Burial permits from 1880 to 1910 in East Carlton show prevalence of communicable diseases
This is a selection of burial permits from 1880 to 1910 for East Carlton/Kent Cemetery.
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 6, No. 28
EAST CARLTON – From “Acute melancholia” to “Whooping cough”, the burial permits for the East Carlton/Kent Cemetery contained in the leather pouch referenced in V6 No.27 provide an insight into causes of death in East Carlton from the 1880s to 1910.
The following is a list of the conditions cited on 120 permits. Each entry represents one case, unless otherwise noted:
- Acute melancholia
- Alcoholia (sic)
- Anasarca
- Apoplexy (6 cases)
- Asphyxia (1 yr. old)
- Blood poisoning
- Brain abscess
- Bright’s disease (4 cases)
- Cancer, breast
- Cancer, cervical
- Cancer, stomach
- Cancer, uterine
- Cardiac dropsy
- Cerebral hyperemia
- Cholera, infantile (3 cases)
- Chronic fibroid phthisis
- Cirrhosis of the liver
- Consumption (7 cases)
- Convulsions
- Cystitis
- Degeneration of spinal cord
- Diphtheria (3 cases, aged 2,3 and 8)
- Dropsy
- Drowning, while bathing in Marsh Creek
- Dysentery
- Dysentery, bloody
- Dysentery, systemic
- Fibrosis
- Fracture of back and neck – (9-year-old boy, struck by a railroad train)
- Gangrene, senile
- General debility
- Heart disease (5 cases)
- Heart failure (5 cases)
- Hemorrhage (infant. 2 days old)
- Hemorrhage & peritonitis
- Hemorrhage in childbirth – (mother aged 16)
- Inflammation of bowels
- Influenza (2 cases)
- Intestinal obstruction (2 cases)
- Liver abscess
- Locomotor ataxia
- Lupus
- Murder (Emma Hunt, V6, No.27)
- Natural causes (2 cases)
- Nephritis (2 cases)
- Non-closure of foramen ovale – (infant)
- Old age, (6 cases)
- Overdose
- Paralysis (7 cases)
- Peritonitis (2 cases)
- Phthisis
- Phthisis pneumonialis (sic) (2 cases)
- Pneumonia (3 cases)
- Pneumonia, broncho
- Pneumonia, double
- Pneumonia exhaustion
- Pulmonary consumption (3 cases)
- Pulmonary edema
- Pulmonary tuberculosis (2 cases)
- Rheumatic e….itis (sic)
- Rheumatism (2 cases)
- Senile disability
- Tic doloreaux
- Tuberculosis (3 cases)
- Typhoid fever (4 cases)
- Valvular (mitral) disease of the heart (2 cases)
- Whooping cough and pneumonia – (infant, 1.5 months)
Some of the terms used may be unfamiliar. Apoplexy is now referred to as a stroke. Phthisis is a wasting disease. Tuberculosis is listed under a variety of terms: consumption, tuberculosis, pulmonary consumption, and pulmonary tuberculosis.
According to the Center for Disease Control/ Census Bureau Mortality Statistics, the leading causes of death for 1880 – 1910 were infectious and communicable diseases: tuberculosis, pneumonia, influenza, and intestinal infections. The Carlton statistics reflect this:
CDC Leading causes of death from 1880-1910 (Carlton Statistics)
- Pneumonia & influenza (12 cases)
- Tuberculosis (14 cases)
- Enteritis & dysentery (7 cases)
- Diphtheria (3 cases)
- Typhoid fever (4 cases)
- Heart disease (10 cases)
Deaths caused by communicable diseases have since declined. Heart disease and cancer are now the two leading causes of death.
Most of the burial permits also list the undertakers. At that time, furniture stores also operated as undertakers since they had the ability to supply coffins on demand.
Albion firms were: B.C. Mathes, 79 Main St.; Onderdonk & Reed, 66-68 Main St.; Reynolds & Flintham, 113 Main St.; Nelson A. Stevens operated in Kendall; and Keys & Millard and Harry E. Turner were located in Holley, on the Public Square.
