Good Bye!

I started this blog on July 10, 2011, thinking that maybe 5 people would actually read it and find the posts interesting. Five years later, I have created 12 pages, written 211 posts including countless PDF files, published 739 comments, and received 352,795 views. I self-published The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900: A Genealogy Resource, on December 17, 2011, with my own money, to further the cause of restoring dignity to the forgotten people who lived and died at New York State Hospitals (Insane Asylums), who had been buried on New York State property in anonymous, unmarked cemeteries and graves for over a century. New York State Senate Bill S840A-2015 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 lawmakers and the Office of Mental Health believed that if they did so, they would be sued. Their belief is that putting a name on a memorial or a headstone in public is different than publishing the names on a specific public website (as if no genealogy geek in the future will photograph the graves along with the names and publish them on the internet). This makes no sense to me. I believe that the New York State Office of Mental Health did not want to disclose the names of deceased patients because the burial ledgers may have been carelessly lost or destroyed. They would also have to explain why these cemeteries had never been marked in over 150 years, why they fell into such a state of neglect and disrepair in the first place, and why Kings Park State Hospital Cemetery is being used as a youth baseball field. The following states took a different approach and put searchable databases on the internet available to the public: Kansas; Minnesota; Nebraska; Ohio; TexasMaryland; Florida; Washington; and even Binghamton State Hospital of New York has a searchable list on line.

Monument For The Forgotten-Museum of disABILITY History, Buffalo, NY.

Monument For The Forgotten-Museum of disABILITY History, Buffalo, NY.

The reason why New York State Hospitals / Insane Asylums, Feeble-Minded and Epileptic Custodial Institutions are so important to the world is because there were 26 of them, possibly more. These institutions housed many newly arrived immigrants during the mid 19th and early 20th centuries from all over the world, especially Western Europe. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who would like to know the final resting place of their long, lost ancestor. It just doesn’t seem fair to me that this one stigmatized group of people are being denied the one and only thing that we really have to be remembered by; our name. Even though I initiated the original bill in August 2011 and it was introduced to the New York State Senate by Senator Joseph E. Robach in March 2012, I was never allowed to write it. This is the bill that I would have written:

“This bill is important and necessary in order to restore the dignity and personhood of the thousands of people who were incarcerated and died at former New York State Insane Asylums, (later renamed State Hospitals), Feeble-Minded and Epileptic Custodial Institutions. When the bodies of the inmates were not claimed by family members, they were buried in anonymous, unmarked graves, or, their bodies and brains were given to medical colleges for research. These forgotten souls deserve to have their names remembered and available to the public by means of a searchable internet database. Some of these deceased patients were undoubtedly United States Veterans who served during the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, who suffered from PTSD and Shell Shock. Their graves deserve to be marked with the American Flag and honored like any other veteran’s grave.

The list of these former New York State Hospitals includes but is not limited to: Binghamton, Buffalo, Central Islip, CreedmoorDannemora, EdgewoodGowanda, Hudson River, Kings Park, Long Island, Manhattan, Marcy, Matteawan, Middletown, Mohansic, Pilgrim, Rochester, St. Lawrence, SyracuseUtica, and Willard

The Feeble-Minded (Intellectual Disabilities) and Epileptic Custodial Institutions of New York includes but is not limited to: Craig Colony for Epileptics, Letchworth Village for Epileptics & Intellectually Disabled, Newark State School for Intellectually Disabled Women, Rome State School for Intellectually Disabled Adults & Children, and Syracuse State School for Intellectually Disabled Children. There may be more.

There is no good reason why these long deceased souls need to be punished and stigmatized in death for an illness or intellectual disability that they lived with in life. The great majority of these former state hospitals closed in favor of smaller group home settings or changed their names to Psychiatric Centers in the early 1970s. This in turn led to many patients being thrown onto the streets to live in cardboard boxes, or thrown into jail with no psychiatric services, just as they did 150 years ago. I do not understand why anyone would need to have their name withheld from any cemetery list until 50 years had passed after their death. This requirement in the bill only serves to feed the stigma.”

Well, the bill that I wanted didn’t come to pass. I will keep this blog up and running for the purpose of historical research and I might post something now and then but there is nothing left for me to blog about, and I will not continue to bang my head against the wall trying to convince New York State lawmakers and the New York State Office of Mental Health to change their position. So, I will say, Good Bye! A few years ago, I donated $100.00 dollars to the Willard Cemetery Memorial Project and I cannot afford to give any more. If you are so inclined, please donate to the cause or start a cemetery organization of your own. The saddest part of this law is that by the time this organization raises enough money to mark 5,776 graves, I will be too old to care, and I am not aware of any other cemetery organizations for the other 25 New York State institutions. Thank you for all of your support over these past five years! May God Bless You and Your Loved Ones!!

Sincerely, Linda S. Stuhler

QUESTIONS & CONCERNS: CONTACT JOHN ALLEN, Director, Office of Mental Health, Office of Consumer Affairs, Central Office Staff, 44 Holland Avenue, Albany, New York 12229, Phone: (518) 473-6579, Fax: (518) 474-8998.

Photo by Roger Luther at www.nysAsylum.com

Photo by Roger Luther at http://www.nysAsylum.com

New York State Senate Bill 840-A Becomes Law-Needs Work!

