In 1873-74, a series of articles were contributed to the Plain City Press, by Dr. Jeremiah Converse, of Darby Township, in one of which he gives the following graphic description of the malarial epidemic that spread desolation over the eastern part of Madison County sixty years ago. He says: "In 1822-23, this country was visited with a terrible epidemic, which struck down many of the hardy pioneers and laid them low in the dust. There are those yet in our midst whose minds will instinctively go back, upon the mention of these years, to the sorrows and sufferings experienced by themselves, and the inroads and devastating raids of death over a large scope of territory, upon neighborhoods and families. There was scarcely a family in all this great scope of country (Darby Plains) in which death had not marked one or more of its members as its victim. Children were made orphans, the wife a widow, the husband deprived of his companion, parents rendered childless, and in some instances every member of the family was stricken down by the fell monster.
"No tongue can describe, no pen portray, to the mind or imagination of the reader, the scenes of suffering witnessed and experienced by these early settlers. All business transactions ceased, gloom brooded ever the minds of the people, and many stout hearts were made to tremble in awe of the impending doom that seemed to await them. Death reigned supreme. Men and women who were not prostrated with disease were busy day and night ministering to the wants of the needy, mitigating the sufferings of the sick, and consoling the grief-stricken widow and orphan children, whose dependence had been ruthlessly torn from their embrace. The condition of many of these sufferers was heart-rending. Away from the homes of their childhood, separated from kindred and friends by a vast intervening distance of forest, mountain and river, with no kind parental voice whispering consolation to the broken-hearted, no loving mother to imprint the kiss of affection or check the fast-flowing tear-drops on the fevered cheek, wipe the cold perspiration from the brow of her dying child, or bid a last farewell to the remains of her loved one. Truly here was 'pestilence that walketh in darkness,' and a 'destruction that wasteth at noonday.' Many were the bitter tears of anguish wrung in those two years; many a household was hushed in the stillness of death; and still many were the families where one or more of the little group were laid low by the king of terrors.
"Some of my readers, perhaps, may think that I have overdrawn the picture, but this description is but an imperfect outline of the realities that were experienced in those days. Many, no doubt, would have been saved could they have had proper care and attention; but where should they look for help? Scarcely a family but what had their sick or dying; the few that were not prostrated with disease were worn down with constant watching; yet these messengers of mercy visited each day all the sick that were assigned them in their division, to administer to the wants of the living and prepare the dead for burial.
"One instance among the many might be given of loneliness, mental and physical suffering; where the wife, prostrated on a bed of sickness, unable even to help herself to a cup of water, had three small children crying to their mother to attend to their wants for food and drink. In another part of the room, the husband and father lay in the cold embrace of death. For twenty-four hours this helpless group of sufferers was shut out, as it were, from the world, with no visible hand to minister to their wants or whisper consolation to their bleeding hearts, surrounded by the stillness of death, occasionally broken by the children's cries of 'Mother, mother,' and the deep, heavy sighs of that mother as she looked upon the helpless forms of her babes. This is but one among the many cases of privation and suffering that was experienced by the early settlers of this country. So threatening were the consequences from this terrible malady that many of those who had the means at their command left this part of the State to escape the desolation that seemed as if it would spare none; but a large majority of the inhabitants were compelled to remain. Some were so poor that to procure means would be impossible, while others again had invested all their money in land, which, at that time, under the threatened depopulation, could not be sold at any price. Thus they were compelled to stay and undergo whatever might await them. Sickness reigned so universal that but few were in attendance to pay the last tribute of respect to the dead, or follow them to their last resting-places. There were a few instances where the father was compelled to make the rude coffin, dig the grave and deposit beneath the clods of the valley the loved form of his child.
"We talk about suffering, hard times, privations! Just let the reader take a stroll to the cemetery south of Plain City, and, with pencil in hand, mark the number whose tombstones make these years the eventful period in its history; and in addition to this, the scores where no slab marks the resting-place of the silent sleeper beneath. Again there were other cemeteries and cities of the dead that were largely peopled during these sickly years, besides the many that were buried on the farms, which could not be removed to far-off burial-grounds. Then again, the abandoned cemeteries, one of which is barely discernible, on the farm now owned by Joseph Atkinson. The most of the sleepers there fell in 1822-23. Sum this all up, and you have a faint conception of the reign of terror and death. It has been carefully computed that, in what was then called the 'South settlement,' one half of the inhabitants died during these two years.
"Between Chuckery and Homer, on a farm subsequently owned by John Smith, but then held in smaller farms, there were seventeen deaths. In what was known as the 'Converse settlement,' not more than one-fourth of the people died. The territory invaded by this epidemic extended for a short distance east of Big Darby, and perhaps about the same distance west of Little Darby. All of the territory lying between these points seemed to generate the poison that produced the disease, whatever that may have been. There was an unusual amount of sickness all over Madison County, as well as in a large portion of Clark, but the deaths were comparatively few, except in the district mentioned.
