Why did so many Germans die from cholera in Buffalo during the mid nineteenth century?

Over the last few weeks I have been collecting data from the cholera ledger kept by Dr. James Newman, Health Physician in Buffalo during the 1854 cholera epidemic.  While I have only just begun to analyze the data, I thought it might be useful to report what I have learned so far.  First, however, I would like to correct a mistake from one of my earlier blogs.  The Cholera Hospital (McHose house, an abandoned tavern on property owned by Dr. Ebenezer Jonson, the first mayor of Buffalo) was not located near the poorhouse as I previously thought.  It was located just a few blocks away from the mysterious Hospital Street in Block 21 of the village of Black Rock, its boundaries being Ninth Street to the east, Niagara St. to the west, Carolina St. to the north and Georgia St. to the south (see the blue dot on the map).

City of Buffalo, 1849.  From the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library

With that cleared up, it is important to remember that the same hospital appears to have been used in all three major cholera epidemics (1832, 1849, and 1854).  Interestingly, I can find no evidence that the Erie County Poorhouse was used as a pesthouse during the 1832 or 1849 epidemics.  However, according to Dr. Newman’s ledger, of the 566 deaths recorded between June and November of 1854, 40 of them were at the Erie County Poorhouse.  Of these, 24 were from the insane department.  It is not known if these individuals were transferred there from their homes or if they were in residence at the poorhouse when they became sick.  I intend to check the Keepers Report for the poorhouse for that year to see if there are any details regarding the cholera epidemic.

Dr. Newman recorded cases of cholera from May 21- November 4, 1854.  The highest frequency of deaths occurred in July (n= 215).  The place of residence was not recorded consistently, but a great many deaths were recorded from Genesee Street (yellow arrow on the map), Exchange Street (red arrow) South Division (green arrow) and Jefferson Avenue (not seen on this map).  It should be noted here that few streets in the city of Buffalo that were spared from the disease, and without house numbers it is difficult to say where along any given street cholera cases may have clustered.

The demographic details of the epidemic were a bit surprising to me.  Of those who died, about 10% were under 5 years old.  Adults aged between 20 and 45 accounted for over half of the deaths (51%).  Keep in mind that the average life expectancy was about 45 for men and 35 for women during this period.  I would have expected greater mortality among young children and the aged (infant mortality was nearly 50% in many large cities during this period).  It will be interesting to compare these mortality statistics to those in Rochester during the same period (I am working with my colleagues at UB on a paper for our national meeting in 2016). 

It did not surprise me that most of the people who died from cholera were foreign born.  Mortality was higher in general among this group of people largely because the circumstances which lead them to leave their homeland often left them in poor health to begin with.  Surprisingly, 38% (n =214) of those who died from cholera were originally from Germany.  Recall that during the 1849 pandemic, the individuals who brought cholera from Europe to New York were Germans.  Only 84 deaths were recorded among the Irish (14%), and even less among other people of European ancestry. Why were Germans so vulnerable to this disease?  It will be important to understand the reasons families left Germany to come to the United States, and what circumstances in German communities lead to favorable conditions for the spread of cholera.  I would be very interested in hearing the details of individual family histories.  If you have a story to tell don’t hesitate to contact me.  In the mean time, I’ll keep searching for answers!