Bill 840-A was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and became law on August 18, 2016. Unfortunately, after reading this new law, unless I have interpreted it incorrectly, it looks nothing like the broad scoped original bill that I had proposed to Kate Munzinger, Senator Joseph Robach’s Chief of Staff, on August 22, 2011. Tim Ragazzo wrote the bill, and Senator Joseph Robach, introduced it to the New York State Senate on March 23, 2012. Even though I initiated the original bill S6805-2011-12, which you can read below, it was changed without my knowledge into something that I do not recognize. Sadly, I cannot take any credit for this new law as I had nothing to do with it. The narrow scope of this law implies that the names of tens of thousands of patients who died in New York State Hospitals/Asylums of the past, will NOT be released to the public; they will remain anonymous unless EACH former state hospital has a “CEMETERY ORGANIZATION” and even then they will be released “ONLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF INSCRIBING THE NAME OR DATE ON A GRAVE MARKER.” So much for finding out who is buried in the Kings Park State Hospital Cemetery which is now being used as a youth baseball field! I wasted more than eight years of my life writing letters, talking to representatives, writing a book, and blogging, for nothing.

Photo by Roger Luther at www.nysAsylum.com

Photo by Roger Luther at http://www.nysAsylum.com

STATE OF NEW YORK 840-A, 2015-2016 Regular Sessions, IN SENATE (PREFILED) January 7, 2015, Introduced by Sen. ROBACH — read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities — reported favorably from said committee and committed to the Committee on Finance — committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to patients interred at state mental health hospital cemeteries THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1.   Section 7.09 of the mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new subdivision (k) to read as follows:

(K) NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER LAW, RULE OR REGULATION, ON REQUEST BY A REPRESENTATIVE OF A CEMETERY ORGANIZATION OR FUNERAL ESTABLISHMENT, THE COMMISSIONER AND DIRECTORS OF OFFICE FACILITIES SHALL RELEASE TO THE REPRESENTATIVE THE NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, OR DATE OF DEATH OF A PERSON WHO WAS A PATIENT AT THE FACILITY WHEN THE PERSON DIED, UNLESS THE PERSON OR THE PERSON’S GUARDIAN PROVIDED WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS TO THE FACILITY NOT TO RELEASE SUCH PERSON’S NAME OR DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH. A REPRESENTATIVE OF A CEMETERY ORGANIZATION OR A FUNERAL ESTABLISHMENT MAY USE A NAME OR DATE RELEASED UNDER THIS SUBDIVISION ONLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF INSCRIBING THE NAME OR DATE ON A GRAVE MARKER.

S 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is authorized to be made on or before such date.”
SOURCE: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/s840/amendment/a

03-The Asylum Officials-Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. 1978

03-The Asylum Officials-Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. 1978

Here is Original Bill: 6805-2011

STATE OF NEW YORK 6805 IN SENATE, March 23, 2012, Introduced by Sen. ROBACH — read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to patients interred at state mental health hospital cemeteries THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 33.27 to read as follows:

S 33.27 RELEASE OF CERTAIN PATIENTS’ NAMES AND DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

(A) TO MARK HEADSTONES OR OTHERWISE MEMORIALIZE PATIENTS INTERRED AT STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL CEMETERIES, THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HYGIENE SHALL MAKE AVAILABLE THE NAME, DATE OF BIRTH AND DATE OF DEATH OF PATIENTS BURIED IN STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL CEMETERIES FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF A PATIENT.

(B) FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, THE TERM “STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITALS” SHALL MEAN ANY STATE-FUNDED INSTITUTION TO CARE FOR AND HELP TREAT THE MENTALLY ILL OR DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED IN NEW YORK STATE. SUCH TERM SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO FORMER ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE, SUCH AS THE NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM, UTICA STATE HOSPITAL, WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, WILLARD STATE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM, BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR THE CHRONIC INSANE, BINGHAMTON STATE HOSPITAL, BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, NEW YORK STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, BUFFALO STATE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK STATE ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS AND THE ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS IN ALBANY.

S 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is authorized to be made on or before such date.EXPLANATION–Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13640-01-1” SOURCE: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2011/s6805/amendment/original

Utica Crib 2

Utica Crib 2

Here is Original Bill: 840-2015

STATE OF NEW YORK 840 IN SENATE 2015-2016 Regular Sessions, IN SENATE (PREFILED), January 7, 2015, Introduced by Sen. ROBACH — read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to patients interred at state mental health hospital cemeteries THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 33.27 to read as follows:

S 33.27 RELEASE OF CERTAIN PATIENTS’ NAMES AND DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

(A) TO MARK HEADSTONES OR OTHERWISE MEMORIALIZE PATIENTS INTERRED AT STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL CEMETERIES, THE DEPARTMENT SHALL MAKE AVAILABLE THE NAME, DATE OF BIRTH AND DATE OF DEATH OF PATIENTS BURIED IN STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL CEMETERIES FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF A PATIENT.

(B) FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, THE TERM “STATE MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITALS” SHALL MEAN ANY STATE-FUNDED INSTITUTION TO CARE FOR AND HELP TREAT THE MENTALLY ILL OR DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED IN NEW YORK STATE. SUCH TERM SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO FORMER ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE, SUCH AS THE NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM, UTICA STATE HOSPITAL, WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, WILLARD STATE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM, BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR THE CHRONIC INSANE, BINGHAMTON STATE HOSPITAL, BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, NEW YORK STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, BUFFALO STATE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK STATE ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS AND THE ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS IN ALBANY.

S 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is authorized to be made on or before such date.

EXPLANATION–Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03851-01-5”
SOURCE: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/s840/amendment/a

The list of these former New York State Hospitals includes but is not limited to: Binghamton, Buffalo, Central Islip, CreedmoorDannemora, EdgewoodGowanda, Hudson River, Kings Park, Long Island, Manhattan, Marcy, Matteawan, Middletown, Mohansic, Pilgrim, Rochester, St. Lawrence, SyracuseUtica, and Willard

The Feeble-Minded (Intellectual Disabilities) and Epileptic Custodial Institutions of New York includes but is not limited to: Craig Colony for Epileptics, Letchworth Village for Epileptics & Intellectually Disabled, Newark State School for Intellectually Disabled Women, Rome State School for Intellectually Disabled Adults & Children, and Syracuse State School for Intellectually Disabled Children. There may be more.

