AN ACCOUNT 
OF THE 
EPIDEMIC OF CHOLERA, 
DURING THE SUMMER OF 1873, IN EIGHTEEN COUNTIES 
OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
BY r 
ely McClellan, m. d., 
ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. ARMY. 
REPRINTED FROM VOL. I PUBLIC HEALTH PAPERS OF AMERICAN PUBLIC 
HEALTH ASSOCIATION. 
CAMBRIDGE: 
$rintct> at ttjc ftitocr^itJc 
1874. AN ACCOUNT OF THE EPIDEMIC OF CHOLERA, DURING 
THE SUMMER OF 1873, IN EIGHTEEN COUNTIES 
OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
by ely McClellan, m. d., 
Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army. 
The short time that has elapsed since the subsidence of this epidemic, 
the broad field over which the disease was diffused, the utter impossibility 
of attempting in the limited- time at my command, a personal inspection of 
all the infected points ; the fact, that at many localities no notes or record 
of cases was kept, compels me to present a somewhat crude and imperfect 
statement of the manifestation of the disease in the State. Knowing full 
well that “ this is no dinner to ask a man to,” we present this report, with 
the hope that it may pave the way to fuller and more elaborate reports of 
future epidemics. 
The history of this epidemic, as we have been able to collect it, affords 
strong evidence in support of well-accepted theories. 
1. The portability of the cholera poison. 
2. The method of propagation. 
In the narrative which is presented, it will be seen that the disease en- 
tered the State of Kentucky by three distinct lines of advance, upon which 
the original cases have been traced. 
1. By navigation on the Ohio river. 
2. By travel on the Louisville and Nashville railroad. 
3. By a solitary traveller over a mountain highway. 
It will be shown by the narrative that the arrival of cholera in the State 
of Kentucky can be located on exact dates. 
May 18, a steamboat from New Orleans, upon which several cases of 
cholera had occurred, arrived at Paducah. 
June 3, a man from Gallatin, Tenn., a point infected with cholera, was 
taken with the disease at Bowling Green, Ky. 
June 5, a negro woman, who had visited Gallatin, was attacked with 
cholera at Franklin, Ky. 
June 8, a white man, from Evansville, Ind. (an infected point), was at- 
tacked with cholera in the city of Louisville. 
June to, a second case of cholera occurred in Franklin, imported from 
Gallatin. 
June 12, a third case of cholera, from Gallatin, occurred at Franklin. 
June 13, a negro woman, at Bowling Green, who had washed the cloth- 
ing of a man who died of cholera on a steamboat from Evansville, Ind., 
was attacked with the same disease. 
From these cases, cholera became epidemic in the counties of McCracken, 2 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
Warren, and Simpson, and spread to adjoining counties. That the disease 
did not become epidemic in the city of Louisville is undoubtedly due to the 
advantageous location of that city, and the vigilance of her health officers. 
The steamboat which had infected Paducah proceeded on its trip up the 
Ohio river* making all its usual landings, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was fol- 
lowed by other infected boats. 
June 29, a case of cholera is reported at Maysville, Mason County. 
The subject of this manifestation of the disease had returned the previous 
day from a visit to Cincinnati. 
Until July 8, the disease was confined to the counties in which its ap- 
pearance has been noted, but on this date cases are reported at Elizabeth- 
town, Hardin County, and at Lagrange, Oldham County. At the first 
named point, on the 4th day of July, a celebration had been held among 
the negroes, which a number of persons from Bowling Green, and other in- 
fected points, are known to have attended. The origin of the disease at 
Lagrange cannot be determined ; but as this town is located upon a main 
line of railway, and as the location is favorable for the development of the 
disease, the inference that cholera was carried to that town is quite as 
plausible as that it had a local malarial origin. 
July 10, cholera appeared in the town of Millersburg, Bourbon County, 
and the remarks already made respecting Lagrange are equally applicable 
to this locality. 
No new territory was invaded until July 17, when a negro from an in- 
fected locality in Tennessee carried cholera to the line of the work of the 
Cumberland and Ohio railroad, in Taylor County, and on the 19th the dis- 
ease crossed the Marion County line. 
To the counties already noted the disease was confined until August 10, 
when a white man, who had travelled on horseback from Russellville, Tenn. 
(an infected point), arrived at Lancaster, Garrard County, where he was 
taken with cholera. 
August 20, a young man who had contracted the disease in Marion 
County died at his home in Nelson County. 
August 22 a negro man, from Maysville, was taken with cholera at Millers- 
burg, Bourbon County, at which town, on the 28th, a second epidemic was 
developed. 
August 29, refugees from Lancaster infected with cholera the town of 
Stanford, Lincoln County. 
August 30, the disease, which in Marion County had made but a feeble 
demonstration, suddenly attacked the town of Lebanon, and was carried to 
Adair, Clinton, Russell, Washington, Boyle, and Mercer Counties. 
Reports from other counties which were infected have been so much de- 
layed, that their present use is impossible. 
McCracken County. — The reports of the epidemic of cholera as it 
occurred in the city of Paducah are meagre, from the fact that no record was 
kept of the cases which occurred. It is estimated that one hundred and 
eighty cases died of cholera from May 23 until July 24. About two thirds 
of this number were negroes. The majority of the remainder were for- 
eigners. But few of the Americans were attacked. IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
The first case that occurred at Paducah, was on the 21st of May, in the 
person of the shipping clerk of a tobacco warehouse, who had upon the 
evening of the 18th inst. visited a New Orleans steamer, just arrived from 
Memphis, upon which several cases of cholera had occurred. He remained 
on board the boat during the time she was at the wharf boat, a period of 
about two hours. The next day he complained of malaise and some diar- 
rhoea ; upon the 20th these symptoms continued, and at an early hour of 
the 21 st cholera was developed, and the case progressed rapidly to a fatal 
termination. 
May 23, a gentleman who had been assiduous in his attention the previ- 
ous day to the cholera case, was himself attacked, but recovered. Three 
cases of cholera, none of which terminated fatally, occurred among negroes 
who were employed on the wharf boat, at which the infected steamer lay. 
With these cases the disease disappeared, until a fresh importation oc- 
curred on the 3d of June, when a female, that day arrived from Memphis, 
Tenn., was taken with cholera, and died after a few hours’ illness ; the fe- 
male who nursed her was the next attacked, and from these two cases the 
epidemic was established, and continued in existence, until July 24. 
No cases occurred in the hotels, jail, or poor-house. 
It is a noticeable fact, that after the 25th of June, the day on which the 
sale of vegetables was prohibited in the town, the mortality among the 
negroes began to diminish. This, however, did not apply to the German 
population, who, regardless of the prohibition, procured vegetables in the 
country, and it became a recognized fact that on each Monday a large 
number of this class of the community were buried. 
Warren County. —Bowling Green, the county seat of Warren County, 
is a well located inland city, situated nearly in the centre of the county, 
upon the line of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, and one mile from 
the head of navigation on the Big Barren river. Railroad communication 
with Louisville, Memphis, and Nashville, is almost hourly. Twice a week 
a steamboat arrives from Evansville, Ind. 
The data of the epidemic of cholera in Bowling Green and in Warren 
County are very unsatisfactory, from the fact that none of the physicians 
had preserved records of their cases. The burial permits of the county 
clerk, however, furnished trustworthy information as to many cases. 
June 3, the first case of cholera occurred in the person of a white man 
forty-three years of age, who left Gallatin, Tenn., at the time cholera was 
epidemic at that point, on a business visit to the horse-cave-station, some 
few miles north of Bowling Green. He was taken ill on his arrival at the 
horse-cave-station, and took the next train, endeavoring to reach his home. 
By the time the train reached Bowling Green, the disease was fully devel- 
oped. He was taken to a hotel, where after a lingering illness he died. 
June 13, the second case occurred in the person of a negro woman, 
fifty-five years old, who had the day before washed the clothing of a man 
who died on a steamboat during its trip from Evansville. She died after 
an illness of thirty-six hours. 
