Throughout the nineteenth century, the United States faced the problem of epidemic disease in 
the new metropolises that sprung up through the country. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the influx of immigrants from Europe, these cities had to deal with the many problems associated with massive groups of people living in small areas. In the immigrant and industrial communities there was a critical lack of sanitary conditions and the will needed to correct the problem. Thus diseases such as yellow fever, tuberculosis, and cholera swept through and cast the long shadow of death over the nation. Since these diseases predominantly affected the lower classes and minorities a curious pattern of inaction and denial led to little being done to stop the epidemics. In fact, in the earlier part of the century, it was widely held that this was a moral problem rather than a social and medical one. 
     The last large scale epidemic of cholera occurred in 1873, ironically just a few years after most of the major population centers had taken steps to prevent the disease. Unfortunately, the new industrial capitals of the south had to deal with a large population of African Americans just released from their bondage, coming to the towns to find work. The disease, having sprung up in Memphis and Nashville, began a certain and deadly path southward along the railroads. It first appeared in Huntsville and then moved  on down to Birmingham and Montgomery. This paper will focus on the epidemic in Birmingham Alabama and how it almost destroyed the city in its infancy. 
     Cholera has its origins in the Far East and moved over to North America on trading vessels. It is primarily a water borne disease occurring in the summer months. It can also be spread though physical contact with victims and contaminated objects. It is thought of as more horrible in a way than its fellows yellow fever and malaria because its kills its victims so quickly. A victim can go to bed appearing perfectly healthy and never wake up. Symptoms of the disease include "diarrhea, acute spasmodic vomiting, and painful cramps."  The epidemic of 1873 was more even more virulent than other manifestations and even killed victims within twelve hours. 
     Medical science was just beginning to come to grips with the problems of infectious disease. Pasteur was studying germs at this point in time and science was about to make great leaps forward. However, trial and error were still the best methods for devising cures for these diseases, and prevention was the first and only way to keep these epidemics in check. If the cholera was diagnosed quickly enough and great care was given to the victim then there was a very good survivability rate. Unfortunately there was no set treatment and doctors had to basically experiment on their patients to find out what would work best. Often victims used quack remedies such as the "Simmons Liver Regulator" which were advertised in the Mobile and Montgomery Papers. These "cure-alls" invariably failed and often even harmed the patients. Thus Birmingham was faced with a disease that they could neither prevent nor readily cure at the time when the city was least able to deal with it. 
     On January 26, 1871 a group of ambitious men captained by a Colonel J.R. Powell met to found the city of Birmingham Alabama. They had high hopes for the city knowing that the surrounding area held the vital resources of coal, iron, and limestone; the three key ingredients in making steel. Thus the Magic City was born, In later years it would be known as one of the great industrial capitals of the world and would even become the second most important U.S. target on the Nazi Germany bombing lists. However, Birmingham would face a great trial in its early years, a threat that would halve its population and kill one hundred and twenty-eight of its citizens. This menace to Birmingham, this "hideous invader of our hearthstones" was no other than the dread epidemic of cholera, feared around the world for its contagiousness and its high mortality rate. 
     The first victim of the epidemic, Virgil or Mr. Y as he is sometimes referred to, arrived in Birmingham around the beginning of June 1873. He was a healthy, "able-bodied" man until his belongings arrived on June ninth. Within three days, he had become ill and died twenty-four hours after  first showing symptoms. Even though cholera had appeared in Tennessee and the northern part of Alabama, the doctors were reluctant to put a name to Virgil's killer, as obvious as the symptoms were. No cases had been reported in the central part of Alabama and his fecal matter and vomit were merely tossed out onto a hill that sloped down to the stream that served the community of Baconsides. Several doctors suspected cholera at this point but no great call was raised and the Board of Health did not act to suppress the disease. 
     Baconsides lay just north of Fourth avenue north between Eleventh and Fourteenth Street. The stream that Virgil's contaminated fluids were exposed to was fed by a small pond on the east side of town on Twenty Fourth street as well as a spring on the south side. The stream ran all the way through the middle of town and there was not a worse water source in Birmingham to expose the disease. The stream served not only Baconsides but was connected to two wells on nineteenth and twenty first street. Most of the northern parts of the city used this water but apparently the disease did not move upstream with sufficient vigor to infect the inhabitants yet. 
