There is a time to live and a time to die...
A time to remember and a time to honor.
1854 CHOLERA MEMORIAL
Dixon was a thriving town of 3,000 in the midst of a building boom in 1854.
There were dirt streets which residents used to dispose of garbage and dead animals.
Every house had a privy, the shallow wells were often contaminated by seeping ground
water. It was only a matter of time untill disaster struck as reported in the July 27, 1854 issue of The Telegraph: "Death in it's most frightful form, swept through our (hertofore healthy)
town like an avalanche, carrying away, with in twenty-four hours, eighteen souls..." "There had
been a few deaths from cholera previous to this, among them Mrs. Alanson Smith and two
or three railroad hands, but it made its appearance as an epidemic July 21. On Saturday the 22nd,
the cholera broke out in full force, and during Saturday night large numbers of the inhabitants
left town to go into the country. The next day fourteen persons lay dead in the town. Not a sound,
on that mournful Sabbath Day, save that made by the undertaker's hammer, disturbed the quiet
death-like village."
Drs. Oliver Everett and N. W. Abbott treated the disease with a combination of
powdered charcoal and whisky.
The epidemic reached its height in early August, and the August 3rd newspaper reported that a
series of deep trenches had been dug at Oakwood Cemetery and the remains of the dead were
placed in them and covered with lime and earth and left unmarked.
A total of 34 residents of Dixon died in the cholera epidemic of 1854, this memorial is dedicated to
their memory and their names are listed on the reverse.
This epitaph written as reported in The Telegraph July 27, 1854.
Listed below are the names of those known to have perished during the epidemic of 1854.
David O. Marsh
Mr. Jones
Mrs. Mary Johnson
Mrs. Hannah G. Huff
Israel Evans Benjamin Vann
John Keenan
Mrs. Durfe
William Lahey
John Finley
Mrs. Catherine Dailey
Daniel Brookner Jr.
Joseph Cleaver
E.Boswick
Owen Gallagher
Edward Hanlin
Mr. Peck
Mrs. Schear
William Patrick
John Connel's Child
Mrs.Cooley
Durfe Child
William Patrick
Mrs. Jacob Craver
Elijah T. Dixon
J. H. Cleaver (postmaster)
Daniel & Catherine Brookner
Mr. & Mrs. Roderick McKenzie
Cyrus & Harriet Kimball
This memorial is located in Oakwood Cemetery, Dixon, Illinois.
A little more info.
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