Excerpts from "The account respecting the yellow fever of 1795" by A.B. published in the New York and Philadelphia Gazettes in the summer of 1796
#3
It may be necessary to give some description of the situation and condition of that part of Water-street between Peck's slip and the New-slip, where the Fever proved so mortal immediately after the arrival of those vessels from the islands in the West-Indies, whose cargoes were landed at the wharfs described.
The wharfs called Lawrence's and Kip's are built at the bottom of a narrow street, called Dover-street, running from Pearl-street, through Water-street to the river; and Fitch's wharf is the next east: The buildings near those wharves, and others on the south side of Water-street, which street runs nearly east and west, were mostly stores or dwelling houses, built on new-made ground; the yards and under part of many were not yet enclosed or all filled up, but were daily filling up with the filth of the streets and other corruptible materials; on the north side of this part of Water-street, were mostly dwelling houses, very few of them above two stories high, many under; the street had the year before been filled up or raised on some places above four feet higher, than the yards back of them; in many of those yards, were built small tenements, on low, dirty and moist ground: the cellars of several of the houses, by the filling up of the street, were become very deep, and subject to have water coming in them from high tides and heavy rains. In this part of Water-street, there were eighty-five dwelling-houses, mostly on the north side: of those eighty-five, twenty-eight were taverns and boarding houses. I observed at the time the first persons were taken ill, in and near this street, that all the houses appeared filled or crowded with inhabitants, from the cellars to the garret and back buildings: and that a great number of the occupiers appeared to emigrants from Europe, or other parts, and sailors belonging to vessels late arrived, lodging, we may conclude, in close confined rooms, garrets, or damp cellars of low narrow houses, where it must be supposed the greatest cleanliness and temperance was not observed; and no doubt, several of the new-comers, were already in an indifferent state of health, occasioned by the hardships suffered on ship board, or by change of climate, and by living on slender diet from streightened circumstances; and therefore there bodies were become more predisposed to take the new imported disease.
I must observe farther, that the time those vessels unloaded, it appeared by the state of the thermometer, and other observations, that between the 14th and 31st of July, the general state of the weather and of the atmosphere, was hot and moist, the winds mostly light. August the 1st to the 4th, it grew still hotter, and from the 5th to the 12th it was very hot; the 7th, the Mercury stood at noon, at 93.50 - still the air continued hot and moist. The last was evident, by a number of observations of its effects, in particular, from the amazing quantity of mosquitoes, with which the inhabitants of that part of the city were more pestered, then they had been for years past or ever; they continued long, but the flies were soon gone; the winds about the same time were light, and mostly from the south and southwest. Hence we have reason to conclude that, from the uncommon heat or state of the weather or winds, when the imported poison, either in a state of vapor or exhalation, or in dusty particles, had got vent and spread in the air, and mixed with the food exhalations from the putrid substances lodged under these stores and houses, they assimilated and acquired an additional strength, increase, and extent of influence, and when part of those poisonous particles or miasma were carried by the air, or other means up Dover-street, then began the dreadful consequences which followed. To me it appeared as if the furies of Egypt had been imported; for not long after the deaths already mentioned, several persons residing in or near Dover-street, took the fever and died. I was informed by a near neighbor of a woman who died of this fever, August 3, in a house nearly the opposite the foot of Dover-street, whose situation was high, open, and dry, that it was judged she caught the fever, from infection in some goods she had purchased from the sailors belonging to one of those vessels, or from their cloathing, while in her shop.
About this time, several more persons residing round about here, had sickened and in particular, a gentleman from Hudson, who resided in a spacious, airy, or well ventilated and dry house, the corner of Dover and Water-streets, back of which and not far distant, the vessels were unloaded, and the store stood, in which part of the cargo was put; immediately after he was taken ill some of the most eminent physicians in the city were called to visit him, and the greatest attention was paid, not alone to him, but also to prevent the effects of the disease to others; the rooms, I was informed, were well aired; and the house drenched with vinegar. He died August 7th, and every precaution was taken to prevent any evil arising from his death and the manner of his burial. It was publicly said, that he died of the Yellow Fever, attended with the black vomit.
The 7th August also died John Cramp, in Cherry Street, who it was said had caught the Fever when working on board one of those vessels.
