How to Die in Denver (Circa 1909) Wow Photo Wednesday

April 11, 1937 Calvary Cemetery

Calvary Cemetery
Sit back for a moment and picture yourself living in Denver in the year 1909.
Now picture yourself dying in that same year.
What was it that was most likely to send you off for a meeting with the Grim Reaper and a tombstone like the one pictured here at Calvary Cemetery? 
Though it’s a bit morbid, you don’t really have to speculate much. That’s because the authors of the City-produced magazine Municipal Facts helpfully produced a chart detailing exactly what took the lives of the 3,524 Denver residents who passed away that year. 
Topping off the list was a disease that actually didn’t affect Denver natives so much, tuberculosis. In 1909 a whopping 751 Denverites passed away from the dreaded, and highly contagious, ailment. It’s reasonable to assume that many of these deaths were people who had come to Denver from the Eastern United States in the hope of finding relief in Denver’s dry climate. 
The ripple effect of this phenomenon is still felt today when genealogy researchers search for obituaries for family members who died in Denver from tuberculosis. Oftentimes, these folks were sent back to their home towns for burial and their obituaries would appear in their hometown papers, not the Denver Post or Rocky Mountain News. (Though we can usually guide them to the right source for finding that information.)
So what else was killing the good people of Denver in 1909? Here they are with annotations to update antiquated terms. 
1. Tuberculosis – 751
2. Pneumonia – 374
3. Kidney Disease – 219
4. Cancer – 177
5. Heart Disease – 173
6. Early Infancy (Child Mortality) – 156
7. Senility – 126
8. Diarrhea – 113
9. Apoplexy (Stroke) – 104
10. Accidents – 68
11. Suicide – 64
12. Meningitis – 59
13. Appendicitis – 56
14. Diphtheria – 54
15. Alcoholism – 49
16. Typhoid – 47
17. Measles and Scarlet Fever – 44
18. Hernia – 37
19. Fractures – 31
20. Septicemia (Blood Poisoning) – 24
21. La Grippe (Flu) – 20
22. Asthma – 19
23. Whooping Cough – 18
24. Homicides – 17
25. Erysipelas (A bacterial skin condition) – 14 
26. Anemia – 11
26. Burns – 11
27. Rheumatism – 10 
28. Drowning – 5
29. Accidental Poisoning – 5
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