June 14, a case occurred in the person of a negro girl six years of age, 
living near to the hotel in town. 
3 4 
June 19, two negro women were taken with cholera and died. They 
lived near to the steamboat landing. 
From this date, the disease became epidemic. We have recovered the 
facts concerning eighty-six cases of cholera which occurred in Bowling 
Green .between June 19 and August 10; of these cases, sixty-five termi- 
nated fatally. 
The disease was confined almost exclusively to the line of the railroad, 
and to the low ground towards the river. The main portion of the town, 
on high ground, was not invaded. 
The only facts we have been able to obtain, as to the epidemic in the 
county, are found at a point some ten miles to the southeast of Bowling 
Green, to which place a refugee negro carried the disease. Six members of 
a white family were fatally attacked. 
Simpson County. — Franklin, the county seat of Simpson County, is 
situated on the line of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, six and a half 
miles from the State line. One mile east of the town flows the West Fork 
of Drake’s Creek. The town is well drained by two ravines which pass 
through it, one to the east, the other to the west of the Court House, which 
building forms the centre of the town. These two drains come together 
north of the town and empty into Drake’s Creek. 
The inhabitants of this town have constant communication with all points 
on the railroad, and a large number of the “ section hands ” between 
Franklin and Millersburg, Tenn., reside in the town. During the month 
of May, the town was placed in a good sanitary condition, and much de- 
bris was removed and destroyed. No cases of serious illness occurred un- 
til the 5th day of June, when a negro woman forty years of age, who had 
been on a visit to Gallatin, Tenn., was taken with cholera, from which 
she recovered. The occurrence of this case, although the subject lived in 
a negro settlement, was followed by no further development of the disease. 
June 10, a white man, thirty-eight years of age, who had returned from 
a visit to Gallatin, Tenn., was attacked with cholera and recovered. 
June 12, a white man, fifty-one years old, also from Gallatin, was taken 
with cholera, lingered ten days and died. 
June 13, the physician who attended the case of the 12th was taken with 
the disease, but recovered. 
June 14, the daughter, aged two years, of this physician, was attacked and 
died in nine hours. 
Four days elapsed without the development of new cases, when a white 
man, forty years of age, was attacked and died. June 20, a white woman 
recovered. June 25, a white man died. June 27, two new cases, both died. 
June 28, two new cases, both died. 
The disease was in abeyance until July 1, when seven deaths occurred, 
and in the next fifteen days, fifty deaths are reported as resulting from the 
epidemic. On July 20, a fatal case occurred, and cases occurred with a 
like termination on July 28 and August 4. 
Thirty cases of developed cholera are reported as having recovered 
during the epidemic. Seven of the physicians of the town were seriously 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
5 
ill; one of them died; one case occurred in the county jail, none in the 
hotels or poor-house. 
A gentleman left Franklin July i, went six miles east of town, where he 
died after forty-eight hours’ illness ; in three or four days his mother-in-law 
was attacked and died; a visitor at the house and a young child also died- 
All the other members of the family suffered with diarrhoea. 
A lady, after nursing many cholera cases in Franklin, went four miles 
west of town, to the house of her son-in-law, who had not been exposed to 
the infection, before her visit; he was taken with the disease and died. All 
the other members of the family suffered with diarrhoea and vomiting. The 
wife of the county jailer was taken with cholera and died in a few hours. 
The prisoners were at once removed from the building. 
Jefferson County. — The first case of cholera which is recorded as 
having occurred in Jefferson County during the past epidemic, was in the 
city of Louisville on the 8th day of June, when a white man twenty-nine 
years jof age was admitted to the Louisville City Hospital with cholera. He 
had arrived in the city at five a. m. from Evansville, Ind., where cholera was 
epidemic ; shortly after his arrival, he was taken with purging and vomiting, 
which increased so rapidly in its severity that he was obliged to lie down 
on the sidewalk. From this position he was removed to the hospital, where 
he died at half-past four p. m. of the same day. 
June io, a gentleman, forty years of age, living on Walnut Street, between 
Seventh and Eighth Streets, was attacked with cholera, following a diarrhoea 
of a few days’ duration. The disease was arrested and the patient recovered. 
June 12, a conductor on the Louisville and Nashville railroad, who had 
been taken ill in the city of Nashville, Tenn., arrived at his home in Louis- 
ville. The disease was violently developed and the case terminated fatally 
in a few hours. 
From June 12 to August 16, inclusive, twenty-one cases of cholera, all of 
which terminated fatally, are reported as occurring in Louisville. Many of 
these cases were imported from other infected localities. 
August 9, Dr. J. T. Atchison, of Lacona, nine miles southwest from 
Louisville, reports a case which recovered. 
August 18, Dr. S. A. Foss, of Lacona, reports the occurrence of two 
fatal cases. 
September 4, a group of cases was reported by Dr. Turner Anderson, as 
occurring in Louisville. The house in which these cases occurred is situ- 
ated in the western portion of the city of Louisville. It is a frame cottage, 
low and damp. The kitchen floor is several inches below the surrounding 
ground. No provision was made for drainage. The privy, wash-house, and 
coal-shed, all under one roof, and all in a dirty condition. The family oc- 
cupying this house consisted of the mother, two single daughters, two mar- 
ried daughters, one son-in-law, and two young children, a total of eight in- 
dividuals. July 30, a married daughter (Mrs. G.) was taken with vomiting, 
purging, and cramps. The attack was sudden, and no cause could be as- 
signed. She was, however, speedily relieved and soon convalesced. This 
lady, two weeks prior to her illness, had been delivered of a healthy child. 6 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
August 22, Mrs. G. left Louisville to visit her husband in the city of 
Bowling Green. August 25, she was attacked with cholera in that city, 
and died after twelve hours’ illness. August 28, the remains of Mrs. G., 
inclosed in a wooden coffin, arrived at her mother’s house in Louisville- 
Prior to burial the coffin was opened, and the remains viewed by her family. 
September 2, a child of the late Mrs. G., two years of age, was attacked 
with cholera, but recovered. 
September 4, a single sister of Mrs. G., residing in the house from which 
the corpse had been buried, was attacked with cholera, and died after an 
illness of six hours. The same day, the infant child of the late Mrs. G., 
four weeks old, was attacked with the same disease and died in forty-eight 
hours. 
September 6, the second married daughter in the same house was taken 
with cholera after a slight premonitory diarrhoea; died in twenty-four hours. 
After the remains of Mrs. G. had been brought to Louisville, all the mem- 
bers of this family took quinine in decided doses, except Mrs. A., wl\o de- 
clined to do so, from the fact that she was seven months pregnant. No 
other member of this family was attacked. 
September 8, Dr. J. P. Warren, of Marion County, died of cholera in 
Louisville, after twenty-four hours’ illness. This gentleman had been sub- 
jected to the infection in Lebanon. September n, a recovery of a cholera 
patient is reported. 
That the city of Louisville escaped an epidemic of cholera is undoubt- 
edly due to the admirable sanitary condition in which the city was main- 
tained, and the careful system of disinfection which was instituted wherever 
the disease appeared. 
Mason County. — The city of Maysville, located on the Ohio river, had 
suffered greatly in all the epidemics of Cholera that had visited the valley of 
the Ohio. In 1849, ie disease had remained in force from April until 
November. There seemed to be just grounds for apprehending a serious 
epidemic in 1873. From the present epidemic this city, however, almost 
entirely escaped. From June 29 to July 25, but fourteen cases occurred, 
eight of which terminated fatally. Of these, seven occurred in one negro 
family. 
June 29th, a young man, just returned from Cincinnati, Ohio, was at- 
tacked with cholera and recovered. 
June 30, a lady resident of the city was attacked with cholera, and re- 
covered. 
