The Fever

Originally Published July 10-23, 2005
Presented with permission from the The Virginian-Pilot.

      One hundred fifty years ago, the people of Norfolk
and Portsmouth were stalked by a silent killer

At first, they fell one or two at a time ...
then 10 a day … finally 80 or 90 a day.

Many residents fled, but those who stayed
behind witnessed an otherworldly event:

people battling something that they could not
see, suffering from an illness that had no cure.

At the height of the devastation,
only one thing mattered:

Who would live and who would die?

Learn more about the deadly pestilence that wiped out
a third of the population of Norfolk and Portsmouth during the fall of 1855.
Click on the links below.

Download and print: The full series in PDF

By LON WAGNER, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 10, 2005