Posted on Mon, Jul. 28, 2008

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

In the late summer of 1867, fear and death hung over the Kansas prairie.

Cholera was running rampant.

Those struck with the disease would suddenly be overcome with violent cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. Dehydration came so quickly and severely, a person's skin became deathly blue. And then, the body went into shock.

The first cases of cholera in Kansas were reported in 1853 among troops at Fort Riley. The disease itself was relatively new, having first invaded Europe in 1830 before working its way to the United States by 1832.

Gold seekers, on their way to California, came in contact with the malady at St. Louis. Several of the steamboats ascending the Missouri carried cholera patients, thus aiding the spread of the disease.

But it was especially deadly in Kansas during the summer of 1867.

The first case that summer was reported on July 1 at Fort Harker, near the town of Ellsworth. At that time, Ellsworth's population was more than 1,000 people. As news spread that cholera was in their midst, town residents fled within days, leaving the population at roughly 100 people.

At Fort Zarah near Great Bend, Col. H.L. Moore, commander of a battalion, wrote how the epidemic affected his troops within an hour.

"Everybody felt cheerful, hoping that the future had nothing worse in store than a meeting with hostile Indians," Moore wrote. "By 8 p.m., supper was over, and in another hour the camp became a hospital of screaming hospital patients. Men were seized with cramping of the stomach, bowels, and muscles of the arms and legs. The doctor and his medicines were powerless to resist the disease."

The New York Times published on July 31, 1867, that 16 cases of cholera had occurred at Fort Larned. The disease was rapidly spreading among troops guarding the railroad construction party at Fort Harker near Ellsworth.

The disease struck officers, priests, women and children.

In his book, "Fort Dodge, Sentry of the Western Plains," Leo Oliva describes the following account from Major Henry Douglas, the post commander that summer who, along with his wife and sons, were stricken by the disease. At least 20 people died at Fort Dodge from the epidemic, including the major's wife, Issie.

"On Friday the 26 July the cholera broke out in virulent epidemic form at this Post. It came upon us like a clap of thunder. I was the first and only officer seriously ill with it.... I suffered intensely but the kind attentions of friends, medical skill, and above all the constant attention of my darling wife, and a sturdy constitution, I was brought safely through the dangerous stages of the malady, but left me utterly prostrated."

Over the next few days, Issie Douglas grew tired and ill while her husband lingered between life and death.

"I was again & again dosed with morphine & other poisons, utterly prostrated, helpless & torpid. I did not know that Issie was dangerously sick until about ½ hour before her death."

Major Douglas would later write that the doctors deceived him about his wife's condition. A soldier whispered into the major's ear that his wife was about to die.

"I tried to rise but could not," the major wrote. "I called out. It was useless.... I sank back in a state of semi-insensibility. I know nothing more. They informed me that she died at 10 minutes past 12 on August 1st.... I lingered on between life & death, utterly reckless which way the scale turned."

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.