NO TOUR at The Willard State Hospital Campus in May 2016

According to Teri Weaver at tweaver@syracuse.com, “No tour of Willard insane asylum for 2016, NY state says” As far as I know, the cemetery is always open to those who wish to visit and pay their respects.

Willard at newyorkupstate.com/finger-lakes

Willard at newyorkupstate.com/finger-lakes

THE BAD NEWS: Thousands Remain Nameless!

The New York State Office of Mental Health put on a fabulous “show” at the Willard State Hospital Cemetery on Saturday, May 16, 2015, by allowing ONE man, Lawrence Mocha, an inmate and hospital grave digger, who died 47 years ago, to be remembered with a beautiful ceremony that included a plaque displaying HIS NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, DATE OF DEATH, AND LOCATION OF GRAVE! OH MY GOD! IS HELL FREEZING OVER?

Plaque Honoring Lawrence Mocha

Plaque Honoring Lawrence Mocha

Mr. Mocha was ONE OUT OF 5,776 buried at this cemetery. This ceremony was hosted by the Willard Cemetery Memorial Project. The only reason that the OMH let this ceremony take place was because they were humiliated by an article published in The New York Times by journalist, Dan Barry. Why wasn’t Mr. Barry fined $10,000 by the OMH as they so often threaten? Might they be afraid of The Times and its readership of 1 million people a day?

It has been my belief that the New York State Legislature should pass into law two bills:

  1. New York State needs a law that would release the names, dates of birth and death, and location of graves of ALL deceased patients of ALL 21 former New York State Hospitals and 5 Custodial Institutions which SHOULD BE AVAILABLE AND ACCESSABLE ON THE OMH Website as a searchable data base. All these cemeteries are INACTIVE! There is no reason why anyone has to wait 50 years to be remembered!

AND

  1. An additional law that would release to descendants the medical records and photographs of loved ones who were incarcerated at these institutions 50 years after the patients’ death with the same wording as provided by the new Federal HIPAA legislation of March 2013.

The New York State Office of Mental Health WILL NOT ALLOW the burial ledger of the Willard State Hospital or any New York State Hospital or Custodial Institution to be released to the public. The names of the deceased and the location of their graves must be made available to the public in order that people may find their ancestor, visit the grave, and purchase a headstone if they wish to do so. Withholding their names is unacceptable, dehumanizing, and insulting; it only serves to feed the stigma associated with mental illness. Many of these former patients died over one hundred years ago; they are not under the care of the Office of Mental Health or any government agency. It is important and necessary for a new law in order to restore the dignity and personhood of the THOUSANDS of people who were incarcerated and died at former New York State Hospitals (formerly Insane Asylums), and Custodial Institutions. When the bodies of the inmates/patients were not claimed by family members, they were buried in anonymous, unmarked graves on state owned and county cemeteries. They deserve to have their names remembered and available to the public in a searchable database located at The New York State Office of Mental Health Website.

The NYS Office of Mental Health always sites “Protected Health Information” for their reason as to why they cannot release patient names. Let’s start at the beginning by defining the following: What Is Personal Identifiable Information? AND, What Is Protected Health Information? If you take the time to read these two definitions, you will CLEARLY SEE THAT THESE LAWS AND PROVISIONS WERE WRITTEN FOR THE LIVING, NOT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN DEAD LONGER THAN 50 YEARS!!!! A BURIAL PERMIT, which can be obtained in every County Clerk’s Office in the State of New York, is not covered under any state or federal privacy law. Old Books, Burial Ledgers, and The United States Federal and State Censuses which are released after 70 years, are not covered under any law that I know of. Birth, Death, and Marriage Certificates can be obtained from the NYS Vital Records page. 145 years have passed since the first person was buried at the Willard Asylum in 1870. It is time to let those nameless souls rest in peace and be remembered!

Anyone can sit at the County Clerk’s Office and sort through all the records pertaining to any state hospital or custodial institution but the information contained in the burial ledgers would be much more accurate and less time consuming. An inscribed headstone or a name on a searchable database would not positively identify a specific individual UNLESS it stated the city, county, state, country of origin, parents, spouses, sibling names, etc. And even then, you would have to claim that person as your ancestor and notify the media that he or she was diagnosed with a mental illness in order for you and your family to be “stigmatized.” Come On! This Is The Twenty-First Century! Privacy ends at death and according to the new HIPAA Law, Confidentiality Of Medical Records only lasts for 50 years after death of an individual.

The real reason why the OMH does not want to publish this information is simple. They don’t want you to know how badly they’ve screwed up!

EXAMPLES:
I have been told over and over again that one of the cemeteries on the former KINGS PARK STATE HOSPITAL property is being used as a youth baseball field. This had to have been approved by the NYSOMH. As far as I know, the bodies were never moved. I wonder how the families of patients buried at this site would feel if they knew that their loved one’s grave was being disrespected in this way? If this information is incorrect, I apologize.

What about all the VETERANS from the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam that are buried in these former NYS Hospital Cemeteries. Don’t they have a right to be remembered with a marker?

The NAMES of deceased patients buried at the former BINGHAMTON STATE HOSPITAL Cemetery are already online in a searchable database. The burial ledger was found in the trash. AND, in 2014, Glass Photo Negatives of Patients were discovered in a pile of pigeon poop at Binghamton’s Historic Asylum. If these old photographs and burial ledgers are so important, then why were they found in the trash?

