Canton Asylum

Canton Main Street

Just as in other workplaces, insane asylums had personnel problems that administrators had to deal with. Though some superintendents tried hard to find the best attendants possible, they had to ultimately accept the kinds of employees available in the marketplace. In 1895,the superintendent at  Kentucky’s Eastern Lunatic Asylum mentioned that he had been able to employ “four bright young men from the State College.” Other institutions, and probably Eastern Asylum as well, had to sometimes accept attendants who were just a step above criminals. With its demanding schedule and lack of freedom, a job as an asylum attendant was not likely to appeal to anyone who could find something better.

Both Gifford and Hummer, while superintendents at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, ran into the same personnel problems as other superintendents. The work they offered was demanding and difficult, and didn’t pay well. They faced an additional problem with the size of their labor pool. Canton was not large, and even though the city of Sioux Falls was not far away, it was too far away to expect many people there to find work at the Canton asylum desirable. Attendants were required to live on the premises, which also made the work less attractive to non-Canton residents.

Staff at Ridges

Attendants at Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, circa 1860s, courtesy University of Pennsylvania

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An Epileptic Boy, from Criminal Man, 1911

Children lived at insane asylums. They were the children of  patients or children of staff, or sometimes they were the patients. Married staff who lived on the grounds of an asylum had no choice but to raise their children where they were placed. At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, Dr. Hummer’s two boys ran through the wards freely, often aggravating the attendants with their noisiness and mess. Presumably, children at other asylums did the same things, and enjoyed playing in the park-like settings and wide lawns that were such a feature of large asylums.

At Southwestern Lunatic Asylum in Virginia, one patient with a young baby refused to be separated from her child, and the baby was allowed to stay for awhile. Sometimes patients became pregnant at asylums, and their babies were allowed to stay until other arrangements could be made. One child born to a  patient at  the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians stayed until she was four years old.

Canton Asylum took in a few young children; the youngest actually entering as a patient was six years old. A 1958 newspaper article from the Nevada State Journal described how children lived at the Nevada State Hospital (former Nevada Insane Asylum). The paper said the children stayed in a small ward with older [insane or feeble-minded] women, who cared for them. They played outside in fair weather, and played inside otherwise. Children ranged in age from four to seventeen, and usually lived in wards with members of their own sex once they reached age twelve.

Nevada Hospital for Mental Disease, circa 1890, Dr. H. Bergstein with son and Staff, courtesy University of Nevada School of Medicine

Nevada Insane Asylum, circa 1980, courtesy University of Nevada School of Medicine

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Settlers Wait to Enter Surplus Lands at Fort Hall Reservation,1902, courtesy Library of Congress

When the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians first opened, employees took on a variety of tasks not necessarily in their job descriptions. Dr. Turner, the assistant superintendent and the only doctor at the asylum, often traveled out-of-state to escort new patients to the asylum.

On February 4, 1905, the Sioux Valley News reported that Turner and an employee named Hans Loe, had just returned from Fort Hall in Idaho with two Shoshone patients. That week, the financial clerk also returned from a trip to bring back an Apache patient. Turner was scheduled to go to Indian Territory to pick up an insane woman at Union Agency, while O. S. Gifford was set to go to Minnesota to get a patient from White Earth reservation.

Though this may have been an especially busy week, employees obviously could not give patients their full attention.

Indians Making Maple Sugar at Cass Lake, 1905, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

White Settlers in Indian Territory, 1883, courtesy Robert E. Cunningham Oklahoma History Collection

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Dr. Harry Reid Hummer was born in Washington, DC in 1878. When he and his wife, Norena, arrived in Canton, South Dakota, they had two young sons: Francis, and Harry, Jr. They later had a daughter who died shortly after birth. Hummer’s ambition may have been a good role model for his sons. Harry Jr. attended the Naval Academy and rose to the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, and Francis became a doctor.

Most of Hummer’s extended family resided in the east. He had a brother (Washington, DC) and sister (Silver Spring, Maryland) who survived him, as did his wife. When Hummer  died  in 1957 at the age of 79, he also had four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

View of Capitol, circa 1853-1878

South Capitol Street, circa 1957, courtesy District Dept. of Transportation Historical Photo Archives

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Oscar S. Gifford, first superintendent at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, was the exception to the rule–he did not live on the asylum grounds as most asylum superintendents did. He already had a home in Canton, and his assistant, Dr. John F. Turner, had a family who needed the rooms set aside for the superintendent. Gifford had a room at the asylum where he could spend the night if needed, and boarded a horse there, as well.

Gifford married Phoebe Fuller in 1874 and had a son named Oscar Bailey, who grew up in Canton and eventually became a pharmacist in Minnesota. Bailey and his wife lived in Minneapolis,  but visited  Canton frequently and were able to enjoy the hospitality offered within a large, comfortable home.

