The Ouachita Telegraph - Yellow Fever Epidemic Date: Aug. 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers * ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** * The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 30, 1878 Page 2, Column 2 Young Mr. Johnson, of Shreveport, died here of yellow fever contracted in Shreveport, and Monroe was not alarmed. NOTE: This is a sentence of an article announcing Shreveport had quarantined against Monroe. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, September 20, 1878 Page 2, Column 3 Since the yellow fever began at Delhi the following named persons, of the seventy cases reported, have died, viz: Dan Blakie, Miss Neatherly, Mrs. Merrett, Mrs. Williams, Lizzie and Lillie Bishop, Thomas Hogan, Maggie Slatterly, Mrs. Dr. Lilly, Jack Colbert, Jimmie Berry, and four negroes. Dan Blakie, whose case was the first to prove fatal, was in Vicksburg when the fever first broke out in that city. It was from this case the infection spread. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, September 20, 1878 Page 3, Column 2 A dispatch has been received here that the Rev. P.H. Moss, pastor of the Monroe Methodist Church, died at Delhi yesterday morning, of yellow fever. Mr. Moss had been patiently tending the sick at Delhi; and had almost lost his identity with his church at Monroe, so much was he devoted to the call of duty. We can scarcely put this reverend young man away without a tear. We can not. There was a manly sense of duty, a godliness about this young man, a devotion to his Lord and Master that would awe an infidel. There shall be no more sincere regrets over his grave from any one than the worldlian who pens this – nor a heartier belief that a Soldier of the Cross has gone to his grave with his armor buckled on. There is a sublimity in the death of such men which puts Death and Unbelief at defiance. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, September 27, 1878 Page 2, Column 2 The telegraph brings us the intelligence of the death of Dr. Sam Bard, our confrere of the Baton Rouge Herald. He died a few days ago of yellow fever at Baton Rouge. We have not the data or the time, just now, to make a suitable notice of the career of our deceased brother, and perhaps, it were needless, since Dr. Bard was well known to all newspaper readers in this State. He is, we trust, in that Better Land, the joys of which he has often eloquently praised and whose Sovereign his death gives evidence he did not fear to meet. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, September 27, 1878 Page 2, Column 4 Dr. Kibbe, inventor of the fever cot, died at Hotel Dieu at 11 o’clock Monday night. He was buried to-day at 4 o’clock. His body had been put in a metallic case and was carried to Lafayette cemetery. Gov. Nicholls represented the State; Gen. Ogden, Vice President of the Howards, represented that body, and Dr. Choppin the Board of Health. Dr. Choppin was called away from the funeral, but ladies of his family went to the grave and covered it with flowers. NOTE: This is a paragraph of an article entitled: “Yellow Fever News”. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 8, 1878 Page 2, Column 1 Dr. Hope, of Morehouse Parish, started to Monroe one day last week, but was taken sick on the route and compelled to stop at Mr. Hayden’s. Dr. Marable, of Bastrop, was called to his assistance. Dr. Hope said he was afflicted with the same disease of which a number of people in his neighborhood have recently died under his treatment. He grew worse from day to day, the skin becoming yellow as the disease advanced. A few hours before his death black vomit appeared. Dr. Marable says it was a genuine case of yellow fever. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, November 22, 1878 Page 2, Column 1 Capt. N.L. Hardy, formerly of this city, but lately a resident of Delta, La., where he has been extensively engaged in business, died in that place last week of yellow fever. Capt. Hardy left Delta upon the appearance of the epidemic, but returned a few day ago, thinking the danger was over. It is thought he contracted the fever by opening his store in which a fatal case of the fever had entered. Capt. Hardy was about 40 years of age, and leaves a sorrowing wife and child, in whose loss we sympathize deeply. # # #