1822 Yellow Fever in New York

Editor's note: The following articles were originally published in 1822 in the publications listed below. Thanks to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language, spelling and grammar of each article reflects the time period when it was written.

Yellow Fever carrying mosquito. https://www.montana.edu/historybug/yellow-fever.html

​Picture of New York. -- Our readers at a distance, who are acquainted with this city, as it appears at ordinary seasons, will doubtless feel some curiosity to know how it looks, while laboring under the calamity of a pestilence. and we shall this evening endeavor to draw a brief sketch of the city, as viewed under its present aspect. ***

Beginning, then, with what is called the infected district, . . . you see the wharves from about Fulton-street, on the North River, to the Battery, entirely stripped of its [sic] shipping, no boats plying along the solitary shore, the stores and houses fronting the river all closed, and the dead silence which reigns through this region, unbroken by the hum of industry or the cheerful bustle of business. ***

From the Battery up the East River, to Fulton-street, some gleanings of business and population yet remain, no case of fever having yet appeared on this side of town. Several stores are still open in South-street, and a few in Water-street; but our readers can judge how generally the lower part of the city has been deserted, when we inform them that the estimate of population south of Fulton-street, which it will be recollected, extends river to river, is short of 3000. The ordinary population is probably not far from 30,000, making the number of emigrants 27,000. The beautiful streets in the vicinity of the Battery, Broadway as far up as the park, with the parallel and transverse streets, from river to river, comprising one of the most wealthy, and in ordinary seasons the most healthy and delightful portions of the city, now wear the solitude of the desert and appall the heart with their loneliness. ***

*** The city above Fulton-street appears much as usual, except that the population is very much thinned in the lower streets, and the quantity of business diminished. The City Hall, and the public places in the vicinity, . . . are open as usual. Washington Hall is crowded with boarders, who have retreated from the lower parts of the city. From this point up Broadway to the junction with the Bowery, a person would hardly know the street. Instead of gilded carriages, filled with ladies and gentlemen riding out for pleasure, you see the street full of carts loaded with articles of merchandise, and the side-walks crowded with men of business. Many temporary buildings are of rough boards, which rising by the side of marble walls, and houses finished in the first style of elegance, present a grotesque appearance. The front rooms of nearly all the dwelling houses are occupied as stores, banks, insurance offices, and shops of every description; and the fronts are literally covered with signs. 

Several curious mistakes have happened to persons who have come to the city since these changes have taken place. It is said a corinthian with a lady under his arm, wishing to take an evening lounge in Vauxhall, and choosing the Western Entrance from Broadway, . . . suddenly found himself in a dry goods store. Another gentleman of the same description, in entering the Columbian Gardens by the usual route, soon discovered he was at the counter of a broker's office, but having no bills to exchange, except a ragged note, which he intended to barter for an ice-cream, a glass of punch, and a cigar, he twirled his stick in a most exquisite manner, and made his grand entre by another avenue.

We have already mentioned the complete metamorphosis of Greenwich. If a citizen who has been absent for the last fortnight were led blindfold into some of the streets, . . . he would not recognize the village. He would see ladies doing their shopping in what were lately barns or stables, and parties of gentlemen dining in new Hotels, which have been reared and finished, as it were, by enchantments. The new Coffee-Houses of Messrs. Sykes and Niblo, are now completed, and furnish the best accommodations for company. We must not forget to mention the other conveniences of the village, that gentlemen may be shaved in the best style by Mr. Frumento, who occupies a very neat shop, and scatters his perfumes, where lately the dairy-maid milked her cows. Such are some of the revolutions which New-York has undergone in the course of a few weeks. God grant that any further changes may be found unnecessary.
New York Statesman, September 3, 1822,

We remained at anchor all night, and next morning proceeded up the river, passing the city on our right, which truly presented a picture of desolation, the numerous wharfs being entirely bare of vessels, not a soul to be seen stirring about, the streets covered with lime and charcoal, and guarded at each end by a high fence, and the doors and windows of every habitation and store closely shut. We cast anchor opposite to a part of the town deemed sufficiently healthy, nearly three miles above the point which forms the southern boundary of the city. On going ashore, the bustle that prevailed was beyond description, nearly the whole of the business-part of the city being removed out to the fields which skirt the suburbs. An immense variety of temporary wooden buildings . . . were speedily erected for the accommodation of the citizens; and the business transacted here during two months was prodigious; some of these buildings were fitted up as hotels, where 200 or 300 people were boarded, but the accommodations for beds, etc. at such a time, may easily be conceived to have been none of the best. ***
Peter Neilson, Recollections of a Six Years’ Residence in the United States of America. Glasgow, 1830.

West street. -- It is incredible with what rapidity the seat of business may be changed upon an emergency. If the traveller takes up his line of march from Murray-street, he will find from wharf to wharf a few straggling craft, and here and there an individual or two, silently moving towards the north. When he passes Canal-street, and comes at the foot of Spring-street market, he is immediately ushered into a crowd of people, and surrounded by the hum of business. The slips are crowded with North River sloops, line of packet ships, and other vessels, market and oyster boats, carts, drays, waggons, measurers, gaugers; a long line of temporary stores, on which we recognize the names of many of our old and most active merchants and dealers; and this bustle extends to the state prison, and every thing appears as lively as if nothing had occurred to check the current of commerce.
National Advocate, September 5, 1822, 

In this irregular and temporary city in the field, you might find in one groupe, banking-houses, insurance offices, coffee-houses, auctioneers’ sale-rooms, dry goods, hardware, and grocery stores, milliners’ shops, barber’s shops, and last, though not least, a suitable proportion of grog and soda-water shops.
Peter Neilson, Recollections of a Six Years’ Residence in the United States of America. Glasgow, 1830. 

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