Ancestry Magazine

Ever wondered why certain family members died so young or why several members of a family disappeared without explanation at about the same time? The simple answer may be disease—until recently, epidemics, including the following, swept across the country, generation after generation, taking young and old alike.

1600s and 1700s

Smallpox

The scourge of early America, smallpox first began by decimating the Native American population when the Dutch and British settled in New England. The first epidemics killed up to 90 percent of the native population, but colonists weren’t safe either. During the 1600s, Boston had six separate epidemics that killed thousands. Almost 100 years later, during the Revolutionary War, the United States faced one of its largest smallpox epidemics when more than 100,000 died. Everyone was at risk—even George Washington and Abraham Lincoln contracted mild forms.

1793

Yellow Fever

Philadelphia lost more than 10 percent of its 55,000 residents in the summer of 1793 when sailors brought yellow fever from the West Indies. Those who were able, including important government officials such as George Washington and his cabinet, fled the city. Betsy Ross, the seamstress of the first American flag, lost her mother, father, and sister during the epidemic.

1832

Cholera

In 1832, America experienced its first outbreak of cholera. English immigrants brought the disease, and the inadequate sewage system and sanitation practices of New York City helped it spread rapidly. More than 3,000 New Yorkers died from cholera during a two-month period. That same year, cholera spread to New Orleans where another 5,000 people died. Not quite 20 years later, in a separate epidemic, cholera claimed the life of the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk.

1861–65

Typhoid Fever

Two-thirds of all the deaths during the Civil War were not the result of battle wounds but of diseases including malaria, measles, dysentery, and the particularly deadly typhoid fever. More than 75,000 people became infected with typhoid and almost 30,000 died. Clara Barton and Louisa May Alcott both contracted the illness while nursing wounded soldiers. Although neither woman died, each suffered from typhoid fever’s lasting effects.

1918–19

Influenza

At the end of World War I, an outbreak of the “Spanish flu” started in the United States and soon became a worldwide pandemic. In the worst epidemic in U.S. history, 500,000 men, women, and children died. Across the globe numbers were even worse—an estimated 20–50 million people succumbed. Fortunately, the virus vanished as quickly as it appeared and was gone within 18 months.

1949–52

Polio

Polio, a virus that causes paralysis and sometimes death, created a panic in America as it struck child after child. Family members were separated, the afflicted were quarantined, and some towns even barred entrance to children under age 16. In 1952, polio reached its peak: 3,300 deaths and 57,000 reported cases; even today, 20 million Americans still deal with the crippling effects of the disease. You don’t have to look far to find people who survived and even thrived—golfer Jack Nicklaus and actress Mia Farrow were both once afflicted with polio.

1981–present day

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)

In 1981, physicians were baffled by a rare and sometimes fatal strain of pneumonia that was infecting men in the San Francisco area. That first year 234 people died of the disease prompting additional research into the root cause—AIDS. Since then, more than 500,000 Americans have died and another million are reported to have the disease. Worldwide, more than 65 million people have been infected and AIDS-related deaths have topped 25 million.