July 3, Dr. Shackelford, reported the first of a most interesting group of 
cases, in the person of a negro woman, who died after an illness of fifty-two 
hours. July 5, the daughter, aged twenty years, was attacked with cholera, 
and died after ten hours. The same night, the young child of the second 
case was taken ill and died. The next day, July 6, after the funeral of the 
second and third cases, the house was abandoned, but in a few hours the 
husband and two sisters of the second case were attacked. These cases 
were treated at the city hospital; the man and one of the women died. 
July 7, a negro woman who had been in attendance upon the first two cases, IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
was taken with cholera and died the next day. This family of negroes had 
resided in a small cabin on a hill-side. The ground around was extremely 
filthy, and the drainage and surface washings of this filthy yard was into 
the well from which the family obtained water. 
From July 25 to August 18, no new cases of cholera are reported in the 
city ; but on the last date a white female, in destitute circumstances, was 
brought to the city from some point on the river, and died after an illness 
of three days: August 25, a negro man was brought to Maysville from a 
point twenty-five miles above the city. He was attacked with cholera before 
his arrival. The disease did not advance beyond the second stage, when it 
was arrested. 
September 1, a negro man was brought to Maysville by boat, and although 
then in the stage of collapse, was placed in a- spring wagon and carried to 
Millersburg, where he died. These three instances of the importation of 
cholera, produced no epidemic in the city. Dr. J. M. Duke, who has wit- 
nessed every epidemic since 1832, attributes the exemption of the city from 
the disease to the almost universal substitution of cistern for well water. 
Hardin County. — Elizabethtown, the county town of Hardin County, 
is located on the line of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, having a 
population of 1,743, of whom 660 are negroes. 
This town is in almost hourly communication with Bowling Green, Padu- 
cah, and Louisville. The site is drained by a small creek which flows in a 
southwest direction, between the town and the line of the railroad. On 
the bank of this creek, and leading from Main Street towards the north- 
east, is a small street known as “ Race Alley.” The ground upon which it 
is located slopes to the creek, and both sides of the alley are lined with 
negro hovels. During the month of June the roadway had been filled up 
several inches above the line of the surrounding ground, and the drainage 
thus obstructed, the ground under the hovels on the western side of the 
alley was flooded from the higher ground upon which the main portions of 
the town is situated. 
July 4, a negro celebration was held at Elizabethtown, which a large 
number of negroes from along the line of the railroad and the adjacent 
country attended. 
July 8, a case of cholera occurred in the person of a negro man, who, 
although not residing on Race Alley, was in constant communication with 
that locality. His illness lasted twelve hours and terminated fatally. 
The second case occurred on Race Alley, July 10, and died within twelve 
hours, and from that date until September 24, the disease was epidemic. 
Forty-one cases of cholera occurred, twenty-two of whom died. The disease 
was mostly confined to Race Alley; one or two cases occurred in the town 
late in the epidemic. Of one family, five members were taken sick, with 
one death. In another family three persons were attacked ; all died.' 
On the 26th of August, a farming community, six miles southeast of 
Elizabethtown, was infected by a refugee from the town. Four cases oc- 
curred in rapid succession ; all died. During the epidemic, a young man 
from the town visited a friend some three miles from the infected district. 8 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
This friend had studiously avoided any contact with the infection. They 
slept together one night; the next day the countryman sickened and died 
in a few hours from cholera. 
No public buildings were invaded by the disease. 
At the time of closing this report, no other records of cholera have been 
received from Hardin county. The town of West Point, at the mouth of 
the Rolling Fork, was invaded by the disease. Some fifty or sixty deaths 
occurred, but the necessary data of their classification has not yet been 
received. 
Oldham County. — La Grange, Oldham County, is situated on the line 
of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington railroad, twenty-seven miles 
from Louisville. The town is built on a well drained ridge, at the lower 
portions of which are located the cabins of the poorer classes of negroes. 
The inhabitants are in constant communication with Cincinnati, Lexington, 
and Louisville, by passing trains. The sanitary condition of the town was 
bad in the months of June and July. The privies are on the surface, and 
cleaned by surface washings. Well water is almost exclusively used, and 
the portion of the town which suffered most severely from the epidemic is 
so situated, that after rain-falls the wells of the locality would most likely 
be contaminated from the higher ground. From the 8th to the 29th of 
July, cholera was epidemic in La Grange. Thirty-one cases are reported, 
fifteen of which died, sixteen recovered. A few cases that resided in the 
country became infected in the town. 
Bourbon County. — In this county the epidemic was confined to the 
town of Millersburg, which is located on the line of the Maysville railroad, 
and upon the banks of Hinkston’s Creek. This creek flows around the 
town from the northeast to the southwest; a mill-dam upon this creek 
backs the water for a considerable distance, and the accumulation on the 
bottom, above the dam, has greatly lessened its depth. During the past 
summer the rain-fall was small, the water was low in the creek, the mill- 
pond was stagnant, and an extensive surface covered with decomposing 
vegetable matter was exposed. On the eastward, high ground separates the 
creek from the town. 
Northeast of the town, at the head of a deep hollow, and on high ground 
which gradually descends to the level of the creek, is a large artificial pond, 
the drain of which follows the eastern limits of the town and empties into 
the creek. This drain runs parallel with and finally crosses the Maysville 
railroad. Immediately below this pond, the ground is marshy from the 
soaking of water through the embankment of the pond, and in this wet 
ground, a number of sunken barrels furnish the water supply for a cluster 
of cabins occupied by negroes, who live along the sides of this drain. 
Two other ponds of stagnant water are on the eastern side of the town. 
On the nth day of July, during very hot weather, six cases of cholera 
occurred in the immediate vicinity of the large pond, and in the cabins on 
its outlet drain; and within thirty-six hours all had terminated fatally. 
July 12, two cases occurred ; one near the pond, the other upon the 
banks of the mill-pond south of town. The last case had spent a portion 
of the previous day in the houses in which the disease originated. IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
9 
This development of cholera is attributed to malarial influences, and the 
instances narrated are held as strongly illustrative of that theory. It is, 
however, certain, that prior to this outbreak, cholera had become epidemic 
at points within railroad communication with Millersburg. 
No other cases of cholera occurred in this town until August 22, when a 
negro man from Maysville was attacked, and died after an illness of four 
days. 
August 28, eight cases of cholera occurred in the town, but two of which 
recovered. 
August 29, eight cases occurred, and all terminated fatally in a few 
hours. 
From August 30 to September 7, the disease was epidemic; seventy 
cases occurred in this town, forty-nine of which died. It is known that 
other cases occurred, but as no record was made of them, it has been found 
as yet impossible to locate them with any exactness. 
These cases all occurred on low ground, in the vicinity of the pond drain, 
and upon the banks of the creek. 
Five cases of cholera were brought to the town of Paris, and Dr. Keller 
reports that although no precautions were taken, the disease did not spread. 
Dr. Keller reports most favorably of the efficacy of large doses of calomel 
in the treatment of cholera. He found that exhibited in two-drachm doses, 
it invariably relieved the vomiting and purging, and arrested the disease. 
This treatment was applied to the majority of the cases which recovered, 
and in none was ptyalism induced. 
Taylor County. — The history of the epidemic of cholera in Taylor 
County is interesting from the fact, that in this county, undoubtedly, is to be 
found the first link in the chain of infection which stretched to most of the 
counties of Central Kentucky. 
Early in the month of July, a negro man, who had left an infected locality 
in the State of Tennessee, applied for work in one of the construction parties 
of the Ohio and Cumberland railroad. He obtained work on the tunnel 
section, and was given quarters in a group of cabins occupied by other 
workmen and their families. A few days after his arrival he was attacked 
with an acute diarrhoea, from which he was confined to his bed for eight or 
ten days. The attack was attended with great prostration and general 
constitutional disturbance. His excreta were thrown out on the ground. 
