PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 185
that one wide, unseemly trench was made and the dead indiscriminately
deposited in one common sepulchre.
"The epidemic commenced at the western limits of the city, in the
immediate neighborhood of the Mad River depot, and created the greatest
. havoc in that and the central portion of the place most contiguous to it.
The east end of the city escaped with comparative immunity.
'' The weather during this time was gratefully cool and pleasant, the
sky clear and unclouded, rendering the nights in the full of the moon
brilliantly light and lovely."
Four cases of cholera occurred in the spring and summer of 1850.
The first, a gentleman from Syracuse, New York, died at the Townsend
House early in April, attended by Doctor Tilden and myself. On the
10th of April a Mr. Elwell Avas taken, directly opposite the Townsend
House, but recovered. On the 21st day of April, an old lady by the name
of Parker, residing in the Mansion House, had a most violent attack but
ultimately recovered. On July 19th a gentleman from Memphis, Tennessee,
arrived at the Exchange Hotel with the disease and soon after
died. No other cases were known to have been in the city, and the
ordinary health of the place prevailed throughout the balance of the year.
Cholera of 1852.—The subjoined account of the cholera of 1852 is an
abstract of a report read by me before the Erie County Medical Society:
The approaches of this fearful disease created uneasy apprehensions, as
rumors of its ravages in adjacent cities reached us, and its earliest
manifestations were looked for with lively interest—our people being
rendered extremely excitable from the terrible visitation experienced
in 1849.
The first exhibition of the disease in our immediate vicinity occurred
at Venice, a small and isolated village about three miles distant, Avhere a
Avhole family were swept off in a few days. They had but recently
received a trunk containing the clothes of a relative who had died of the
disease on the Ohio River, Avhich they had exposed and Avashed for preservation.
These facts are alleged and accredited upon the authority of
Drs. Tilden and Hoyt, who were in attendance upon them.
An old lady residing in this city, and a relative of the family, visited
them during their illness and Avas immediately attacked on her return
home and died.
Contemporaneous with the above events a general disposition to
diarrhoea began to develop itself in our midst, resembling in all particulars
the cholerine, as described by authors, and occasional Avell-marked
cases of cholera Avere reported, occurring principally among the patients
of our German practitioners.
The first Avell-attested case Avas an Irish laborer, attacked on the evening
of the 21st of July at an Irish boarding-house on Water Street near
the Mansfield depot. The same night I Avas called to see a German on
Franklin Street, in the immediate vicinity of the first. Both AA-ere fully
developed cholera, but both fortunately recovered.
The next night I was summoned by Mayor Follett to visit three German
emigrants suffering from the same disease at aGerman tavern situ-