Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-11
WORSE THAN CHOLERA.
STORY OF THE PLAGUE IN THE
CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.

lhSS AebCEeF, MARIAN ana Bell are the
four counties in the extreme southeastern
part OF Kentucky which border on the
State of Virginia, where 1t forms a big V
between them and the State of Tennessee
to the South. The border counties in VIr-
ginia are Buchanan, Dickinson, Wise and
Lee. These eight counties form the dis
trict in which most fatal plague has
ragged for very nearly two months, carry
ing off more people in proportion to the
number of Inhabitants than the cholera in
its worst stages in France during the past
year.
The centre of this district is near the Juno
ton of Letcher and Harlan counties, in Ken
lucky, with Wise county, Virginia. a point
that is about $50 miles southeast of Cincin-
natl. 1t is in this region that the feuds be-
tween families become known to the public
through the determination Of one of the fami-
lies, and the subsequent acquittal of the eX-
termInators by jury of their peers.
The Cumberland range of mountains forms
the dividing line between the two States and
it is here that the numerous creeks rise that.
form the Cumberland river, which flows to the
west; the Kentucky, which flows to the north
west, and the Big Sandy, that flows away to the
north and empties into the Ohio at Catletts-
burg, on the line between Kentucky and West
Virginia. Perched on ledges on the mountain
sides, or nesting in wooded hollOws between
the mountain tops, or standing close under
blE pAOOiplCCSy dIG bu6 lOS CdDl0S OF tue IN
habitants. There Is always a piece of cleared
ground, enclosed by fence of brush and
brlars, near each house. In it are raised q
patch of corn, another of potatoes and some
stalks of tobacco. a small drove of half-wlld
hogs ranges for mast in the woods around
and few ''critters" get their living in the
same precariOus way. Wheat is unknown,
but corn, pork and moOnshiners' whisky are
the mainstays of life, and chewing tobacco is
its solace. Game abounds in the woods. Such
water as they need is obtained from the
creeks and springs, and occasionally, where a
family lS less faVOrablY situated than its
neighbOrs, from a surfac water well.
The Cumberland is only one of many high
ridges that trend from southwest to northeast
in Kentucky and Virginia, and IN consequence
some of the rain storms that sweep up from
the Mississippi valley are intercepted, and
droughts are not uncommon in summer. But
when, in last September, it was noticed that
no rain had fallen for six weeks, the people
who occasionally lounge in the few country
stores to be found in that region began to talk
about the way the wells had all gone dry, and
to say that they had never seen the water so
low in Poor Fork or in Greasy Browns, or
Pucketts creeks. No relief came with Octo-
Der. About the middle of the month Joseph
pay, brother Of County Judge Day, of
Letcher county, while on his way from Whites
burg court house to his home on Poor Fork, in
the southeastern part of the county, was
taken suddenly with severe gripping pains in
the abdomen. In less than an hour his limbs
became paralyzed, and friends carried him to
his home. high fever at once set in. with
a burning thirst and swelling of the throat.
Then he was taken with bloody fiux followed
by vomiting of blood and mucous, and in less
than twenty four hours he was dead. He
was the first victim of the plague. Before he
had breathed his last some of those who had
helped him home were taken in like manner,
ana from this point the disease spread by
jumps throughout the region, and in a modi-
fed form towards Cincinnati, as far as Bath
county.
The progress of the disease was not rapid at
first, and little attention was paid to it, The
houses were scattered along the streams.
sometimes miles apart, and to pass from one
settlement to another required a tedious trip
on foot "over the divide' to the next stream.
There is not a railroad or a telegraph line
within eighty miles. as the bird flies from the
house of Joseph Day, at Pool Fork and the
mail service has never been expedited A
whole neighborhOOd might be wiped out and
the next neighbOrhoOd not hear of 1t for a
week after. But the causes of the disease were
growing stronger daily. Springs which had
never failed to pour out volumes of limpid
water began to dry up, and the water itself
became bitter. The water hardly flowed
through the north and middle forks of the
Hoston. Louisa fork of the Big Sandy
became a succession of foul puddies, and
the bed of Maiden Spring creek became
a dusty gulch. The leaves fell off the trees
until the forests became as bare as in
midWinter, and the grass was burned up
by the sun. People who had depended on
wells had to bring water from great distances
IN some instances as much as ten miles, and
even then good water was hard to get. A few
persons noticed that when the water began
to boil brick -colOred sediment would settle
to the bottom of the kettle. With the begin
ming of November the disease spread rapidlv
One afternoon the inhabitants of PineviIie,
the county seat of Bell county, were astounded
by the appearance of runners who came from
settlements along Puckett's, Houses. Straight
and Greasy creeks. They all came to find DR..