Gifford had been a widower several years before he married Jenny H. Rudolph in 1899; they had a daughter named Frederica.  The Giffords entertained frequently, were involved in community affairs, and belonged to many clubs. Jenny Gifford was instrumental in bringing a fine library to Canton through a donation from the wealthy philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Andrew Carnegie

Lincoln County Court House, circa 1902, Canton SD

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Dr. Harry R. Hummer

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was unusual in that it was a short-lived institution with only two superintendents. Unlike Oscar Gifford (see last post), Canton Asylum’s second superintendent was well qualified to run an insane asylum. Born in Washington, DC and educated at Georgetown University, Dr. Harry R. Hummer was an ambitious young man who desired prominence and prestige.

He worked at the Government Hospital for the Insane ( St. Elizabeths) for nine years before applying for the position of superintendent at Canton Asylum. Married with two children when he moved to Canton, South Dakota, Hummer badly wanted to run his own institution.

It must have been a difficult move for the whole family, since they had no ties whatsoever to the West. Norena Guest Hummer, cousin to the poet Edgar Guest, was used to the nice dinners and servants available as a doctor’s wife at St. Elizabeths. Hummer was used to having his orders obeyed without question, common at authoritarian eastern asylums, and certainly common at the military-style government asylum. It was a shock to both Hummers to arrive in South Dakota among a much more independent type of employee.

Poet Edgar Guest

Georgetown Medical School, circa 1900, courtesy National Library of Medicine

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Oscar S. Gifford

Though early asylum superintendents in the U.S. had to both establish their profession and learn how to run asylums, they generally had at least some experience working in large institutions. Superintendents were medical men who usually acted as the  asylum’s chief physician, and supervised assistant physicians and attendants. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was unusual in that its first superintendent had no medical background whatsoever, and had never managed anything more complex than his own small business.

Gifford was born in New York, and spent part of his childhood in Wisconsin, and later, Illinois. He served in an  Elgin, Illinois unit during the Civil War, then studied law. He became a merchant and surveyor, and eventually a lawyer and a territorial delegate (from Dakota Territory). After a distinguished career, during which he helped guide South Dakota to statehood, Gifford was elected South Dakota’s representative to Congress. After he had moved back to Canton, South Dakota (where he had once been mayor), Gifford became superintendent of Canton Asylum.

Elgin, Illinois Street Scenes, courtesy Elgin Area Historical Society

Dakota Territory, courtesy South Dakota State Historical Society

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Many early newspapers had society columns which detailed the entertainments and travels of prominent people. Small-town newspapers often had their counterpart, and reported on anything of interest which the town’s citizens might be doing. Here are entries in The Sioux Valley News‘ Local Mention column for Dec 4, 1903:

First Thanksgiving, (photo circa 1900-1920) courtesy Library of Congress

– Tom and Mrs. Stinson entertained a number of friends on Thanksgiving day.

– Oliver Carpenter’s many friends in this city will be pleased to learn that he has been promoted to the law department of the bureau of commerce at a salary of $1,200 a year.

– Mrs. C. M. Seely and Mrs. Dr. Turner gave a very pleasant dinner party to a few of their lady friends Monday afternoon at the Indian asylum.

– The Flandreau Indians scalped the Canton boys in foot ball Thanksgiving day by a score of 11 to 10. As this is Canton’s only defeat this year, the boys are quite happy. The game deserves an extended write-up but lack of space prevents.

Genoa Indian School Baseball Team, courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society

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The Sioux Valley News, August 9, 1895

Newspapers can give tremendous insight into an era, and small-town newspapers are gold mines of localized information, attitudes, and values. Many reported the comings and goings of their town’s citizens and reported on odd topics of interest. On Jan 22, 1904, the following items appeared in The Sioux Valley News in Canton, SD:

– Mrs. George Alexander of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. began crying for no apparent cause and literally sobbed herself to death.

– A few days ago H. Davison of Norfolk, Neb., purchased a pair of blue socks. Now his feet are in such a condition from wearing them that his attending physician says they will have to be amputated.

– As a result of drinking ginger ale flavored with lemon extract, Charles Benke, Albert Lewis and William Prudence are dead at Alexander, Ark.

The modern reader wonders what in the world happened in these three medical incidents, which were published as straightforward news items.

Vintage Ginger Ale Ad

Vintage Cigarette Ad

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Sisseton Agency, 1891

Most patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians were allowed some degree of freedom if they were not violent or abusive. Elizabeth Faribault (originally from the Sisseton Agency) simply left the grounds without permission one evening in January, 1920. Asylum staff located her a couple of days later in Alvord, Iowa and brought her back to the asylum.

Faribault escaped again in September, 1921 by opening a window on the asylum’s sun porch and jumping through a screen to the ground. Once again she was returned to the institution, where she died of heart failure in 1928 at the age of 35. She had displayed no symptoms of  illness prior to death.

Indian Family, Sisseton 1885, courtesy http://www.firstpeople.us

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