At the former MIDDLETOWN HOMEOPATHIC STATE HOSPITAL patient records were left in boxes which were photographed and put on the internet. Looks like the staff left in a hurry! These facilities closed in 1995.

Someone from the former GOWANDA STATE HOSPITAL gave the burial ledger to The Museum of disABILITY History for safe keeping. Thank God! The names are on display at the museum.

Why is the largest mental health facility in New York State the Prison at Riker’s Island?

If medical records for the recently departed are protected, then why was Sally Green’s Anonymous Burial and a detailed story printed all over the news in February 2012?

Lastly, and most importantly, The OMH would have to release 21 State Hospital and 5 Custodial Institution Burial Ledgers. Do they even have them?

The list of these former New York State Hospitals includes but is not limited to: Binghamton, Buffalo, Central Islip, CreedmoorDannemora, EdgewoodGowanda, Hudson River, Kings Park, Long Island, Manhattan, Marcy, Matteawan, Middletown, Mohansic, Pilgrim, Rochester, St. Lawrence, SyracuseUtica, and Willard

The Feeble-Minded (Intellectual Disabilities) and Epileptic Custodial Institutions of New York includes but is not limited to: Craig Colony for Epileptics, Letchworth Village for Epileptics & Intellectually Disabled, Newark State School for Intellectually Disabled Women, Rome State School for Intellectually Disabled Adults & Children, and Syracuse State School for Intellectually Disabled Children.

Please check out and share the NAMES page.

More Reading:

Mental Illness & Ignorance

They’re Buried Where? May 24, 2013

Mental Illness & Prisons

My Story

THE GOOD NEWS: One Man Is Remembered!

On Saturday, May 16, 2015, LAWRENCE MOCHA was honored and remembered as a living, breathing, contributing member of society, 47 years after his death, with a lovely service and memorial. LAWRENCE was a patient at The WILLARD STATE HOSPITAL and served, unpaid, until the age of 90, as the gravedigger for the institution for thirty years. He dug 1,500 graves for his fellow patients, all of whom, with the exception of one other man, remain in anonymity. As you will see in the video below, it was a beautiful celebration of life that not only remembered with dignity and grace MR. MOCHA but all of the nearly 6,000 patients buried in anonymous graves at the 30 acre, WILLARD STATE HOSPITAL CEMETERY.

Lawrence Mocha

Lawrence Mocha

I was honored to be invited to this special event but I was unable to attend. I did however view the entire 55 minute video. I was so happy to see that so many people attended the celebration! I understand that there was quite a traffic jam and the State Police had to be called to divert people away from the WILLARD CAMPUS that held their annual tour and fundraising event for the Day Care Center. I hope in some small way I was able to help get the word out with my book and this blog about the dehumanizing, anonymous graves in former NEW YORK STATE HOSPITAL and CUSTODIAL INSTITUTION CEMETERIES.

Lawrence Mocha's Marker

Lawrence Mocha’s Marker

After viewing the video, there are a few thoughts I would like to share:

  1. The anonymous graves at WILLARD would never have been brought to light, and the suitcases found in the attic would never have been saved and preserved without the tireless work of CRAIG WILLIAMS, Curator of History at The New York State Museum at Albany.
  2. The Lives They Left Behind, Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic” written by DARBY PENNEY and PETER STASTNY, opened the eyes of the public and made us aware of what it was like to be institutionalized. This book inspired so many people, including me, to try to correct the disgrace of anonymous burials in former New York State Hospitals and Custodial Institutions. It led me to ask my State Senator, Joe Robach, to draft a bill concerning the release of patient names, dates of birth and death, and location of grave. Written in 2011 and first introduced to the New York State Senate on March 23, 2012 as S6805-2011, on January 13, 2013 as S2514-2013, and on January 7, 2015 as S840A-2015. As of today, it has not passed into law.
  3. In 2011, The Willard Cemetery Memorial Project was formed. God Bless all the volunteers who made this celebration possible!
  4. JOHN ALLEN, Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health (518-473-6579), verified in his statements on the video exactly what I have been stating for years! Thank you, Mr. Allen! He told the story about how difficult it was to match A NAME, ANY NAME, with the correct family especially after multiple generations have passed since the ancestor’s death. He spoke about how problematic it was to find a living relative of the deceased buried in a numbered grave (which is exactly why the Federal HIPPA Law changed in March 2013). I know I’m going to hell for saying this, but it gave me great pleasure watching MR. ALLEN getting choked up as he told his story. Hopefully, he now knows what it feels like to search, and search, and search for a “long, lost relative” and finally finding them. MR. ALLEN also had a photograph of MR. MOCHA which he could show to a long, lost family member. Most of us don’t have that luxury even though photographs were taken of each patient. I would love to have a photograph of my great-mother. It’s simply outrageous that one government agency has the right to withhold the names, dates of birth and death, and location of graves of THOUSANDS!!! We’re not talking about medical records here, only the most basic of information concerning the death and final resting place of our loved ones who happened to live and die in a NEW YORK STATE HOSPITAL or CUSTODIAL INSTITUTION.
Plaque Honoring Lawrence Mocha

Plaque Honoring Lawrence Mocha

A NAME IS JUST A NAME AND MEANS NOTHING TO ANYONE UNLESS YOU’RE THE ONE SEARCHING FOR THAT LOVED ONE! It’s just a name that many other people share, it’s just a birth date, it’s just a death date. NO FAMILY WILL BE STIGMATIZED unless they are like me and tell the world that their great-grandmother lived and died at a state hospital. Remember that when WILLARD opened in 1869, that people were really poor, something that we have a hard time understanding today. Some families did not have the money to ship their relatives’ remains home. To believe that none of these people were loved and or missed is incorrect. To think that no one ever attended their burial or said a prayer for them is simply not true.

