NARRATIVE OF THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 IN THE UNITED STATES.
43D CONGRESS, 2d Session, House of Representatives. Ex.Doc.No.95
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Pages 280 through 287

HENRY COUNTY.

The information as to the epidemic in Henry County that we have been 
able to collect, is contained in a letter from Dr. James K. McCreary, 
of Shelby County, which we present in detail:

"BAILEY'S STORE, KY., August 29, 1984.
"DEAR SIR: Having been called out of my locality to see the cholera-
cases, I am not sufficiently acquainted with all the facts of every 
case to enable me to fill out the lank forms you send.  Therefore I 
send a narrative, hoping that it may be of some service to you.

"The first case of cholera occurred on the 6th day of July in a 
locality known as Hardin's Bottom, on the Kentucky river about 
twenty-five miles below Frankfort.  The subject was a young man 
(married) who had eaten various fruits and vegetables through the 
day, the attack occurring at night; he died before daylight, having 
been treated with a cholera-mixture. His residence was situated on 
high ground with healthy surroundings.

"The second case was a middle-aged lady of family living within 
a mile of the above.  She had been eating freely of various 
fruits and vegetables, and was laboring under excitement over 
a family trouble at the time of her attack.  She was taken on 
the evening of the 10th and died on the 12th from uraemia.

"The third case was a young married lady, living in Lecompte's 
Bottom, six miles up the river from Hardin's Bottom. The attack 
was at night.  Patient had eaten a great many cucumbers for 
dinner, and had fished in the hot sun during the afternoon.  
I treated this case successfully with hypodermic injections 
of morphia, with calomel, bismuth, whisky and capsicum internally, 
and with dry heat to the surface of the body.

"The fourth case occurred at the mouth of Sand Ripple, which 
is mid-way between the above-named places.  The subject was 
the wife of the first case.  She had moved to her father's 
after the death of her husband.  I saw her when in collapse, 
and prescribed a mixture of chloroform, spitis of camphor and 
tincture of capsicum, with dry heat to the surface.  Under this 
she soon reacted, but died in a few days from uraemia.

"On the morning of the 13th I was asked to see an old lady who 
lived in Hardin's Bottom in sight of the first case.  I found 
her collapsed, from which she soon rallied under the mixture 
and dry heat, but died from the opium that she got in a 
cholera-mixture of unknown formula that she had taken before 
I arrived.  At this point I found myself in the midst of a 
prevailing epidemic which was causing the wildest excitement 
among the people.  So great was the excitement that parents 
left their children, and children their parents, to seek 
safety in other localities.  Those who remained had resigned 
themselves to die.

"To check the epidemic was the problem that presented 
itself.  To do this I interdicted the use of fruits and 
vegetables.  Placed in the hands of every one pills of 
lead and opium, with instructions to stop a diarrhoea at 
its onset.  In forty-eight hours I had treated eight well-
marked cases of cholera, with a loss of two.  I remained 
here one week; there were but few cases and no deaths 
after the first two days.  During this week two fatal 
cases occurred at the mouth of Sand Ripple.  There was 
nothing in the entire district that I could regard as 
an obvious cause for the epidemic.  It is true that there 
was a slough with some stagnant water close by, but there 
was no case of malaria in the whole country.  In fact there 
was no sickness of any kind, except a few cases of summer-
complaint among infants.

"After the excitement had subsided and everybody felt 
hopeful that there would be no more cholera, an 
imprudent practitioner told the people at the mouth 
of Sand Ripple that there was no danger to be feared 
from the use of fruits and vegetables.  This caused a 
family to resume their use, by making an unreasonable 
meal of roasted corn for their dinner, and to eat 
freely of musk-melons in the afternoon.  That night 
two cases of cholera occurred in the family, both of 
which proved fatal in a few hours.  That night the 
remainder of the family started to leave the place.  
Two children sickened, and one died on the road-side 
before daylight; the other lived for two or three days.  
A young man of the family, who went to the burying-ground 
with the bodies of the two children, was taken ill during 
the interment and lived but a few hours.  There were other 
cases in this family who recovered.

