More than 100 burials took place at St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery alone in 1853. It is assumed that most of these deaths were caused by the yellow fever epidemic. General Richard Taylor of Fashion Plantation lost two sons during the epidemic. German Coast residents later learned that screening and oiling of cisterns deterred the breeding of mosquitoes and helped to prevent the dreaded disease. The last yellow fever epidemic was in 1909.
This text is copyright © material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