From the 7th to the 14th August had died, in houses situated in and near Water street and Dover street, eight persons of this disease; and by the 21st of August twenty five had died near the same place; for most rapid and terrible were its consequences, when it once entered into those crowded houses before described, out of several of which, from two to five were seen carried off; yet on the 26th the sick in Water-street were reported to be on the mending hand, and few new cases. The flame was now smothered, or had not much more fuel to prey upon in this place, yet the sparks were diffused, and the fire broke out furiously not long after, in other parts of this street, and in the city, from those diffused sparks, with redoubled fury, occasioning the greatest alarm, as the deaths became not only numerous but sudden; still its motion appeared progressively east and west, from the original source. It was the beginning of September before its effects were seen in Peck's slip, and September the 17th before it had extended as far east as the New Slip.
I could furnish you with a long detail of incidents, which might tend to prove, that the disease was originally imported, and of a contagious nature, did I not judge those insufficient, and the matter fully evident by the wise precautions taken to prevent it being imported again. After mentioning, that from the best information I could obtain, above one hundred persons fell victim to the rage of this fever, in this part of Water-street, between the 24th of July and the 1st of November, 1795. I must conclude this letter with a remark that I trust will have a good tendency.
During the prevalence of the Fever, by many observations I had reason to be of the opinion, that after the infection of the yellow fever had been introduced; its malignant influence being extended, and acquired an additional power and effect by every new subject or matter predisposed to be acted upon by it. - That at last the very air of part of the city became contaminated, and that wherever corruptible or corrupting substances were suffered to remain in the houses, yards, cellars and other places, they served as fuel to keep alive and extend its poisonous operations. Hence the necessity of attending to cleanliness in our streets, houses, cellars, yards and other places, more especially at this season of the year, oft times alone productive of dangerous diseases.
#4
In my first letter I mentioned, that the brig Zephyr, Capt. Bird, after her damaged cargo had been thrown overboard, was hauled to Murray's wharf, which is built on the east side of Wall street, and in the rear of Front street. - It may be of service to give you an extract from my Diary, of some other pernicious consequences which flowed from infection brought by this vessel, besides those already mentioned, together with some observations then made, and notes respecting the fever and contagion, worthy of notice.
After the brig had got to Murray's wharf, two gentlemen of my acquaintance being on board, had the curiosity to look down her hatch-ways, when they were assailed with an uncommon and very disagreeable stench; not many days after they were both taken down with the Yellow Fever, of which they were happy to recover after a dangerous illness - another gentleman informed me also, that after he had been on board of the same vessel, and looked down the said hold, he was almost immediately taken sick at his stomach and head-ach; but by a timely emetic, and other precautions he escaped the dangerous effects of the Fever, but one of his family was seized with it.
But a very short time after this vessel was brought to the wharf, the dreadful effects of the imported poison began to appear, when the Yellow Fever broke out and spread, after being introduced into the houses of Front street, Wall and Water streets not far distant from where the vessel lay. Already as early as August the 6th, one person was buried out of one of those streets, suspected to have died of the Yellow Fever. Not many days after two more people were buried out of the boarding house of one Bishop, in Pine street, another sickened in the same house, and was sent to Bellevue. Enquiring at the house respecting these persons, I found they were sailors, and had reason to conclude that they had belonged to some of the vessels lately arrived from the West Indies, or been on board them. I was informed, that a gentleman who had a store at the wharf near the bottom of Pine street, being alarmed moved with his son to Long Island, where the lad was seized with the Fever, and died in a barn to which they were removed when the son was taken sick. I observed now that many sickened and died of the Fever in the streets not far distant from the wharf where this vessel laid; and that the infection was soon carried into Front, Water, Pine and Wall streets, east, west, north and south from its source at the wharf; and then from the infected rooms and the sick and dead, it extended its malignant influence in the above directions, and that the number of the sick were increased mostly when the winds were very light, or it was calm, and the air was hot, and then it appeared to have struck the bodies generally of those, who by some means or other, were predisposed to receive the infection; for it very often occured, as well as in this part of the city as in other parts; that in houses situated between, or next others, in which were several sick, or some had died, none were taken sick; and on some house only one took the Fever, while the rest all escaped. On the other hand, when it had once got into some houses, few of the family escaped the disease.
