Cholera is a tropical disease that was spread all over the world in six pandemics in the 1800s... and it spread rapidly from one person to another, and it affected all age groups. The disease progression was often very quickly and it was usual with death within 24 hours ...
This was a new situation for the people in 1834. They were accustomed to a high child mortality rates, but unlike most other infectious diseases that came and went at regular intervals, it was now the adults which was most affected ...
The medical profession could not help, they had no idea what caused the disease, much less how it was spread, or how to treat it (ewen if they tried).
Today we know that cholera is a disease which is mainly spread by contaminated water and fore example poorly cooked fish. Are those who eat the contaminated fish also craving, the risk is much greater to be sick.
Cholera is serious bowel disease that leads to very large diarrhea and severe dehydration is a major smittdos to make someone ill ... and therefore there are normally many asymptomatic carrier.
The authorities tried to meet the expected epidemic in various ways, one was whit the "Cholera announcement"...
The "Cholera announcement" from 1831...
In every parish, a soundness committee would set up, which had the task to take care of health care.
¤ Houses that would function as medical homes, equipped with beds.
¤ Rules for persons traveling from one place to another was determined, as well as details of the quarantine ...
¤ Corpses after the cholera victims, only got handled by special persons designated ... and they were not allowed to be buried in the cemetery, but in isolated locations prepared cholera cemeteries.
Special cemeteries for the cholera wictims were prepared in Hörvik, Torso, Lörby (Klockskog) and Stiby Backe...
¤ Guards were appointed to ensure that nobody broke the rules...
The hot summer of 1834...
The disease arrived the first time to Sweden in the hot summer of 1834 (and in the 1800s came the cholera total of 11 times to Sweden) usually early in the autumn and/or after a hot summer. The first death from cholera happened in Gothenburg 26 July 1834 ... so the infection apparently came in through the harbor. Since cholera is mainly spread from human to human, it spread no faster than a man can move ... and with that time the itineraries, it was not so fast, but in Sweden continued the spread of the disease also through the waterways, both along the coast and into the country.
So when the rumor reached Mjallby that the cholera arrived in Karlshamn, they decided to immediately close the border to the entire Mjällbys parish.
Parishioners itself guarding the borders, both on land and at sea ... and they did not let anyone in or out.
The cholera took only a handful lives when it hit Mjallby parish...
... in october 1834.
The first person that died was named Kerstin (Svensdotter) and she was wife to Lars Löberg, and was from Hällevik (Hällevik is / was a small village, next to the Baltic Sea ... which fed on what the sea gave)
.
She died on October 3 ... and the same day died Karna (wife of the fisherman Nils Mikaelsson from Djupekås), and two small sisters, Nilla - 5 years - and Bengta - just a few months old - , on the island Hanö.
The sisters parents were from Hällevik, and there was also Nilla born, but small Bengta were both born and baptized on Hanö...
There's a grave on Hanö as the rumored says belong to "Karna and her two children" ... and probably are they the same as Karna, Nilla and Bengta above, although they were not mother and children.
"Be my guest! What did the sisters actually died of?
I'm not sure, but probably not cholera ...
(Källa: Mjällby C:6 1816-1837 )"
Why do they buried there there, high up on a rocky island?
The answer is simple, they had no choice.
"Hanö ... a rock island out in the Baltic sea"
So even if it was only Karna - who died of cholera - , so was not the parents to Nilla and Bengta allowed to take their daughters to Mjallby cemetery and bury them there ... for they were not allowed to come ashore on the mainland.
Tough rules, but perhaps that is the reason why the cholera take only a few victims in Mjallby parish 1834...
Next time - in 1853 - had Mjallby parish residents not the same luck...
The first person who died was a four children father from Hörby - Ola Schröeder, who died Aug. 28 in Karlskrona ... and the day after one more person died from Hosaby, and the last day in August died another one...
Skröder died of cholera, but what the other two died of is not specified. Were they buried in Karlskrona, or did they made a last trip home to be buried in the cemetery of Mjallby? I do not know, but the truth is that a week later, the cholera epidimic is a fact in Mjällby parich... and about 50 speeches people lost their their lives!
Twelve of these were from Hällevik and is probably buried in Stiby cholera cemetery ... perhaps even two people who lived in Stiby.
Probably buried in Stiby Backe ...
September 8 died 30-year-old sailor Nils Sjöstedt from Hällevik No: 50 ... in Hörvik...
September 15 died fishermen Sven Larsson's 26-year-old wife Elna Bengtsdotter on Hällevik No: 55. Elna leaving two children, Katarina and Ola (I hope to return to them some day)...
September 18 died 55 year old married fisherman Bengt Johnsson at Hällevik No: 55. Bengt is the father of the above-mentioned Elna Bengtsdotter...
September 24 died sailors (Lars) Pettersson's 45-year-old wife Bengta Trulsdotter on Hällevik No: 52...
September 30 died 70-year-old widow Mrs Bodil Mattsdotter on Hällevik No: 33.
She was formerly married to Truls Trulsson junior and they are the parents to the above-mentioned Bengta Trulsdotter)...
October 6 died 65-year-old died fisherman widower Ola Persson Hellevik ... No: 37
October 13 died 53-year-old fisherman's widow, Mrs Bodil Johanneson, Hällevik No: 21
October 22 died 75-year-old ex. naval artillery man Carl Sandstrom (paupers) ... on Hällevik No: 51
October 29 died 39-year-old widow Karna Carlsdotter, Hällevik No: 15
(daughter of former lakes to clerk Carl Sandstrom)
October 31 died Pål Thuressons 33-year-old wife makes Kersta Carlsdotter ... Hällevik No: 51 (daughter of lakes to clerk Carl Sandstrom)
October 31 died 59-year-old fisherman widower Masse Larsson ... Hällevik No: 28
November 2 died fisherman died Per Olsson's 33-year-old wife Anna Johannesdotter, Hällevik No: 15...
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ADs material är fotograferat i färg, vilket gör det lättare att läsa... kanhända går det rent av att se vad systrarna Nilla & Bengta dog av ("... den andra av slag", gissar jag)...
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