Skip to main content

On June 1, 1847, six year old Irish girl is the first to die at Boston's Deer Island Quarantine Hospital


On June 1, 1847, Mary Nelson became the first Irish immigrant to die at the new quarantine hospital at Deer Island.  She died of typhus fever and was six years old.

During the first ten days of June, 1847, other deaths included:
Mary Connelly, age one on June 3; 
Mary Flaherty, age 21,  on June 6; 
Timothy Mahoney, age 19,  on June 7; 
Ellen Welch, age 55,  on June 8; 
Thomas Miles, age 60,  on June 8; and 
William Dunn, age 32,  on June 10, 1847.  

The list of names extracted from the official death register of the City of Boston was compiled in 1990 by then-City Archivist Ed Quill.  A copy of the Deer Island Death/Burial Registry between 1847 and 1850 is kept at the City of Boston Archives

Those were not the only deaths in Boston during early June, 1847.  The Boston Traveler reported 59 deaths ( males 40, females 19) in the city for the week ending Friday June 4, ranging from consumption and typhus  to scarlet fever and suicide.   On June 4, Coroner C. Smith held an inquest on the body of a female infant, which was found floating near India Wharf.  

City officials had opened the quarantine station on  May 27 to monitor the ships coming from Ireland and Britain filled with refugees who were sick or dying from a variety of diseases, ranging from typhus fever and consumption to cholera and convulsions.  The Irish were fleeing the devastation on successive potato crop failures that triggered poverty and disease, conditions that were exacerbated by the failure of the British overseers of Ireland to address the problems.

Prior to the opening of the quarantine station, sick passengers arriving from Ireland were being allowed to come into Boston, as long as the head tax was being paid by the ship masters.  Many of the passengers became sick within a few days of arriving and ended up at the Alms House in South Boston, which quickly experience an outbreak of death among the patients.  In the last week of May, the total number of patients at the Almshouse was 812, "of whom 94 were admitted during the present week.  There have been 13 deaths during the same period and 53 discharged," according to an item in the Boston Traveler.

Commenting on the new hospital at Deer Island, a local nativist newspaper called American Signal wrote, "Quite a move of our wise city fathers, after they have allowed the city to be filled with pestilence, pauperism and crime.  It is like shutting the barn door after the horse is stolen."

Because of its proximity to sea air and wind, and its distance from the crowded tenements of Boston’s ghettoes, the Deer Island Hospital proved beneficial for the Irish who had contracted typhus, often called ship fever, and other airborne diseases.

The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, in its June 16, 1847 issue, wrote that “bad food, and the huddling together of men, women and children in the hold of a ship for weeks, engender the disease which is brought to our shores….The only efficient remedy, certainly the first source of relief, is a fresh atmospheric exposure.” 

From June 1847 to December 1850, 4,816 people were admitted to the hospital.  Of these, 4,069 were ill upon their arrival and 759 died on the island during this time. 

The Deer Island Irish Memorial is part of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail.  See information about visiting Deer Island here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Boston Celtics : The Story Behind Their Irish Green Theme

Many people wonder why the  Boston Celtics  wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why the team mascot is a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtic’s official web site, the name came about in 1946 when owner Walter Brown started the team. He and his public relations guy, Howie McHugh, were throwing out potential nicknames, including the Whirlwinds, Unicorns and Olympics. It was Brown who had the epiphany, saying, “Wait, I’ve got it – the Celtics. The name has a great basketball tradition from the old Original Celtics in New York (1920s). And Boston is full of Irishman. We’ll put them in green uniforms and call them the Boston Celtics.” Red Auerbach , the now legendary coach of the early Celtics, then commissioned his brother Zang, a graphic designer in the newspaper business, to come up with the famous Celtics logo in the early 1950s. The logo mana

Boston Mayors of Irish Descent, 1885-2021

(Originally published in 2013, this post was updated in 2021) Here are the Mayors of Boston Claiming Irish Heritage:  Hugh O’Brien 1885–88 Patrick Collins 1902–05 John F. Fitzgerald 1906–07, 1910–13 James M. Curley 1914–17, 1922–25, 1930–33, 1946–49 Frederick W. Mansfield 1934–37 Maurice Tobin 1938–41, 1941-44 John Kerrigan 1945 John B. Hynes 1950–59 John Collins 1960–68 Kevin H. White 1968–83 Raymond L. Flynn 1984–93 Martin J. Walsh   2014- 2021 The lineage of Boston mayors with Irish ancestry dates back to 1885, when Irish immigrant Hugh O'Brien of County Cork assumed office and became the first Irish-born mayor elected in Boston, serving four one-year terms (1885-88).   O'Brien was followed by Irish-born Patrick Collins (1902-05), also of County Cork, who died in office in 1905. He was replaced by John F. Fitzgerald, who became the first American-born mayor of Irish descent, serving two terms.  A noteworthy mayor was James

Boston's Airport Named for Edward L. Logan, South Boston Leader with Galway Roots

Statue of General Edward L. Logan Boston ’s Logan InternationalAirport was named for General Edward L. Logan (1875-1939), a first generation Irish-American, military leader, civic leader and municipal judge with family roots in Galway and South Boston .  Logan was the son of Lawrence Logan and Catherine O'Connor from Ballygar, County Galway, according to historian Michael J. Cummings .  The Logan family lived on East Broadway in South Boston.   Read a full profile of Edward L. Logan on IrishMassachusetts.com . The Logan statue is part of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail , a collection of public landmarks, memorials, buildings and statues that tell the story of the Boston Irish from the 1700s to the present.  Find year round information on Boston's Irish community at IrishBoston.org .