I had an opporunity of observing, that when the disease entered into the houses that could be and were well ventilated, especially the sick rooms and those rooms continuously fumigated with vinegar and the greatest cleanliness observed, both towards the patient and the rooms; the foul cloathing, bedding & other matters subject to retain the inflection, removed, and the first two immediately immersed in cold water. The patient was not alone benefited, but the baneful effects of the contagion counteracted, and if medical assistance was procured in the first stage of the disease, the sick mostly recovered; at least a greater number of those who sickened, than of the same number that sickened in that part of Water-street, above Peck's slip, or in George street: this we may also, in some measure, attribute to the different construction of the houses in general and circumstances of the inhabitants. I have described Water street, above Peck's slip, and shall George street, when I come to my next to give some account of the occurances in that, of all others, the most melancholy and affecting street in the city.
I must now observe, that the situation of the street I have been now giving an account, was vastly different from the other two mentioned. In Front and Water streets, below the Fly market, the houses were in general large, and well ventilated; not crowding with inhabitants, who were mostly in affluent circumstances, and could procure the earliest and best medical assistance and attention.
It might be rather tedious, and not proper, in a letter designed only to give extracts, to particularize the daily deaths and occurrences; what I have already wrote you, I trust will recover the odium that was thrown on our city, but especially the eastern part, and be satisfactory to most persons, that the disease was imported originally, and not a local malady, confined almost entirely to the southeastern part of the town, where, it is said, was discovered a fruitful matrix generating the seeds of this complaint, in the putrifying substances along the eastern shore.
That putrifying substances, operating with the peculiar season in the year, and the situation of the place, may be productive of some kinds of malignant putrid fevers, and also propagate those introduced, must be allowed. But the fever of last year, which was most prevalent, and which in general other diseases terminated, was of a peculiar kind, which raged with the greatest fury in places connected in trade with this place; which was also the case when the same fever its appearance first in other commercial cities of the United States. A fever affording a contagion, of one specific nature, varying in its appearance and effects, according to the condition of the patient and the season of the year, according to Dr. Romain, Dr. Grant says, "Each species of fever arises from a seminum, or cause, peculiar to itself, and is always the same, and will breed its own likeness." Its effects in this part of the city were such, that between the 6th of August and 1st of November, above 60 persons died in those streets, between Fly market and the Old Slip, and above that number sickened and got well.
Two very remarkable occurrences in this street I find noticed; the one shewing the effects of the imagination and fear on the mind, disposing it to receive the infection, or disease; and the other the necessity of an unequivocable evidence of the separation of soul and body, before the last is committed to the grave.
The length of this letter bids me to conclude.
#5
I mentioned that in this letter I should give you an account of the effects of the fever in George street; this I intended to have done, as it afforded a corroborating account of the yellow fever of 1795, being originally imported. I have since thought it best to follow the fever in its progressive motion, in the streets east and south of Water street, and therefore I sent you the account of Cherry street, and other streets near it, in which you may find observances worthy notice at this time.
Cherry Street
The part of Cherry street I am now about to give an account of, respecting the fever in that part in the rear of Water street, between Dover street and Peck's slip - the houses and lots, in which, are numbered one at Dover street, and eighty-five at James street. This street is much higher situated than Water street, and the houses in general more lofty and spacious, the street wide and airy; hence when the fever raged in Water street a year ago (which by the best information was then introduced in said street, by some sick, landed out of a vessel with passengers from Ireland) none died in this street. - It is true, two persons died in this street, the last summer, of a putrid malignant fever; but here it stopped and caused but little alarm; this street has therefore always been esteemed one of the most healthy and pleasant streets in the city and so it was in respect to the health of the inhabitants this year, until the 7th of August when the first person died in this street of the yellow fever; he was a ship carpenter, lives in No. 26; he, it was said, caught the fever when working on board a ship lately arrived from the West Indies. He died after a very short illness; the nature of his disease not being much known, his death caused no immediate alarm; but it was not long after his death, before the infection he left behind began its operation on the other persons in the same house, in which 4 more died of the same fever - yet it was about 4th of September before the fever got as far east as a house, No. 37, in which a young gentleman died, who had been in a poor state of health for some time before he got the fever. Three or four more died in this house, after him, but not immediately; the infection did not operate so rapidly in this street, as it had done in Water street, not many had yet died to the west of the house, No. 26, and not one to the east as far as James street; but the 6th of September a young man died in a house No. 66; soon after his death, nine persons living in the 3 next houses to the this were all seized, with the same fever but happily recovered. Many now sickened in this part of Cherry street, some as far east as James street, heard of the deaths, or many thought dangerously ill. The 12th September , the disease appeared favorable and was not so mortal in this street, till after the 13th of Sept. on the evening of which day a number of tar tubs were taken from the wharves and out of yards and placed in different streets beyond Peck's slip and set on fire. This I was informed was done without any authority, by some boys and negroes; who no doubt had been informed that it would have a tendency to purify the air, judged then to be infectious, but I had reason to fear that it would have a contrary effect, from the observations, I made at the time. The air in the street was still warm, moist and heavy, and those large fires rendered the air more close and hot in the streets, the smoke did not ascend freely, but fell down, by weight of the atmosphere, to the ground, and was carried into the houses, and no doubt taking along or pressing under or before it, the infectious air, and spreading the disease, instead of checking its progress.
