Author Archives: lsstuhler

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About lsstuhler

Linda Stuhler is a Genealogy Geek from Rochester, New York, who loves to find out the facts. She has been researching her family tree for over twenty years and has accumulated an abundance of information on various subjects that she enjoys sharing on her blog at: https://inmatesofwillard.com/. She was responsible for the creation of the New York State Senate Bill S840, initiated in August 2011, which allows for the release of the names, dates of birth and death, of former patients who were buried in anonymous graves in New York State Custodial Institutions. The bill was changed from the original draft to S840A and does not work the way it was intended. It became a law on August 18, 2016, but it did not include provisions for a searchable database available to the public as New York State attorneys and the Office of Mental Health believed that if they did so, they would be sued. She is the author of "THE INMATES OF WILLARD 1870 TO 1900, A GENEALOGY RESOURCE."

1864 Erie County Poor House

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“The population of the Erie county poor house averages about five hundred. Of this number one hundred and twenty-one are lunatics. At least three-quarters of them are females. Of one hundred and three, eighty-six are of foreign birth. They have all been admitted since 1850. Fifty-five cases are of mild type. Only two cases are noted as having been treated in an asylum. About twenty-four are capable of labor. Sixteen require occasional restraint and two constant restraint. The straight jacket and a restraining chair are used for this purpose. The house has not a full supply of water. It has no bath tub. All the rooms have not beds and bedsteads. About twenty sleep on straw, without other bedding. The straw is changed once in one or two weeks. The building is heated by stoves for coal or wood. There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane. The sexes are separated, but paupers only are employed to care for the insane, and to attend to their daily wants. The rooms are generally clean, and the air very good, except in the rooms occupied by the worst cases. The county takes recent cases. Nineteen cases were admitted in 1864. About twenty had no shoes or stockings during the winter. The county house is only designed to accommodate eighty cases, but at times one hundred and fourteen have been forced into it. The very mild cases are put in with the sane paupers. Ten or twelve were removed by their friends during the year, and two escaped who were not returned. The physician appointed by the superintendent of the poor house visits the insane twice a week. Temporary cases are admitted for ten days, of which no account is here taken.

“The largest building for the insane especially, is of stone, 118 x 40 feet, two stories high, and has fifty-two cells, with two wards, one for male and one for female patients. The second building is also of stone, 40 x 40, with eighteen cells. The third building is wood, 26 x 50, with fifteen cells. The accommodations are limited, for so large a number, but everything looked neat and comfortable. The accommodations are not suited to the favorable care and treatment of the insane. Their construction is not such as is approved by medical and sanitary authorities, and it is impossible to separate patients into proper classes. The air in the rooms occupied by those designated as the worst patients, is unfit to breathe. The supervisors of Erie county, at their last session, appropriated $20,000 for the purpose of erecting another building for the insane, adjacent to those now built, but the four buildings will be detached, and at the best, illy adapted to the proper treatment of the insane. In fact, the State of New York should maintain, at this place, a charity like the Utica Asylum, as it would confer a great benefit upon society. I assume the responsibility of urging some action in behalf of the insane of Western New York, commensurate with the importance of the subject, the interests of humanity, and the dignity of the State.” These earnest remarks are from Dr. Josiah Barnes, of Buffalo, who made the investigation in Erie county.”

THE PROVIDENCE ASYLUM.
“This institution at Buffalo, built expressly for the insane by the Roman Catholics, is under the management of the Sisters of Charity. The rooms are spacious and well ventilated. At each end of the building, in each story, is a balcony supported by pillars and a balustrade, so that the insane can enjoy the fresh air, without descending to the ground. The property embraces several acres, and is well adapted for the purpose for which it is designed; and the Sisters, to whose management every thing is entrusted, are indefatigable in their efforts to render as comfortable as possible the unfortunate persons committed to their charge.” This institution has twenty-five inmates. It has a free supply of water, and three bathing tubs. The insane have amusements provided for them, and every possible care, with reference, to their ultimate recovery, and nothing seems lacking that could promote the comfort and happiness of each patient. Two have died here during the year, and several cases have left, having convalesced.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 191-192.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Dutchess County Poor House