"When we come to look after the causes of cholera we 
must consider as a predisposing cause an imperceptible 
effluvium relative in nature to the different causes of 
the exanthemata, each of these being a specific in the 
production of its own malady.  There is no doubt of this 
poison being generated in India, reaching us through the 
air, as its circulating medium, producing a cholera atmosphere.  
With this as a prime cause, aided by our local causes, 
we have the true causes of the disease.  If cholera be 
contagious, it does obey the laws of contagious diseases; 
if malarial, it is unlike all other diseases of the class 
and does not yield to the same remedies.

"In opium or its alkaloid we have an agent, when properly 
administered, that is capable of arresting the disease.  
If administered by the mouth, during the repeated acts of 
vomiting, we never know how much of the remedy is retained, 
and when to repeat the dose.  After the disease is arrested, 
opium is injurious, for it suppresses the secretions.  Calomel 
and diaretics are required, with diet and moderate stimulation.
"JAMES K. McCREARY, M.D."

Dr. Ely McClellan, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A.".

We have endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to obtain additional 
evidence as to this demonstration of the disease, the questions 
suggested by the narrative remaining unanswered.  It is, however, 
worthy of consideration that, at about the same dates cholera 
was epidemic upon the line of the Louisville, Cincinnati and 
Lexington Railroad; that the town of La Grange was attacked, 
and that, the construction-train of the same railroad company 
becoming infected, the negro employes were discharged, and that 
they scattered through the adjoining counties.  To discover if 
any of these people reached Hardin's or Lecompte's bottoms, or 
at the mouth of Sand Ripple, caused our inquiries, which remain
 unanswered.

OLDHAM COUNTY.

La Grange, Oldham County, is located on the line of the Louisville, 
Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad, twenty-seven miles from the 
city of Louisville.  The town is built upon a ridge and is 
drained by four ravines.  At the foot of this ridge, and along 
the line of those ravines, the lower classes of the community 
reside.  In this portion of the town the privies are upon the 
surface of the ground, and are cleaned by surface-washings 
alone.  Well-water is almost exclusively used, and many of 
these wells are so situated, that after each rain-fall they 
are contaminated from the surface-washings.  This is especially 
true in regard to the well from which the family, in which the 
disease was first developed, obtained their drinking-water.

The gentlemen who observed this demonstration of the disease, 
although they decline any positive expression of opinion, 
incline to the theory of the malarial origin of the disease, 
from the fact "that the room in which the family, among whom 
the disease first occurred, slept, was over a dirty cellar, 
in which were several inches of stagnant water, and that the 
well from which the drinking-water was obtained was situated 
on low ground, and into it the filth of the yard had washed."  
They are kind enough to write further: "During the months of 
June and July a succession of violent rain-storms alternated 
with an intensely hot sun; the ravines were repeatedly filled 
to overflowing, and washings from the high lands were spread 
upon the low grounds, which were covered with luxuriant
 vegetation."   It was along these ravines that the epidemic 
was particularly virulent.

Prior to the outbreak at La Grange, cholera had been 
developed in nine counties of Kentucky, and had appeared 
in the cities of Louisville, Covington, and Newport.  The 
town, being upon a main line of railroad, was in daily 
communication with infected districts, and the rain-storms 
which have been noted were severe enough to have washed 
"cholera-stuff" from even the line of the railroad to the 
low grounds where the disease was developed.

From July 8 to August 4, thirty-nine cases of cholera are 
reported in this county.  Of these cases, eighteen terminated 
fatally.  In three families two individuals were attacked; 
in two other families three occurred; in one four, and in 
the other five cases. 

A few individuals living in the county became infected in 
the town.

HARDIN COUNTY.

Elizabethtown, the county town of Hardin County, is located 
upon the line of the Louisville and Nashville, and the 
Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroads.  This town is 
therefore in almost hourly communication with the cities 
of Nashville, Memphis, Paducah, and Louisville, as well 
as all intermediate towns.

