Cholera

Two things struck me when I read this entry.

First, submerging someone in water when they’re sick with cholera seems, in retrospect, like a spectacularly bad idea. It’s not going to do them any good, and it may well contaminate your only drinking water, as that’s one of the main ways the disease is spread. With treatments like that, it’s no wonder there was a cholera epidemic on the trail that year.

The other thing that stood out is the number of emigrants who passed by Fort Laramie. Eight thousand teams means an awful lot of westward travelers.

June 29 [1850]

We had the hardest thunder storm last night I have witnessed in some years. Started on this morning & soon came to a very bad road, low marshy land. A little before we stopt at noon there was a woman by the name of Beal died. She was buried on the banks of the Clearwater, a fine stream about 10 miles from where we came on the bottoms. They immersed 3 in this stream for the cholera. Travelled 14 miles & slept on a high spot on the marsh for the night. Met the Salt Lake mail, they said they met 8000 teams when they got to Fort Laramee. Since that they have not kept count. Wether very warm.

Parsons, Lucena Pfuffer, 1821-1905, Diary of Lucena Parsons, June, 1850, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 2: 1850. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 294.