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“The poor house of Dutchess county with a population of one hundred, contains twenty-four lunatics, or about one fourth of the whole number; eight of whom are males and sixteen females. Thirteen are supposed to be native, and eleven of foreign birth. Nothing definite can be obtained relative to the date of their admission, there being no special record or care for such particulars. Six of the number have been at some time under treatment at Utica. Eleven of the cases are mild, eight violent, and two filthy. Three of the males are capable of labor, and five of the females. The remainder have no occupation, amusement or employment. Six are destructive and tear off their clothing, two require constant restraint, either with the straight jacket or with straps for the wrists and belt.

The house has a full supply of water, but no bathing tubs, most of them however, wash hands and face daily. The building is heated by stoves and ventilation is only by the windows, it being of wood two stories high, with seven feet ceilings. The rooms are severally 6 x 6, and 8 x 6 feet. Two sleep in basements with other sane inmates. Iron bedsteads fastened to the floor are used, on each of which only one sleeps. The beds of straw are changed “as often as seems necessary.” The diet is for breakfast, bread, hash of meat and potatoes, coffee; dinner, bread, fresh or salt meat, fish; and for tea, beans and potatoes, and water. Mild patients go to the table with the sane inmates, and others receive the food in their cells.

There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane, four are confined in some of the cells. A man and his wife care for the female insane, no other than paupers are employed in the care of lunatics. This institution assumes to take charge of recent cases! The lunatics are visited by a physician the same as the other insane paupers, whenever they are known to be sick. There is no attention paid even to recent cases with a view to their recovery. Two were without either shoes or stockings during the winter.

Dr. E.H. Parker, who collected these facts, observes: “It is impossible to ascertain anything concerning them (the pauper lunatics) more definite than is here given viz: that they are fed, clothed and kept tolerably decent. No thought is given to curing them. In fact it is no place for one to attempt to do so, a proper insane asylum is required to effect anything in that way with constant medical attendance. The city of Poughkeepsie and the rest of the county, are about to divide the paupers, insane and others between them, and for this purpose a new building has been erected in the town of Washington. This does not seem to have been very wisely arranged but attached to it is a building 22 x 34 feet, intended for the insane.

It is to contain 18 cells in its two stories (9 in each,) will have a walk (or hall) between the rooms of cells of about four feet, has large windows to be protected I understand by oak bars, and is altogether so far as I can learn, about as unfit a place for the insane, as could be arranged. It involves their continual confinement in small cells, unless they are very mild, it does not admit of a proper separation of the sexes, or of the violent from the mild, or of proper provision for out of door exercise for either. It is about 20 feet from the main building, and is to be heated by the same steam apparatus that warms that. It is incredible that the authorities whoever they are that have had charge of this building, should have consulted any one familiar with the care of the insane, in arranging its plan. Necessity will undoubtedly compel them to build anew or to modify this. I should add that although I have repeatedly visited the county house, I have not had the good fortune at any time to find the superintendent at home, and am indebted for all my information to his assistant.” What language can more explicitly point out an evil, at which common humanity must blush with shame?”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 190-191.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Delaware County Poor House

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“To describe the building of Delaware county in which the insane are kept, will in some degree show the misery to which those unfortunates are unnecessarily subjected. It is a wood building two stories high, with rooms or cells 4 x 8 feet, lighted and ventilated only by a diamond hole in the door. Dr. Telford, of Delaware, says, “The windows in the outside are of fifteen lights, 7 x 9 inches glass. A hall runs on each side of the building, and in the middle is located the cells (after the style of a prison,) which are 4 x 8 feet square, made of rough material, the doors are made of rough hard-wood plank, three inches thick, with a diamond hole in them 7 x 9 inches, which is the only source of light and air! Beds are on the floor, with nothing to separate them from where they sit except a piece of plank set up edgewise, and indeed the whole construction is a stigma on humanity.”

