In 1735 in New Hampshire an epidemic killed most of the children.

In 1735 in New Hampshire, an epidemic swept through the town of Kensington and killed most of the children.

It’s too horrible to imagine—all the children in families killed by a mysterious plague that formed a throat membrane, which did not allow the little ones to swallow and eventually kept them from breathing

The epidemic of diphtheria was called "throat distemper" or "putrid throat." (Merchant)

*“The Rev. Roland Sawyer wrote of the 1735 epidemic in his history of Kensington. ‘Between June 1 and Dec. 1, 1735, there died over 40 children under 10 years of age. Seven families lost 27 children, everyone dying who was taken sick. The first 8 months of 1736 we lost near 40 more, or near 90 the first 15 months of the plague.’ By 1738 so many Kensington children succumbed to diphtheria ‘there were few children left to die.’” (Merchant)

Within a year and two months, 1,200 people died in fifteen New Hampshire settlements. (Merchant)

Relentless, the plague returned again and again to continue to kill the remaining children and their parents. This story is a morbid page in history. For us today, it can serve as a warning. Diphtheria has not disappeared from the face of the earth. It occurs in other countries, and it can find its way innocently into the United States via asymptomatic carriers.

Prevention is simple: immunization for children and boosters for adults.

Source:

Dean Merchant,  History in Focus: Diphtheria Epidemic,  Hampton Union, Friday, June 27, 2008. http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20080627/LIFE/806270310