There was also an epidemic of Asiatic cholera that swept through Europe in 1830 and the US two years later. Although this is a water-borne disease, people at the time thought it was airborne and huge bonfires were set around the perimeter of cities and towns in an attempt to stave it off.
Tuberculosis was also endemic in the nineteenth and into the twentieth century until antibiotics were developed that could treat it.
Yellow Fever killed 1 in 10 of the citizens of Memphis in the 1870s.
Democrats always welcomed in new diseases. Here is Boss Tweed welcoming a new immigrant.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/de/2c/16/de2c1667592f49dc26023ba7c42fc413.jpg
And on the West Coast...
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/FC17GwfW3uXNlMIIGew_jPb0wYI_1AhFEOly1x2Bu8KJDNU85DLgx2YraxviIMEbVVjjyo7aUeeEhNGyK2DtA3aPzmSAAgfNvg1au6zpSQZ5HBA