The site of the town is well drained by a small creek 
which flows in a southwestern direction between the 
town and the line of the Nashville Railroad.  On the 
banks of this creek, and heading from Main street toward the 
northeast, is a small street known as Race alley.  The ground 
over which this alley passes slopes to the creek, and is lined 
upon each side of the pass-way by negro cabins.  During the 
month of June, 1873, the roadway of this alley was filled 
several inches above the level of the surrounding grounds, 
and the drainage thus obstructed flooded the ground under 
the cabins on the western side of the alley with the washings 
from the higher ground upon which the main portion of the town 
is built.

The ground around these cabins was filthy in the extreme, 
being covered with debris of all kinds in the various stages 
of animal and vegetable decomposition; and although the first 
case of cholera did not occur among the inhabitants of this 
row of cabins, yet, the disease once developed in this locality, 
its virulence was exhibited.

A careful examination into the surroundings of this demonstration 
of cholera determined the following significant fact: On the 4th of 
July, 1873, a negro celebration was held at Elizabethtown, which 
gathering was attended by a large number of negroes living at 
towns upon the line of the railroad.  A large number came from 
Bowling Green, at that time a point infected with cholera.  
These negroes arrived early on the 4th and remained over the 5th, 
returning to their respective homes on the 6th instant.

On the 8th day of July a case of cholera occurred in the person of 
an aged negro man, who, although not living on Race alley, was in 
constant communication with the families who did.  This case 
terminated fatally in twelve hours.

The second case occurred on Race alley, July 10, and died after an 
illness of ten hours.  From that date until September 2, the disease 
was epidemic.  Forty-one cases occurred, twenty-two of whom died.  
The disease was almost entirely confined to Race alley; one or two 
cases occurred in the town late in the epidemic.

In a family living upon the banks of the creek, in the northeastern 
borders of the town, five individuals were taken with cholera, one 
of whom died.  On the creek southwest of the town, in another family, 
three persons were attacked, all of whom died.

Dr. McMurtry stated that on the 26th of August a farming community, 
some six miles southeast of the town, were infected by a refugee 
from the town.  Four cases of cholera occurred in rapid succession, 
all of which terminated fatally.

Dr. Anderson reports a case in which the infection was carried by 
a young man to the house of a friend in the country, where a fatal 
case of cholera occurred.

On the night of August 14 cholera was developed in a group of 
cabins occupied by laborers employed on the extension of the 
Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad, at a point called Round 
Hollow, about three miles from the town of West Point.

These cabins were built upon the banks of a small branch which 
empties into back-water from the Ohio river.  They were miserably 
filthy, and were occupied by Irish and negroes, who lived 
indiscriminately in them, in utter defiance of all hygienic laws.  
The ground around these cabins was covered with filth of all kinds, 
which drained into the creek, upon the banks of which were built 
stables, pig-pens, &c.  From this creek, which at this season of 
the year was almost dry, water for all domestic purposes was obtained.

One man on his way to Indianapolis, Ind., reached the town of West 
Point, when he was stricken down with the disease.  Through the 
influence of Dr. Davis, he was received into a house and every 
precaution was taken to prevent the spread of the disease.  At this 
home he was treated and nursed until he recovered, and no member of 
the family was attacked.

Dr. Fletcher reports that none of the families who lived on the 
creek when the disease occurred, and who used water from wells 
remote from the creek, were affected.  That at a railroad settlement 
one and a half miles, on the same creek above Round Hollow, where 
spring water was exclusively used, no cholera occurred.

Dr. H. R. Pusey, of Garnettsville, who attended many of the cases at 
Round Hollow, states that all the persons living in the locality 
were affected with the premonitory symptoms, which in the incipient 
stages were relived by the free use of calomel and opium.  Dr. Pusey 
saw no case recover that had advanced to the stage of collapse.The 
exact facts as to the importation of cholera to Round Hollow cannot 
now be obtained; but as railroad employes are essentially a migratory 
people, it is more than probable that it was carried from Elizabethtown.