VIDEO: A MEMORIAL CELEBRATION FOR ALL THOSE INTERED AT WILLARD CEMETERY.

In case you didn’t catch the fifty-one names, beginning at minute 45, here they are.
I apologize in advance if I misspelled your loved ones’ name.
Do these names mean anything to you?

Names Of The Dearly Departed That Were Read In Public And Recorded On Video At: The Willard Memorial Celebration Saturday, May 16, 2015

1889
June 3 – Hannah Thompson
August 14 – Eliza Delaney
October 16 – Ida Bartholomew

1890
September 9 – James Foster
September 15 – Patrick McNamara
October 31 – Mary Champlain

1891
April 26 – Sophia Anderson
May 26 – Mary Brown
June 23 – Katherine Davis
November 16 – Lavinia Hayes

1892
January 4 – Electa George
June 7 – John Van Horne
September 24 – Mary Church
October 20 – Sarah Scott

1893 January 20 – Susan Dugham
September 26 – John B. Kellogg
December 12 – Effie Risley

1894
January 1 – Syble Pollay
February 19 – Suzanne Klinkers Waldron
March 26 – Carolyn Gregory
June 23 – Elizabeth Weber
August 21 – Sarah Ann Baker
November 8 – Sarah Jane Hemstreet
December 30 – Willis Mathews

1895
February 2 – Sophia Podgka
July 21 – Elizabeth Dawson
November 26 – Parmelia Baldwin

1896
March 3 – Ann Dady

1897
April 27 – Miriam D. Bellamy

1898
August 10 – Julia Holden

1899
November 15 – Delia Richards
December 4 – Genevieve Murray

1900
February 3 – Ellen Jane Roe
May 14 – Honora Nugent
July 1 – Harriet Gray
October 12 – Lottie Sullivan

1901
September 19 – Rachel Tice

1902
August 24 – Emma P. Sandborn

1903
April 18 – Elizabeth Snell
December 3 – Nora Murphy

1904
February 20 – Catherine Walwrath
March 18 – Margaret McKay
April 27 – Ellen Horan
June 21 – Isabella Pemberton
October 29 – Mary J. Chapman
December 20 – Mita Mulholland

1905
August 4 – Susan Stortz
September 7 – Mary Gilmore
October 25 – Adele Monnier

1906
April 11 – Sarah Rooney

1968
October 26 – Lawrence Mocha

Restoring Lost Names, Recapturing Lost Dignity by Dan Barry – The New York Times

UPDATE 12.22.2014 – THE NEW YORK TIMES: No Longer Anonymous: Gravedigger Gets His Due at a Psychiatric Hospital by Dan Barry.

UPDATE 12.21.2014, From DARBY PENNEY: “A shout-out to the power of the press to shame government into doing the right thing, and the power of dogged activists to make change! Breaking news: Lawrence Mocha will be honored by name in the Willard Cemetery. Thanks to Dan Barry’s powerful 11/28/14 article in the NY Times, and years of hard work by Colleen Spellecy and the Willard Cemetery Memorial Committee, the New York State Office of Mental Health has changed their mind and will allow the plaque to be placed with his name and full information about him. They located a relative of Mr. Mocha who gave permission. In addition, according to Colleen Spellecy, “They also want to work with us on a general memorial honoring all of the individuals buried within Willard cemetery. After these memorials are installed they want to support a multi-denominational community service to re-consecrate the cemetery lands and dedicate the memorials. They will then invite the Mocha family to participate in this event and OMH will work with them to provide necessary travel arrangements.”

“OVID, N.Y. — For a half-century, a slight and precise man with an Old World mustache resided as a patient at the Willard State Psychiatric Hospital, here beside spectacular Seneca Lake. You are not supposed to know his name, but it was Lawrence Mocha. He was the gravedigger.

Using a pick, a shovel, and a rectangular wooden template, he carved from the upstate loam at least 1,500 graves, 60 to a row and six feet deep. At times he even lived in the cemetery, in a small shack with a stove, beside a towering poplar.

The meticulous Mr. Mocha dug until the very end, which came at the age of 90, in 1968. Then he, too, was buried among other patients in the serene field he had so carefully tended.

But you will not find the grave of Mr. Mocha, whose name you should not know, because he was buried under a numbered marker — as were nearly 5,800 other Willard patients — and the passing years have only secured his anonymity. The hospital closed, the cemetery became an afterthought, and those markers either disappeared or were swallowed into the earth.

Photo

A few original cast iron grave markers. Nearly 5,800 patients were buried under numbered markers to shield their names. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times

Now, though, this obscure gravedigger has come to represent the 55,000 other people buried on the grounds of old psychiatric hospitals across New York State — many of them identified, if that is the word for it, by numbers corresponding with names recorded in old books. This numerical system, used by other states as well, was apparently meant to spare the living and the dead from the shame of one’s surname etched in stone in a psychiatric hospital cemetery.

A retired schoolteacher, Colleen Spellecy, is seeking to end the anonymity, which she says only reinforces the prejudices surrounding mental illness. One way to do this, she says, is to place a plaque bearing Mr. Mocha’s name on the spot where his shack once stood.

“He’s a symbol for what we want to do with all the rest,” Ms. Spellecy said. “It’s almost like if we could just do something for one, we could do it for all.”

But the State Office of Mental Health, which oversees some two dozen hospital cemeteries tucked in upstate corners and along busy Long Island highways, has consistently denied her request. Its officials say that a generations-old state law protects the privacy of people who died in these institutions.

