The flu pandemic that spread throughout the world in 1918-1919 may have killed more people than the medieval Black Death.
The Spanish Flu Epidemic Raged in Massachusetts in 1918
Category: Disease
Great Sorrows, the Deadly “Throat Distemper” of 1735
"What mourning Sighs, and loud Outcries comes from the Eastern Towns, Of Children crying, and others dying, which makes a doleful Sound."
Smallpox
One of the most progressive citizens of Ipswich, Dr. John Manning opened a practice in 1760, and began inoculating members of his family for smallpox, incurring the wrath of the Town. An epidemic of smallpox spread through Boston during the British occupation of the city at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
Historic Ipswich 