The cluster of cabins were located upon a hill-side. Immediately below and 
in front of them, was a spring from which the families of the neighborhood 
obtained water. On the 14th, 15th, and 16th of July, there was considerable 
rain-fall and the surface washings filled the spring to overflowing. 
July 17, two violent cases of cholera occurred in the cabins immedi- 
ately adjoining the one in which the diarrhoeal patient was living. Both 
cases terminated fatally within eleven hours. One was in the person of a 
negro woman who was eight months pregnant. Labor pains came on dur- 
ing the second stage of the cholera attack, and she was delivered of a dead 
child while completely collapsed. 
July 20, a negro man on the same works was taken with cholera; the 10 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
disease was fully developed. He, however, reacted, and made a slow re- 
covery. The same day, a negro man, eighteen years of age, who had been 
in constant communication with the negroes on the railroad works, was at- 
tacked with cholera in the town of Campbellsville, from which he died after 
forty-eight hours’ illness. 
August i, a negro woman, fifty years of age, living on the line of the 
railroad works, some three miles from Campbellsville, was taken with cholera 
and died after nine hours’ illness. 
August 2, a white man, sixty-three years old, living on the same line of 
works, and five miles from the town, was attacked and died in forty-eight 
hours. In the same house three cases of choleraic diarrhoea occurred im- 
mediately after this death; all yielded to treatment. 
August 5, in the same neighborhood, a negro girl, eighteen years of age, 
died after an illness of twenty-four hours. Dr. Hodgen, a most trustworthy 
observer, reports the occurrence of eighteen cases of acute diarrhoea, along 
the railroad works, and north of Campbellsville. 
August 16, a white man, thirty years of age, a stage driver between 
Lebanon and Columbia, was taken with symptoms closely resembling 
cholera ; in a few hours reaction was established, convalescence ensued, but 
committing some imprudence, a relapse took place, and he died. This 
death occurred in the Campbellsville hotel. 
August 19, a recovery from cholera is reported at the tunnel section of 
railroad. 
August 21, a negro man, thirty years of age, who had left his home in 
Lancaster on account of the cholera, was taken with the disease in the 
town of Campbellsville, and died in seven hours. 
September 2, a white boy, sixteen years of age, who was in Lebanon for 
two days of the epidemic in that town, but who had returned to Campbells- 
ville, was taken with cholera, but recovered. The same day a Mr. Henry 
Creele, sixty-three years of age, who had left Columbia after cholera had 
become epidemic in that town, was attacked, and after an illness of fourteen 
hours, died. This death also occurred at the hotel. 
September 8, a contractor on the railroad, aged twenty-five years, who 
had spent the two previous days in Lebanon, was taken with cholera and 
died within eleven hours. Many cases of acute diarrhoea occurred in the 
town of Campbellsville after the 8th of September, but none advanced to 
the stage of danger; no other cases of cholera occurred. The inhabitants 
of this town had declined to attend the Marion County Fair. No cholera 
was developed in the person of any resident of the town. The two cases 
at the hotel did not spread the disease. Disinfectants were actively used in 
all the cases that occurred in the town. 
Marion County. — Lebanon, the county town of Marion County, is 
located on the Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville railroad. 
Situated nearly in the centre of the county, it is not only the market town 
of the farming community, but is the base of supplies and shipping point 
of several small towns and hamlets. The railroad passes through the centre 
of the town from east to west upon low ground, following the course of a IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
small stream, which. heading in a spring to the northeast, forms within the 
corporation limits two large ponds for the use of the railroad and a large 
flour mill. From these ponds the stream, to which the name of Jordan has 
been given, flows through the town in a southwest direction. Its course is 
protected by stone walls and the crossings of the several streets are securely 
covered. This stream is the receptacle of filth of all kinds ; flowing in rear 
of the buildings on the north side of the main street, the privy of nearly 
every establishment is built over it. 
At the southeast of the town is a small rivulet fed by impure streams and 
the drainage from high ground. These two streams form the natural drain- 
age of the town. 
Railroad Street is lined with dwellings. Some are comfortable, but the 
largest number are occupied by negroes. A flour mill is located at the head 
of this street. The floor of the lowest [story of this mill is raised a few 
inches from the ground. A drain leads from below the foundations and 
empties into the Jordan. The effluvia from this drain attracting attention, it 
was found that the space below the floor was nearly filled with decomposing 
vegetable matter, and that from one corner of the foundation a spring of 
considerable volume issued. In the centre of the town is the Court house, 
having in front of it a public well, from which all who live in the vicinity 
are supplied with water. 
During the months of June and July, the earnest solicitations of the phy- 
sicians of Lebanon, who had formed themselves into a Sanitary Association, 
secured a cleansing and disinfection of the Jordan, the removal of much 
debris from dwellings, the disinfection of the reeking mass of decomposition 
under the flour mill, and a general cleansing of the streets. 
July 19, a negro man employed upon a section of the Ohio and Cumber- 
land railroad, six miles from Lebanon, was suddenly taken ill with all the 
symptoms of cholera, and died collapsed within eight hours from the incep- 
tion of the disease. It was ascertained that he had been at the cabins of 
the railroad hands in Taylor County, where cholera had been developed 
on the 17 th instant. At the time this case was termed “cholera morbus.” 
The other laborers on the section, and those living in the shanty in which 
he died, had constant and daily communication with the Lebanon negroes. 
The excreta were not disinfected. 
August 11, a negro woman, fifty-five years of age, living between the 
railroad and Jordan, near to the depot, was taken ill. She presented all the 
symptoms of cholera, and died fully collapsed in ten hours. The excreta 
were not disinfected, but were cast on the ground in rear of the house. 
From the nth to the 18th of August, several cases are known to have 
occurred among the lower classes of the negroes, having the symptoms 
more or less well marked. No record of these cases can be furnished, from 
the fact that the medical man in whose care they occurred died himself of 
the disease. 
August 18, a white man, fifty years of age, was attacked. After a severe 
struggle the disease was arrested, and he made a tedious recovery. The 
case most admirably defined the distinctions between “serous cholera” 12 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
and “ cholera asphyxia.” This man lived on Railroad street, near to the 
depot, and close to the house in which the case of the nth occurred. The 
excreta were not disinfected, but were thrown on the ground in rear of the 
house. 
August 19, a young lady, eighteen years of age, was attacked, but the 
disease was arrested before the second stage was fully developed. This 
case also resided on Railroad Street, east of the depot. The excreta of this 
case were not disinfected. 
It is of importance to notice that the foregoing cases were rated at the 
time as “ cholera morbus.” Each had been the subject of some impru- 
dence, to which the violence of the symptoms were attributed; and it was 
only after a 'subsequent study of each case that its true status was deter- 
mined. 
On the same day, a white man, thirty-five years of age, of intemperate 
habits, living on the well-drained portion of the town north of the railroad, 
was taken with diarrhoea; in a few hours cholera was fully developed. The 
symptoms were terribly violent, no relief could be obtained from the most 
active measures, and he died in ten hours from the inception of the disease. 
The excreta were carefully disinfected and buried, the clothing was washed 
in a strong carbolic acid solution, the mattress upon which he died was 
burned. 
August 25, a white man, forty-five years of age, temperate in his habits, 
living at the cemetery grounds (of which he had charge), died with fully de- 
veloped characteristics of cholera, after an illness of fifteen hours; and the 
same day a negro man, living in the centre of the town, and directly over the 
Jordan, died with the same symptoms, after an illness of sixty hours, during 
all of which time the urine was suppressed. This negro, it was ascertained, 
had previous to his illness spent a day and night at the shanty in which the 
case of July 19 died. In neither case were the excreta disinfected. 