“Stigma and discrimination is alive and well, though I wish it were not,” said John Allen, special assistant to the commissioner of mental health. “Outing every family, whether they want to be outed or not, does not conform with the reality.”

But advocates say that other states have long since figured out how to return names to those buried under numbers — a process that the advocacy organization Mental Health America says would help to end prejudice and discrimination. In an email, its spokeswoman, Erin Wallace, wrote: “These people had names, and should never have been buried with us forgetting them.”

Larry Fricks, the chairman of the National Memorial of Recovered Dignity project, an effort to create a Washington tribute to all mental patients buried without names, agreed. He suggested that the cost of memorializing so many people could be a factor in a state’s reluctance — and some of those books with recorded names have been damaged and even lost over the many years. The issue is not trivial, Mr. Fricks said. “There is something embedded deep in our belief system that when people die, you show respect.”

In addition to his name and burial site, here is what else you are not supposed to know about Lawrence Mocha: Born poor in Austro-Hungarian Galicia in 1878. Hit in the head with a rock as a young man. Drank heavily, was briefly institutionalized, and served in the Army. Emigrated, and found work at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Caused a ruckus one day and was sent to the psychiatric unit, where he talked of guilt and depression, of hearing God and seeing angels. Sent to Willard in 1918, never to leave. Kept to himself for years, but eventually took an interest in tending to the graveyard. Requested freedom in 1945, but was ignored. Made an extra dollar here and there by preparing bodies for burial. Stopped having episodes, if that was what they were. Dug, and dug, and dug.

Gunter Minges, 73, the last grounds superintendent at Willard, sat on his pickup’s tailgate at the cemetery’s edge and recalled Mr. Mocha in his last decade. A reclusive man, he said. Had special kitchen privileges. Smoked a pipe. Wore hip waders, because groundwater would fill his neat rectangular holes. “He dug until he died,” Mr. Minges said, and was rechristened with a number. Then, with a Catholic priest at graveside, the grounds crew used ropes to lowered Mr. Mocha’s coffin into a hole dug by someone else. “But where it is,” Mr. Minges said, “I don’t know.”

Many of the numbered metal markers, forged by hospital patients and spiked into the ground, vanished over the years, sold for scrap or tossed into a nearby gully as impediments to mowing. In the early 1990s, groundskeepers began affixing numbered plaques flat onto the ground, but the job was left incomplete when the hospital shut down in 1995. In a last-minute search of Willard’s buildings for items worthy of posterity, state workers opened an attic door to find 427 musty suitcases. Among them: a brown leather case containing two shaving mugs, two shaving brushes, suspenders, and a pair of black dress shoes that a slight and precise immigrant hadn’t worn since World War I.

The discovery of the suitcases led to an exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, a traveling display, and a well-received book about forgotten patients called “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic.” Confidentiality laws forced its authors, Darby Penney and Peter Stastny, to reluctantly use pseudonyms; Lawrence Mocha, then, became Lawrence Marek.

Ms. Penney said that for the last several decades of his life, Mr. Mocha exhibited no signs of mental illness and was not on any medication. Her guess: “There were certain people who were kept there because they were decent workers.”

Photo

Lawrence Mocha Credit New York State Archives and New York State Museum

And Mr. Mocha was the meticulous gravedigger.

Ms. Spellecy read the book. She is a wife, a mother, and a retiree who lives in Waterloo, about a half-hour’s drive from Willard. Visiting the cemetery for the first time, she “sensed the injustice immediately,” she said, and quickly set about to forming the Willard Cemetery Memorial Project. Its mission: “To give these people a name and a remembrance.”

They have also engaged in a contentious back and forth with the Office of Mental Health over its refusal to grant names to the dead — beginning with a plaque on that boulder to honor Mr. Mocha, and then, perhaps, a central memorial that would feature the names of all those buried anonymously or beneath numbers.

“It’s as if they are saying that they own the cemetery and therefore they own the names,” Ms. Spellecy said. “In so owning the names, they are owning the person — as if these people continue to be wards of the state.”

State officials say that they are bound by state law to protect patient confidentiality, even after death, unless granted permission by a patient’s descendants to make the name public. They also say that attempts to change the law have failed, and that, even now, some descendants express concern about prejudice.

Mr. Allen said that the state had worked with communities throughout New York to restore these cemeteries as places of reverence and contemplation, and had assisted families in locating graves. In fact, he said, “We have helped a number of families place a marker at a number.”

But without some descendant’s consent, Willard’s dead will remain memorialized by a number, if at all.

State officials also say that at the request of the Willard Cemetery Memorial Project, they are searching for any relatives of a certain individual — they would not say “Lawrence Mocha” — who might grant permission for the public release of that individual’s name. This is highly unlikely, advocates say, given that this individual never married and left Europe a century ago.

But Ms. Spellecy will not give up. She and other volunteers are developing a list of the dead through census rolls and other records, and hope to secure permission from descendants to have those names made public, perhaps even in granite. When asked why she has committed herself to this uphill task, Ms. Spellecy paused to compose herself. With her eyes wet from tears, she said: “Every stage of life is very sacred. Life deserves to be remembered, and revered, and memorialized.”

A few weeks ago, Ms. Spellecy and some others bundled up and went out again to the 29 acres of stillness that is the Willard cemetery. They removed a little brush and cleaned a little dirt from a few of the numbers in the ground. The autumn winds carved whitecaps from the steel-gray lake below, while fallen leaves skittered across a field of anonymous graves, many of them dug by a man buried here too, whose name, Lawrence Mocha, you are not supposed to know.”

