Finding Katahdin Document Packets, Chapter 8, Section 2
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Letter from Samuel Gilman to his wife, Sept. 2, 1849 / Maine Historical Society
Chapter 8, page 238-239.
Poor living conditions created ideal breeding grounds for disease. Many immigrants lived in run-down, unsanitary conditions.
This letter from Henry S. Gilman describes the cholera epidemic in Bangor in 1849. Gilman details the speed and severity of the outbreak, and mentions that many cases occurred on the street where his office was located and where many Irish immigrants lived.
A similar outbreak killed nearly 200 Irish people in Lewiston in 1854.
Transcription
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