In 1855, the steam ship Ben Franklin docked in Norfolk from the West Indies. On it was Yellow Fever. Within a span of a few months, roughly 3000 Norfolk citizens would die. Many more would flee. Norfolk’s population was cut in half. The grave diggers were unable to keep up. A mass grave was dug outside of the town limits at what is today Princess Anne Rd and Hampton Blvd. Yellow Fever Park stands there today. There was also one, possibly two, mass graves in Norfolk’s Historic Cemetery Triangle (also on the outskirts of town at the time). The City had barely recovered when the ravages of Civil War came to town five years later.
When did Yellow Fever decimate Norfolk’s population?
A) 1855 N 36 51.919 W 076 18.260
B) 1945 N 36 51.781 W 076 18.129