1 66 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



little to be regretted in their death. But we must 

 return to Pineville. 



Though seasons would occur, in which sickness 

 and death would make their appearance in forms 

 fmore appalling than usual, yet there was generally 

 this consolation, that the rest of the country was 

 equally the subject of the visitation. Thus, in 1817 

 and 1819, the village was clad in mourning, but dis- 

 ease and death were making hurrying strides every- 

 where else. In the meantime all the usual appliances 

 for preserving the public health were adopted. The 

 ponds were drained, the ditches kept open, trees en- 

 couraged to grow, yard fires kept up every night, 

 and when the village had entered upon its fortieth 

 year, its inhabitants fondly hoped that it was the 

 abode of as much health as Providence deigns 

 award to man. It was in autumn, 1833, that the 

 first cases of that malady occurred, which drove 

 away the people. A gentleman — we believe it was 

 Mr. John Ravenel — was sick. The season was un- 

 commonly dry, and the swamps exhaled offensive 

 odors ; his daily rides led him by one of these, and 

 he was supposed to have been poisoned by its exha- 

 lations. But he was not alarmingly ill. His fever 

 appeared to intermit, and men began to inquire 

 whether fever and a^ue was to be one of the diseases 

 of the village. And those who were not connected 

 with him by any ties of intimacy, almost, perhaps 

 quite, forgot that he was sick, when suddenly a ru- 