At the time the tar barrels were fired, two gentlemen of my acquaintance went to Batavia lane, a small, unpaved, dirty street between Roosevelt and James street. In this street, at this time, were many muddy pools of water; they observed the smoke to roll in columns very near these ponds of water and be attracted by them, so as to prevent the smoke from arising in the air; this no doubt was the case in several other streets, east of this, which were also unpaved, and had either in them or back of the house, large collections of muddy, stinking, stagnated ponds of water. It was not many days before the bad effects of this measure were apparent. Batavia lane became one of the most sickly streets, according to its number of houses, in the city; and Cherry street not less so - the disease which before seemed to spread gradually from near the center of the street, where the first died, now soon extended throughout the whole street. The number of sick and soon after of deaths, became exceedingly numerous and alarming. Many removed out of town, who yet had escaped the disease. Soon, very soon this street assumed a most melancholy appearance - People were afraid even to walk through it - no carts or carriages were seen to pass through it, but those of the Doctors, and the frightful black hearse. This last appeared to have full employment both day and night. I observed that it always found the most dead to be carried out of crowded houses - out of four neighboring ones of this kind, I counted above ten burials in less than a fortnight; I also observed in several houses even at this time, the whole of the occupied escaped the disease; especially those occupied by French people. Whether this proceeded from their method of living, or the little dread they had of the disease, I will or cannot say, but certain it is, few of this nation died throughout the city, although it was mostly mortal to all foreigners, who were so unhappy as to be seized by it.
Having observed upon the bad effects burning of fires in the street had - I cannot here pass by another observation upon the necessity of more attention to the police of the city, especially at such times when dangerous diseases are apprehended to prevail. In all well regulated cities obnoxious trades are prevented being carried on within them - this has been too little attended to in this city.
I have in my former letter and this, observed that the infection in the air appeared to be attracted by such materials as could assimilate with it, by which means they became highly infectious. This was remarkable at this time in James street, near Cherry street, in which the Fever did not enter before the 19th of September, when a woman, who had been in a bad state of health for some time past, was seized with the Yellow Fever and died. She was buried in the old way; six days after, her husband was also a corpse, and another person in the same house soon followed. This man was a butcher and continually killed small cattle in his yard, where the blood was, no doubt, suffered to remain, and putrify - what makes it remarkable is, that the next death was in a house opposite to this in the yard of which small cattle was also permitted to be killed. I observed at this time also that the disease was aided in its consequences by the bad construction of the Eastern common sewer, of those in Roosevelt and Ferry streets, and the little attention paid to keeping them clean; there was nothing at their mouths to prevent dead dogs, cats and other animals, besides filth of many kinds, from being carried or lodged in them, or at their mouths, and remaining there to putrify, especially while the weather was so excessive hot and dry, yet when there came rain enough to wash them down into the slips. This was also of evil consequence, as the place they emptied into had become so filled up as to leave exposed to the sun and air, at low water, a collection of putrifying substances, which continually exhaled noxious vapors; such was James's slip and the bottom of Roosevelt street.
The great heat and those noxious vapors, loaded no doubt with infectious particles, which continually filled the air in the eastern parts of the city, deprived us of nitrous particles, which are, the very essence of the healing vital principle in animals and vegetables, and rendered it almost unfit for respiration. The remarkable difference between air in those parts of the city, and that in the western part of the city, I could plainly perceive by my breathing and speaking more free and easy in the last than the first. I observed also that candles gave less light than I was accustomed to; fire did not burn so bright; fresh meat exposed to the air corrupted in a short space of time; all those observations made me dread the fate of the remaining inhabitants of this part of the city, as the disease appeared to increase in its virulence, and continued its ravages till the beginning of October, when it began to abate gradually. The 19th there was frost, where the disease appeared to stop after a few days; and in little time the houses were mostly re-occupied again; yet during the prevalence of the fever, it had carried off about sixty persons in less than eighty houses.