"The exciting causes which led to the development and breaking-out of the disease in question may be, and perhaps are, shrouded in mystery. The condition of this county previous to and at the breaking-out of the epidemic, to a careless observer, would present no material changes to that of former years. In many portions of the prairie country, it was no unusual thing for large bodies of stagnant water to remain upon the surface until late in autumn, exposed to the scorching rays of a summer sun. Up to this time, but little attention had been paid to the drainage of the country. The rich soil produced annually enormous coats of vegetation, which, prior to the settlement of this county, and for many years afterward, were destroyed by the fires that swept over the prairies every autumn. Neither of the years above mentioned were unusually rainy or wet seasons, but they were characterized by dense fogs, extending all over this country, commencing very early in the season and continuing until the beginning of winter. There can be no question in the minds of scientific men that the primary or exciting cause of the disease was the result of malarious influences: but why it should be generated so copiously, and attended with such poisonous effects that scarcely a human being was proof against its powers, is a difficult question to settle satisfactorily. Scientific researches and experiments have established the fact that, when our large cities have been visited by malarial epidemics, the free use of lime or alkaloids in the filthy alleys and gutters acted as an antidote toward the freeing of these places from malaria. Taking this view of the subject, we may be able to approximate to a certainty the exciting causes which led to the development of the disease in question."
"If we were to call to our aid the fact that, prior to and during the early settlement of this part of Ohio, the prairie fires annually destroyed the greater part of the luxurious growth of vegetation that grew on the prairies, leaving the residue of ashes strongly alkaline in principle, which, according to more recent researches, would act as an antidote to malarious development, we shall understand one of the exciting causes of the epidemic of 1822-23. The great amount of sickness during these years was not alone confined to the Darby country, but other portions of Madison, Franklin and Clark Counties were visited by this disease in a milder form. In a recent conversation with an aged gentleman, who, at that time, lived in Clark County, information was elicited that even there an unusual amount of sickness pervaded a large portion of the county.
"For a few years prior to the years in question, this part of Ohio was rapidly settled by emigrants from the Eastern States. As a consequence, houses and barns were built, fields were fenced, orchards were planted, and all the necessary means made use of to make home comfortable. By reason of these improvements, it became necessary to arrest the prairie fires, which, prior to this period, annually swept over the country. The consequences resulting from arresting these fires was that a large portion of the luxuriant growth of vegetation was subject to decomposition, which, in connection with the heat of the sun, increased the development and poison of malaria. The arrest of those annual fires took away the purifying agent, or alkaloid, which, hitherto, had rendered malaria comparatively inert. This course of reasoning would lead to the detection of the causes which produced the sickly seasons of 1822-23.
"The precursory or incipient stage of the disease was announced by a feeling of lassitude, indisposition to exercise, loss of appetite, nausea, thirst, a dry skin, constipated bowels and chilly sensations experienced by the patient. Sometimes these symptoms would continue for several days; in others, there were no precursory indications; but eventually the disease was announced by a severe rigor or chill, the patient suffering from the intense sensation of cold. The whole body was brought under its influence, in which the muscular and nervous system participated. There was a marked livid and purple appearance of the skin, with accelerated respiration, and a quick, feeble pulse, evidently indicating severe congestion of the internal organs. This condition of the patient would frequently continue for several hours; but these symptoms subsequently gave way by the ushering in of a sensation of severe heat, a frequent and full pulse, great thirst, severe headache, nausea and vomiting, while sometimes delirium would supervene. In children, during this stage of the disease, it was no unfrequent occurrence for the patient to be attacked with convulsions. This latter condition would continue for several hours, when they would gradually subside, and the patient experience a degree of comfort and freeness from suffering that would induce him to a delusive opinion that the disease had given way and convalescence began; but his hopes would be sadly disappointed in finding the succeeding day ushering upon him all the symptoms, in an aggravated form, that were experienced on the preceding one. In the second attack, there were unmistakable evidences of the existence of severe internal congestion. There seemed to be less power in the system to bring about re-action, and regain the equilibrium in the action of the heart and arteries. Many instances occurred where the patient sank into an inflammatory type of fever, which ran its course from seven to fifteen days, but more frequently ended in death on the eighth or ninth day of the inflammatory stage. Taking all the symptoms of this disease into consideration, and the great amount of malarial poison existing in the system, may we not safely conclude this to have been a pernicious fever or sinking chill epidemic?
"The attending physicians during the epidemic in the region of the Darby country were Dr. Lorenzo Beach and Dr. James Comstock. So numerous were the patients, and protracted the epidemic, that these men became worn down from labor, exposure and anxiety; but the great responsibility resting upon them, and the urgent appeals from suffering humanity, so stimulated their nerve power as to render them impervious to the malarious poison that was prostrating those around them. At least, they were preserved by an overruling Providence from the ravages of the disease.
"The general outline of treatment made use of by the profession to arrest the disease and produce convalescence was that recommended by Eberly and other writers of his day. If the patient was seen in the first stages of the disease, an emetic was administered, and perhaps bleeding was resorted to. After the patient had recovered from the effects of the emetic, an active cathartic was given, composed of calomel and jalap. This active process so reduced the patient that he became an easy prey to the next paroxysm. These cathartics were administered almost daily, with the view of freeing the system from pent-up bilious matter. The anti-periodics made use of by the profession were then in a crude state. Quinine or any of the extracts were unknown; consequently, the only available anti-periodic medicine to be relied upon was the Peruvian or "Jesuit's" bark. In consequence of the enormous doses required to check the paroxysms and nauseous taste, but few stomachs could retain the medicines in sufficient quantities to arrest the progress of the disease. But then, what could be done? The physicians evidently saw that their medicines were powerless, and that death was not stayed by their efforts. This was truly a pitiable condition, to see our fellow-creatures prostrated by disease, suffering from the dire effects of an epidemic, and yet powerless in rendering material aid to their pleadings for help. But such were the facts, and such were the sufferings experienced by the early settlers who located on the rich prairies of Madison County."