Cholera in Texas in 1833, in San Antonio and Goliad, et al (Rx: peyote)

Today, when people and their diseases can travel in a few hours what would have taken several months of time to traverse 200 years ago, it’s a wonder that we even hear of new diseases before they appear. News has spread at the speed of light since 1844, but not until more recently 24-7 and so many ways.

In colonial Texas, a part of the Republic of Mexico back in the 1830s, news of a spreading disease moved much faster than the disease, and this made it possible to make preparations. But were they made? It depends.

In July 1937, J. Villasana Haggard’s article “Epidemic of Cholera in Texas, 1833-1834” was published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. The Texas State Historical Association recently emailed me a copy of this article and nine others related to the medical history of Texas. I had just started to recall what I remembered about epidemics and quarantines in Texas, and now I had a lot more information at my fingertips. This column pretty much summarizes and paraphrases Haggard’s great article. The article can be found at: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101099/m1/238/

Haggard writes that in November of 1832 news that cholera was rampant in New Orleans arrived in San Felipe de Austin, the headquarters of Stephen F. Austin’s colony on the Brazos River. Notice was immediately sent to Bexar (San Antonio) the main center of population in Texas at this time. The cholera was expected to spread into eastern Texas because of the trade and commerce both by sea and by land between eastern Texas and New Orleans.

Read more: https://www.mysoutex.com/beeville_bee_picayune/news/features/cholera-in-texas-in-1833-in-san-antonio-and-goliad-et-al/article_be2a7bc2-8fa3-11ea-ba61-0f580f772ffb.html