SOURCE: “Restoring Lost Names, Recapturing Lost Dignity” by Dan Barry – The New York Times. (A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Restoring Lost Names, Recapturing Lost Dignity.)

1. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO They’re Buried Where? by Seth Voorhees
2. Cemetery Information at the NYS Office of Mental Health
3. New York State Hospitals, Custodial Institutions & Cemetery Projects.
4. S2514-2013 – NY Senate Open Legislation – Relates to patients interred at state mental health hospital cemeteries – New York State Senate
5. NEW HIPAA UPDATE March 2013!

Willard State Hospital & Cemetery

Between 1869 and 1890, Willard Asylum for the “Chronic” Insane served the entire State of New York with the exception of New York, Kings, and Monroe Counties. After 1890, Willard State Hospital served the counties of Allegany, Cayuga, Genesee, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates.
1916 Willard State Hospital.
The Branch – Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. – Pictorial Album of The Willard Asylum 1869–1886 – 3.7.2013.
Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. – Pictorial Album of The Willard Asylum 1869–1886 – 1.10.2013.
1886 Hayt’s Corner’s, Ovid & Willard Rail-Road – 1.9.2013.
Captain Morris J. Gilbert, Steward – 3.16.2013.
1917 Willard Maps – 7.25.2012.
The Willard and Rochester State Hospital Connection – 4.18.2012.
1900 Willard State Hospital Steward’s Report.
Obituary 1865 Dr. S.D. Willard.
Obituary 1918 Dr. J.B. Chapin.
Photographs Willard State Hospital circa 1898.
Photographs of Willard State Hospital by Roger Luther.
THE BAD NEWS: Thousands Remain Nameless! 6.15.2015.
THE GOOD NEWS: One Man Is Remembered! 6.14.2015.

10-The Main Building From The North-Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. 1978

10-The Main Building From The North-Wayne E. Morrison, Sr. 1978

Willard Cemetery Memorial Project

“Lost Luggage, Recovered Lives” by Peter Stastny, MD, and Darby Penney, MLS

The Lives They Left Behind Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic offered a ray of hope for people like me, who had discovered that an ancestor was a former patient who died at Willard State Hospital. I read the book in a day, not being able to put it down. I wanted to know more. I wondered what kind of treatment was given to my great-grandmother, and I wonder to this day. The significance of this book is that no others before Darby Penney and Peter Stastny had ever gone through the patient medical records and personal belongings in order to tell the patient’s side of the story. To learn more, please feel free to download, read, and share “Lost Luggage, Recovered Lives” by Peter Stastny, MD, and Darby Penney, MLS.  

Darby Penney is a leader in the human rights movement for people with psychiatric disabilities. Peter Stastny is a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker. You may contact Ms. Penney to inquire about your ancestor’s suitcase at: community@capital.net. For more information visit The Lives They Left Behind Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic Website. 

The Lives They Left Behind by Darby Penney & Peter Stastny

The Lives They Left Behind by Darby Penney & Peter Stastny

Within the pages of this book is where I first learned about the anonymous graves at Willard State Hospital Cemetery. Further research led me to the discovery that burying former patients of New York State Hospitals and Custodial Institutions, in numbered, anonymous graves, was not the exception but the rule. As I have stated before, I am a Genealogy Geek who was inspired by Ms. Penney and her book, to get a law passed that will require the NYS Office of Mental Health to release the names; dates of birth and death; and the location of these historic graves, to the public so that these people may be honored and remembered with dignity. Even with the new HIPAA ruling that allows the release of medical records after 50 years from the time of the patient’s death, it appears that the OMH will not comply with the new ruling unless forced to do so. One wonders how and where they got the authority to classify the burial ledgers (cemetery records) in the same category as medical records? Why are the deaths of thousands of people being kept a secret?

Hopefully, the NYSOMH will release historic patient burial information and when they do, it will be a wonderful opportunity to educate the public about what mental illness is; to reassure people that they should not be ashamed; that help is available; and that no one needs to struggle alone. But as of today, they are sticking with “the very fact of one’s mental illness, and receiving professional help for such illness, can, if generally revealed, cause a person to be subjected to prejudice and stigma in one’s personal and professional life.” Does this statement really encourage people to seek help?

“The only exception would be if you believe a patient was buried in one of our cemeteries. If so, then with appropriate family linkage documentation, including birth and death certificates, we could provide you with information on the individual’s burial site.”

One of the first lessons that you learn when researching your family history is that people have common names. In other words, you are not the only person in the world who has your name. Lesson two is, anyone can claim to be anyone’s descendant in order to get a historic copy of a birth, marriage, or death certificate. The state does not know your genealogy, nor do they care because they’re making money on the deal. Note that after spending the money on this documentation, writing a letter, mailing it in, and waiting months for a response from the OMH, they state we could, instead of, we will, provide you with the information.

The following “Frequently Asked Questions” page is posted at NYS Office of Mental Health Last Modified: 11/15/2012.

“Q. Can I get a copy of a birth or death certificate for a family member that was a resident of one of the Office of Mental Health’s facilities?

A. Birth records, death records, and marriage records are considered Vital Records in New York State and generally can be accessed by the public. If you are interested in exploring this option, you can obtain more information on how to obtain these records on the New York State Department of Health’s vital Records website at www.nyhealth.gov

Q. I have been doing genealogy research and have discovered that one of my relatives was a resident at one of the Office of Mental Health facilities. I would like to find out any personal or medical information about them. Can I obtain a copy of these records?

