Channing Morrison was a victim of the infamous 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Memphis Tennessee. Although Memphis had been exposed to yellow fever in 1828, 1855, and 1867, nothing prepared the city for the devastation the fever brought during the 1870s. An 1873 epidemic claimed 2,000 in Memphis, a number which constituted at the time, the most yellow fever victims in an inland city. In 1878 a mild winter, a long spring, and a torrid summer produced favorable conditions for the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and thus, the spread of the fever. When New Orleans newspapers reported an epidemic in late July, Memphis officials established checkpoints at major points of entry into the city.
The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150.
The worst of the epidemic lasted for six weeks. Often the only people who dared go out on the streets were the collectors of the dead. With horse and wagon, they actually shouted "Bring out your dead!" They took the bodies to this cemetery for a hasty burial.
There are over 1,400 bodies in Elmwood Cemetery. This was a large, mass grave. The grave diggers were burying over 50 people a day, and sometimes only six inches beneath the soil. They didn't have time to dig a full 6 feet. They believed at that time that the corpses could also be spreading disease, so they were trying to get them under the ground as quickly as possible. The names of the dead were written in ink in leather-bound ledgers. People waited anxiously for fall and the first frost. From experience, they knew that the deaths would stop then, but in 1878, they had no idea why.
It would be another 20 years before it was widely understood that yellow fever is spread through the bite of a mosquito, and that the infected insects were stowed away on shipments from Africa that went through the Caribbean and then onto boats to New Orleans and up the Mississippi.
The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150.
The worst of the epidemic lasted for six weeks. Often the only people who dared go out on the streets were the collectors of the dead. With horse and wagon, they actually shouted "Bring out your dead!" They took the bodies to this cemetery for a hasty burial.
There are over 1,400 bodies in Elmwood Cemetery. This was a large, mass grave. The grave diggers were burying over 50 people a day, and sometimes only six inches beneath the soil. They didn't have time to dig a full 6 feet. They believed at that time that the corpses could also be spreading disease, so they were trying to get them under the ground as quickly as possible. The names of the dead were written in ink in leather-bound ledgers. People waited anxiously for fall and the first frost. From experience, they knew that the deaths would stop then, but in 1878, they had no idea why.
It would be another 20 years before it was widely understood that yellow fever is spread through the bite of a mosquito, and that the infected insects were stowed away on shipments from Africa that went through the Caribbean and then onto boats to New Orleans and up the Mississippi.
Channing Morrison was a victim of the infamous 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Memphis Tennessee. Although Memphis had been exposed to yellow fever in 1828, 1855, and 1867, nothing prepared the city for the devastation the fever brought during the 1870s. An 1873 epidemic claimed 2,000 in Memphis, a number which constituted at the time, the most yellow fever victims in an inland city. In 1878 a mild winter, a long spring, and a torrid summer produced favorable conditions for the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and thus, the spread of the fever. When New Orleans newspapers reported an epidemic in late July, Memphis officials established checkpoints at major points of entry into the city.
The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150.
The worst of the epidemic lasted for six weeks. Often the only people who dared go out on the streets were the collectors of the dead. With horse and wagon, they actually shouted "Bring out your dead!" They took the bodies to this cemetery for a hasty burial.
There are over 1,400 bodies in Elmwood Cemetery. This was a large, mass grave. The grave diggers were burying over 50 people a day, and sometimes only six inches beneath the soil. They didn't have time to dig a full 6 feet. They believed at that time that the corpses could also be spreading disease, so they were trying to get them under the ground as quickly as possible. The names of the dead were written in ink in leather-bound ledgers. People waited anxiously for fall and the first frost. From experience, they knew that the deaths would stop then, but in 1878, they had no idea why.
It would be another 20 years before it was widely understood that yellow fever is spread through the bite of a mosquito, and that the infected insects were stowed away on shipments from Africa that went through the Caribbean and then onto boats to New Orleans and up the Mississippi.
The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150.
The worst of the epidemic lasted for six weeks. Often the only people who dared go out on the streets were the collectors of the dead. With horse and wagon, they actually shouted "Bring out your dead!" They took the bodies to this cemetery for a hasty burial.
There are over 1,400 bodies in Elmwood Cemetery. This was a large, mass grave. The grave diggers were burying over 50 people a day, and sometimes only six inches beneath the soil. They didn't have time to dig a full 6 feet. They believed at that time that the corpses could also be spreading disease, so they were trying to get them under the ground as quickly as possible. The names of the dead were written in ink in leather-bound ledgers. People waited anxiously for fall and the first frost. From experience, they knew that the deaths would stop then, but in 1878, they had no idea why.
It would be another 20 years before it was widely understood that yellow fever is spread through the bite of a mosquito, and that the infected insects were stowed away on shipments from Africa that went through the Caribbean and then onto boats to New Orleans and up the Mississippi.
Family Members
Siblings
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Robert John Morrison
1826–1861
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Mary Turnbull Morrison Marable
1827–1911
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William Edwin Morrison
1831–1896
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Dr Samuel Jackson Morrison
1834–1895
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Elizabeth Jane "Bettie" Morrison Goodwyn
1837–1912
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James Horace Morrison
1839–1910
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Carrie Bagley Morrison Griswold
1841–1872
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Anderson Bagley Morrison
1843–1889
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