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 Schoharie County Poor House

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“Schoharie county poor house has eighty-one inmates. It has three insane. These are not separated from the sane paupers, but live and mix with them. The mechanical restraint used to control one is to TIE HER TO THE BED WITH A ROPE. The house has not a supply of water. It has no bathing tub; the insane are not required to bathe. The rooms are only ventilated by the windows. The sexes are not separated; they have only the care which paupers give them. The county receives recent cases. In a word, no possible provision is made for or care given to the insane of Schoharie county; and it is most fortunate that there are only three of them.”

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 215.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Schenectady County Poor House

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“In June the inmates of the poor house of Schenectady county numbered ninety-one (the November number is one hundred and twenty-one). Twenty-five are lunatics. They have been severally admitted since 1850. Nine are males and twelve are females. Thirteen are of native birth. Eight are mild cases, and four are filthy. It is creditable that sixteen of these cases have been treated in an asylum. Six are capable of labor; others have sewing, books, newspapers, Sunday school papers, and the liberty of the yard to amuse them. One female requires constant restraint; two males and three females require occasional restraint. Muffs are used and a closed cell in the second story. The house has two good wells and one cistern, but no bath tub. The insane are not required to bathe, though their hands and faces are washed daily. The building has no basement cells. The bedding consists of ticks filled with straw, and the straw is changed once a month. One sleeps on straw without other bedding. In several of the beds two persons sleep. The halls are heated by registers from furnaces, but no attention is paid to the uniformity of heat in the winter. There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane. The sexes are not separated except at night; one attendant beside the paupers is employed in the care of the lunatics. The rooms were clean and the atmosphere in them “excellent.” The accommodations are separated from those of the sane paupers; the accommodation is designed for thirty persons, twenty-five being the highest number ever confined. The insane are visited by the county physician twice a week, or when required. The institution does not receive recent cases.

Dr. A.M. Vedder says: “The attention paid to the insane of this county will compare favorably with any public or private asylum in the State. I am familiar with the treatment of the insane in Philadelphia, and think our insane quite as well cared for as theirs.” Awarding all due credit to the care bestowed upon the insane poor in Schenectady county, which is certainly better than in some of the adjoining counties, we must beg to differ widely from Dr. Vedder in the first part of his opinion. Where there is no bath tub, where insane are not required to bathe, where but one attendant beside paupers is employed to care for the insane, where they are not seen by the physician more than twice a week, the care can hardly challenge comparison with that received at the State asylum or Brigham Hall.”

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 214-215.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Saratoga County Poor House

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“Between the fashionable resorts of Saratoga and the guests who crowd them, and the poor house of Saratoga and its lunatic inmates, there is a sad contrast! The poor house of Saratoga has one hundred and fifty inmates, fifteen of whom are insane. Nine are males and six are females; nine are natives and six of foreign birth; eleven of these cases are of mild form. One has been a resident since 1842, and another since 1844. Four of the number are capable of performing some labor, the others are provided with no amusement. Three are destructive to their clothing, and two require occasional restraint by handcuffs or otherwise.

There is a supply of water but no bath tub; the insane are not required to bathe, nor are they required to wash hands and face daily. There is no arrangement for ventilation or uniformity of heat in winter; all have beds and bedsteads, the straw is changed twice every year. The building is warmed by stoves, wood and coal being used for fuel. There are no accommodations for the various grades of the insane. Pauper attendants are alone employed to care for them. The institution receives recent cases. Five have shoes; in the winter ten had neither shoes or stockings! There are ten cells, into which twenty lunatics have at times been crowded. No provision is made for medical treatment, they are visited only when sick; no case is treated with reference to its ultimate recovery.

The select committee on “charitable institutions, &c.,” in 1857, said, “of this institution, of the inmates ten are lunatics, three males and seven females, all are paupers. They receive no special attendance. Five are confined at times in cells, and some are restrained at times by shackles and handcuffs. The keeper reports that some have been improved. Lunatics have escaped from the house and not again been found. Eleven of the inmates are idiots, five males and six females; all are over ten years of age.”

This house is old and badly dilapidated. The rooms are low, sadly out of repair, and the air in the sleeping rooms most foul and noisome. It is is very well attended, however, by the present keeper, and is kept in as good order as possible.

“Corporeal punishment is administered to men, women and children.”

Dr. Gilbert, in 1864, says: “The building is old and considerably dilapidated. The foundation has settled unevenly, giving a degree of distortion to the floors and ceilings; and the ceilings are cracked and crumbled off. The floors are somewhat more uneven from the knots protruding, and particulary around the outside doors, which are somewhat decayed. The ceiling in the rear part of the building is broken and low, the -windows are small and loosely fitted, the base shrunken, leaving an open space, and thereby rendering it cold and uncomfortable in cold and damp weather. The furniture as the bedsteads and chairs are very old and worn. The bedding is cotton and quite ordinary, yet in a majority of the rooms clean, the floors and woodwork clean also. The inmates were thinly and poorly clad, yet clean and tidy, and apparently healthy.”

