The Typhus Epidemic 1847

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted June, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Frontenac
The City of Kingston
On the southeast corner of Kirkpatrick Street and Kingscourt Avenue
behind the fence surrounding St. Mary's Cemetery

Coordinates: N 44 15.185 W 76 30.104

Plaque Text

Though typhus had been epidemic periodically in Canada since the 1650's, the worst outbreak occurred in the summer of 1847. In that year some 90,000 emigrants embarked for Canada, most of them refugees from the potato famine then ravaging Ireland. Nearly 16,000 died of typhus, either at sea or after their arrival in Canada. Those stricken while passing through Kingston found shelter in makeshift "immigrant sheds" erected near the waterfront. Despite the efforts of local religious and charitable organizations, notably the Sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and the ladies of the Female Benevolent Society, some 1,400 immigrants died. Buried near the present general hospital, their remains were re-interred here in 1966.

Related Toronto plaque
Irish Immigrants and the Fever Sheds 1847

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