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.