The story of Detroit / by George B. Catlin.

DETROIT'S SECOND CHOLERA SCOURGE

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The services of Rev. Martin Kundig to the people of Detroit
during the cholera epidemic of 1834, and following that as
supervisor of the poor and manager of the old county poor
farm, have never been properly appreciated. The first pastor of
Holy Trinity Church was a man of stalwart frame, resolute,
resourceful and fearless in the midst of panic. It was the custom
in his time to toll the passing bell when a member of any parish
died. But when deaths were occurring at the rate of IO to 36
a day the solemn clangor of the church bells sent shivers of
dread throughout the community and people began to hold
their hands over their ears to shut out the fearsome sound.
Fr. Kundig begged that the tolling of bells be stopped and it
was done. The priest himself was regarded as a carrier of
plague and was generally avoided.
The physicians of Detroit worked night and day, but their
remedies, apparently, were futile. Some of them resorted to
heavy dosage of calomel and bleeding of patients whose blood
was already reduced by the disease. Practically all who were so
treated died a few hours later. Others dosed their patients with
strong liquors, opium, rhubarb, and cayenne pepper, hoping to
check the discharges and to warm the blood of the cholera
victims, who became in a single hour emaciated and blue and
shivering with cold while the terrible cramps doubled them up
with pain. There were no nurses to keep up treatment after
the doctors had left to hurry to the next sufferer so Fr. Kundig organized a Catholic Female Association for nursing the sick
and caring for children suddenly orphaned by the plague. For
such children it was necessary to provide temporary homes and
care. He led weeping children from door to door to find temporary guardians. Some were housed in the county poor house
on Gratiot Avenue and others were placed in an abandoned
building on Lamed Street, near Randolph, under care of the
young women of the Catholic Female Association. Out of that'
association and the common necessity came the organization
known as St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum. This had its
real beginning in the spring of 1836 when 20 acres of land
adjoining the poor farm were leased on the Gratiot Road beyond