Mary Isabella Hales' Family Miraculously Preserved During Raging Cholera Epidemic in Toronto

In June 1832, the Hales family arrived at the town of York (later Toronto), Canada after a six-week ocean voyage from England. They had already buried one family member — young Elias — at sea during the crossing.

Upon landing, they were greeted with alarming news. Mary Isabella Hales recorded in her journal:

'Here we were in a strange land. And to our dismay, we found that the cholera was raging fearfully in that region; but through all of those trying scenes the Lord preserved us in health.'

Cholera epidemics in the 1830s were devastating and highly lethal, particularly in immigrant communities arriving by sea. The fact that the entire large Hales family — already weakened by a long ocean voyage that had claimed the life of young Elias — survived without succumbing to the epidemic raging around them was recognized by Mary Isabella as a direct act of divine preservation.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

Accordingly, on the sixteenth day of April, 1832, our family, consisting of my parents, five sons, myself and a younger sister, bade adieu to England. We had a tedious voyage of six weeks across the ocean, and my mother was sick during the entire voyage. We buried my brother Elias at sea. Upon landing in York, we were greeted with the alarming news that the cholera was raging fearfully in that region; but through all of those trying scenes the Lord preserved us in health.