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250 Years Ago, Sudbury was in the middle of an epidemic known as the bloody flux. We know this from Rev. Jacob Bigelow’s Burial Records and the Diary of Experience Wright Richardson, in which she recorded her thoughts from 1728 until 1782. She mentions the disease first in August 29 and twice more, for example:
“September 18 1775 Oh the terible judgments we have in the land beside the war we have the Bloody flux & a great many Dye with it”
Rev. Bigelow was the minister of what we now call First Parish in Sudbury. His burial records do not mention the cause of death, but the numbers are grim. In September of 1775, he buried 17 children and 5 adults. Another 11 perished in October. For reference, in 1773 he buried a total of 14 people; and in 1774 it was 11.
The epidemic, also known as “camp fever”, probably started in the army camps of the Siege of Boston due to poor sanitation. It spread through all the towns in the surrounding area. Today we know it as dysentery.
Bigelow Burial records in the Sudbury Archives (https://archives.sudbury.ma.us/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=MGYyZDZlNmUtNDEwYy00YWU2LTk0NzktZDFiYzQ0NmQ3NTA1&rID=NDc5NA==&qrs=RmFsc2U=&q=QmlnZWxvdw==&ph=VHJ1ZQ==&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&rrtc=VHJ1ZQ==)