Grayson  County Texas -The Cholera Epidemic in the Denison Texas area in 1873 
By Deb Haines
***********************************************
This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by:Deb Haines  by - <marshallcoms@earthlink.net>

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************
Original image of this page located:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/grayson/images/448.jpg


448
NARRATIVE OF CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873
CHAPTER
XIX.

TEXAS CONTRIBUTIONS.

Dr. James Johnson, Grayson County.
Dr. B. K. Wood, Grayson County.
Dr. A. W. Atcheson, Grayson County.

Surgeon John F. Hammond, U. S. A.,
Medical Director Department of Texas.

INITIAL CASE.

Denison, Grayson County, August 1.

TEXAS.
Having been informed by Dr. C. B. White, the president of the Loui-
siana State board of health, that early in the year 1873 he received a
letter from a medical friend resident at San Antonio, Texas, inquiring
as to the existence of cholera in the city of New Orleans, and stating
that suspicious diarrhoeal cases had occurred at or near San Antonio, we
addressed Surgeon John F. Hammond, U. S. A., medical director Depart-
ment of Texas, asking information on this subject, from whom we have
received the following letter:

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, September 10, 1874.

Assistant Surgeon ELY MCCLELLAN:
"MY DEAR DOCTOR:  On inquiry among the physicians of this place,
I have ascertained that, there were in San Antonio"

I. An unusual number of cases of diarrhoeal diseases in the month of
December, 1872, and that during January and the succeeding five
months the number of such cases was greater than usual.
II. Several cases are said to have assimilated cholera.  One case,
that of the Rev. Mr. Guion, chaplain Tenth United States Cavalry, which
was under my care, occurred during the latter part of May or early in
June. It was a severe attack of cholera morbus. I was struck with its
resemblance to cholera. He was decidedly convalescent within thirty-
six hours from the commencement of the attack.
III. All the cases, so far as my information extends, except that of
Mr. Guion, occurred among Mexicans.
I see by the monthly reports of sick and wounded on file here, that
among the troops stationed here at the time, both white and blacks, there
was no unusual occurrence of these diseases.

Truly yours,
J. F. HAMMOND,

GRAYSON COUNTY.
The only authentic evidence which we have received of the epidemic
of 1873 in the State of Texas, is from the town of Denison, in Grayson,