On the 26th of August, the Marion County Fair was held on the grounds 
near Lebanon. Large numbers of visitors from the adjoining counties were 
collected. The grounds not being supplied with water, a contract was 
made to supply from town the deficiency. The contractor selected a well 
on the low ground within thirty feet of the Jordan, in the vicinity of the depot, 
and within a short distance of the houses in which three of the cases noted 
had occurred. This well had been dug in 1854, on what was formerly a 
drain, leading from an elevation, upon which is an old grave-yard. The 
well was sunk through a “ shaley kind of mud-stone ” and the first water 
that entered came in about eight feet from the surface and from the direc- 
tion of the Jordan. 
On the 27th, a violent rain-storm deluged the county, flooded the Jordan, 
and filled this well. On the 28th and 29th, the attendance on the Fair was 
larger than usual, and the water from this well was served as on former 
days. 
No case of violent illness had occurred in the town since the 25th; a 
fatal security seemed to possess all; but during the night of the 29th, and 
the early hours of the 30th, the blow was struck. IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
13 
It might be said, simultaneously, thirteen cases of cholera occurred, and 
within ten hours nine had terminated fatally. Two lingered for ten days 
and then died. Two made slow, tedious recoveries. At almost the same 
hour, four cases occurred at the St. Mary’s Station; two died in eight 
hours; two recovered slowly. One case occurred at Raywich, distant from 
Lebanon nine miles, and died in sixteen hours. These persons had all at- 
tended the Marion County Fair. 
In Lebanon, the disease confined itself to no locality. The high ground 
north of the town received the first blow. Several cases occurred near the 
flour mill; the others dotted the town. 
During the night of the 30th and the morning of the 31st, the disease 
developed in the county. On all sides of the town, and in the most se- 
cluded positions, wherever those who had visited the fair ground during the 
28th and 29th resided, cholera was developed. Three new cases occurred 
in the town; one died, two recovered. In the county eleven cases were re- 
ported, with six deaths. 
September 1, one case reported in town, which recovered after an illness 
of three or four weeks. Thirteen cases reported in the county, with seven 
deaths. From September 2d to October 1st, one hundred and sixteen cases 
are reported as occurring in Marion County, with fifty-six deaths. It is 
safe to conclude that many of the cases of cholera reported as recovered, 
must be classed as “ mucous cholera,” while many were undoubtedly of the 
“serous” variety, demanding active and constant treatment. During the 
entire epidemic, a company of United States troops occupied the barracks 
which are situated on the north of the town. The garrison was in most 
admirable order; a close supervision was kept over the troops ; extraor- 
dinary precautions were adopted to discover the disease in its incipient 
stage, should it occur. Camp regulations were maintained; duty was per- 
formed as usual; no unusual restrictions were imposed, but the vigilance 
was constant. One married soldier, who resided outside of the limits of the 
garrison, and his child, died of cholera; the child September 8, the father 
September 10. 
In but one instance did two cases of cholera occur in one house during 
the epidemic in the town, with the single exception of the Guthrie House, 
where five cases occurred, three of which terminated fatally. Two cases 
only occurred on Main Street; one died, the other recovered. A hotel on 
Main Street, about one hundred yards from the railroad depot, was free 
from the disease, and no cases occurred at either the County Jail or the 
Alms-house. 
In the majority of cases, the excreta were disinfected and buried; reports 
from some portions of the county state the impossibility of obtaining dis- 
infection. Even when the disinfectants were placed in the hands of the 
friends of patients, they either neglected or refused to use them. The ne- 
cessity of disinfection was fully recognized by all the physicians of the 
county with a single exception. 
Nelson County.—The history of the epidemic of cholera, as it affected 
Nelson County, can only be obtained from the towns of New Haven and 14 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
Boston, and their immediate vicinity. These towns are upon the Lebanon 
Branch railroad, and are both in the hearts of thriving farming communities. 
Bardstown, in the northern portion of the county, was infected to some ex- 
tent, but it has been found impossible as yet to obtain the records. 
. The first cholera case in Nelson County was in the person of a young 
man, residing some six miles northwest of the town of New Haven, who 
was seized with cholera August 20, and who died after an illness of nine 
hours. The patient’s dejections were not disinfected, but were thrown out 
on the ground. 
August 21, the mother and brother of the deceased were attacked with 
cholera, and both died within fifteen hours. 
August 23, the sister of the first case, and her husband, who had been in 
constant attendance upon the sick in this house, were attacked, but re- 
covered. 
August 25, a lady sixty years of age, an inmate of the same house, was 
attacked with cholera and died after eighteen hours’ illness. 
August 26, the seventh case occurred in this house, but recovered. It 
was subsequently discovered that the young man who was first attacked, 
had been the previous day (August 19) in attendance upon a friend who 
died of cholera, in the town of Lebanon, and that he had assisted in pre- 
paring the body for burial. The residence of this group of cases was not 
in a malarial region. 
September 2, a white man was taken with cholera near New Haven, and 
died after an illness of sixty hours. The day before he was attacked he 
had visited the house of a friend in Marion County, where several cases of 
cholera had occurred, and at the time of his visit two cases of the disease 
were under treatment in the house. He did not enter the house, but sat 
upon a back porch, on which the dinner was served. The head of this 
house, being fully convinced of the non-communicability of cholera, had 
declined to make use of disinfectants, and all the excreta of the patients 
had been thrown upon a heap of debris within a few feet of this porch. 
These cases were followed by the occurrence of twelve others in the 
town of New Haven. In each case the infection was traced either to the 
Marion County Fair, or to the two localities, the infection of which has 
been noted. 
The town of Boston was infected directly from Marion County. Sep- 
tember 2, a negro woman, who had just arrived from Lebanon, was taken 
with cholera, and recovered after a severe illness. To September 8, six 
cases of cholera occurred in the same house, all of which died. 
September 9, three deaths occurred in persons who had left the infected 
house after the disease had developed. The house in which the majority 
of these cases occurred was on low, wet ground, and its sanitary condition 
was most miserable. 
Garrard County. — In Garrard County the epidemic of cholera was 
confined almost exclusively to the town of Lancaster, and to refugees from 
that town after the development of the disease. Lancaster is situated 
nearly in the centre of Garrard County; in 1870, it had a population of IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
15 
seven hundred and forty-one inhabitants, three hundred and thirty-one of 
whom were negroes. Among these people, the memory of the epidemic of 
1833, at which time the town was almost depopulated by the ravages of 
cholera, had been kept green, and this fact accounts for the terror which 
the occurrence of the disease in the present year produced. 
The town is built upon undulating ground, the business portion occu- 
pying a high and well-drained position. On the eastern side of the town, 
the street known as Richmond Street descends abruptly to a valley, through 
which a small stream flows, in a northeasterly direction. This stream af- 
fords drainage for the main portion of the town; its banks are marshy and 
overgrown with wild-grasses and weeds. Beyond this stream the Richmond 
road ascends a considerable hill, upon the summit of which is located the 
barracks of the United States troops. The space between the barracks 
and the town is occupied by private residences. North of the town the 
streets terminate in the Lexington and Sugar Creek turnpikes; on the 
west in the Danville road; on the south in the Stanford and Crab Orchard 
roads. Upon each side of the eastern drain, and upon the low ground 
upon which it empties after crossing the Sugar Creek Road, large numbers 
of hovels are occupied by negroes, and upon its banks, outside of the town 
limits, is a slaughter-house, the effluvia from which, at time$, pervades the 
entire town. In the month of August, 1873, the town was in a bad sanitary 
condition ; no attention had been paid to its police. Filth of all kinds was 
scattered around the negro cabins ; human excrement was entirely upon 
the surface of the ground. The water supply of the town is obtained 
chiefly from wells, and the majority of those in public use are in such 
position that after each rain-fall they must inevitably receive a large por- 
tion of their contents from the surface washings. One, known as the Rich- 
mond Street well, to which subsequent reference will be made, is situated 
quite upon the banks of the eastern drain. Above it, upon the slope of the 
hill, are stables, cow sheds, and privies, and it is notorious that after rain- 
falls this well has been tainted with the washings from them; and when the 
fact is taken into consideration that throughout the southwest, the stables 
and adjoining premises are invariably used as privies, the condition of the 
fluid contents of this well would favor the spread of disease. 