In apartments thus dark, and cold in winter, and filthy at all times, more gloomy than prisons, twenty-six insane human beings are kept. Ten are males and sixteen are female—and eighteen are American born. Two of them have been so confined from 1842 and 1844—and this Institution continues to receive recent cases! What can be more cruel? And only paupers extend these lunatics the care they receive! There are in all fourteen cells, in which twenty-six lunatics are confined. Four escaped during the year who were not returned; and who would not escape even to die rather than live such a lingering death? There is no provision made for the medical treatment of the insane, and they receive none with reference to a recovery. The sufferings of these unfortunates from whom the air and light of heaven is shut out, would form a dark chapter of human misery could it be written.”

1864 Cortland County Poor House

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“The provision for the care of the insane poor in the county of Cortland is shockingly bad. Of eighty-eight paupers, thirty-one are insane; being more than one-third the whole number. Eighteen are males and thirteen are females. About twenty-four of this number are of American birth. Not a single case has ever been treated in an asylum, although several have been admitted for fifteen or twenty years; fifteen cases are mild, nine are violent, and twelve are excitable. Eleven are filthy, several are not only insane but have become idiotic. None of the males perform any amount of labor, six females perform some indoor labor. There is no system of amusement or light occupation to divert the mind of any. Ten are destructive, nine require occasional restraint; the violent are controlled by close cells and straight-jackets. The house has not a full supply of water. The insane are not all required to wash hands and face daily! The arrangement for cleanliness and ventilation is imperfect; several are confined in cells without the privilege of coming daily to the open air!! The building is a story and a-half wood structure, ill adapted to the purpose for which it is used; the ceilings are low, the bedsteads are wood, and usually two sleep in one bed; in one bed three sleep; in some instances a sane and an insane sleep together. Such as are able, come to a common table, the others have food carried to them; the diet is such as a farmer’s table affords, plain but ample. The rooms are heated in winter with wood and coal stoves, with stove pipes running through the rooms, without attention to uniformity of heat. There is no accommodation for the various grades of insane; but the violent cases are kept in cells in a building off from the main building. In one ward ten are constantly confined. The sexes are not kept entirely separated, and male attendants are employed to care for female insane. The atmosphere in the rooms is generally unwholesome. At this institution recent cases are received! Two cases were received in 1864. Ultimate recovery by management or treatment is not held in view. Dr. H.O. Jewett, who visited this house says, “the edifice is a badly constructed affair. It was originally a farm house, additions having been made to it; the cells are seventeen in number, 5 1/2 x 6 1/2 feet, ten feet ceiling in front, the wall above being finished upon the rafters; there is one window of eight lights to each cell. There are really no means except accidental ones, for ventilating the various rooms; and with the present arrangement of the house uniform or appropriate warmth in winter season is out of the question; neither is there sufficient help employed in the establishment to ensure anything like proper cleanliness of the apartments or persons of the inmates. The common claims of humanity would seem to demand some regulations which will secure more attention to the physical comfort and moral training of each individual, and the special medical treatment of the insane.” What language can be more explicit or more earnest? Is it any wonder that in such want of care the insane become idiotic or demented, and the mild cases incurable?”

