Share on Facebook
Share on X
Share by Email
Share on Google Classroom
Susan Bailey, nurse (born circa 1815; died 30 August 1847 in Toronto, Canada West [Ontario]). Susan Bailey was head nurse of the Emigrant Hospital in Toronto during the typhus epidemic of 1847. Many Irish immigrants died of typhus there, as did several of the hospital staff, including Bailey herself. (See also Irish Famine Orphans in Canada.)
This article was created in collaboration with Museum of Toronto.
The Great Famine and Irish Immigration
In the summer of 1847, more than 38,000 Irish immigrants landed at Toronto. Many were seriously ill. This was a public health and humanitarian concern for the city, which had only 20,000 inhabitants at the time.
The migrants were among approximately two million who fled the Great Famine in Ireland in the mid-19th century. They had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on converted cargo ships, which became known as “coffin ships” due to the high death rate aboard. Of those who survived the crossing, thousands died at the quarantine station at Grosse Île near Quebec City. Survivors travelled down the St. Lawrence River and across Lake Ontario on steamboats, which were often overcrowded. Many were seriously malnourished and ill with typhus, then known as “ship fever” or “jail fever.”
Toronto Emigrant Hospital
Upon arrival in Toronto, the healthy were sent out of the city while the sick were treated at the Emigrant Hospital near the corner of King and John Streets or in “fever sheds” that were hastily constructed on its grounds. (The Emigrant Hospital was part of the Toronto General Hospital complex.) The sheds had cheesecloth walls to allow air circulation while protecting patients from mosquitoes.
Despite heroic efforts, more than 1,800 immigrants, government officials, clergy and medical personnel had died of contagious disease by the end of the year. Among the dead were Dr. George Robert Grasett, the Emigrant Hospital’s medical supervisor, and head nurse Susan Bailey, who contracted typhus from their patients. Little else is known about Bailey.
As in Toronto, many doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston and Saint John died from typhus while caring for Irish immigrants during the 1847 epidemic.