Burchfeld, the only physician in the county.
They told one story, OF the sudden appearance
of bloody fuX with new symptoms among
their friends, which usually proved fatal
within forty-eight hours. This almost pro-
duced panic. Thereafter the reports of the
spread of the disease seemed to travel faster,
and at length the outside world heard of the
condition of affairs up in the mountains of
Eastern Kentucky.
The work of the plague cannot yet be fully
ascertalned. The disease has been most fatal
high up on the mountains that divide the two
States. In Bell county and the eastern town
ships of Knox 2ll deaths have been SO far
reported. In Harlan county 200 people have
died. In Wise county, Virginia, the mortality
has been more frightful still. The Gavsville
Times has reported $50 deaths, including the
entire Clark family of five, who lived at the
foot of Garrison's Gap. In addition to this
Al deaths have been reported along Colds
Camp creek, including an entire family of
four. Along Guests River creek 25 more have
died. Six people were buried in one grave
yard there in one day. Cranes Nest is four
cornered settlement in West county, near the
Dickinson county line. A gentleman who
rode overland from that place to Ervinton,
distance of 81 miles, said yesterday that he
passed houses where a few more than 400
people lived during the month of September.
but in the last two months 1I6 of them had
died. The population of Irvinton and vicinity
is about 1850. of these Al have died of the
plague in six weeks.
The suffering in some neighborhOOds and in
some families has been much greater than in
others. At Poor Fork post office there are 25
new graves, although the population is less
100. Along Moccasin creek there were 30
families, numbering in all lS0 people, and of
III a Fn n In fHnA
the horrors of starvation were added to those
of the plague. There was not well person in
the community, and although there was corn
enough on hand, no one could take it to mill
There was no one able to cook it if it had been
ground, and there was no water fit to cook
the meal in if it could have been obtained
Abraham Smalley lived in this valley with his
wife and three children. He was taken first
but his wife and the two older children fol-
lowed during the day. When a neighbor
called few days later he found the man dead
in one corner OF the room with his two cnil-
dren beside him. On a bed in another corner
was the dead body of the wife, and the third
child, a baby two years old, lay by her side
1t had died of starvation, and in it's hunger
had torn the breasts of its mother with its
teeth.
Gladesville and Lebanon, two Kentucky
villages, are almost depOpulated. At Glades-
vile, there lived Methodist circuit rider
the Rev. Joseph EmmOns, who received $3.50
for his years salary, the most of it coming
from missionary society. He had wife
the plague broke out in the village he devoted
his whole time to the care Of the sick. He
was at once physician and nurse, and when
the disease had run its fatal course he gave
the dying the consolation of his faith. AL
most without help, for the people in their ter
ror gave up all hope and sat down to die, he
made rough cofins and dug shallow graves to
bury the dead. When at last his wife and two
of his children became victime, there was no
one to lend him a helping hand. In one dav
they were all dead, and on the next dav he
knelt alone beside the one grave which he had
dug with his own hand. More than ONE half
OF the people Of this village have died, and the
rest would gladly leave if they hap the means,
or knew where they ought to go to escape the
plague.
Out of population of q, 900 people in the
stricken section, more than 1,2O0 deaths have
been reported, and Well-informed people like
DR.. Balr of Mount Pleasant village and the
Rev. W. III. Childers, the Presiding Elder of
the Barboursville district OF the Methodist
Church. say that at least l,50O people have
died from its effects, the most Of whom were
children. The people do not seem to realize
the extent of the ravages Of the plague, anG
talk about it vaguely as dispensation of
God which is not to be prevented or over
come. They are what their friends call easy-
going, but all the rest of the world call them
lazy. They seldom see a stranger, and but
few can read or write. They know little or
nothing of the world beyond the mountains,
and if offered free TRANSPORTATION awav from
the place where they are dying like sheep,
they would scarcely accept the offer.
The plague began when the wells and
springs went dry, and was doubtless the re-
suit of using water that was impure The
few physicians here say that the water con
tanned mineral poison of some kind, because
only mineral poison would have produced
the gripings, the burning fever and thirst and
the bloody eYacuatiOns that marked the dis
ease, They say that ores of copper and arsen-
ties abound In the mountains. The scarcity
OF educated medical help and the peculiar