Journals of overland vacationers from Fort Nez Perce (Walla Walla) wrote they carried measles to Fort Vancouver, even mentioning measles instances alongside the path between the Waiilatpu Mission and Fort Vancouver. Peter Skene Ogden wrote about settlers bringing different ailments, together with “measles, dysentery and typhus fever, (and) cholera.” Concerning the Native People, he mentioned, “It would be impossible to form any idea of the Indian’s population. They were swept off by hundreds.”
At Fort Vancouver, measles killed 39 folks between November 1847 and February 1848. The epidemic peaked proper after Jan. 1, taking 11 victims, primarily Native People. The full included two Hawaiians. Seventeen misplaced had been youthful than 5, whereas 18 had been ages 18-35, and three fatalities had been older than 40 (41, 47 and 60). The Willamette Valley Native People retell no less than 5 epidemic accounts. Their conventional illness remedies failed.
From Fort Vancouver, illness unfold to the Hudson’s Bay Firm farm on the Cowlitz River. George Roberts journaled concerning the epidemic there. Measles lined the group; by Dec. 17, 1847, 20 folks had been contaminated. Per week later, Roberts talked about the primary measles fatality. Native People fell sufferer, making a second an infection wave. How far it unfold is unclear, nevertheless. Roberts’ journal studies Native People had been catching measles and “suffering extremely.” By Jan. 30, 1848, Roberts defined the elevated measles an infection among the many settlers of the farming group. He final wrote concerning the epidemic on Feb. 21.
The waves of an infection because it moved from one group to a different had been frequent in most locations, like the corporate farm. Different ailments got here with it or adopted, though this didn’t occur at Fort Vancouver. Roberts mentions some on the farm confirmed signs of “camp fever” (typhus). Influenza adopted, sweeping by way of the farm in mid-Could.