are low grounds and some marshy lakes

in Missouri and Kentucky, across the two rivers, and these with the dense growth

upon the point could not fail to cause ill health to a greater or less degree;

but when the Cairo proprietors began cutting out lanes and roads through the

woods for streets through which a free circulation of air was obtained across

and along the neck of land between the rivers, the health of the place became

very much improved. Col. Taylor, who came here in April, 1851, and remained here

until his death in 1896, frequently spoke of this matter as the reason for the

improved health of the town.



   When the troops came here in 1861, there was still considerable standing

timber and under-growth; but contrary to the expectations of the whole army

force here, the soldiers were found to have no cause to complain further than as

to the ordinary risks incident to soldier life. The troops in Cairo had better

health than those on the higher grounds .near the rivers, north and south of Cairo.



   Then, too, it must be remembered that the two rivers are great bodies and

streams of water of very different temperatures. The Mississippi up to the very

point of junction often freezes over hard and solid, but the Ohio never. The

water in the one comes from the distant north while that in the other comes

largely from the south. The Tennessee is the largest of the Ohio's tributaries

and comes out of north Alabama, crosses Tennessee and, flowing for a short

distance through Kentucky, empties into the Ohio at Paducah, forty miles on an

east and west line from Cairo. The winds are uniformly from the southwest to the

northeast, and crossing the Mississippi and then the Ohio must in the nature of

things carry away from the city exhalations which would otherwise, at least to

some extent, produce ill health.



   But however we may reason about the matter, the writer can say that he has

now resided in the city forty years, and that having before resided many years

in one of the best counties of central Illinois, he is strongly of the belief

that there is not anywhere in the state a more healthful place or city than the

city of Cairo. He would not, however, 'have any one believe that the climate

here is all that could be desired. For a northern town, Cairo is far south, as

far as Richmond and Norfolk. The summers begin early and end late, making the

long or hot season a long one comparatively. There is, also, malaria here, quite

sufficient for home consumption. One feels less active here and must take things

somewhat more moderately than further north. In a word or two, the geography and

topography of the place make it more of a southern than a northern town. It must

be added, however, that so far as the diseases of typhoid fever, pneumonia, and

consumption are concerned, there is not one case here to four or five in central

Illinois, supposedly a healthful part of the state.



   In March, 1856, the Trustees published and circulated extensively an

interesting pamphlet of twenty pages of large letter sheet size, printed on blue

paper, a copy of which was sent to me from Cleveland. Besides its two pages of

introduction, it contains eleven different headings as follows:



   (1) Railroad facilities possessed by Cairo.

   (2) The advantages possessed by Cairo by her river communication with the

Gulf of Mexico.

   (3) Cairo as a commercial city.

   (4) Identification of the interests of the Illinois Central Railroad with

those of Cairo.

   (5) Immunity of Cairo from inundation.

   (6) Drainage of Cairo.

   (7) Health of Cairo.

   (8) Supply and quality of water at Cairo.

   (9) Abundance of building materials at Cairo.

  (10) Cairo as she is.

  (11) The future of Cairo.



   That part of the pamphlet relating to the health of Cairo is as follows:



   HEALTH OF CAIRO.—So much has been written on the unhealthiness of the Western

cities; so many terrible pictures have been painted of the fever-stricken and

ague-suffering inhabitants; so; many fancy sketches have been drawn of the

fearful mortality which has attended the pioneers of civilization on the banks

of the Mississippi,—that truth has a hard battle with misrepresentation and

prejudice in her efforts to establish the facts. Yet we can scarcely wonder at

this, when we see a writer like Charles Dickens, who, in his descriptions of the

springs which actuate the lower strata of English society, is unequaled and

unapproachable,—deliberately, to gain the applause of the bigoted portion of his

countrymen, misapply his talents by seeking to vilify and abuse our rising

cities of the West. From the personal testimony of all who have resided there,

and who, by their connection with the city, are the best qualified to judge, we

unhesitatingly assert that not only is this point one of the healthiest in the

valley of the Mississippi, but that Cairo is as healthy as New York. The

salubrity of the climate will compare favorably with the healthiest cities of

the West. This is proved by the testimony of residents, whose families present a

picture of robust health, not exceeded by the inhabitants of any other district,

West or East; and a short acquaintance with the locality will not fail to

satisfy every one of the fact.