On the 10th day of August, a Mr. Bewley, who had travelled from Rus- 
sellville, Tenn., which town at the time of his departure was infected with 
cholera, arrived in Lancaster, and lodged at the house of one Tate, who re- 
sides on Richmond Street, about one square east of the Court-house. His 
trip had been made on horseback, and he stated that on his arrival at Lon- 
don, Ky., he was taken with vomiting and purging, the exhaustion from 
which had been so severe, that he was obliged to remain in bed for a day 
or two. Before he reached Lancaster he was again taken ill, and shortly 
after his arrival an attack of cholera was fully developed. After a severe 
illness of many hours’ duration, reaction was established, but he passed 
into the condition described by Jaccoud as “typhoid cholera,” and died 
on the twelfth day of his illness. 
The excreta were not disinfected, but were thrown upon the ground in 16 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
rear of the stables and out-houses, in such position that the infection of 
the Richmond Street well was inevitable. 
August 14, a negro man, fifty years of age, was taken with cholera fully 
developed, and died in twelve hours. This man had waited upon Bewley. 
By him the excreta were emptied, and the various vessels washed. The ex- 
creta of this case were not disinfected, but were cast upon the ground. He 
died in a cabin, nearly at the head of the eastern drain. 
August 15, a white man, sixty years of age, the father-in-law of Bewley, 
who had spent a day and night in nursing him, and who had slept in the 
sick-room, started for his home in the country. On the road was taken 
violently ill, and died in eight hours. 
August 16, a negro woman living upon the same street as Bewley, and 
within a few yards of the house in which he was ill, was taken with cholera 
and died in twenty-two hours. 
August 17 and 18, no new cases occurred; but on the 19th five negroes, 
— three females and two males, — living on the same street as Bewley, were 
attacked, and within the next ten hours all had died. On the same day a 
lady, thirty-five years of age, living within the infected district, abandoned 
her home and started for the house of friends on the Kentucky River, a 
distance of some ten miles; on the road she was taken ill, and died within 
sixteen hours. 
August 20, a negro man, twenty-five years of age, who had left his home 
in the infected district, was attacked at a cabin on the southwest side of 
town, and died in six hours. On the same day the mother of the negro 
woman who died on the 16th was attacked, and died in ten hours. This 
woman had continued to reside in the room in which her daughter died. It 
was subsequently ascertained that a negro woman, who also lived in this 
locality, but who had left home on the previous day, died at camp Nelson 
on the Kentucky River, after an illness of sixteen hours. 
It is an ascertained fact that until this date (August 20), all who had 
taken the disease had not only lived in the vicinity of the Tate house, in 
which Bewley was ill, but they one and all obtained their water from the 
well on Richmond Street. Nearly all the other residents of this district 
suffered from vomiting and purging, more or less violent, but all yielded to 
treatment. 
The camp of the United States troops was in most admirable order, the 
police was perfect, and although the infected district lay at the foot of the 
hill on which the Post is located, no cases of sickness had occurred. The 
water supply was obtained from a spring east of the camp, and so located 
as precluded all possibility of its becoming infected. Strenuous efforts were 
made to prevent the soldiers having access to the infected district. On 
this date the town was almost entirely deserted by all who could leave, save 
by a few brave men and devoted women who remained to fight the disease, 
comfoft the sick, and subsist the destitute. It is well to note at this point, 
that the town authorities expended over three thousand dollars upon the 
sick and destitute during the epidemic. Up to this date no efforts at disin- 
fection had been adopted ; terror seemed to oppress all; but during the IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
17 
evening a thorough system of disinfection was instituted. As far as it was 
possible, the ground already infected wras cleaned. Lime, copperas, and 
carbolic acid, were freely used, and each householder was required to sup- 
ply himself with these articles for use on his premises. 
August 21, five cases of cholera occurred. One was a negro man who 
continued to occupy the same cabin in which his wife had died on the 19th. 
Two others of these cases were the wife and sister of the negro man, —the 
first death reported on the previous day. These women had acted as nurses 
to their husband and brother, had drank the water from the Richmond 
Street well, and had used the privy into which the dejections of the patient 
had been emptied. One died in the house in which the man was taken sick 
and died. The other removed to a cabin west of town, in which at a sub- 
sequent date other cases occurred. The five cases reported on this day all 
terminated fatally in ten hours. 
August 22, a white man, forty-five years of age, of intemperate habits, 
was taken with cholera and died within ten hours. He resided at a board- 
ing house on the hill-side, above the railroad depot. His excreta were 
disinfected and buried. Of the eight or ten other residents of this house, 
none were taken with cholera, although four or five cases of diarrhoea and 
vomiting occurred among them. The same day an old negro man from the 
infected district, was taken ill in an unfinished building and died in twenty 
hours. 
August 23, a soldier, living in the rear of an officer’s quarters, located on 
the high ground in front of the barracks, was suddenly taken with cholera 
and died in twelve hours. Early on the 24th his wife was attacked and 
died in eleven hours. No cause for the occurrence of these cases can be 
found in any imprudence on their part. The water they had used was from 
the spring used by the garrison, and not from the Richmond Street well, as 
has been stated in some reports of the epidemic. A few days previous to 
this sickness they had employed a negro woman from the infected district 
as a laundress, and it is positively stated that this was the only intercourse 
they had with the town. 
August 25, two cases occurred. One, a lady who had nursed Mr. Bewley 
and had used the water of the Richmond Street well, was taken with the 
disease and died in ten hours. A white man was attacked the same day 
and recovered. 
August 26, a negro man, in whose house two cases of cholera had already 
died, was taken with cholera and died in eight hours. And a lady, twenty- 
one years old, living near the town, and at whose house the case which 
recovered on the 25th occurred, was taken ill and died in eighteen hours. 
From August 27 to September 6, sixteen new cases of cholera are re- 
ported, twelve of which terminated fatally; four recovered. Two of these 
cases were in the persons of soldiers who were attacked and died August 
29. One of these men had nursed and assisted in preparing for burial the 
soldier and his wife who had died on the 23d. They both occupied the 
same tent and bed. Both being dissipated, reckless men, the supposition is 
strong that they visited during the nights, negro houses in the infected dis- 18 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
trict. The day following the death of these two soldiers, the command was 
moved from the barracks to a camp some two miles distant from town, 
where no new cases occurred. 
From September 5 to September 21, no new cases occurred in Lancas- 
ter ; but on the last named date an old lady, seventy-one years of age, 
visited the Tate family. She occupied the room in which Bewley had been 
sick and died, and the day after her arrival was taken with cholera and 
died in thirty-six hours. This case terminated the epidemic; singularly, the 
first and last case occurred in the same room of the same house. 
During the epidemic no cases occurred in either of the hotels, the County 
Jail, or the Poor-house. 
Lincoln County. — The epidemic of cholera in Lincoln County, so far 
as reports can be obtained, was exclusively in the immediate vicinity of the 
county town, Stanford, in which town there is a population of seven hun- 
dred and fifty-two individuals, three hundred and thirty-eight of whom are 
negroes. The town is situated in a valley, through which flows St. Asiph’s 
Branch, a small stream of remarkably pure water, taking its origin in some 
springs about one mile from town. It has always been a healthy town, free 
from miasmatic diseases. Epidemics of any kind rarely visited it. North 
of the town, and at a considerable elevation, passes the Lebanon Branch 
Railroad. 
Cholera, of a malignant type, made its appearance in this town on the 
morning of the 29th of August. That portion of the town in which the 
disease first occurred is known as Maxville, lying northwest of the railroad 
depot, and is inhabited almost exclusively by negroes. It is the most ele- 
vated portion of the town. Its sanitary condition at the time was very bad. 