There has evidently been no improvement. The miserable old prison of 1857 and the rickety and ill-arranged gloomy place for confining the unfortunate insane poor of 1864, is one and the same—a burning disgrace to the county and the State.”

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 213-214.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 St. Lawrence County Poor House

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“The report from the county of St. Lawrence shows that the name of poor-house is no misnomer in that county. It is an old wood building, three stories high, the ceilings being 8 1/2, 8,  and 7 feet respectively, with rooms 12 x 12 and 8 x 12, and CAGES 3 feet by 7 and 5 x 10, with small windows opening out of doors, but the cells have no such window. The building is not supplied with sufficient water, nor has it any provision for bathing. In such a building one hundred and thirty paupers are kept, thirty of whom are insane; thirteen are males and seventeen are females; thirteen are natives and seventeen of foreign birth. Only four of this number have ever been treated in an asylum. Fifteen of this number are of filthy habits, aud four are destructive. One case was admitted in 1840.

Three of the males and three females are capable of labor. Those who cannot work have neither occupation nor amusement, and though no restraint is used by handcuffs, WHIPPING is resorted to, and the violent are put in cages to subdue them! There are no arrangements for cleanliness, ventilation or uniformity of heat in winter. The cells have no windows opening out of doors. The bedsteads are of boards, and two sleep in one bed (or bunk). The morning diet is potatoes, meat and bread; dinner, meat and bread; night, soup, which is distributed on plates or in cups to each one. The rooms are not all heated, even in winter, and insane are confined in rooms without heat. At night ten are confined in a single cell. The sexes are not separated, but mingle promiscuously, and the attendants are from the family of paupers, who are grossly unfit to administer to them.

It is a startling fact that in a building not entirely heated, in rooms not heated at all in the winter, three-quarters of the insane inmates had neither shoes or stockings during the cold of winter; and there is no reason to suppose that in such a state of things the clothing is anything like ample. The ultimate recovery of lunatics is not held in view, nor can it be where there is no provision for their care, where they are congregated and kept without reference to either science or humanity.”

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 212.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Rockland County Poor House

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“The whole population of the Rockland county poor-house is fifty. During the year sixteen insane have been among this number, but the list of lunatics in present confinement is reduced to ten by two deaths, three absconded and never returned. Two of the number had been treated in an asylum. With three exceptions, the cases were generally of a mild character. Six were mentioned as filthy, and six as requiring occasional restraint by confinement. One has been in the poor-house since 1841. Ten were of native, and six foreign birth. Four were males and twelve were females. Only one male is capable of labor. The remaining nine have neither amusement, occupation, nor employment, except “reading and singing.” Five are destructive to clothing. The only mechanical restraint that is resorted to is to lock up the turbulent in cells. The house has not a full supply of water, nor are there any bathing tubs in it. The building is of wood, two stories high, with rooms 6 x 10, the ceilings being 9 and 8 feet respectively. The bedsteads are of wood and fastened to the floor. Straw is used as bedding, and is changed about once a week. “The diet is variable,” and is served out on plates the same as to the other paupers. The sleeping rooms are not heated. The accommodation for the various grades of the insane is as follows: “The mild are allowed the freedom of the house, and the violent are confined in cells,” and only paupers are employed in their care. There is no real accommodation for more than three persons—yet the number on hand is ten. Five is the greatest number ever confined at one time in the cells. Three escaped during the year, who never returned—three insane wanderers, or one-fifth of the whole number—it does not appear what ever became of them. They receive no medical treatment except when sick.”

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 211-212.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Richmond County Poor House

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“In a population of sixty-three in the poor-house of Richmond county eleven are insane. They have all been admitted since 1853, and two of them have received treatment in an asylum. Six are males, five are females, three of the cases are mild, eight are excitable, and six are violent. Two are filthy in their habits, and three require mechanical restraint. Two males are capable of out-of-door labor, for the rest neither occupation nor amusement is afforded. The building which is of stone, two stories high, is supplied with water, though no bath tub has yet been introduced. The patients are required to wash daily. One case, on account of its violence, is confined in a basement cell, and as he is a cripple he cannot get out of it; but attention is paid to the ventilation of the room. The other rooms are variously 9 x 9, 13 x 7, 13 x 16, 9 x 10, &c., each lighted by twelve lights of 8 x 10 glass. Two rooms in the attic do not open out of doors; they are used for confining female patients when violent. The bedsteads are of iron, only one in each room, and one only sleeps on each. There are none who sleep on straw alone. Those who are confined to their rooms are served with their meals by attendants; the others go to a general table which is abundantly supplied—the vegetables coming directly from the farm. The building is heated by furnaces, though no attention is paid to the uniformity of heat by a thermometer. The attendants for the insane are paupers. Their garments are changed every week. The insane are visited by the physician of the establishment as occasion requires.

