Part 9. READY, SET, FIRE, BULLSEYE | Cholera Strikes New York City in 1832

Newspaper accounts began tracing Cholera’s approach in 1829. Cholera reached the major European centers in 1831. When it reached England that year, the New York City Board of Health asked three prominent physicians to strengthen quarantine measures on September 6, 1831. The first case of cholera hit New York City on July 2, 1832.

On July 3, the Board of Health formed a Special Medical Council of seven physicians to draft suggestions to prevent cholera. They printed the list on handbills and published them in the city newspapers.

Within several weeks, city officials turned schools and other buildings into five emergency cholera hospitals to isolate and treat victims. The first to be converted was Public School No. 10, on Duane Street in the cholera epicenter of Five Points. Most residents were African-Americans or Irish. On July 20 alone, they reported 100 cases at the epidemic’s height.

Some church leaders preached that cholera was the work of a wrathful God. Irish immigrants, Blacks, and the otherwise dirty and ignorant must repent. Both doctors and the well-off believed cholera struck the poor, the intemperate, and the immoral. The Public School Society opposed turning school buildings into “pest houses.” The Society saw its schools as safe havens and moral guardians for children. They feared parents would not allow their children to return to school.

On July 16, 1832, officials formed the Committee of the Benevolent, which raised thousands of dollars over several days. N.&H. Weed, a store at 191 Pearl Street, became the first of many stores across the fifteen wards designated as food and clothing collection sites.

The term “corporate pudding” comes from a 19th-century expression. It was a satirical way to describe the filthy conditions of exploding American cities. “Corporation” referred to city leaders. “Corporate pudding” referred to the foul, semi-liquid mass of mud, refuse, sewage, and rotting matter the city produced and allowed to accumulate.