Discover Ontario's history as told through its plaques
2004 - Now in our 15th Year - 2019
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The Typhus Epidemic 1847
Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted June, 2004
Photo by Brian Bockus - Posted October, 2018
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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