Cholera reached the Town of York on June 18, 1832, and returned in 1834, the year York was incorporated as the City of Toronto. The first outbreak lasted about three months and, according to Heritage Toronto, killed roughly 200 people, around 5 percent of the population. The second was far less deadly. Both epidemics struck a settlement that had one small general hospital, no sewers, and a drinking supply drawn from the lake.
The record is thin in places. Contemporary case counts survive for 1832, but no source read for this article gives a reliable death toll for 1834. Where the sources disagree or are silent, the text says so.
How cholera reached York in 1832
Cholera belonged to the second world pandemic, which reached England in 1831 and North America in 1832, arriving on emigrant ships. Kamran Khan and Stephen Otto, writing in the Friends of Fort York newsletter The Fife and Drum in December 2013, give the arrival dates in the Canadas: Montreal on June 9, 1832, Kingston on June 17, and York on June 18. The Canadian Encyclopedia adds that a quarantine station opened at Grosse Ile, near Quebec, in 1832, and that towns that tried to isolate themselves still could not stop the disease.
Nobody in 1832 knew that the cause was a bacterium carried in water. Khan and Otto note that the germ theory was not established, and that John Snow’s link between cholera and a London water pump came only in 1854. Treatments of the period included laxatives, emetics, and bleeding. Heritage Toronto lists other remedies that did nothing, such as sleeping under blankets, closing windows, and smelling dried flowers, and it points out that the town’s drinking water came from a lake that also received dead animals and household waste.
The Board of Health and the hospital
On June 21, 1832, three days after the first arrival, the local government named several doctors and laymen to a Board of Health. Khan and Otto describe its role as monitoring the epidemic and recommending sanitary measures. It had no power to compel anyone to clean a yard or relieve overcrowding, a problem made worse by the number of new immigrants. The authors put it bluntly: York was completely unprepared.
The town’s general hospital had been built in 1819 and opened as a hospital in 1829, according to the National Trust for Canada. It was filled beyond capacity in 1832 and again in 1834, and patients were nursed in “fever sheds” around it. Khan and Otto add that its funding was inadequate and that many people were prejudiced against going there. The hospital’s grounds also held the fever sheds of 1847 described in the article on the 1847 typhus epidemic.
Fort York and the garrison
The one place where the outbreak was handled with a plan was the garrison. Dr. John Shortt, medical officer of the 79th Regiment (Cameron Highlanders), ran the fort’s own hospital. He isolated the garrison, enforced sanitation and personal hygiene, and treated cases early. Khan and Otto report that very few soldiers died, and that Shortt drew on advice from the army medical service and on what had been learned in Montreal and Kingston.
Some deaths at the fort are recorded by name. Rebecca, daughter of Captain Jeremiah Radcliffe, died on August 9, 1832, the first death there. Dr. James Muttlebury, a retired Inspector of Army Hospitals who had recently immigrated, died about five days later. Drum Major James Lee of the 79th died on August 16. Soldiers were forbidden to touch Muttlebury’s coffin, so the Reverend John Strachan and his son moved it from the wagon to the grave in Victoria Square.
Counting the dead
| Date (1832) | Cases | Deaths | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| End of July | 183 | 81 | Khan and Otto |
| September 12 | 535 | 205 | Khan and Otto |
| Whole outbreak (about three months) | not given | about 200, around 5% of the population | Heritage Toronto |
The September 12 figures imply a fatality rate close to 40 percent among recorded cases. The two sources are close but not identical: 205 deaths by mid-September is already above “about 200.” Khan and Otto do not give a population figure, so the 5 percent share cannot be checked against their numbers.
Burials were scattered. Most victims went to the Potter’s Field or to the Western burying ground on Bathurst Street at the end of Adelaide Street, which held 109 burials by early August and never became a permanent cemetery. The site was McDonell Square, granted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1837 and renamed Portugal Square in 1960. Mary White, mother-in-law of the future chief justice William Henry Draper, died in July 1832 and was buried in the St. James churchyard. In 1844 her remains and those of two grandchildren were moved to St. James Cemetery on Parliament Street. The article on Toronto’s historic cemeteries covers the burial grounds that followed.
1833 and the second outbreak of 1834
Khan and Otto record that cholera cases were reported in York again in 1833, followed by a second large epidemic in 1834. By then the town had become a city. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography gives March 6, 1834, as the date York became Toronto, and says the first election followed on March 27. William Lyon Mackenzie, chosen first mayor by his fellow councillors, found his task “complicated by a cholera epidemic,” in the Dictionary’s words. A plaque at Old City Hall, transcribed on the Stones of Rebellion site, says he was confronted with a disastrous epidemic and took part directly in the emergency measures.
Heritage Toronto calls the 1834 outbreak far less deadly than 1832 and links the difference to the first municipal health measures: a city board of health, sewers, and regular garbage collection, all only beginning to be put in place. No source consulted here gives a figure for 1834 deaths. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives only a national total of at least 20,000 deaths across the cholera epidemics from 1832 to 1854. The politics of the year are covered in the article on William Lyon Mackenzie.
Timeline
- 1829: The first general hospital opens in York (built 1819).
- June 9, 17, and 18, 1832: Cholera reaches Montreal, Kingston, and York.
- June 21, 1832: A Board of Health is named.
- August 1832: Deaths at Fort York, including Dr. Muttlebury and Drum Major Lee.
- September 12, 1832: 205 deaths among 535 recorded cases.
- 1833: Further cases reported.
- March 6, 1834: York is incorporated as the City of Toronto.
- Summer 1834: Second epidemic during Mackenzie’s term as mayor.
Frequently asked questions
When did cholera first reach Toronto?
On June 18, 1832, when the place was still the Town of York, according to Khan and Otto in the Friends of Fort York newsletter.
How many people died of cholera in Toronto in 1832?
Heritage Toronto says about 200. The contemporary count given by Khan and Otto reached 205 deaths among 535 cases by September 12, 1832.
Was the 1834 epidemic worse than 1832?
No. Heritage Toronto describes it as far less deadly. No source consulted gives a death toll for it.
Why was the Board of Health weak?
It could recommend measures but had no power to enforce sanitation or deal with overcrowding, according to Khan and Otto.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history
- The 1847 typhus epidemic and Irish immigration
- The 1918 influenza epidemic in Toronto
- The 1837 Rebellion in Toronto
- Toronto Harbour and the waterfront
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Kamran Khan and Stephen Otto, “Cholera Epidemics in York [Toronto] in 1832 and 1834,” The Fife and Drum, Friends of Fort York, December 2013
- Heritage Toronto, “Toronto Epidemic History”
- National Trust for Canada, “Toronto Epidemics: The Beginning”
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Mackenzie, William Lyon”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Cholera”
- Old City Hall plaque on William Lyon Mackenzie, text on Stones of Rebellion
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Toronto’s Cholera Epidemics of 1832 and 1834. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-cholera-1832-1834
MLA: “Toronto’s Cholera Epidemics of 1832 and 1834.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-cholera-1832-1834. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Toronto’s Cholera Epidemics of 1832 and 1834.” Last modified October 25, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-cholera-1832-1834.
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