   Dr. James C. Cummings, now of Portland, Maine, who resided in Cairo for some

years, practicing there as a physician, says,— "Yellow fever and consumption are

unknown. There is not a swamp within miles of the city, and the rivers being a

mile or more in width, Cairo has nothing to fear from the miasma of the Kentucky

or Missouri shores. There is, generally, a refreshing breeze from one river to

the other. The climate is delightful. The summers are long and by no means

extremely hot. The atmosphere is generally clear, and there are usually

refreshing breezes. The winters are short and mild; snow is seldom seen and lies

but a short time. The water is excellent. Shippers say it is the best in the

world. After a heavy rain of days even, twenty-four hours of clear weather will

generally make the walking good in any direction."



   Since the departure of Dr. Cummings, the Trustees have cut down the timber on

the flats, from river to river, for a considerable space, and this permits of

the free circulation of air, and has driven away the miasma, which might have

produced chills and fever. Last summer, when there was so much cholera in the

other towns on the Ohio and Mississippi, there was not one case of it among the

inhabitants of Cairo. In fact, Cairo is far enough north to avoid the

discomforts and fevers of a southern climate; and far enough south to avoid the

frost, which, during a portion of each winter, binds in fetters the giant

streams of the great West. The salubrity and healthiness of Cairo is officially

recognized by the United States Government, and steps are now taking for the

establishment of a U. S. Marine Hospital at this point, to humanely meet and

protect diseased emigrants, and sailors navigating the Mississippi from below,

during the summer season.



   THE YELLOW FEVER: The ten days beginning with July 9, 1878, were probably the

hottest ten successive days in the history of the city. During that time the

writer was kept at home by an attack of illness and was treated by Dr. W. R.

Smith, whom most of us remember as one of our most prominent citizens and

physicians. On entering the room one of those days and while wiping the

perspiration from his face, he said, "John, we are likely to have yellow fever

in the south within a month or two."  The doctor's prophecy came true.  The

first case occurred in the south about the first of August. It moved on

northward and soon appeared at Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, and Hickman, and

reached Cairo September 12th. It is said by many persons that Mr. Oberly, the

father of the Hon. John H. Oberly, died of the fever a few days before the 12th.

On the 12th there were two deaths; one of them Mr. Thomas Nally, editor of the

Bulletin, and the other Mr. Isaac Mulkey, a son of Judge John H. Mulkey, and

also of the Bulletin office. Those deaths caused a panic in the city, and the

afternoon and evening of that day witnessed the departure of hundreds of people

from the city. For some three or four weeks prior to that time there had existed

in the city an unseemly controversy as to whether the fever would probably reach

Cairo or not. Were one to turn to the files of the Bulletin and the Cairo

Evening Sun for the last half of August and the first twelve days of September

of that year, he would see what a state of feeling existed in the city; the one

party insisting that there was little or no danger and the other that there was

very great danger and that every possible effort should be put forth to keep the

dreaded disease out of the city. The Bulletin led off as was its custom and

criticised with unnecessary severity every one who chose to differ with it. It

was strongly supported by a few of our prominent citizens who felt that it was

their duty to maintain our supposed immunity. I can best describe that peculiar

state of things preceding September 12th by saying that it was not quite as bad

as the yellow fever itself. I had been attending court at Jonesboro and was told

by the conductor, on offering to go aboard the train at Jonesboro to come home,

that he could not take me on account of the quarantine at Cairo. I prevailed

upon him and came, and on reaching the northern part of the city I saw the

levees patrolled by armed guards. One or two of them went through the train to

ascertain who might and who might not be permitted to go on into the city. When

I reached the city, I was surprised beyond measure to see the state of things

prevailing. On every hand were seen all kinds of vehicles carrying trunks and

every other description of baggage to the railroad stations. They were driven,

some of them, almost at furious rates of speed. In a word, there was a panic,

which I need not attempt further to describe. I left on the same Illinois

Central train about eight o'clock that evening, on which were Mr. Oberly and

hundreds of other citizens of the town. I remained away until the 2d day of

October, when I returned home, having seen in the Cairo Evening Sun, of

September 24th, the following notice:



   "The Cairo public schools will open on Monday, September 30th, under the

superintendency of Prof. G. G. Alvord. Mr. F. Korsmeyer, clerk of the Board of

Education, furnishes us with the following list of persons who are to teach this

coming year. Misses A. Rogers, K. A. Thompson, N. J. McKee, L. M. Walbridge, E.