BOURBON COUNTY.

Millersburgh is a small town of Bourbon County, about twelve miles 
east of Paris, the county-town, and forty-eight miles east of Frankfort, 
the capital of the State.  The town is the center of a rich farming 
community, and is one of the principal towns of the county.

We present herewith a paper which has been prepared by our valued friend 
Fr. David Keller, of Paris, one of the most prominent and accomplished 
medical gentlemen of the State. The article of Dr. Keller is most 
elaborate, and we present it in detail (although we are constrained to 
dissent from much that is therein expressed) as it represents not only 
his own individual views, but those of a large body of gentlemen residing 
in the valley of the Mississippi.

THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 AT MILLERSBURGH, KY.
By David Keller, M. D.

Millersburgh, with a population of about nine hundred, is located on 
the waters of Blinkston Creek, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and with 
the exception of its liability to cholera, from which it has suffered 
time and again since 1833, has enjoyed an average degree of health with 
other towns in the blue-grass region.  The town is well and favorably 
located; but, as in many other places, the health of the inhabitants has 
been put in jeopardy by the establishment of artificial ponds, two of 
which, located within the corporate limits, and in connection with the 
mill-pond, will, we think, be found active agents in the production of 
the recent epidemic, which for fatality has been rarely equaled in this 
country.

The accompanying diagram will show the location of the town, and the 
relation it bears to the above-named causes.  It will be observed 
that the town is located on the northeast side of the creek, that 
there is a mill-dam very near the foot of Back street, which has for 
many years backed up the water for a considerable distance above the 
town.  During this time the accumulation in the bottom of the pond 
has increased until the depth of the creek-bed has been very greatly 
lessened, and this summer, although not a very dry one, has not given 
rain enough to raise the waters of any of our creeks for several months, 
and the result has been an unusual lowstage of water. In this pond, 
according to my own observation, there was a diminished supply, with 
extensive exposure of mud surface along the northern bank above the town.  
The water was stagnant, and so impure that the whole surface in the 
month of September was covered with a green mossy scum.  This pond, 
and the creek below the town, embrace the town on two sides, beginning 
east and running southwest, and finally leaving the town on its southwestern 
border, having traversed about one mile in getting around the town limits.  
The extreme eastern view of the pond is cut off from the upper and healthy 
portion of the town by a high range of land, which gradually declines as 
the town is approached by the creek.  Next will be seen what is known as 
McNunn's pond, located at the extreme northeast border of the town limits, 
and stands at the head of a deep hollow on high ground is protected to 
a great extent from leakage by a heavy fill made across its southern 
border.  The western border of this hollow is next to Back street, and 
is probably 50 feet above the drain-level, and runs parallel with 
Back street nearly to the depot of the Maysville Railroad, where it 
gradually falls off, like the ground on the opposite side of the 
railroad, to the level of the low lands in the circle of the creek.  
The character of this pond and its surroundings are so well described 
by one of the citizens of Millersburgh (a non-professional man) in a 
letter to the True Kentuckian, that I herewith transcribe it:

"We find the dread disease strictly confined to one particular 
locality, a negro settlement along the course of a branch running 
on the eastern border of the town and parallel with the railroad, 
passing under the big fill just above the depot."Reasoning from 
cause to effect, and from effect to cause, we attribute the 
outbreak of the disease to unhealthy and stagnant water.  

"A careful survey of the grounds along the course of this stream 
reveals in numerous places swampy spots covered with grass, under 
which is soft mud caused by the decay of vegetation, while here 
and there are to be found barrels sunken in the ground filled with 
water, filtered from these boggy marshes.  Of these supposed springs 
the surrounding neighbors have been drinking and using the water 
for culinary purposes.  About two hundred yards farther up, McNunn 
has a large pond which is well filled up with a blue mud, composed 
chiefly of leaves and other decaying vegetation.  This pond is the 
chief feeder of the marshes and little springs below.  As this 
particular locality only is infected, it is evident the disease 
had its origin in the use of unhealthy and impure water, combined 
with imprudent diet and ill ventilation.