Some efforts have been made at its police, but were ineffectual. In the rear 
of the houses where the disease first occurred, was a sink, some fifteen yards 
in diameter. On the northern edge of this sink, and a few yards from these 
houses, was the privy of the neighborhood. On the western edge there are 
two small springs of impure water, which empty into the sink, some twenty 
or thirty feet from the privy, which being daily used by a large number of 
negroes, was filled to overflowing with putrid excrementitious matter. The 
odor arising from this sink pervaded the entire neighborhood. 
About one week previous to the appearance of cholera in Stanford, a 
young man died of the disease at his home about two miles from town. 
He had been employed in the town of Lancaster during the first week of 
the prevalence of the disease, but quitted his work and returned home. 
The special data of his case cannot be obtained, from the fact that the 
physician who attended him declined to notice any of the requests made 
to him. 
During the Lancaster epidemic, many refugee negroes made their homes 
in Maxville; they made use of the common sink, but as far as can be learned, 
none were taken with the disease. 
August 29, five cases of cholera occurred in Maxville. They were 
taken ill within a few hours, and all had Terminated fatally within fourteen 
hours. IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
19 
August 30, in the same locality five cases occurred, all of whom died 
within thirteen hours. The town authorities took possession of a negro 
church near the infected locality, a hospital was organized, which was 
placed under the charge of Dr. S. P. Craig, to whom we are indebted for 
the history of the epidemic. 
August 31, in the same locality, a white woman, twenty-five years of 
age, and her infant, one year of age, were taken with the same disease; both 
died, the child in twenty-four hours, the mother in forty-eight hours. 
From September 1 to September 12 nine cases of cholera occurred, six 
of which recovered slowly; three died. These cases were followed by 
some eight or ten cases which presented all premonitory symptoms of the 
disease, but all yielded to treatment. 
September 28, a gentleman and his wife residing near to the infected 
district were both attacked with cholera. The case of the lady terminated 
fatally within twenty hours. The gentleman made a tedious recovery. 
This family had abandoned their home on the day cholera developed in 
the town, and remained in a healthy locality until ten days had elapsed 
from the last reported case. During this absence their house remained 
closed and unoccupied. After the return of the family, the precaution was 
adopted of bringing all water that was used in the house from a well in the 
town which had been used with impunity by a large number of families. 
The first few days of the epidemic, the disease was confined to the lo- 
cality described as Maxville and to those who fled from that district upon 
the development of the disease. Four cases occurred near the centre of 
the town ; of these, two cases were in one house; the other two lived sep- 
arately, but in the same locality. No cases of the disease occurred in hotels, 
the County Jail, or Alms-house. 
Adair County. — In Adair County the epidemic of cholera was con- 
fined to the town of Columbia, to one locality of the town, and to a few 
cases who, having visited the infected locality, returned to their homes in 
the country. Columbia, the county town of Adair County, has a population 
of about six hundred inhabitants. Very few negroes reside within the cor- 
poration limits. The town is built upon a hill-side, and is by nature most 
admirably drained. The arrangement of the town is on a square, in the 
centre of which stands the Court-house ; opposite to the Court-house, streets 
to the north, south, east, and west, lead off. This square is occupied by 
business houses, a few private dwellings, and the hotel, — the “ Winfrey 
House,” which faces the Court-house on the corner of the street leading 
north. On the side street and opposite to the hotel, is a large barn which 
is used as a livery stable. Columbia has always been considered a healthy 
town; the epidemics of the past were cholera in 1833 and 1835, from which 
diseases the inhabitants suffered severely; dysentery in the fall of 1849, 
from which over sixty of the inhabitants died; and camp fever in the win- 
ter of 1862, when a large number of soldiers died; from which time until 
the present year, no disease has become epidemic. 
In the month of August of the present year, the sanitary condition of the 
town was bad. The privies and the stables of the town and their premises 20 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
were filthy. Human excrement was mixed with the debris around the 
stables. In rear of the stable of the Winfrey House was a privy pit which 
was full to overflowing with human excrement, and was located in such a 
position that the surface water drained into it. The hotel is an old brick 
structure, two stories in height, with a general air of decay; on the eastern 
side and adjoining it is a wooden house, used as a residence by the family 
of the proprietor. The back yard and out-houses of this hotel were filthy 
in the extreme. 
August 29, a negro boy, fourteen years of age, who had been in attend- 
ance as a hostler at the Marion County Fair, returned to Columbia, and 
took up his position in the stables of the Winfrey House. After his arrival 
he was taken with a diarrhoea and made constant use of the privy in rear 
of the stables, to which nearly all the male portion of the community re- 
sorted as occasion demanded. 
August 30, a negro man, the hostler in charge of the stables, was attacked 
with cholera, and died in a basement room of the Winfrey House after an 
illness of forty-eight hours. The same day, the boy to whom attention has 
already been called, was found under a shed in rear of the stables, fully 
collapsed. He died within six hours. Later in the day, a daughter of 
Winfrey, aged twenty years, was attacked and died in ten hours ; and a 
white man, fifty years of age, who resided some fifteen miles from town, on 
Casey’s Creek, but who was known to have used the stable privy on the 
29th, was taken ill and died in ten hours. 
August 31, J. C. Winfrey, the proprietor of both hotel and stables, was 
taken with cholera, from which he died in twelve hours. During the early 
hours of the same day, five members of the Winfrey family, and six boarders 
at the hotel, were attacked with the same disease. A total of twelve cases in 
one house, all being attacked within a few hours of each other. Eight died 
of the disease within eighteen hours. Three cases made tedious recoveries. 
September 1, three persons who had lived at the Winfrey House were 
taken ill, two of whom died within sixteen hours. Doctor H. Owens, the 
rear windows of whose office opened into the stable yard opposite to the 
infected privy, died at his home in the country within twelve hours. The 
negro who had nursed the case of August 30, was attacked and died after 
an illness of fifteen hours. One case lingered for seven days, during which 
time he was removed some six miles into the country, where he died. A 
white man, fifty years of age, who had used the infected privy on August 
30, died at his home on Green river, after fourteen hours’ illness ; and a 
young girl, twelve years of age, the daughter of the man who died on 
Casey’s Creek (August 30), died after ten hours’ illness. 
September 2, a white boy, who had frequented the Winfrey House and 
stables was attacked, but made a slow recovery; and two white men, 
father and son, who had nursed the sick at the Winfrey House, were taken 
ill. The father, aged seventy years, died in sixteen hours ; the son, aged 
twenty-five years, recovered. The same day, a white man, fifty years of 
age, who was known on some of the previous days to have used the stable 
privy, was taken with cholera at his home, some four miles in the country, 
and died in twenty-four hours. IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
21 
During the three following days no new cases occurred. 
September 6, a daughter of Mr. Winfrey, aged eight years, had a slight 
attack of cholera, but recovered. 
September 8, four cases occurred, all of whom had been directly exposed 
to the infection of the Winfrey House. All recovered. 
September io, a white man and his wife, both aged about seventy years, 
were attacked. The man recovered, the woman died. How they had been 
exposed to the disease could not be discovered. 
During the subsequent ten days no new cases were developed. 
From September 20 to September 23, five cases occurred, all of whom 
had been directly exposed to the infection of the Winfrey House and stables. 
Of these cases three died. After the disease had become epidemic a gen- 
eral police of the town was made. The Winfrey House was closed ; the 
stable was abandoned, after the privy had been disinfected and filled up 
with fresh earth. It is the opinion of the two physicians who remained in 
Columbia during the epidemic, that in the majority of the cases, the excreta 
were not disinfected, but were cast upon the ground. 
October 27, on visiting the Winfrey House, and asking permission to 
visit the rooms in which the cases of cholera during the late epidemic had 
occurred, we found that no effort had been made at cleaning, beyond a 
washing of the bed clothing, and sweeping of the floor.. The mattresses 
and other beds remained unchanged, carpets had not been removed, the 
walls had not been brushed. On examining the bed upon which Mr. Win- 
frey had died, some empty medicine vials were discovered. 