I could furnish you with numberless instances tending to prove this fever to have been of an infectious nature, was I not fully persuaded, that there are too many who have experienced the direful effects of it in this respect, as well as myself, to have the least doubt remaining on their minds about it: But why all are not equally liable to receive this infection, or why it was prevented in its operations in some houses and not others, is best known to a wise and just God; the same has happened in the most violent plague of Marseilles, 1764....
# 6
I shall now pursue my observations on the state and situation, and the progress and effects of the fever, in other eastern streets.
Roosevelt street, and others connected with it
This street intersects that part of Cherry street I have given an account of, about in the center, and runs north to Chatham street. It is a low street, although it has been raised and new paved several times, being lower than Cherry street. A long stone drain or sewer, was built a few years ago from Rutger's street to the East river to carry off the water. The houses and lots are numbered one next Chatham street, to 88 Cherry street. From Rutger street to Cherry street it is not above 25 feet in width, and the other part about 40. The houses in general are framed buildings, and many low and half buried, which not alone, in heavy rains, fill many cellars and cellar kitchens with water, but covers some of the first floor. The whole number of dwellings may be sixty. Bancker, Batavia lane, and the most of Rutger's street, which intersect it, were also low, and unpaved streets, many of the lots and yards not filled up with earth, but pools of stinking green water. There was therefore the greatest reason to dread, that when the fever should be introduced in those streets, it would be attended with a very considerable mortality, the more so, as there resided in many of the houses and cellars a great number of the late arrived emigrants from Ireland; not much accustomed to cleanly living.
Conversing at this time with a physician, who afterwards fell a victim to this fever, on the situation of this part of the city, he observed that he had his fears that the yellow fever, which had then first showed its effects in Water street, would very soon spread its dreadful malignancy in other parts of the city, but in particular when it got into those streets where there were already many sick of bilious and intermitting fevers, which he informed me was the case in most of the streets east and north of Peck's slip, to his knowledge, as he had then fifty sick to attend himself in those parts, with those complaints, the most of whom were emigrants lately from Europe, now residing in crowded houses close rooms, hot garrets or damp cellars, many destitute of the common conveniences of life, some even not beds to lay on, but made use of the bare floor with a single blanket; instead of beds some had substituted shavings covered with a blanket; many had neither chairs nor tables in their rooms, and were obliged to subsist, even when sick, on potatoes, or water gruel, and seldom could procure better fare - were neither cleanly in their houses, or persons, being thus situated, he feared their bodies would be disposed and ready to imbibe any other infectious disease which would prove fatal to them, and spread the infection to other houses and streets. He lived to see his melancholy fears fully realized - The misery and distresses many were exposed to on this, and other accounts, in those streets, I was often an evidence of, before public provisions were made for their subsistence and relief. I could furnish you with many instances of distress in this part of the city, and this time, and when the yellow fever began to rage, that would exceed belief, and almost favour a conclusion, that the heaven-born virtue of benevolence was banished the heart of man. Hence the necessity of an early attention to the wants and distresses of the poor, in those times of uncommon calamity, especially by the overseers of this class of people, which I fear, not so much from design or neglect, but from want of knowledge of their situation, was too much the case at this time, and also to the better regulation of those streets, houses and lots of ground, by the proper authority, the dreadful effects of neglect in that respect will appear still more glaring.
I proceed further: as the first person who I was informed was seized with the yellow fever in this street, was an apprentice to John Day, at No. 17 - This young man had worked in a yard of a house which fronted Water street, near where the fever raged at the time, he laid but a few days and died the 7th of August. Mr. Day assured me that the young man's blood, and even his flesh, appeared in a high state of putresence. Soon after he was taken down could not bear to be handled or moved much, on account of the pain it gave him - smelt most horribly, both while alive and immediately after his death, in so much, that they were continually obliged to drench the whole house with vinegar, and use every other precaution recommended to avoid contagion; immediately after his death he was buried in a close hearst; first being wrapped in a tarred sheet, a precaution which ought never to be omitted where the disease the person died of was supposed to be contagious. The family in general escaped the contagion by the preservation of God, and a blessing on the means used as a preventative against the effects of the contagion. From the accounts I received from Mr. Day, there remained on my mind, no doubt of his disorder having been the true West India yellow fever, lately introduced from there, especially when the symptoms so fully agree with what Dr. Pringle observes on autumnal fevers & c.