"Near the depot is another pond of stagnant water standing just 
in the range of the northeast wind coming over the upper mill-
pond and McNunn's pond.  From this pond also the ground gradually 
falls off into the general level of the lower portion of the town.  
It will now be seen how effectually the upper and healthy 
portion of the town as protected from malarial influence by 
these natural barriers, while the lower portion would receive 
the full force of it.  On the south side of the mill-pond there 
is an elevation of probably 60 feet of abrupt bluff bank extending 
down to the railroad bridge which crosses at the foot of Back 
street, and offering an effectual barrier to the passage of malaria 
in that direction, and thus again forcing it down upon the infected 
district in the circle of the creek.

If the reader will now turn to this diagram he will find the black 
spots representing the localities where the disease prevailed, standing 
exactly in the range of then prevailing east wind, with some few 
exceptions which will yet be explained.

These exceptional cases all had their origin in the infected 
district in the lower portion of the town, or in the vicinity 
of McNunn's pond, or the pond near the depot, not a single case 
originating above Fifth street, or outside of this described 
boundary.  The cases marked as occurring on the bluff on the 
south side of the creek, now pointed to by the opponents of 
the malarial theory as an argument against the same, on the 
ground that malaria would not rise to that height; but in 
answer it is stated that, on inquiry made by the writer, 
it was ascertained certainly that all of these had been 
visiting the sick in the infected district, with one exception, 
and that the case of the woman who lived in the house marked 
(:) and very near the bridge, and at the gorge or break in the 
bluff, and it is by no means certain that this case had not 
been in the infected district.  The strong probability is 
she had, as her death occurred almost simultaneously with 
that of others near McNumm's pond, and when the lower portion 
of the town had not been attacked.  There are but few public 
buildings in Millersburgh.  The two colleges, male and female, 
are located in the upper part of the town, and were not in 
session during the prevalence of the disease.  There are three 
hotels, one located on the corner of Main and Fifth streets, 
another on south side of Fifth and Third, the Saint James, and 
Irish boarding-house at the foot of Back street, near the bridge, 
and here the disease was terrific.  Those who did not die left 
the place, and the house stands closed to this time.  On the 10th of 
July a case of cholera, and the first one, occurred in the 
immediate vicinity of McNunn's pond, (see map;) this case 
terminated fatally in six hours.  On the 11th five cases 
occurred in the same vicinity, and in from twelve to thirty-
six hours all died.  On the 12th other cases died.  One of 
these was the woman mentioned as dying near the bridge.  
These cases were all negroes; three adult females, one adult 
male, and four children, the first case being a child two years 
old.  With the occurrence of these deaths the disease subsided, 
and made its appearance on the night of the 28th August, and in 
four days, with the population thinned out by death and flight 
of nearly all who could get away, there was, on Monday, 
September 1, twenty-one burials of a population numbering 
less than two hundred, of which about twenty-six were whites.  
The announcement of this terrible mortality gave rise to the 
most exaggerated reports, which were taken up and added to until 
it was stated in one newspaper that there was scarcely a human 
left in the place.  The intensity of the disease continued 
until September 11, when it moderated, and from that time no 
new cases occurred; and at this time there was a decided 
moderation in the intense heat, and to this cause, and the 
want of material in the infected district, may be attributed 
the departure of this most unwelcome visitor.

