Cause of Death[]
From: lindahp @insightbb.com Subject: from your post on Re: [PaOldC] Smallpox question Date: September 11, 2006 3:33:44 PM EDT To: wmwillis @earthlink.net
You Wrote: In 1734 John is supposed to have left the area, established a cabin right (some say in Virginia) and returned to the Lots to bring his family to the new homesite. Unfortunately he died in September of 1734---as presented by White 1902, based on family records. As the story comes down to us, his death seems rather sudden----he was probably in his late fifties or early 60’s---since he was in the process of moving to a new area, you’d probably assume he was in reasonably good health. That suggests that his death was either accidental or that he suddenly took sick and died.
Linda Writes:
You may have already found the answer to this – but here’s one I found. Don’t know if it answers your question. Since he’d been in VA I thought I’d send it. Another thing that struck me as interesting that I meant to mention before, is his death in SEPT. Aug and Sept are prime times for diseased mosquitoes. Makes you wonder if he, or others in his company, got bit by a yellow jack skeeter on his way home. But as you said, we’ll probably never know. Would be interesting to know how long after he got home he died, and how far north the fever actually spread. And how many people besides him had been in VA, since it can be passed from people to mosquito to people therefore passing it along to others for a long time.
See: http://www.bjhughes.org/epidemic.html
Which shows that a Yellow Fever epidemic hit virginia in 1734. Bill 20:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
The following article from the World health organization http://www.who.int/vaccines-documents/DocsPDF/www9842.pdf notes Yellow Fever epidemics in Philadelphia in 1734, and 1737 in Virginia. Bill 20:58, 11 September 2006 (UTC)