Typhoid in Baltimore, Maryland 1888

[kiwicatz]

Wanting to find out more about this, I have two relatives that apparently died from Typhoid this year. Was it a big outbreak and how can I find more?
Thank you Jan

[jorose]

I don't find anything about a big epidemic.  Did these relatives both live close to each other and die within a short time period?

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ has a brief report in the Washington Star of October 08, 1888, of an outbreak in the Baltimore suburbs of Woodberry and Hampden - twenty cases in the former, 10 cases in the latter all from one row of houses, caused by contaminated well-water.

https://archive.org/stream/typhoidfeverits01whipgoog#page/n306/mode/2up
 - this book shows between 150 and 250 deaths a year in Baltimore from Typhoid in the 1880s and 1890s.  It looks as if the late 1880s (1888/1889) were worse than average and the author doesn't sound particularly impressed with the sanitary arrangements of the area at the time, but no sign of a major epidemic.  Perhaps it was more that there were often small outbreaks like the one mentioned in the newspaper and your relatives were caught up in one of those.