Mr. Denny:—According to your request, I propose giving you a short version of the mortality by cholera in Salem township in this county. Some five weeks ago the disease broke out in Morrow with considerable virulence, and in a few hours some of the most respectable citizens were hurried into eternity. About two weeks thereafter, near Edwardsville, a Mr. Lundy was attacked, and in a few hours died. Three other members of the family were subsequently taken, and when the doctor came were in a deplorable condition—some in the barn and some in the house—with no person to attend to them or administer to their wants. The people were so alarmed that neither brother, nor sister, nor neighbor, would go to the house, and the doctor had to act both as physician and nurse until aid could be procured from Morrow. Three gentlemen from Morrow volunteered their services and took turns in attending the family, and while there had to wash, sweep, cook, and do all the nursing, as no woman could be induced to enter the house. The three remaining sick in the family fortunately recovered. It is supposed that Mr. Lundy contracted the disease at Morrow of Mr. Foster. The second day after Lundy’s death a Mr. Getzendanner [aka Getzendiner], an old and respectable citizen who assisted in laying him out, took the disease and before medical aid could be obtained he was in a collapsed state, and so far gone that the remedies administered had no effect. He died in a few hours. Owing to the great timidity of the people in that neighborhood, he remained just as he died until the next day, when his friends and some gentlemen from Morrow assisted in his interment.
About two weeks ago a fatal case of cholera occurred in the neighborhood of Butlerville. A young man by the name of Craig was attacked so violently that he died in a few hours. So terrified were the neighbors also in this instance that but one man could be induced—besides Mr. Dynes, of Morrow—to lay him out, and when so laid out the friends left the house and did not return until the next morning, when the interment took place. I learned by a gentleman who was there that just after the decease of Mr. Craig, a young man, a neighbor, came to the house for water, and that when he heard that Craig had died of cholera he was so frightened that he returned without it.
The town of Morrow had been clear of fatal cases of cholera for about four weeks, though there had been cases within that time of great severity saved by prompt medical aid and good nursing, but on Friday evening last Mr. Trimble took the cholera, and though medical aid was at hand and every means used to restore him, he survived but about twenty-four hours. It is supposed that Mr. T. contracted the disease from Mr. Foster some five weeks ago, as he has been on the decline ever since. He was at the house of his father-in-law, Mr. Getzendanner, when he died.
On Sunday last, a young girl by the name of Williams, who was washing for Mr. Trimble when he was sick, took the disease at six o’clock in the morning and died during the same day. Her remains were followed to their last resting place by numerous friends and mourning relatives on the 13th inst.
Yours, Abraham Brant