Anguish family

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            In the summer of 1852, Tonawanda was struck by a cholera epidemic that claimed the lives of many residents in a short period of time. Cholera is a severe intestinal disease caused by contaminated water or food. Before modern sanitation and water treatment, outbreaks could spread rapidly through a community, often proving fatal within hours or days.
    Among the victims were members of the Anguish family, descendants of one of Tonawanda's earliest pioneer families. Mary (Bacon) Anguish, wife of William Anguish, died on August 3, 1852, at the age of 51. Three days later, her two-year-old grandson, Albert B. Bartlett, died. On August 10, Mary's daughter, Wealthy Anguish, age 21, also succumbed to the disease. Their deaths, occurring within a single week, illustrate the devastating impact cholera had on local families.
    Mary and Wealthy were originally buried in Tonawanda's River Cemetery, the community's earliest burial ground along the Niagara River. When the River Cemetery was later abandoned and the graves were moved to what is now City Cemetery, workers opened Mary's grave and reported that her body had remained remarkably well preserved. Newspapers of the time described the remains as having become "petrified," although modern science suggests natural preservation processes, rather than actual petrification, were responsible.
  

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