Cholera Epidemic of 1849

• by George Bailey • Published: July 23, 2007

Cholera was a relatively frequent hazard in the 19th century, in large part due to the lack of plumbing and proper sewerage. Cholera ravished St. Louis numerous times, but the most brutal instance was in 1849. The epidemic claimed 4,557 lives (the city's population at the time was 63,000). The city officials of St. Louis had advocated the establishment of more efficient sewer systems before 1849, but not until the epidemic had begun to terrorize the city did concrete plans materialize. Construction on the renovation, that of Biddle Street sewer, was not to begin until March 1850. That same year plans were made to drain Chouteau's Pond but, again, these could not be carried out quickly enough to stabilize the disease. Nevertheless, thanks to these innovations, the subsequent attack in 1866 never reached proportions remotely close to those of the 1849 epidemic. (The rate of death in 1866 was 17 people out of one-thousand, while the rate of death in the previous attack was 72 per one-thousand.) In 1884 the Cholera bacterium was identified. This achievement dispelled previously heeded myths about the true origin and behavior of the disease and methods of containment became more and more efficient.