Chapter 12: 1852, Epidemic

“Anastasia is burning up with fever!” Sarah told her husband when he came in from tending to the animals. The look on his face told her immediately that he understood the danger.

2 “It’s been a week since she was with the Martin girl,” Joseph replied. “I’ve heard that it can take that long or longer,” Sarah told him.

3 “Daddy, my head hurts,” Anastasia whimpered. “I’m sorry my sweet girl’s not feeling well,” he told her. She managed a brief smile and asked her mother for a cold cloth.

4 Joseph’s and Sarah’s worst fears had been realized. The mysterious sickness which had taken away so many of their friends and neighbors had finally reached their doorstep.

5 With each passing day, the fever only grew hotter. By the end of the week, Anastasia lay motionless and exhausted. Joseph was unable to even look at his beloved daughter with her half-closed eyes. He knew that the end was near. As October dawned, Anastasia finally slipped away.

6 Joseph cradled Sarah in his arms as she sobbed uncontrollably. “My beautiful girl!” she kept repeating. He hugged her tighter to keep from breaking down himself. “She was only fifteen years old!” she screamed as she wrenched free from her husband’s embrace. “I know,” was all that he could manage in reply.

7 There would, however, be little time to mourn Anastasia’s passing. Fourteen-year-old Nancy was now burning up with the same high fever which had afflicted her older sister. Even more frightening, she had been attending to her three-year-old brother while her mother had taken care of Anastasia.

8 Joseph had just told Sarah that he was going to look for the doctor when they heard a knock at the door. He turned and made his way to the door and opened it.

9 “Oh, John, I sure am glad to see you!” he told his brother. “I heard that the girls was sick, and I came over as fast as I could,” he replied.

10 “Anastasia is dead, and Nancy is sick,” he told him. “Oh my God!” he exclaimed. He rushed over to Nancy’s bedside and laid his hand across her forehead. “She’s burnin up with fever,” he confirmed. “I was just about to go get the doc when you knocked,” Joseph told him.

11 “Your place is here with Sarah – I’ll go get the doctor,” John told him. “Thank you,” Joseph accepted without hesitation.

12 John rode hard in to town, but the doctor was not there. “He’s been goin from house to house tendin the sick,” the sheriff told him. Nevertheless, John finally tracked the doctor down a few hours later and quickly explained to him the situation in the McElwain household. The doctor nodded and agreed to ride along with him back to his brother’s house.

13 A few days later, Nancy was dead too; and little Jeremiah had started running a fever. John had stopped back in to check on his brother’s family and was beside himself when they told him about Nancy and Jeremiah. “I’ll go fetch the doctor again,” John told his grief-stricken brother.

14 As he rode along, however, John realized that he hadn’t been feeling well all day. He felt hot and his muscles were aching. By the time he reached the doctor, his stomach was cramping.

15 “Doc, my brother needs you bad!” he exclaimed. “Nancy’s dead, and Jeremiah’s burning up with the fever too,” John continued.

16 “How are you feeling, John?” the doctor asked. “I’m not the one who needs you,” John assured him. “I’ll be along directly,” the doctor told him.

17 John jumped back up on his horse and started back for Joseph’s house. As he rode along, however, he felt his energy slipping away. And, although it was a cool fall day, he was sweating profusely.

18 When he reached his destination, he slowly dismounted and took two steps toward the house and then collapsed. “Daddy, Uncle John just fell down in the yard!” James exclaimed as he watched him approach from the window.

19 Joseph rushed toward the door. “Come on and help me get him in the house,” he shouted to his son.

20 Together, they lifted him back to his feet and helped him into the house. “I don’t feel so good,” he told his brother. “Lay him down here,” Sarah told them.

21 The doctor arrived a few hours later. “I’ve done all that I can do,” he told them. “It’s in the Lord’s hands now.”

22 Within a week and a half, Jeremiah and John were both dead. The epidemic had taken a terrible toll on the McElwain household and the entire community, but it wasn’t finished yet. By the end of the year, baby Eliza Bell was dead too.

23 “How can the Lord expect anyone to survive the loss of four children?” Sarah asked. “The Martins lost six,” Joseph reminded her. “God help us to go on,” she prayed.

24 Now these are the generations of John and Frances McElwain of Ireland:

25 Together, they had sons John and Joseph.

26 Joseph McElwain married Sarah Keel, and they had twelve children together.

27 One of them, a daughter (whom they named after her grandmother Frances), married James William Reynolds and had children.