The number of deaths foots up seventy-six from the first 
to the closing of the second visitation, confined almost 
exclusively to the Irish and negroes, who, as a general 
rule, set at defiance all sanitary rules and regulations. 
With a few exceptions, the houses are single story, badly 
ventilated, and with surroundings with the cholera in 
Millersburgh, from the appearance of the first case to 
that of the last, the condition of the town and its 
surroundings, I think it is clearly shown that the 
disease was indigenous to the place, of malarial origin, 
and to the manor born; that it was not imported, the 
first case occurring in a child living on the ground 
and had not been from home, and there is not, and 
cannot be found, the slightest evidence to show that 
any case had been brought to Millersburgh from abroad; 
that the subsequent cases occurred under exactly the 
same circumstances with the first, and it is, therefore, 
reasonable to conclude they all originated from the 
same cause.  That is not contagious, infectious, or 
portable, and cannot be propagated by these means, 
we think the following cases will clearly demonstrate, 
to wit: Daniel Marks, a colored man, resident of Paris, 
nine miles distant from Millerburgh, visited the latter 
place on Sunday, Augugst 31, to see some sick relatives 
or friends; spent the day and probably Sunday night in 
the infected district, returned to Paris, had cholera, 
and died on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family 
and friends, and no effort made to prevent the spread 
of the disease, if there was any such tendency, and 
there was no case of cholera resulting from contact 
with this patient.  This case was not isolated, for 
a negro woman, Harriet Wheeler, came up from 
Millersburgh about the same time and died in the 
same or adjoining house with Marks, and on visiting 
the house the next day in company with Dr. L. D. 
Barnes, we found inquiry that all of the dejections 
had been thrown out near the front door.  Dr. Barnes 
directed that fresh dirt should be thrown over the 
ground where this had been done, but whether this 
was done or not the writer does not know.    The city 
council also ordered the burning of the bed-clothing, 
&c. There was no new case in this neighborhood.

Henry Buckner, a colored man, came to Paris from Cynthiana, 
and died in a suburban negro village, in bad sanitary 
condition, surrounded by a large number of negroes, in very 
hot weather, and no sort of precautionary measures taken 
whatever, and there was no spreading of cholera from this 
case. 

Miss O'Connor came to Paris from Millersburgh, and 
died in another part of the city from all of the 
above cases; was visited by a number of persons, 
and there was no new case arising from contact with 
her.  I have heard that orders were given by her physician 
to have all of the dejections covered up in the ground.  
Whether this precaution was observed the writer cannot say.

Mr. Robert Miller visited Millersburgh frequently during 
the epidemic, was attached with cholera, and died at 
home several miles in the country, surrounded by his 
family and friends, and no new case occurred in that
neighborhood.  So with Mr. Owen, who left Millersburgh 
and died at Millwood, thirty miles distant, and no new 
case occurred where he died.

The history of the cholera in Lexington, Ky., in 1833, 
is strongly confirmatory of malarial origin of the disease.  
The first cases which occurred in that city were in the 
immediate vicinity of a low, wet piece of ground, of about 
one acre, which had for years been the receptacle of all 
the offal of the neighborhood; sixty-six deaths in this 
immediate vicinity, with a population not dense, and of 
the whole number of deaths, 489, which occurred in the 
months of June and July, within four of two-thirds of 
the whole number occurred in the low, wet situations.  
As the season advanced cholera subsided, and was succeeded 
by fever and dysentery, diseases known and admitted by 
all to be of malarial-origin.  (Trans. Journal, vol. 1, 
page 194.)  If we are asked to explain how it is that 
cholera, if a disease of malarial origin, is not uniformly 
produced with the return of hot weather in malarial regions, 
we answer that we cannot tell, and, in return, ask why is 
it that we observe in these same places remittents one 
year, intermittents another, and again dysentery, and 
some seasons all occurring in company.  When this is 
explained we may probably answer the first; until then 
we will have to be satisified with the facts as they 
exist.  It is true there is some peculiarity in the 
condition of the sick which leads them to have intermittent 
or remittent fever rather than dysentery, or cholera rather 
than either, and that peculiar condition must have a 
cause; but there is no less difficulty in explaining 
why a few persons have cholera in the midst of their 
neighbors, or even their own family, who are suffering 
under fever or dysentery, than why many should not 
suffer under the same circumstances.  Let the objector 
explain the peculiarity in the one case, and we will 
explain it in the other.  But whatever that explanation 
may be, it never can do away the fact that cholera arises 
in the very same circumstance in which fever and dysentery 
arise.

The Vienna conference of July, 1874, declared unanimously 
that chol-

cont'd on page 288.

Original images can be found at 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/state/cholera.