     Since the city of Birmingham was only two years old, there had been little effort made to establish a clean water supply for the whole community. The Birmingham Water Works had been established by Col Powell, but in their infancy, they could not supply water to the four thousand strong population that had moved in over the past two years. Most of the city was still served by streams, wells, and ponds, breeding grounds for the plague that was about to strike. Other large cities such as New York had realized the danger of a contaminated water supply and after 1866 made great strides to provide clean water. The founders of Birmingham may have considered their town too small for cholera to gain a foothold in but they did not take into account that the same social conditions that existed in large cities now existed in Birmingham due to the close proximity of the population and the sanitary conditions of some of the communities. 
     At this point there are conflicts between two of the sources. One, a physician's report to congress indicates that no cases were reported for several days after the death of Virgil. Another written by the wife of one of the physicians, who treated cases in Birmingham states that another case happened the next day. The report to congress seems more reliable at this point and picks up with the disease on June 17 when two young girls of the Hughes family took sick. They both died within a day's time and no effort was made to disinfect their fluids that were thrown in the creek running through Baconsides. The girls as well as other members of their family had been attending to Virgil during his illness and it is probable that at least one of them was infected by contact with contaminated materials rather than by the drinking water. Unfortunately by now the creek had been twice exposed and would begin to present problems very shortly. 
      At this point another disease vector entered the city. A shoemaker named Bennet who had been up in Chattanooga Tennessee returned with a case of diarrhea and died about a day and a half later. This is the first case in which suitable sanitary precautions were taken but it was to no avail for a friend of his had handled contaminated materials and died after being sick for twelve hours. Bennett's sister-in-law who had stayed by his bedside died as well and since most of the people dying were those attending the sick, no one took care to sanitize her excrement. A day later an African American boy in the advanced stages of the disease was found along the same rail line that had brought in Bennet. He died very rapidly, within just a few hours of the time that they found him. 
     The first eight people to come down with the cholera had all died, all within a day's time, a hundred percent mortality rate. Though most had received treatment in some form or fashion, they were mostly poor and the physicians weren't exactly sure how to go about curing them. Now on June 22 they at least knew what precautions to take against the further spread of the disease. The board of health issued orders that all excreta as well as the bed clothes and sheets of the victims were to be disinfected or burned. The first survivor of the epidemic contracted the disease on this day. An African American named Eubanks who worked for a gentleman of the town came down with it at his employer's home. He was treated and well isolated and no one else in that neighborhood contracted it. This was also the first appearance of the disease in the more upper class part of the city and one can see how treatment differed along class lines within the city. 
     The most effective response to the cholera in Birmingham was that of early treatment. Doctors proscribed opium and mercurial along with an emetic (an agent that causes vomiting). The opium probably did some good to the victims but the mercury compound and the emetic must have done more harm than anything else. The physicians limited the amount of water that they would allow the patient to consume since "unrestrained" amounts of liquid often resulted in death. Very close care and the opium seem to be the main reason that many survived, however the disease did lose some of its virulence with the passing of time. The citizens of Birmingham also used burning tar and lime to combat the epidemic hoping to sterilize the air, water, and soil. Montgomery papers ran ads for lime by the barrel or by the lot. However even the supposed cleansing thunder storm made the cholera even worse, and the amount of cases reported went up every time it rained, washing more of the poison in to the streams and ponds. 
     At the same time that Eubanks's was receiving his successful treatment in the white community, his fellows in Baconsides finally ran out of luck with the cleanliness of their drinking water, and death's were reported in every household in the community. At the beginning almost all of the victims contracting the disease were black or of the lower class of the city. The first mention of the epidemic in the Montgomery press was on July fourth, almost as an afterthought, saying that the disease was mainly contained within the lower classes. Cholera was often thought of as being a moral problem and the disease of people of low character. During the epidemics in the early part of the century, preachers often gave sermons on how drinking and whoring led to this punishment by God. If goodly people were infected, it was only because of their proximity to those of ill repute. This thinking had changed in many parts of the country but it still held some conviction in the south at this time. In Birmingham, a blow to this theory was about to be felt, and no longer would the disease be limited to the lower classes. 