"But new comers are liable to a different species, at least to a different degree of the same disease, a more rapid, a more putrid and dangerous fever, distinguished by a black vomiting, but chiefly by the yellowness of the skin, which gives it the name of yellow fever. The blood is here so much dissolved, that before death it enters the smallest vessels, tinges the saliva, and the serum discharged by a blister, and by opening into the stomach gives that blackish cast to what is then thrown up."
That such were in general the effects of the fever, is well known, but that when it first made its appearance, there was a very great diversity of opinion, even in respect to its name and nature, among the medical gentlemen, is also well known.
Dr. Grant observes "That a new contagion coming into a country, may be ill treated before its nature is found out; but once understood becomes less formidable." Although this was too much the case in this place at first, yet when the diversity of opinion began to subside, then I can assert with truth, by daily observation, that, with very few exceptions, the medical line deserve better of their fellow citizens, and more praise then I can give them; they were incessantly engaged, night and day, in visiting and administering to the sick, and this they performed with intrepidity and cheerful readiness beyond example, and appeared devoid of fear, while in the faithful discharge of their occupation.
About a week after the death of the young man mentioned, several were taken ill of the fever, not far from the house he died in, and it then extended into Batavia lane, in the manner I have mentioned, in which small street, the infection remained so long, that the most that died of the fever, was in this street, as I was informed. After this the fever appeared to move progressively northward in this street, branching out in Rutgers, Bancker and ----- streets. It did not reach the head of Roosevelt street before the later end of October, but then it carried off, in this street, about twenty persons; it stopped also here as soon as the cold weather began.
James, Oliver and Catherine streets
The above streets are to the east of Roosevelt street, parallel to, and nearly of the same length of it. These streets, together with Roosevelt, Bancker, Rutger and Cherry streets, from the New-slip, were, not many years before the late war, with the adjoining lots of ground, a large pond or meadow of salt water, and it is only within a few years that most of the lots, in those streets were filled up; and also the streets which are yet rather too low, or have too little descent. In great rains the cellars and kitchens are subject to have water coming in them, most of the houses being framed buildings, and many low and wet; yet when the fever first made its appearance, there was not an empty house in those streets, in general they had three or more families in them.
Yet all those streets continued free from this fever sometime after it made its appearance in Water street, their direction was north and south, hence they were fanned with every returning tide, by the cool refreshing sea breeze, and the inhabitants themselves attended to keep the streets clean, when they found the laws of the Corporation insufficient and little attended to. It is true, after repeated complaints a bell man was ordered to proceed through the streets once a week, to give notice to the inhabitants to clean their streets, and heap up their dirt of every kind, when it was said carts were appointed to carry it off, but it often happened that no bell man made his appearance, or if it was done and people attended to his orders, when the cart man or scavenger came, they took up only such of the dirt as would do for manure, leaving all else, as rags and other substances, fit only to receive and retain contagion; these, and too often all the dirt, the inhabitants were obliged to get removed at their own expense, but the beneficial effects of keeping clean streets and yards, was visibly seen in those streets where it was attended to. We may ascribe the slow progress, late entrance, and limited mortality in them, to those advantages.
I have mentioned in my last letter, that the fever did not get in this streets before the 19th September, and perhaps its mortality would not have been so great, had it not soon after got into three low house south of Batavia lane, filled from the garret to the cellar, with mostly emigrants from Ireland not many days before arrived - when it got amongst them, there is no describing its ravages. I was informed, and have reason to believe it, from what I myself was a witness to, that eleven died out of these houses; yet many who had long been inhabitants of this street escaped, or sickened and recovered, there, as the fever, did not extend rapidly north, or prove as mortal as was feared, not five in twenty persons died before its progress was stayed about the last of October, when it had extended to the head of the street.
