, fatal cravings,
Laying hands upon the city.
And the doomed victims yielded
To the swift-distilling poison;
White and black and high and lowly,
Fell beneath the sweeping scythe-blade.
On the air was borne the crying
Of the hurrying, the fleeing,
Through the air the sad lamenting
Of the helpless and deserted,
Cries of anguish and of terror,
Wails of suff'ring and despairing.
Some brave souls remained in peril,
'Mid this notable hegira;
Some remained with Spartan courage,
And the enemy confronted;
Some fell, martyrs in the struggle,
When their task of love was ended.
B. F. Duncan, kind physician!
Stood his post a valiant soldier,
Never faltered, never wavered,
While his duty lay before him;
Stood forth bold for his profession,
Stood forth friend and nurse and doctor.
But his skill and his devotion
Could not terminate the death-list,
Could but palliate the anguish,
Could but soothe the dying victim.
Mournful sights were his to witness
In the lone, deserted village;
Painful scenes he long remembered,
In the still, plague-stricken city.
From the news sheets of the era,
The "Kentuckian" or the "Journal,"
(Early chronicles established
In the city of Lancaster),
We may glean the sad statistics,
Glean the names of some who suffered,
Suffered death from the invader,
From the cholera Asiatic.
May the list awake a tear-drop
At the sounds once so familiar.
William Cooke and A. McDaniel,
D. McKee and William Pollard,
Seymour Gice and Mrs. Woodruff,
Thomas Pratt and Charles S. Bledsoe,
Doctor William Gill, E. Sartain,
Robert Gill and James G. Tillett,
Mrs. Gill and Mrs. Gresham,
Then Ray Smith and Mrs. Tillett,
Mrs. Anderson, J. Aldridge,
Mary Crooke and J. Vanmeter,
Nancy Bland and Joseph Evans,
Miss E. Gill and Daniel Bledsoe,
Mr. Parks and Mrs. Jennings,
Mrs. Parks and Patience Wilmot,
J. V. Gill and Mrs. Aldridge,
Mrs. George and David Sutton,
Patience Crow and Mrs. Reynolds,
Mary Robertson, John Bryant,
Mrs. Dunn, James Pope then follow.
Next come Mrs. Pratt, John Pollard,
E. McKee and Ruth A. Evans,
Frederick Hutchison, Ben. Letcher,
G. W. Thompson, Mary Woodruff,
S. S. Wilmot, William Lillard,
Joseph Woodruff and "two strangers,"
Lastly, Alexander Collier,
And "five children," are recorded.
Sixteen days the grim destroyer
Scourged our city on the hillside,