F. Armstrong, Henrietta Foss, E. Kratzinger, Mary Hogan, S. N. French, H. W.

French, Mary Burnham, and Mrs. P. A. Taylor; Mr. Jesse Newsome, Miss Newsome,

Miss Sarah Rose, Miss Ida Christy and James Nott. The last five are the names of

the colored teachers." The schools opened at the time announced, but were

discontinued October 4th. On Sunday and Monday, October 6th and 7th, there were

six deaths, among them Miss Maroe Powers, one of the public school teachers.

These deaths occasioned another exodus, not quite so panicky nor quite so large;

and it was not until the latter part of October that the people began returning

home, and it was not until far into November that all had gotten back.



   The Bulletin had suspended publication with its issue of September 12th, and

did not resume publication until the first day of November. Mr. D. L. Davis, the

editor of the Cairo Evening Sun, and his family-had also gone from the city, and

had left Mr. Walter F. McKee in charge of the paper. Walter, for most of us were

accustomed to address him by that name, remained at his post and gave the city a

very faithful account of what was daily taking place. As bad as the news often

was which it contained, the residents were eager for its appearance in the

evening, and most of them forwarded copies to their friends who had gone from

town and who were anxious to know the state of things at home. Mr. Davis removed

from Cairo to Chicago a few years afterwards, and kindly handed to me all the

numbers of the "Sun" which covered that yellow fever period. Of the one hundred

or more cases there were about fifty deaths. The names of those who died are as

follows:



   Thomas Nally, Isaac Mulkey, John Crofton, John Bloom (Blohim), Mr. Reice,

Richard Nason, Mrs. R. Nason, Miss Nason, Mr. Clark, Michael Dugan, Miss Dugan,

Mrs. P. Corcoran, John Petry, Mrs. John Petry, Miss Louise Petry, Patrick

O'Laughlin, child of Mr. and Mrs. Stapleton, child of John Oakley, child of J.

J. Balfry, Mrs. J. J. Balfry, Robert Hart, Thomas Cook, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry

Murphy, and child, Thomas Healy, Miss Kate Healy, Miss Maroe Powers, Mrs.

Fitzpatrick, Huston Dickey, W. H. Wilcox, D. William Hamlin, Phillip K. Howard,

Mrs. Shurburn, John McEwen, Dr. Roswell Waldo, Timothy Conners, Anthony McTigue,

John Warren (colored), Annie Davis, Clara Keno, Mrs. W. H. Stoner, Mary A.

Sampson, John Keho, Mrs. Stephens, Samuel Nealy, John Stanton, Miss Sullivan,

Miss Anthony, John Sullivan, and Miss Mary Sweney. The seven last names were not

found in the Daily Evening Sun from September 1st to November 12th, but it is

said the whole list as above given was made up by Drs. William R. Smith, J. J.

Gordon and Mr. Alonzo Daniels.



   I give here the number of cases and the number of deaths in a few of the

southern cities during the months of August, September, October and November;

for the disease prevailed in the south far into November. At Baton Rouge, number

of cases 2,716, deaths 201; Greenville, Miss., cases, 1,137, deaths 387;

Grenada, Miss., cases 1,468, deaths 367; Holly Springs, Miss., cases 1,240,

deaths 346; Memphis, cases 17,600, deaths 5,150, ratio of mortality to cases, 1

in 3.3; Hickman, Kentucky, cases 454, deaths 180; Gallopolis, Ohio, above

Cincinnati, population 3,700, cases 51, deaths 31.



   The above statistics are taken from the history of the "Yellow Fever Epidemic

of 1878 in Memphis," by Mr. J. M. Keating. It is a volume of 454 pages and

contains a full history of yellow fever, beginning as far back as the year 1600.

It says that on the 14th of August in that city, the panic among its citizens

first began, and that the last week of that month the panic was over and that

all had left who could, and that all were in camp who would go; and further,

that on the 14th day of September, the second day after the fever reached Cairo,

the heaviest mortality occurred. It gives the names of the persons who died in

Memphis and other cities and places in Tennessee. Necessarily many errors would

occur in the collection of such information. For instance, the population of

Cairo is given as 6,300, the number of cases 43, the number of deaths 32. This

is a higher rate of mortality than any occurring at any of the other

seventy-five to a hundred places mentioned. The fact is just as above given.

There were about one hundred cases and about fifty deaths. This book gives a

full account of the tow-boat John D. Porter, which it calls a floating charnel

house, all the way from New Orleans to Gallopolis or Pittsburg. A number of our

citizens will remember when it passed Cairo.



