Mysterious illness in 1884 affected surrounding counties

The mysterious illness that occurred in 1884 affected several areas including Dickenson, Buchanan, and Wise Counties in Virginia and several counties in Kentucky. Dickenson County had only been established for four years. The county seat in Clintwood had only been recognized for two years. Therefore, much of the information about this plague was reported in the well established surrounding counties. However, based upon newspaper articles and oral history stories, one can assume that Dickenson County suffered great loss of life during this tragic time.

The first case [of the disease] that appeared in [Wise County] was that of William Bates at Pound Gap, Cumberland Mountains, in the latter part of July, before the beginning of the drought. {2}

The next three cases appeared at Gladeville, in August, also before the drought began. The other cases occurred in Bowl [Bold] Camp, along the tributaries of the creek, where it became a general epidemic, causing sixty deaths. {2}

At Gladeville there lived a Methodist circuit rider, the Rev. Joseph Emmons... He had a wife and three children... When the plague broke out..., he devoted his whole time to the care of the sick. He was at once physician and nurse. When the disease had run its fatal course, he gave the dying consolation ... Almost without help, for the people in their terror gave up all hope and sat down to die, he made rough coffins and dug shallow graves to bury the dead. [3]

When at last his wife and two of his children became victims, there was no one to lend him a helping hand. In one day they were all dead, and on the next day, he knelt alone beside the one grave which he had dug with his own hand...{3}

In the latter part of August and in September [in Wise County], deaths were frequently five per day. As nearly as can be ascertained, the deaths in this county number two hundred. In Lee, Dickenson, and Buchanan Counties, Va., and McDowell, W.Va., scattering cases occurred, averaging about twenty deaths in each {2} [at the time of the newspaper article.]

The following was extracted from a letter [written in 1884] from Ervinton, Va.

“Such a situation has not been known in this section of Virginia for years and years. For three months now it has been one continual funeral. At first mourners were numerous, but now since death and disease have held such sway, the corpses are almost greater in number than are those who bury them. This town of fewer than 140 people, is a veritable deserted village..” {1}

“A gentleman who rode overland from [Crane’s Nest] to Ervinton... said... that he passed houses where a few more than 400 people lived during the month of September, but in... two months 116 of them had died. [In the] population of Ervinton... 41 have died of the plague in six weeks.” {3}

One report stated that the center of the [epidemic] was Dickenson County, Va., “in the midst of the Cumberland Mountains...The greatest destitution prevails, and the cold weather is sure to cause such a mortality as even the present state of affairs has not begun to equal. The last rainfall was on August 3...{5}

The first cases [of the 1884 epidemic] which appeared were bloody flux with vomit; the latter assuming the form of Asiatic cholera. In nearly all cases where the patients died, they were attacked with severe griping, with the above-named symptoms. {2}

“Most of the people called it “flux,” and it was probably a very aggravated form of that disease. It began with griping pains in the stomach, followed by a debilitating discharge and a swelling of the throat; and if not fatal in three or four days, the patient as a rule, recovered. {6}

Large quantities of sometimes red and sometimes dark blood appeared at various stages of the disease. All who died were conscious to the last, and every adult was not only anxious to die but prayed to die. {2}

When once a member of a family was stricken, the rest were pretty sure to follow, and this was due in many cases to a lack of proper care for the sick and to a failure to properly dispose of excreta. The people usually tried to doctor themselves, and this increased the fatality. {3}

With the present [2020] “stay at home” order issued by the Governor of Virginia as a result of the Covid19 pandemic, our resources to use for information are limited. However, we found that from July 1, 1853, to 1896, the Virginia Assembly required that births and deaths be recorded by the commissioner of revenue in each county. Consequently, many of those births and deaths were not recorded. Death records between 1896 and 1912 are also hard to find. The Virginia Department of Vital Statistics has death records from 1912 forward.

We made a quick search of death records from Dickenson, Buchanan, and Wise counties for deaths attributed to flux, which is the term that was given to the mysterious disease. Many other deaths were recorded as unknown, cramps, fever, etc.
Wise County death records recorded at least 81 people whose cause of death was listed as the flux. John and Nancy Salyer of Wise County had five children to died from the flux! The children ranged in age from 2 years to 9 years of age. In Buchanan County, there were at least thirteen deaths listed as flux.

According to the death records found for Dickenson County, fourteen people died from the flux. The following deaths from “flux” were recorded: John Adkins; Phoebe Adkins; Russell Crabtree; Elihu Collins; Donald Sanfransis; Charles R. A. Horn; Surreina F. Hensley; Leoran Hale; John Hale; Sarah Kelly; Travis J. Kenady; Sarah Lane; Martha E. Mullins; William Thomas Page; and Martha E. Pannel.

There are not over fifteen physicians in the eight counties [affected by the plague in Kentucky and Virginia]... {3}. [They] say that the water contained mineral poison of some kind, because only a mineral poison would have produced the gripings, the burning fever and thirst, and the bloody evacuations that marked the disease. {3} They say that ores of copper and arsenites abound in the mountains. {3}

None of the attending physicians seemed to understand the disease, and their treatment was simply experimental. In the commencement various forms of mercury were used, and every patient so treated died. {2}

Besides a great variety of patent nostrums, the favorite remedies were liberal doses of hot mutton tallow, hog’s grease mixed with burnt (mulled) brandy, decoctions of tobacco and of blackberry roots, and all sorts of herby teas, and at all stages of the disease whiskey. {3}

The remedy which proved most effectual was a compound of castor and olive oil, laudanum and camphor, or, where no physician was in attendance, a simple treatment of warm tea and careful nursing.{2}

The disease... left many cripples in a condition resembling that caused by rheumatism. {2}

Whatever the original cause of the disease may have been, there is no doubt that it was augmented by the drought and the impure water. {2}
The advice of Clara Barton of the Red Cross was solicited to determine the exact cause of the 1884 epidemic. We could find no response from Barton.

In 1854 a similar, but less virulent, plague raged through these mountains. [At that time] the physicians... knew less of medicine than the people they tried to care for. Quinine and calomel were the favorite remedies, and the consequent deaths created a not unnatural prejudice in the minds of the people. {3}

Relief committees were organized in the larger villages beyond the mountains, but the only outside relief received [by December, 1884] was $1,200 from the cattlemen’s convention at St. Louis. The things most needed were clothing, medicine, and competent physicians and nurses. {3}

During the present Covid19 epidemic, “social distancing” may be a new term and may be difficult to endure; but “good hygiene” has been taught by our parents and grandparents for years. We can benefit by studying our past and that has been the purpose of these two articles!

Sources:
{1} The Falcon, December 12, 1884

{2} The Argos Reflector, December 18, 1884

{3} The Evening Star, December 10, 1884, (From the New York Sun)

{4} The Leavenworth Times, December 7, 1884

{5} The Vermont Phoenix, December 5, 1884

{6} The Abbeville Messenger, December 10, 1884

***

Because of the present Covid19 virus situation in our country, our office will be closed until further notice. However, our patrons are asked to use the contact information below and we will provide services whenever possible.

All of our newspapers articles are reprinted in the Historical Society’s Stories of Yesteryear booklets. Currently, Volumes 1-12 are available for purchase.
For more information about this article, or any of our publications, or to make corrections or additions to an article, to purchase a local history book, or to inquire about a Historical Society event, please contact the Historical Society office at 276/926-6355, P. O. Box 52, Clintwood, Va., 24228, or dchs1880@gmail.com.
If no answer, please leave a message (which includes your name and phone number) and one of our volunteers will return your call. Or contact Edith Faye Redden at 926-4117.