     It is interesting to note here how the disease was so often transmitted by the black population. Beginning with Virgil, carrying through the Baconsides community, and moving into the white parts of town through hired help such as Eubanks and another man named Leo Anderson. The disease was even carried down to Montgomery by an African American who had come to Birmingham to help tend to the sick. The poor conditions that they lived in, their poor diets and resulting lowered immunity and the fact that they did not receive the best care possible all contributed to this problem. It wasn't until the leaders of the town saw that they too were suffering from the disease that proper treatment was given to them. Almost all of this population consisted of freed slaves and their children and had no education to help them realize that they were killing themselves when they contaminated their drinking water and no money to leave town when the epidemic found its way into their community. 
      Ironically, on the same day as the first reports were appearing in Montgomery, a group of some two hundred citizens embarked on a journey to Blount Springs to celebrate Independence Day. Some of the group were apparently infected and "before daylight the next day seven of their number had died". The disease had now reached epidemic proportions and individual cases could no longer be reported. A great exodus began, and almost half of the town departed , running from an enemy that they could not fight."Every one who could possibly leave the little stricken city lost no time in getting away. Those who were too poor and had not the means to go, those whose duty forbade them from leaving and a few brave and noble ones who were not afraid to face danger, were all of the well ones left behind." Doctors and ministers worked for days and weeks straight, tending to the sick. Many of them were stricken with the disease and a few even read their own obituaries and had coffins made for them. 
     On July ninth the disease was raging and finally given its proper respect in the Montgomery papers. They also give witness to the great departure and of the current condition of the city, "Families have been leaving all day every day by every available means. Stores are closing up generally, even the drinking saloons are shutting their doors." By July eleventh the citizens of Birmingham appealed to their sister city to the south for aid. Montgomery sent both money and medical attention to the disease ridden city. 
     There are many stories of courage and dedication during this sad period in Birmingham's early history. A famous madam of the time named Lou Wooster opened up her brothel to the sick that had no one else to care for them. She writes, "I was determined to stay and help nurse the poor sick and suffering ones who needed me." Her acts of devotion to the city are mentioned in every account of the epidemic, even in the report to congress. When Wooster died, the gentlemen of the city sent their carriages to her funeral, socially unable to appear but wanting to show their respect nevertheless. 
     Another example was that of Colonel Terry who had the only house in the city with a rain cistern. He rightly believed that his water was safer than the communal streams and wells and offered it to his neighbors so that they could drink. This went on for several days until his black carriage driver named Leo Anderson contracted the illness after visiting the Baconsides community. Colonel Terry along with his wife and other family members got ill but most of them recovered with the exception of his wife who refused the regular treatment for fear of harming her nursing baby. 
     All of the doctors involved made great sacrifices and the final victim was Dr. Luckie who had worked hard since the beginning to fight the disease. He grew very ill but recovered, having to learn to walk again. A druggist named Mr. Smith worked so hard that he had to leave his post to go home and rest. He apparently came back to work too quickly, contacted the disease and died despite the best efforts to save him. 
     The disease finally ran its course through the end of July and no new cases were reported. The final toll was one hundred and twenty eight victims with the population halved from its previous four thousand. A weaker version of the epidemic preyed upon Montgomery for some time but its southward advance was halted there and luckily didn't travel down to Mobile or New Orleans. With the coming of autumn and the first freeze, the last vestiges of the disease were killed off while Birmingham suffered through the aftermath of the epidemic. "Bats and owls were the sole occupants of many buildings that had been rented by anxious tenants only a year and a half before." Outside investors sold out thinking that the town was done for. Its founders and remaining citizens kept the faith though, within ten years a water works system provided clean water for the whole town, and Birmingham continued its dramatic rise as the Magic City.