   I have devoted these few pages to the epidemic of the fever because it was an

era in the city's history. One third of the people left the city. Many remained

who could and should have gone. Their reasons for remaining were various; and

sometimes they could give none at all. It was a simple disinclination to leave

home. There was a continuing hope that the danger would soon pass, but it

persisted instead. To some it was a question of means; for to go and remain away

even for a short time required money for the trip and board. Many had no friends

or relatives to whom they could go. Few persons in the surrounding country

desired to see any one from Cairo. Many whole families would not go because they

could not decide who should remain, and they feared leaving their homes

unprotected. Business was suspended; only just enough done as seemed actually

necessary for the people at home. The days were unusually bright, in sharp

contrast with the doubly dark and silent nights. Part of the time persons could

not be abroad at night without passes of some kind from the authorities. In a

word, everything spoke plainly of the reign of pestilential disease. The city

government of course went on. It had to. Mayor Winter was equal to the occasion,

and to be equal to such an occasion seems capability for almost anything, but he

seemed made for it as for some special occasion. Jack, like so many public men

of the country, liked to do things in a kind of showy way, not exactly

spectacularly, but that word expresses something of the idea. Jack had been so

harrowed by the Bulletin and others about the fever, that he seemed somehow to

be glad that they and not he had been proven false prophets; and when the fever

came he met it with an undaunted face. He could not rescue its victims; but he

and the few trusty men he had buried them in the shortest possible time and yet

with all the care and ceremony of which the deadly situation would admit. But I

must not go on further or attempt to describe the pestilence that walked in

darkness or the destruction that wasted at noonday.



   Jack Winter was no better than many of the rest of us; but if at the end of

all things there is a balancing of accounts for every man, Jack's account will

have opposite September and October, 1878, a very large credit. Of the rather

few persons on whom he relied for attention to families in need and for other

aid to the city authorities, I may mention Mr. William H. Schutter. I do so

because of my personal knowledge of much of his work. Of the many persons who

remained out of a sense of duty to those who could not go or did not choose to

go, I may mention the Rev. Benjamin Y. George, of the Presbyterian Church, and

Father Zabel, of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, of whose constant care and

devotion to the stricken families of the town it would be impossible to say too

much. Doctor Roswell Waldo, of the Marine Hospital, gave up his life in the work

he did, which extended alike to all persons needing his services. He died at St.

Mary's Infirmary October 18th, after a long illness which kept the community

alternating between hope and fear for his life. The Sisters of St. Mary's

Infirmary did everything in their power, as they always do. It may not be so,

but it sometimes seems that they take pleasure in such times as those were. They

look upon every opportunity for doing good as a blessing to themselves. Did not

this happiness come to them, how could they devote their lives to such work?



   The Sun of Monday, November 25, 1878, gives an account of the presentation to

Dr. J. J. Gordon of a gold medal in recognition of his very faithful services

during the prevalence of the fever. The presentation took place at the Arlington

House, afterward The Illinois, and now The Marion. It gives the names of the

thirty-five donors, and speaks of Mayor Winter, the Rev. Mr. George, and other

persons present.



   Many of the older residents of the city remember that during the yellow fever

epidemic that prevailed in many cities of the south in September and October,

1873, we had six or seven deaths here in Cairo, which were probably the result

of that disease. Keating says there were seventeen deaths here from yellow

fever. This is another error in what seems to be a valuable publication. Among

those who died were Christian Pitcher, James C. Arrick, James Hughes, Francis M.

Hundley, Mr. Powers, and Mr. Fielding. Almost all of the persons who died were

employed upon some one of the wharf boats, or were in some way engaged in work

on or near the river. At that time, as well as in 1878, there was quite a

controversy as to whether the disease was yellow fever. The funeral of Hundley

was held at the Methodist Church and quite a large number of persons attended

the same. The funeral of young Arrick, who died September 16, 1873, was held at

the residence of his father, Mr. A. A. Arrick, on 20th Street, and a large

number of persons attended the same and went to the burial, which was at Beech

Grove. It seems, however, that by the last of September the Bulletin came

finally to the conclusion that the disease was yellow fever.



   It is supposed that the yellow fever has been banished from the United

States, if not also from Cuba. If this claim is well founded, or reasonably well

supported, why may we not also hope for the banishment of other diseases? If one

so deadly as this one which has penetrated even into the heart of the country

may be permanently expelled, how is it that the expulsion or prevention may not

sooner or later extend to other diseases—others prevailing almost all the time

and almost everywhere?



Additional Comments:


Extracted from:



A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF CAIRO ILLINOIS

BY

JOHN M. LANSDEN

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

1910



COPYRIGHTED, 1910

BY JOHN M. LANSDEN



The Lakeside Press

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO



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