The importance of prompt and immediate cleansing of these rooms and 
of the entire premises, was earnestly impressed upon the present manager; 
but it is extremely doubtful if the slightest attention will be given to any 
of the suggestions, although the hotel is now open and soliciting patronage. 
Clinton County. — The history of the epidemic of cholera as it oc- 
curred in Clinton County is meagre. From the few facts yet obtained, we 
learn that a gentleman returned from a visit to Nashville, late in June, to 
his home in the southern portion of the county. A few days after his return 
home he was attacked with cholera and died. 
On the morning of August 31, Major A. M. Adair, Commonwealth Attor- 
ney for the Sixth Judicial District of Kentucky, who had been attending 
court at Columbia when cholera was developed in that town, who had lived 
at the Winfrey House, and had passed the previous night in the room with 
a cholera patient, started on horseback for Albany, Clinton County, in com- 
pany of Judge T. T. Alexander. When a few miles from Columbia Major 
Adair was taken with pain in the abdomen, attended with nausea, which 
became more and more severe until five o’clock, p. m., when violent vomiting 
came on. He had ridden some fifteen miles since the symptoms first 
occurred, being desirous to reach the house of a friend, but was now obliged 
to dismount. A violent purging was established, and he was carried to a 
house near by and placed in bed. Cholera was fully developed, but Major 
Adair recovered after a tedious illness. Dr. Waggoner, of Bowling Green, 
who was summoned to the case, states that there was a total suppression of 
the urine for five days. 22 
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 
The house in which Major Adair was sick is situated on one of the spurs 
of the Cumberland mountains, twenty-six miles southeast of the town of 
Columbia, which was the nearest point of infection. The position of this 
house is so isolated, that the owner first learned of cholera being in the 
county by the arrival of Major Adair. No malaria could be found to pro- 
duce the disease in this vicinity, yet we find that on September 8, Mr. K., 
the owner of this house, was taken sick with the same disease ; lingered 
for four days, when he died. Two other members of the same family died 
from cholera within a few days. No other cases occurred in Clinton 
County as far as can be ascertained. 
Washington County. — It has been found impossible to obtain full ac- 
counts of the epidemic as it affected Washington County. Springfield, the 
county town, nine miles north from Lebanon, with which town its inhabit- 
ants are in daily communication, escaped almost entirely. 
August 31, a negro man, aged fifty years, who had attended the Marion 
County Fair, was taken with cholera and died after an illness of ten hours. 
September 1, a white man, twenty years of age, residing within a few 
miles of town, died from cholera within twelve hours. 
September 2, three negroes living in the Pleasant Run district, were 
taken with cholera and all died within thirty-six hours. These men had all 
been in Lebanon within a few days of their attack. 
September 4, a prominent physician of the county, residing on Pleas- 
ant Run, who had been in constant attendance upon cases of cholera in 
Washington and Marion counties, was violently attacked. He lingered for 
twenty-four hours and died. 
September 7, the daughter of Dr. Logan was attacked with cholera and 
died within seventy-two hours. During her father’s illness she had been in 
constant attendance on him. After the death of this lady, her mother, child, 
and husband, were attacked with cholera, but all three recovered. These 
cases were followed by two cases of cholera among the servants of the 
family, both of whom died in a few hours. Dr. Logan and many of the 
members of his family had attended the Marion County Fair. 
Boyle County. — So far as records can be obtained, no cases of cholera 
occurred in Boyle County prior to August 30, when a farmer in comfort- 
able circumstances, living some six miles from Danville, was attacked, and 
after an illness of ninety-six hours recovered. This man had attended the 
Marion County Fair, and the disease was developed in him at about the 
same hour that it was in many of the Lebanon cases. 
On the 1 st of September, a young lady, eighteen years of age, who with 
other members of her family had left their home in Marion County on ac- 
count of the cholera, was attacked, and made a slow recovery. The next 
day her father and brother were taken ill with the same disease, but both 
recovered. 
September 3, a gentleman, also from Marion County, was attacked, but 
after an illness of ninety-six hours, reacted and recovered. These cases 
occurred about five miles west of the town of Danville. Each had attended 
the Marion County Fair, and had not left their homes until after the occur- IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
23 
rence of the disease in Lebanon. In each the symptoms of the second 
stage were fully developed, collapse, although imminent, had been reached 
in none. 
September 4, a young man, seventeen years of age, a student of Centre 
College, Danville, was attacked with cholera, while in his class-room. He 
had but a day or two previously arrived from his home in Lebanon, and 
had been present on each day’s meeting of the Marion County Fair. 
case also recovered. No other case occurred in the town of Danville. 
The sanitary condition of the town was good. The Boyle County Medical 
Society had made the necessary representations to the Town Trustees, and 
the Trustees had cooperated fully with the Society. A system of weekly in- 
spections was instituted. The town was divided into districts to which 
were assigned a representative of each body, and all that might be prejudi- 
cial to the public health was removed. 
September 5, a negro man, aged forty-five years, was attacked with chol- 
era at the house of a friend, some six miles west of Danville, and died 
after an illness of eight hours. The day before he was taken sick, he had 
arrived from Adair County. He had been the body servant of Colonel 
Robert Miller, of Columbia, who had fallen a victim to the Winfrey House 
epidemic, on the 1st instant. The negro, after faithfully nursing his master, 
prepared his body for the grave, and after the funeral started for his friend 
in Boyle County. 
No other cases occurred in the county. 
Mercer County. — The reports from Mercer County are meagre. Five 
cases are reported as occurring in the town of Harrodsburg, from the 6th to 
the 15th of September. But one death is reported. All the cases occurred 
in the persons of negroes, and it has been found impossible to obtain any 
previous history of the individuals. 
In closing this outline of the Kentucky epidemic we desire to acknowl- 
edge the aid and encouragement extended to us by the medical gentlemen 
of the State. It was imposing a task of no small magnitude upon busy 
country practitioners, to ask a full report of an epidemic, of which no notes 
of cases were kept at the time of occurrence, yet except in a single instance, 
the information was promptly furnished. 
Lebanon, Kentucky, November, 1873. CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 
Abstract of Records of Epidemic of Cholera in Kentucky in 1873. 
Statistics by Ages. 
Abortions 
produced 
by Disease. 
Age. 
i Mo. 
Age. 
2 Mos. 
Age. 
3 Mos. 
Age. 
4 Mos. 
Age. 
i Year. 
Age. 
2 Years. 
Age. 
3 Years. 
Age. 
4 Years. 
Age. 
5 Years. 
Age. 
S to io 
Years. 
Total 
under io 
Years. 
5 
I 
2 
2 
3 
3 
IO 
5 
4 
4 
3° 
64 
Years. 
10 to 20. 
Years. 
20 to 30. 
Years. 
30 to 40. 
Years. 
40 to 50. 
Years. 
50 to 60. 
Years. 
60 to 70. 
Years. 
70 to 80. 
Years. 
80 to 90. 
Years. 
”3 
Total 
over 10 
Years. 
98 
147 
117 
124 
74 
48 
18 
3 
I 
630 
Statistics by Sex. 
Male. 
Female. 
White. 
Black. 
Recoveries. 
Deaths. 
White. 
Black. 
White. 
Black. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
34 
3° 
33 
31 
5 
6 
I 
2 
14 
II 
15 
IO 
Statistics by Social Condition. 
Male. 
Female. 
White. 
Black. 
Married. 
Single. 
Recoveries. 
Deaths. 
White. 
Black. 
White. 
Black. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
Male. 
Female. 
339 
291 
362 
268 
367 
263 
107 
69 
23 
28 
108 
99 
IOI 
95 
Summary. 
Deaths reported, but of which there is not sufficient data to admit of tabulation. 
McCracken County 180 
Bourbon County 76 
Meade County : . 60 
Total 316