The building was never constructed with reference to the accommodation of the insane, but in a wing of the building occupied for the purpose they are made as comfortable as in any institution of this class. All have shoes, and none were without them during the winter. The appearance of the rooms is clean and tidy. The restraint used is by hand-cuffs, gloves and belt, confining to the bed and confining to the room.”

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 210-211.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Rensselaer County Poor House

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“Rensselaer county poor house has two hundred paupers; twenty-one of whom are insane. Ten are males, and eleven are females. Only five are native born. About thirteen cases are mild; not one of the whole number have ever received treatment in an asylum, or with reference to recovery. Thirteen of them are filthy. Several of them have been in the poor house so long that it is impossible to ascertain the date of their admission; they have grown demented, idiotic. Four males are capable of moderate labor, and five females. For the others there is nothing to do, nothing to beguile a single hour of long and weary years. Six are destructive to clothing; three require occasional restraint, the means resorted to are hand cuffs and confinement. The house has a full supply of water but no bath tub. The insane are required to bathe “occasionally.”

The building is of brick, two and three stories high, with eight feet ceilings, and with rooms 12 by 18 feet. Iron bedsteads are used, not fastened to the floor; two sleep in one bed sometimes; the straw bedding is changed four times in a year. The diet is very plain, and sent to such as are not able to come to the table. The only convenience for the various grades of insane is separate rooms for the violent; they have only such care as paupers bestow in their daily attendance. Two escaped during the year who were not returned, and two were removed by their friends. The institution receives recent cases, though it never aims to cure one of them. A physician visits the poor house twice in a week, and oftener if necessary.

In 1857 this institution presented a condition repulsive in itself and revolting to humanity. It may be in a cleaner condition now, and there may be none now among the lunatics who are confined without privilege of coming daily to the open air, and who lie down in straw at night. Such was not the condition then, and doubtless there is yet ample room for improvement in the care which this class of unfortunates should receive.”

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 210.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Queens County Poor House

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“Queens county has but fifty-five pauper inmates in its county house. Eight of this number are lunatics; five are males, and three are females, all are of foreign birth. Seven have been admitted within the last four years. None have received treatment in an asylum. All are mild cases; five are able to do some labor, the rest amuse themselves about the premises without restraint. The house has water, but no bathing tub, and the insane are only required to wash hands and face. There is on the farm a pond of clear water, with sandy bottom, where they bathe in the summer time, if they please, occasionally under supervision. Two and three sleep in one bed; all are comfortably fed and comfortably cared for, and have changes of garments. Recent cases are received, and the county physician, visits the institution daily. They all appear clean and neat, and their treatment aims also at their 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, Page 209.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Putnam County Poor House

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“Putnam county has but one insane person in its alms house. This one can do no labor, she is a female and was admitted about 1854. The case is a mild one, but has never received treatment in an asylum, or with reference to ultimate recovery. One case was discharged from the alms house in March, 1864, having been but a short time in confinement. The case confined is not required to wash hands and face daily, and is cared for by the keeper and his wife. The county take recent cases; some are provided for in private families, but the returns do not indicate what number. The county house was not designed for the care of the insane, but can accommodate three or four.”

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 209.

New York State County Poor Houses.

1864 Otsego County Poor House

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“There are sixteen lunatics in the poor house of Otsego county, and it is a remarkable circumstance that fifteen of this number are American born. Four are males and twelve are females. Two of this number have been insane since 1837, and one since 1845. Five have been treated in an asylum and returned to the county poor house; eleven have never had the opportunity for a care that an asylum affords. Five of this number are violent, and three are filthy in their habits; four require mechanical restraint. One male and four females are capable of doing some labor. Their only amusement is to saunter about the grounds when the weather will permit. Though the house has one hundred and thirty inmates, there is not a bathing tub in it. The house is supplied with water, and the insane are washed once each week.

The building is of wood with a stone basement, and is three stories high; each story is eight feet. The rooms are 24 by 14 feet. All sleep on beds and bedsteads. They all eat at one common table, and the fare is plain and nutritious. Occasionally three persons occupy one cell. The sexes are kept separated, but they have only pauper attendants in the immediate care of them. Two had neither shoes or stockings during the winter; five had no shoes. They are kept separated from the sane paupers.

Recent cases are received, but they do not receive care with reference to their ultimate recovery. The sanitary regulations are good, and the system of restraint mild and yet efficient. There is no convenience for the various grades and conditions of the insane. The mild and the violent, the sick and the well, the clean and the filthy, are all confined in the same ward. They are visited by a physician once each week. From 1837 to 1864 is a long and miserable existence in such a place.”

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 208-209.

New York State County Poor Houses.