Cholera of 1833

A Cholera Patient

In the summer of 1832 Asiatic cholera made its appearance in the west, and was especially severe in St. Louis. It, however, failed to reach Marion county that year. The cold winter of 1832-3 it thought had destroyed all the germs of the dread pestilence and when the spring, of the latter year came on but little apprehension was felt by the people of this county that the fearful scourge would visit them. They were so wrong. One 3 June cholera struck with a vengeance. By the 15th of June 1833, the contagion began to abate, and by the the 1st of July it had entirely disappeared. During its prevalence in Palmyra, out of a population of about 600, there had died 105 persons, of whom 50 were whites and 55 were blacks.