Desk of John Johnson

The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150. Over 90 percent of whites who remained contracted yellow fever, and roughly 70 percent of these died. Long thought to be immune to the disease, blacks contracted the fever in large numbers as well in 1878, although only 7 percent of infected blacks died. While there is still no consensus among experts explaining this racial disparity in mortality rates, it is likely that repeated exposure to yellow fever over many generations in West Africa provided many blacks with a higher resistance to the disease.

Fleeing Memphians encountered quarantines throughout the South. Some of these, like the one at Jackson, Tennessee, were successful in keeping the disease from spreading. But like the attempts at quarantine in Memphis, most of these efforts were not thorough enough. Hardest hit were the Tennessee towns along the various railroads leading out of Memphis. Germantown, Moscow, Milan, Collierville, Paris, Brownsville, Martin, and LaGrange each experienced staggering losses relative to the size of their communities. Traveling along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the fever even spread to a swampy slum district of Chattanooga, causing 8,000 of the city's residents to flee.

Long after cold weather brought relief from the fever, Memphis still felt the effects of the epidemic. Yellow fever exacerbated the already dismal financial situation in the city to the point that the legislature revoked the Memphis city charter in 1879. The fever also contributed to substantial declines in the Irish and German communities as well as the general population.”

Although it is commonly believe that Memphis lost its charter because the population was too low, the fact is that the 1878 outbreak of Yellow Fever was just the last nail in the city's financial coffin.  Earlier bond issues to fund streets and railroads proved to be irresponsible.  That coupled with corruption led to the city losing it's charter and the area being declared a taxing district of the state.  That status was to continue for many years and although many tried the area was never allowed to escape it's debt.