A. The Office of Mental Health is dedicated to the maintenance of privacy and confidentiality of patient information. We feel this is especially true with regard to mental health treatment records. It has long been recognized that the very fact of one’s mental illness, and receiving professional help for such illness, can, if generally revealed, cause a person to be subjected to prejudice and stigma in one’s personal and professional life. We also recognize that effective and lasting psychiatric therapy can take place only in an environment of privacy and trust in which the patient knows that his/her statements will be held in confidence.

New federal regulations that govern the privacy of individually identifying health information, have underscored this requirement. While it has always been our position that a person’s right to confidentiality of clinical information does not change upon his or her death, federal regulations have given us some additional specific guidance on access to records of deceased patients. Therefore, we have recently modified our policy and procedures and require the following before we can provide any information from a deceased patient’s clinical record:

A. Birth records, death records, and marriage records are considered Vital Records in New York State and generally can be accessed by the public. If you are interested in exploring this option, you can obtain more information on how to obtain these records on the New York State Department of Health’s vital Records website at www.nyhealth.gov

B. If you are a family member of the deceased patient and the patient allowed our facility to share information with you while he or she was living, and it is reasonable to assume that the patient did not intend to revoke his or her permission to continue to communicate with you prior to his or her death, we may provide you with basic information about the patient’s condition and circumstances of his or her death, if appropriate.

C. If you are a family member of the deceased patient and the information from the patient’s record is relevant to your own health care, we can release the information to your physician, provided the physician submits a written request to us on your behalf.

D. If you are the executor of the deceased patient’s estate, or if you otherwise have legal authority to act on behalf of the patient or his/her estate, (e.g. you have letters testamentary issued by a court), we can release information to you upon your written request which documents and attests to your legal authority to act on behalf of the deceased patient. We can also release information to you if you obtain and provide us with the written consent from the executor or legal representative of the deceased patient.

E. In all of these cases, we are required to review the record prior to its release to ensure it does not infringe upon the privacy rights of any other individual who may be named in the record.

The only exception would be if you believe a patient was buried in one of our cemeteries. If so, then with appropriate family linkage documentation, including birth and death certificates, we could provide you with information on the individual’s burial site. Requests should be sent to John Allen, Consumer Affairs, NYS Office of Mental Health, 44 Holland Avenue, Albany, NY 12229.”

Port City Paranormal – The Ghosts Of Willard Asylum

To quote their website: Port City Paranormal is a team of investigators that, “is dedicated to finding answers to the age old mystery of what lies beyond the grave. We investigate and research unexplained phenomena that includes, but is not confined to; experiences of hauntings, EVP, apparitions, ghost sightings, and a broad range of altered realities.”

Port City Paranormal Logo

Port City Paranormal Logo

Port City Paranormal of Wilmington, North Carolina, was founded by Doug and Jane Anderson. In September 2008, and with the permission of the N.Y.S.D.O.C., they began investigating The Maples which was the first and oldest “cottage style” building that was constructed on the property in 1872. The team returned to Willard in March 2009, and began investigating The Branch, later renamed The Grandview, in 1904. According to the plaque that was placed on the building in 1960 by The New York State Agricultural Society and The Willard State Hospital, “This is the original building of The First State Agricultural College in the United States. Chartered April 15, 1853, Constructed 1859, In Operation 1860 – 61. Undone by war, it was transformed into Willard State Hospital in 1865, and reconstructed and reduced in size in 1886. Here, Ezra Cornell, a trustee, received the inspiration which became Cornell University.” Port City Paranormal also investigated Elliott Hall that was built in 1937.

Port City Paranormal  - Willard Patients

Port City Paranormal – Willard Patients

According to the Port City Paranormal Team, “SWAT trainees bunking in Grandview and Elliott Hall, frequently report ghostly encounters and many refuse to stay in the buildings over night. Cell phones ring, keys repeatedly knocked to the floor, whispering, door knobs turning, screaming, and black shadows have been reported with every new class session.”

To read more about PCP’s extensive investigation of Willard State Hospital, please visit their website & blog!

Port City Paranormal

Port City Paranormal Blog

To learn more about The Willard Asylum for the Insane, buy my book:

The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900, A Genealogy Resource

Paranormal State – The Ghosts of Willard Asylum

Paranormal State – The Asylum – Parts 1 & 2

I saw this episode of Paranormal State starring Ryan Buell, on A & E a few months ago, and since I am interested in the history of The Willard Asylum for the Insane (Willard State Hospital), I wanted to share it with you. Yes, I do believe that every person has a soul, and I do believe in the possibility that some souls may be stuck here on earth in a place where they don’t want to be, for whatever reason.

I wanted to share this episode because it shows a panoramic view of the Willard Cemetery which is a disturbing 25 acres of anonymous, unmarked graves; only the veteran’s graves are marked. The video also shows the original State Agricultural College Building which was turned into “The Branch,” and later renamed “The Grandview,” which held over 200 mild, insane, female patients (the basement of this building is shown quite a bit with its rounded, brick arches).

Willard was unique because it was built for the “pauper chronic insane” population of New York State and opened on October 13, 1869 (not 1866). Willard’s main building or “Chapin House,” named after Dr. John B. Chapin, the first physician superintendent of Willard, no longer stands as it was demolished around 1984/85. The group of red buildings with boarded up windows is one of four “cottage style” buildings that made Willard different from other state hospitals because they could segregate patients (over 200 patients in each group of 5 buildings), and expand the hospital in an economic (cheap) way to serve the needs of the state.

This cemetery has been blessed numerous times but the people who are buried there still remain anonymous.

Part One

Part Two

To learn more about The Willard Asylum for the Insane, buy my book:

The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900, A Genealogy Resource

The Inmates Of Willard 1870 to 1900 / A Genealogy Resource

The Inmates Of Willard 1870 to 1900 / A Genealogy Resource