1864 Columbia County Poor House

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“It is a sad spectacle to humanity, that which is revealed in the condition of the insane paupers of Columbia county. There are at the poor house one hundred and twenty-seven inmates, twenty-seven of whom are lunatics. They have been admitted to the poor house at various periods since 1840. Sixteen are males and eleven are females. Twenty-one cases are mild in character. Twenty-six are noted as filthy! Only two have ever been treated in an asylum. Eight males and three females are capable of doing some labor. Others have no amusement provided for them. Five require occasional restraint. There is an inadequate supply of water; there is no bath tub; the lunatics are not required to wash hands and face daily. Cleanliness, ventilation and uniformity of heat in winter are not observed to any particular degree. The rooms have not bedsteads in all of them. Twelve sleep on straw without bedsteads. The straw is changed once or twice a week. The building is heated by coal “poorly applied.” Mild cases are put with the sane paupers. There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane. One assistant keeper is aided by the sane paupers in the care of lunatics. The atmosphere in the rooms was very impure and unhealthy. The county takes recent cases. Several were admitted in 1863 and 1864. The females have a change of under garments every week; the males none. None had had stockings during the winter; all had shoes. There is no convenience for out of door exercise. No provision is made for medical treatment; they do not receive any medical attendance at all, nor care of any sort with reference to ultimate recovery. Confirmed lunacy and hopeless idiocy is the fate that threatens the unfortunate who passes this threshold.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 187-188.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Clinton County Poor House

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“No report.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Page 187.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Chenango County Poor House

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“There are seventy paupers in the Chenango county house. Twenty are insane. Ten are males and ten are females. They have been admitted since 1840. Fifteen of the cases are mild; about one-third have received treatment at Utica, Eight are capable of some labor. Some effort is made to amuse those who do not labor. Three are destructive to their clothing, one requires constant restraint. The leather muff is used for such purpose. The institution has two bathing tubs in the department for the sane poor, with a full supply of water. It is designed that all shall wash every day, hands and face; but the violent do not always. The building is apart from the one used for sane paupers, is a fine building, has sixteen rooms; ten of them are provided with beds; four cells are provided with bunks fastened to the wall and floor; one and two sleep in each bed; the straw in the beds is changed each month, or every year, according to its use. All the inmates go to a common table. The building is heated with stoves, which through ventilators from the halls, warm the rooms occupied. There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane. A man and a woman are employed by the year to take care of the lunatics. The rooms appear clean, and the air good as can reasonably be expected. The institution receives recent cases, and will accommodate from twenty to thirty, though never more than twenty have been confined at any one time. Two were removed by friends during the year, and one was transferred to the sane department. The lunatics have no regular medical attendance nor care with reference to ultimate recovery.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 186-187.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Chemung County Poor House

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“The poor house in the county of Chemung contains forty-eight paupers, eight of whom are insane; just one-sixth of the whole number. Four are males and four are females; all are native born. Two males and one female are capable of doing some out of door labor. Those who cannot work are furnished with neither employment or amusement. They are all represented as being destructive and tear off their clothing; but they require no restraint other than confinement to their rooms. The building is supplied with water from springs at the distance of ten rods off. It has no bath tub or other convenience for bathing, and no special attention is paid to either cleanliness, ventilation, or the uniformity of heat in winter. The building is of wood, two stories high; the height of ceiling being eight feet, and the rooms 8×10. The food for the insane is the same as that for the other inmates of the institution, and served to them by the sane paupers. The lunatics are all confined in one ward, without other than pauper attendants, and without any accommodation for the various grades of their disease. No attention is paid to their ultimate recovery, and a physician only visits them when he is sent for. None of them have shoes, because it is “impossible to keep them on.” As to cleanliness and ventilation, the rooms are bad. Dr. Morse, who made the investigation, adds: “The condition of the insane paupers in Chemung county is deplorable in the extreme; and there is no adequate provision made to remedy the evil.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Page 186.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Cayuga County Poor House

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“In the poor house of Cayuga county, situated in the outskirt of Auburn, there are seventy-five paupers, twenty-nine of whom are insane. Thirteen are males, sixteen are females. Eight are natives, seventeen are foreigners, and four unknown. They have been admitted at various periods since 1845. Eleven of these cases are mild, fifteen are violent, sixteen are of filthy habits. Nine of these cases have received treatment at the State asylum at Utica.

