Daily AncestorCanker rash
Canker rash was an old New England name for a fever with an ulcerated mouth or throat and a rash, possibly scarlet fever.
Canker rash appears in older New England records for a sickness with a sore, ulcerated mouth or throat and a skin rash. A Vermont history of 1842, for example, lists canker rash or throat distemper for 1802 and 1803.
Dictionaries describe it as possibly a form of scarlet fever. Because throat infections were hard to separate before modern testing, diphtheria cannot be ruled out in every case.
As seen in a recordBurial register of a Protestant church, 1800s
Abigail, dau. of Eli Ward, d. of canker rash, aged 4 yrs.
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Canker rash." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/canker-rash. Last checked 2026-10-01.