#7
I shall now continue my account of the Fever in the remaining eastern streets, with observations, and begin with the next street to James street, viz. Oliver street. As early as August 12th one person died in this street, who had attended the wharves between Peck's and New-slip - His father informed me, that it was suspected that he had taken the disease in a house near Dover street, in which a corpse lay. There did not die any other person in this street until the 9th of September, when a young woman was taken ill, and I got her immediately removed to Bellevue, after the nature of her disease had been enquired into by the physician. I observed the house she was in to be crowded with inhabitants - not far from it I observed above 260 loads of street dirt, in a vacant lot, which had been collected from the different streets, and was there stored to be disposed of to the country people, who had not long before been prevented from acting as scavengers, altho' cleaning, at times, the streets themselves, and taking the dirt generally on board their small crafts immediately. There was reason to dread, that this vast collection of putrescent substances would be attended with evil consequences - such was the fact, for round about this mass of poison, especially after being rendered more active by an infectious atmosphere, the greatest number died or sickened -as many as fifteen died in this street, and above twice that number sickened but recovered - This street had in it at that time a great number of vacant lots of ground, so that the number of houses did not exceed forty.
I shall now pass to George street, as from & in this street, the fever, by observation, proved not alone the most mortal, and appeared to possess a greater degree of malignity than in other streets, but progressively extended its effects from the house in which it was first introduced, thoughout this & other streets, connected with and situated in different directions from it.
George street is a new street, the next to Catherine street: it is about forty feet wide, and runs north and south; the upper part has been lately dug down, and the lower part filled up. None of it had yet been paved, and in it were many mud holes. It extended from the East river to Division street, between the head of Rutgers and Delancey's formerly; it was crossed by several other streets, east and west; the principal street was Lombard street; from this street to the East river, George street had but eighteen dwelling houses, and north to Division street thirty-one; in the whole forty-nine houses, including tea corner houses, with a door to each street; The greatest part were new houses, many not finished, nor the cellars, nor cellar kitchens, in which people lived, not yet walled up, and several not floored or plaistered; behind some were small low buildings, not ventilated, still fully occupied, for I observed that there appeared not a single building, although hardly fit for mortals to live in, but what was inhabited, and that mostly by people lately removed from the country into the city, or European immigrants induced to remove to the eastern part of the city on account of lower house rent, and other reasons. The population of this street, especially the lower part, was beyond belief, and still this collection of human beings, suffering numberless inconveniences and distresses, appeared to enjoy a general good state of health; there was not the least symptom of any infectious or contagious fever among them before the yellow fever was introduced, which was not until after the 24th of August, when a Mr. Shute who kept a grocery store there and tavern, at the southeast corner of George and Cherry streets, was taken ill and died of the yellow fever. I took considerable pains to find out by what means he might have caught the infection, or how it was introduced into this part of the city; the best information I could obtain from the neighbors and others, was, that it was suspected that he had taken the yellow fever from some of the crew of the ship called the Scipio, or from some coffee he had purchased from on board her. This ship which had been employed by the English in the Guinea trade, was taken by the French in the West Indies, and being fit for a ship of war, was sent to New York to be refitted and prepared for such; when she arrived here it was reported, that above thiry men had already died on board of her on the passage and that many more were sick; this last was confirmed nearly as above, to me, by a gentleman, who, in coming from the West Indies in another vessel that was detained at sea by her, and who was on board her at the time. After she arrived her she was brought to be repaired at the wharf above George street. It was said, that when the carpenters came to rip up her ceilings, four of them were almost instantly taken ill and obliged to desist. Several men were buried on board her while she lay here, and there is no doubt that the sailors frequented his house. Certain it is, that a few days after the death of Shute, the effects were similar to that of a lighted match leading to a magazine or a mine replete with combustible materials, causing an explosion, and spreading its devestation all around. Others soon sickened in the same house and neighborhood, and the most of them died after a very short illness. The fever then spread like wild-fire, on both sides of said street; and when it once got into those cellar kitchens, crowded rooms, garrets and back buildings, the plague, I suppose, was never more mortal than this fever was in the lower part of this street. I was credibly informed that 65 persons died of this fever from August 24 to Nov 1, 1795, and in the whole street 81 persons; so mortal and contagious was the fever in this street, that I have been credibly informed, that more died out of it, or in it, than resided in it at the time the disease first broke out; for many houses when emptied of their first inhabitants were immediately occupied by others, who paid severely for their timerity; thus evincing the bad effects of not attending to have those houses well cleaned before they were reoccupied.