Ten are capable of performing labor, the others have no amusement or occupation provided for them; twelve are destructive to their clothing and require occasional restraint; the leather muff and confinement in cells being the form used. The house is supplied with water by a well and cistern, but it has no bath tub, nor have the insane any special time for bathing except when filthy. There is a standing rule requiring the hands and face of the insane to be washed daily. [Is it thoroughly enforced ?]

The building is of brick, three stories with basement of nine feet, other stories twelve feet, with rooms 8×12. There is a bedstead in each room; sometimes two sleep on one bed, but generally only one. The bedding in ticks is of straw and changed as occasion requires, not regularly. The diet is ample in variety and substance. The building is heated by furnaces, and designed to be made comfortable. The mild and inoffensive have the range of the basement and yards together, but the violent are confined in cells. Several mild cases occupy a room together, but the violent are kept in separate cells. They have only such care as can be forced from pauper attendants. The keeper said that vermin were sometimes found on the persons of lunatics. It is designed on the part of the county to send recent cases to the State asylum. The building is designed to accommodate thirty persons. Dr. Sylvester Willard, of Auburn, who made the investigation, remarks: “All the males are kept in the basement which is above ground, where they eat and sleep, and when not in the yard spend their time in the huge hall together, with the exception of the four who labor on the farm. Some cells are especially strong with iron grated doors, for the safe keeping of the violent and destructive. These strong cells being in proximity to the halls may be kept in comfortable temperature in cold weather, but are very deficient in ventilation. They have no windows or other openings and no communication with outer atmosphere, except from the hall through the grated door. At the time of my examination two cells were occupied, with one violent and destructive lunatic in each. Their beds were torn into shreds, and contents scattered over the floor. They were filthy in a superlative degree, and their excrements spread over the floor, on the walls and over their persons; with no means for ventilation or change of air the stench at their cell door was excessively offensive. Under the circumstances it may have been difficult to have had it otherwise. It is due to the keeper to say, that with the exceptions of these cells, the rooms were clean and neat.

The medical treatment is by a homeopathic physician, who visits the house regularly once a week, and oftener if required. No medical treatment is made with reference to their ultimate recovery.”

SOURCE: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 184-185.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Chautauqua County Poor House

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“Chautauqua county poor house has one hundred and twenty inmates, twenty-seven of which are insane. They have been admitted at various periods since 1848. Two of these cases have been treated in an asylum. Sixteen of the cases are mild, two are violent, and five are filthy. Ten are confined to the house. Four males and five females are capable of doing some labor. No amusement is provided for any who do not labor. In dry weather the supply of water is insufficient and is brought about a half a mile by teams.

The insane are kept in two buildings; one building is of brick, and the bedsteads in the rooms of this building are of iron, and fastened to the floor. Only one sleeps in a bed, except in one bed, which is occupied by two persons. One sleeps on straw without any bed. The beds are filled with straw, except such as are occupied by the sick, which are of cotton or feathers. The mild cases are kept in one building, and the excitable or violent in another. A man and his wife are jointly employed in the care of the violent cases. The rooms are all heated by a box stove, with wood, from the lower floor, the pipes encased passing through the floor above, it is believed by the overseer that no inmates suffer with cold in the winter.

Paupers arc employed to take care of the mild cases. The rooms are clean and the atmosphere in them is not bad. All are furnished with shoes in the winter, only one would not wear them. The building is designed to accommodate twenty-two, but thirty have at times been confined there. There is no regular medical attendance, nor is ultimate recovery held in view. The duties of the keeper appear to be discharged in a kind manner, and as well as could be done by any one not experienced in the management of the insane. Dr. Barrett observes and justly, “The attendants ought not to be all paupers.” The deficiency in water must be a great drawback to the comfort of the inmates, and the question might properly be raised whether the system of heating is sufficient to warm the building in winter.”