Daily AncestorAgue
Ague means a fever with fits of chills and shaking that came and went, nearly always malaria in American records.
Ague, often written fever and ague, named a fever that returned in cycles, with a shaking cold stage, then a hot stage, then sweating. It was tied to swamps and marshland.
Nineteenth-century writers linked ague to marshes and bad air; we now know the usual cause was malaria. The 1911 Britannica treats ague, intermittent fever and fever and ague as names for the same malarial illness.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Jacob Mize, 41, M, W, Married, Ky., September, Fever and ague, 21 days
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Daily Ancestor. "Ague." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/ague. Last checked 2026-10-01.