Epidemics have always had a great influence on people - and thus
influencing, as well, the genealogists trying to trace them.
Many
cases of people disappearing from records can be traced to dying
during an epidemic or moving away from the affected area. Some
of the major epidemics in the United States are listed below:
1657 Boston
Measles
1687 Boston
Measles
1690 New York
Yellow Fever
1713 Boston
Measles
1729 Boston
Measles
1732-3 Worldwide
Influenza
1738 South Carolina
Smallpox
1739-40 Boston
Measles
1747 CT,NY,PA,SC
Measles
1759 N. Amer [areas inhabited by white people]
Measles
1761 N. Amer and West Indies
Influenza
1772 N. America
Measles
1775 N. Amer [especially hard in NE] epidemic
Unknown
1775-6 Worldwide [one of the worst epidemics] Influenza
1783 Dover, DE ["extremely fatal"]
Bilious Disorder
1788 Philadelphia and New York
Measles
1793 Vermont [a "putrid" fever] and
Influenza
1793 VA [killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks]
Influenza
1793 Philadelphia [one of the worst epidemics]
Yellow Fever
1793 Harrisburg, PA [many unexplained deaths]
Unknown
1793 Middletown, PA [many mysterious deaths] Unknown
1794 Philadelphia, PA
Yellow Fever
1796-7 Philadelphia, PA
Yellow Fever
1798 Philadelphia, PA [one of the worst]
Yellow Fever
1803 New York
Yellow Fever
1820-3 Nationwide [starts-Schuylkill River and spreads]
"Fever"
1831-2 Nationwide [brought by English emigrants]
Asiatic Cholera
1832 NY City and other major cities
Cholera
1837 Philadelphia
Typhus
1841 Nationwide [especially severe in the south]
Yellow Fever
1847 New Orleans
Yellow Fever
1847-8 Worldwide
Influenza
1848-9 North America
Cholera
1850 Nationwide
Yellow Fever
1850-1 North America
Influenza
1852 Nationwide [New Orleans-8,000 die in summer]
Yellow Fever
1855 Nationwide [many parts]
Yellow Fever
1857-9 Worldwide [one of the greated epidemics]
Influenza
1860-1 Pennsylvania
Smallpox
1865-73 Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans} {Smallpox
Baltimore, Memphis, Washington
DC}
{Cholera
[A series of recurring epidemics
of:} {Typhus
{Typhoid
{Scarlet Fever
{Yellow Fever
1873-5 N. America and Europe
Influenza
1878 New Orleans [last great epidemic]
Yellow Fever
1885 Plymouth, PA
Typhoid
1886 Jacksonville, FL
Yellow Fever
1918 Worldwide[high point yr] more people were
{Influenza
hospitalized in WWI from
this epidemic than
wounds. US Army training
camps became
death camps, with 80% death
rate in some
camps
Finally, these specific instances of cholera were mentioned:
1833 Columbus, OH
1834 New York City
1849 New York
1851 Coles Co., IL, The Great Plains, and Missouri
This came from a Kansas List.