Religious leaders from the seven existing Shreveport churches and temples in 1873 prayed for the victims amid thoughts of being “united by our humanity.”  

Leaders from the Antioch Baptist Church, the B’nai Zion Temple, the Church of the Holy Cross, the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport, First Baptist Church, First Methodist Church, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Little Union Baptist Church, and St. Mark’s Cathedral offered prayers and reflections. 

“The people buried here come from all walks of life – they are buried here without regard to social status, to religion or race,” said Paul Strickland, president of the Oakland Cemetery and Preservation Society. “This memorial honors the people buried here from the 1873 epidemic but also honors earlier victims of yellow fever. 

“There were so many people involved in this project, but I don’t know if any of this comes to fruition without Dr. Cheryl White.” 

White, an LSUS history professor, spearheaded the committee that planned the memorial and the commemoration events happening this fall. The memorial took two years to plan and fundraise and six months to build. 

White said the epidemic was the “most transformative event in Shreveport’s history” earlier Saturday in a symposium titled “Yellow Fever: 150 Years Later.” 

Fellow LSUS history professor Dr. Gary Joiner, who is chair of the history department, led the research to name the souls buried in the mound.

 Joiner used the daily reporting from The Daily Times, a crude 1906 map of Oakland Cemetery, death cards housed in the Northwest Louisiana Archives, and a dash of logical creativity to name about 740 of the approximately 800 buried in the mound. 

He and a group of students started work in 2006 as they mapped out Oakland Cemetery and identified all known persons buried in actual graves. 

While The Times did publish a daily death report, the newspaper didn’t have complete records because the epidemic affected their own staff. 

And because Shreveport, a bustling commerce town, didn’t want to shut itself down at the onset of the epidemic, the earliest deaths were recorded as something other than yellow fever. 

“There was a baby who died because of ‘teething,’” Joiner said. “Another died of breakbone fever, which was a thing but that wasn’t the cause of death in this situation. 

“If you just read the daily list of the dead, you’d be missing tons of people. But there were society columns and other stories that mentioned people dying who weren’t in the official list of the dead.” 

Five LeVezouet descendants were on hand this weekend to witness the commemoration.

Another hero came in the form of U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Eugene Woodruff. 

The Ohio native was a terrific source of information about the epidemic because of letters written to his mother. He was an Army lieutenant in a blue coat during a tension-filled Reconstruction after a bloody Civil War and was beloved by locals.  He stayed behind to care for the sick when the Army pulled its personnel from the town.  He died in late September.  

Panelist Dr. Jeff White, a medical doctor who is a yellow fever expert, said Shreveport did make public health improvements after the epidemic. 

“It spurred the conviction of the government and the town to create a charity hospital,” said Jeff White, who said Shreveport had no centralized medical facility in 1873. “It’s important to remember heroes, because just as we faced challenges with COVID-19, we’ll no doubt see a pandemic influenza in the coming years or decades.  “In times like those, we need to look back at the heroes of our past.” 

MEMORIAL PHOTO CUTLINE: Paul Strickland, president of the Oakland Cemetery and Preservation Society, addressed the crowd Saturday at the dedication of the Yellow Fever Memorial at Oakland Cemetery. The memorial names almost all of the approximately 800 victims buried in the Yellow Fever Mound during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873.

MEMORIAL NAMES: Pictured is one of seven plaques of the Yellow Fever Memorial at Oakland Cemetery.