Dr. Cullen observing, that effluvia arising directly or originally from the body of a man under a particular disease, and exciting the same kind of disease in the body of the persons to whom they are applied, may be considered as contagious. I could, by many instances which came to my knowledge, agreeable to the above definitions, show that the yellow fever of 1795, was contagious.
I cannot pass by two instances, one which happened in this street, and one in Water street, as something useful may be drawn from them. A lad of a gentleman living in this street had the curiousity of going to view a person lying dead of this fever; when he returned, he told his parent how bad the corpse smelt, complained that the smell continued in his nostrils all day; he was soon after taken ill and died; a few days after his death another child was seized with the fever& died, then the mother was taken with the fever & died; afterwards the father, whom God in his mercy spared. A woman who had the curiosity of looking into the hearse, in which just before, a corpse was put, was, in less than a week a corpse herself.
A Mr. Barrian, in Water street, near the New slip sickened the 5th of September and died the 10th. His partner, Mr. Slene, and others who had attended him, clean, dressed and laid him in the coffin, and others who had been with him during his sickness, after his death, or at his burial, were soon after taken ill - Slene died September 14th, not long after him died his wife, wife's mother, two nieces, and an apprentice boy.
A Mr. Hopkins, a partner of the late Mr. Bragg, Merchant in Water street, informed me, that four had died in Mr. Bragg's house; Mr. Bragg, his apprentice, his maid, and a taylor, who worked in an upper front room; that he himself had been very ill with the fever - that immediately after he was taken, he removed to a high airy situation, on Delancey's ground, near the east river, which he judged contributed to his recovery. That his opinion was, they all caught the disease by contagion from Slene's body when it was carried off to be buried; he was informed that the body had been kept unburied thirteen hours after death, therefore must have been in the highest state of putrefaction, and highly contagious. That Bragg's house was nearly opposite of where Slene had lived; that a very light south wind blew directly from Slene's house to Bragg's, which were about forty feet apart; when the corpse was brought out to be buried, he experienced a most disagreeable stench pervade his nostrils; and as all the family were at the same time in front of the house, he judges they all took the infection at nearly the same time from this putrid corpse, buried on an open hearse and followed by several people; while round the door stood many incautious and foolish curious spectators; after this and other funerals out of the same house, the fever extended even in and beyond James slip.
The limits of a letter will not permit my making the many useful observations that may be made from those occurrences - several immediately struck me. The necessity of parents restraining the idle curiosity of children, of crowding around houses and doors, to behold a funeral or the dead corpse. The necessity of interring the dead as speedily as possible after the body is believed to be so, and that wrapped up in a tarred sheet, and carried off in a close hearse, without any pomp. The fatal consequences arising from a reverse conduct I could furnish you with many more instances.
I must finish the account of George-street. When the fever had got into the houses at the lower part of this street, many were entirely emptied of inhabitants by it - in others from two to six died: people began to dread going into the sick houses, by which the sick often suffered more than can be described; and we have reason to believe, that several perished for want of attendance and food. Several dead bodies were found in houses, out of which all the living had fled, and left the dead behind. - The distress experienced by numbers of such persons and their familes, especially the poor and money-less, are inconceivable; especially before the appointment of several persons, who at the risque of their lives, from public donations, administered to their wants. I must close this melancholy relation with two instances of distress. - A ship's carpenter lay in a room without any attendance then present; a bell fixed on the ship-house where the frigate was building, being rung in the night on account of fire, the man sprung out of bed, and out of a window, ran and hid himself under some timbers, where he was found dead next morning.
A Physician who fell a victim to this Fever stopped at my house, and threw himself into a chair, and gave a heavy sigh. Alarmed I asked him what he ailed; nothing, said he, but fatigue and distress of mind, on account of the unparalleled sufferings of the poor in the eastern parts of the city, of which he was obliged to be a continued witness; that he was just come from George street, in which seeing a woman setting aside of a man, wringing her hands and lamenting loudly, he went up to enquire the reason; when he found the man nearly expiring, and the woman informed him that their landlord, when he discovered the man had the fever, turned them immediately out of doors - before application could be made, and an order was obtained for the removal of the man, he was dead.
Oh Times, oh Manners,
I am Sir,
Your Friend,
A.B.
Transcribed by Bob Arnebeck: arnebeck@localnet.com