Numismatists Of Wisconsin
 

Aristides Agramonte:
My Yellow Fever Fighting Relative

By Juan L. Riera

Recently doing research on my family tree I discovered a great grand-uncle who spent his life in bacteriology, fighting Yellow Fever in Panama and Cuba. His name was Aristides Agramonte y Simoni. He was born in Puerto Principe, Cuba- Now known as Camagüey- on the 3rd of June 1868. This was about six months before the start of the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878), the first Cuban War of Independence. His mother, Matilde Simoni y Agramonte, was married to Eduardo Agramonte y Pina, a dentist by profession, who joined the war of independence attaining the rank of Brigadier-General. Eduardo Agramonte, in 1977, appeared on a Cuban Stamp. Amalia Simoni, sister of Matilde, married Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz- cousin of Eduardo, an attorney by profession. Ignacio Agramonte also joined the war of independence in November of 1868 with the rank of Major-General. Ignacio played a greater political and military role than his cousin and is depicted on about a dozen Cuban stamps and two bank notes. Both Cousins died in battle, in 1872 and 1873, respectively. Both sisters moved to New York City with their kids when their husbands joined the war with their kids and lived together at 104 West 20th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

 

Stamp and note depicting Ignacio Agramonte, uncle of Aristides.

 

Shortly thereafter the sisters moved to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, where their father was practicing medicine after being exiled from Cuba. A short two years later the family returned to New York City. Aristides went on to graduate from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1892. In 1898 George Miller Sternberg appointed Aristides Agramonte as an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army and was sent to Cuba to study a yellow fever outbreak. In 1901 Aristides was appointed with four other physicians, including Jessie William Lazear- a classmate at Columbia- by the U.S. government to investigate the acute infectious diseases occurring at the time and interfering with the construction of the Panama Canal.

Among the various boards and commissions Aristides served on was the Yellow Fever Commission, an army commission, led by Walter Reed that examined the transmission of yellow fever. The sources of the spread of yellow fever were discovered, leading to a cure by others.

Aristides Agramonte went on to study plague, dengue, malaria, and typhoid fever among other maladies. For several years he was a professor of bacteriology and experimental pathology at the University of Havana. During this period, he was president of the Pan-American Medical Association and president of the Columbia Alumni Club of Havana.

 

In the late 1920s the U.S. Congress granted Aristides Agramonte the Merit of Honor medal and a monthly pension of $125 for his part in the yellow fever campaign.

The medal was sold, presumably by a descendant who would have been a distant cousin of my grandmother, on October 12, 2004, where it realized $8,337.50. The gold medal has a diameter of 62.8 millimeters and weighs 6.2 ounces. On the obverse is the figure of health standing to the left, her left hand on the right shoulder of a young warrior who has just slain a dragon lying at his feet. Inscribed around is CONQUEST OF YELLOW FEVER. The award citation is inscribed on the medal’s reverse. As I have discovered there were about 28 recipients of this medal and pension.

Agramonte passed away on August 19, 1931, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he had moved a few weeks earlier to head the Department of Tropical Diseases at Louisiana State University Medical School, set to open shortly after his passing. His library was bought and became the foundation of the LSU Medical School Library. There is a collection of papers at the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University related to fundraising for a plaque honoring him at Columbia.

 

I hope you have found these articles interesting, and as I strive to learn more, if you have any ideas, information or comments please feel free to share with me at:

Juan L. Riera
P.O. Box 522942
Miami, FL 33152

Or at: juanr377@gmail.com



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