Finding Aid for the Nashville Cholera Epidemic Letter, 1849
MS-2701University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Collection Processed by: William E. Hardy, February 2, 2006
Finding Aid written by: William E. Hardy, February 2, 2006
Encoded by: William E. Hardy, February 2, 2006
Summary Information
Nashville Cholera Epidemic Letter
Date/Date Range : 1849
0.1 linear feet
Abstract: In a June 17, 1849 letter to his friend D.C. Douglass in Lebanon, TN, [Jason] Delaney discusses the scene of a recent cholera epidemic in Nashville, TN.
MS-2701
University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Access and Use
Purchased, December 2005
Collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.
[Identification of Item], Nashville Cholera Epidemic Letter, MS-2701. The Special Collections Library of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Arrangement
Collection consists of a single letter.
Biography / History
No biographical information has been found on D.C. Douglass of Lebanon, TN; however, a March 19, 1849 letter (see MS-2415) written by Alfred William Douglass discusses the cholera epidemic in Nashville and is addressed to his cousin D.C. "Clint" Douglass in Lebanon, TN. A Dewitt Clinton Douglass later resided in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee and married Martha Ann Maney.
Collection Scope and Content Note
In a June 17, 1849 letter to his friend D.C. Douglass in Lebanon, TN, [Jason] Delaney discusses the scene of a recent cholera epidemic in Nashville, TN.
Subject Terms
- Nashville, Tenn. -- Cholera.
Contents List
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Letter from [Jason] Delaney to D.C. Douglass in Lebanon, TN, June 17, 1849 Scope Note: Nashville June 17th 49
Friend Douglass
I expect that you think by this time that I had either forgotten you or had died with the cholera, but no such thing. . . . I suppose that you have heard how dreadfully the cholera has been at work here, and I expect the good people of Lebanon are so frightened that they will be afraid to receive a letter from this place for fear that it (this letter) has that dreadful malady, and only waits, like Pandora's box, to be opened to spread the contagion far and wide. . . . There has been a great mortality here in our beautiful "city of Rocks" though now there are not many cases. I suppose not more than 12 or 15 in the whole town, but last Saturday and Friday and Sunday it was very bad, and on Friday to my certain knowledge there was 43 deaths and reports says fifty though I believe that if the whole amount was known there would have been more. I was at the graveyard Saturday and the grave diggers were completely wore down with toil, and under most every tree you could see a coffin waiting to be put in the ground, for graves could not be dug fast enough, and the drivers of the hearses would carry them out and then leave them to get more. . . . You can have no idea of the suffering unless you were to see it yourself for I cannot describe it. . . .
Your friend [Jason] Delaney
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