Grayson  County Texas -The Cholera Epidemic in the Denison Texas area in 1873 
By Deb Haines
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449
IN THE UNITED STATES.

a northern county of the State, bordering on the Red river, which sep-
arates it from the Indian Territory.
We present two communications which we have received, and which
are of interest as representing the two classes of views held upon the
identity of the epidemic of 1873.

I.  CHOLERA AT DENISON, TEXAS
By James Johnston, M. D.

The town of Denison is situated in Grayson County, Texas, and is the
terminus of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, and the Houston and
Texas Central Railroads. It was only one year old when the cholera
made its appearance. It contained at the time between three and four
thousand inhabitants, who were principally emigrants from the North-
ern and Eastern States. The first case of cholera that came under my
notice was that of Dr. Moyse, who was attacked on the morning of the
8th of August, 1873; went into collapse same evening, and died at 3
o’clock a.m. of the 9th instant.

Having to leave town on business, I did not return until the 19th
September, and I learned from other physicians that few cases occurred
during this interval.

About the 27th September we had some rain, and afterward heat,
when it broke out with greater violence, and for the eight days follow-
ing, the average deaths numbered seven to eight per day, and from the
middle to the end of September the average was about four per day.
Few cases occurred after this up to the latter part of October, when the
last case came under my observation.

When the disease first made its appearance the town was in a filthy
state. Being a new town, crowded with a floating population, there were
not sufficient improvements in the city, and the people were not so com-
fortably fixed as in older towns.

There was diversity of opinion among the physicians with regard to
the nature of the disease, some asserting it was not cholera, and the 
board of health and city council, with a view of preserving the town in
its prosperity, published circulars to this effect; and in order to set the
public right, and establish a correct diagnosis, I wrote a paper on the
subject, which appeared in the Sherman Patriot of November 1, 1873.
(A copy of the manuscript I herewith inclose.) The medical association
of this county have since confirmed my opinion. I return you a list of
the case, that occurred, or as many of them as I could get any account
of, only a few of which I attended professionally. Some were attended
by other physicians, who have since left town, and some died without
medical aid.

In making up the statistical account allowance must be made for
those that have been attacked and got well without any medical treat-
ment, and that never came under the notice of the physicians, and con-
sequently do not appear on the list.

The probable number of deaths during the epidemic amounted to
eighty, and the number of those attacked (giving due allowance for
those that got well without our knowledge) would be, as near as I can
guess, twice that number. The fatality of the disease seemed to be in
proportion to the amount of filth about the locality in which they lived,
and the habits of the patients, &c., being more fatal to those of dissi-
pated habits and those deprived of their ordinary rest and food, and
those exposed to excessive fatigue. Grief and fear, on account of the
H.  Ex. 95-29