Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 5: Almost a Lethal Mistake

Before the advent of antibiotics, brandy was a common treatment for cholera.  "Most of the medicines given really only functioned as sedatives,"  Selzer said.

"In one case in 1866 it worked too well -- a patient was knocked out so thoroughly that the family thought he was dead and called for the undertaker.  The coffin arrived just as he woke up.  The same may have happened when Philo Carpenter, Illinois' first pharmacist, was digging graves for victims of the epidemic, one of the men he was about to bury stirred back to life."

--Cooter

Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 4: The 1866 Cholera Epidemic

A military leader sounding the alarm about a disease spreading?  And, not knowing the causes of it or what to do for sure?  Sounds a bit similar to what we have these days.  Who says history does not repeat itself.  Personally, at age 68, I never thought I'd be in one of these disease events right now.  I kind of thought that was a thing of the past.

The causes of cholera weren't well known at the time.  One thought would be considered an ugly xenophobic speculation that immigrants coming to the city caused it.

A thousand Chicagoans would die in the next cholera epidemic in 1866, including Dr. Daniel Brainard, founder of Rush University and hospital, who had studied the disease a lot.  The Tribune called the disease "the grim destroyer" and it killed about a third of the people who caught it."

It was after this third wave that the city began working to fight it.  They still didn't quite understand where it came from. but they'd figured out that good sanitation would help.

--DaCoot

Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 3: Cholera and Fort Dearborn

Continued from April 21, 2020.  Before I got on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  You can catch up on the first two posts by clicking on the label Chicago below this entry.

Adam Selzer is quite knowledgeable about Chicago's history and its epidemics and pandemics.  He leads guided tours of cemeteries including one of the bigger ones called Graceland.

One of the epidemics that plagues Chicago in the 1800s was that of cholera.  Multiple outbreaks took place in the city in the 19th century.  He says the first major epidemic took place in 1832 (Chicago became a city in 1837).

It was brought in on a ship by Gen. Winfield Scott who arrived in town by ship with soldiers from the Black Hawk War. Dozens died as they occupied the old Fort Dearborn and Scott later said that the disease scared him more than any enemy because there was no way to fight it; he couldn't fortify his walls against it or even offer terms of surrender.

Fort Dearborn was the site of the infamous Fort Dearborn Massacre in the War of 1812.

--Cooter

Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 2: Graceland Cemetery, Lincoln Park Cemtery and Cholera

Adam Selzer is a local historian who earns a living taking people on small tours/walks around Chicago pointing.  Obviously, right now, die to the "V" those are not underway.  You can go to his Mysterious Chicago Facebook page to take one of his tours ala virtual.

Strangely, he was working on a new presentation "Health Scares Through History" tour through Graceland Cemetery in Chicago when all this "V" hit.

Graceland Cemetery opened in 1860, but you will find gravestones that predate that as many graves were relocated here from smaller cemeteries, family cemeteries and the city cemetery that used to be at Lincoln Park.  This one was closed because people were afraid the bodies buried there were affecting the drinking water.  (They didn't realize it, but these decaying bodies were causing the deadly cholera.

Cholera was major killer throughout the 19th century in Chicago and around the world.

--Cooter

Chicago's Mercy Hospital-- Part 2: The Civil War and the Growth of a Chicago Health Care Provider

Mercy Hospital helped Chicago's need for health care as the city grew rapidly in the 19th century.  There were  outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis.  It became a modern hospital and remained an anchor for care on the city's South Side even to today.

During the Civil War, the Sisters of Mercy treated Union soldiers as well as Confederate prisoners.  In the middle of the war, they moved the hospital to 26th Street and Calumet Avenue near its current location.

Thousands of doctors have trained at the hospital and it was often on the cutting edge of medicine.  In 1955, Mercy neurosurgeon Dr. Harold Vors and his team performed the first successful separation of twins joined at the head.   The hospital also had the first oncology unit in the city.

Over the years the hospital expanded, eventually moving into a new 517-bed facility in 1968.

--Cooter

Raising Chicago Out of the Mud-- Part 2: No Bottom" and Cholera

On New Year's day, 1859, the Chicago Tribune reported:  "Within the past year from fifty to sixty brick stores, in blocks of two to five to seven in number, have been thus raised."

Critics in rival cities thought it was absurd to do this, saying this would bankrupt the city.  One particularly vehement one in Cincinnati said that he'd bet his whole fortune on Chicago not doubling its population for at least 50 years.

He would have lost as Chicago's population doubled in ten years.

"Previously, the city was infamous for streets that were less less thoroughfares than sinkholes."

Chicago's problem was that it had been built on low-lying land along the Chicago River.  Floods and rains produced quagmires.  Some of the mud holes would be marked "No Bottom."  Stranded carts buried up to their hubs in mud were common sights after rain.

This also made it almost impossible to separate drinking water from waste water.  Sewage contaminated the drinking water causing epidemics.  In 1854 alone, cholera caused 1424 deaths.

--DaCoot