Category Archives: Canton Asylum for Insane Indians

Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota was also known as Hiawatha. It opened in December 1902 and closed in 1934 after charges of neglect and abuse were validated. Dr. Harry Reid Hummer and Oscar Sherman Gifford were its only two superintendents. Its only patients were Native Americans, typically called Indians. It was the only federal insane asylum created solely for an ethnic group and served only Indians.

Other Families

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Interior Staircase, New York City Lunatic Asylum

Early superintendents of insane asylums asked for large, beautiful facilities amid a park-like setting, because they thought the environment within imposing structures would help cure their patients. Asylums were built to serve the poor and middle class, rather than the rich, and these lovely “homes” were deliberately built to be as unlike a patient’s typical home as possible.

Alienists (early mental health experts) believed that insanity was often caused by something in the patient’s home environment. By leaving that unhealthy environment, patients could renew their minds and get well. Family visits were actively discouraged, and it wasn’t until late in the century that superintendents began to consider trial visits home, or furloughs, as beneficial.

Dr. Hummer, the superintendent of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians for the majority of its existence, did not seem to move with the times. He always discouraged visits by family members, and only once or twice allowed a patient to go home on a trial basis.

Social Room at Arizona Insane Asylum

Visitors Arriving at Missouri State Hospital for the Insane

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Harry R. Hummer’s Family

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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’s Family

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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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Happy Families

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Western Lunatic Asylum Medical Staff, 1896

Asylum superintendents went to great lengths to present their institutions as surrogate homes for patients. They spoke of the nice rooms, pleasant activities, pretty landscaping, and structured schedules that would restore disordered minds. Superintendents saw themselves as father figures, head of a large “family” of patients and attendants who worked together cheerfully and obediently. Reality was generally a far cry from such visions, but there was at least some substance to this “family” view.

Superintendents and staff lived at the asylum, often ate meals with patients, and joined in their recreational activities. Like most families of the period, patients and attendants in insane asylums began their day early. After bathing and breakfast, they made beds and swept hallways, cleaned rooms, washed dishes, and performed all the various chores necessary to keep the family fed, clothed, cleaned, and rested.

Just like parents, doctors and attendants had little time to themselves. The needs of their patients could be overwhelming, and both worked long hours–12 to 16 hours a day. Attendants spent the most time with patients, burdened with the relentless tasks associated with caring for helpless, uncooperative, or physically ill adults. When they were on the grounds, they were  on call to help patients, day or night. For most of the 19th century, attendants received a half day off a month, a couple of evenings off a week, and an entire Sunday off once a month or so.

Laundry at the Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane

Western Lunatic Asylum, Virginia

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Canton Asylum’s Second Superintendent

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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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How Unusual Was Canton Asylum?

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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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The Background of Asylum Superintendents

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Dr. John Galt

When insane asylums were first built, there were no schools that superintendents could attend, or courses they could take, to learn how to run one. The thirteen superintendents who formed the original Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane in 1844, had to forge a new profession and field of study, fight for acceptance and prestige, and defend their ground-breaking treatments to the public. They were generally up for the task.

Five of the original superintendents were from Massachusetts, two from Pennsylvania, two from Connecticut, two from New Hampshire, and two from Virginia. The oldest member, Dr.  Samuel White, was 53; the youngest, Dr. John Galt, was 22. Most of the other superintendents were in their thirties. These men shared both  a geographical background and a pioneering interest  in the study of mental disease. Though this original band certainly butted heads occasionally, they typically bonded as a body against any attack on their profession or competency. Superintendents from New England often filled the top positions in new asylums that opened in other states, ensuring at least a certain degree of orthodoxy in treating the insane.

Danvers Lunatic Asylum, Massachusetts, circa 1893

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Chronic Insane Are a Problem

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Vanderburgh County Poor Farm, circa 1900

Early mental health specialists differentiated between the acute insane–curable–and the chronic insane, for whom they felt little hope. Alienists believed that insanity was curable if it could be caught and treated early, and were eager to get patients into institutions as quickly as possible. The beautiful, elaborate  institutions they supervised were specially constructed to jolt someone who had recently become insane from his or her mindset, and restore it to health.

Even though it was seldom cured, chronic insanity was still a problem society needed to address.  Alienists argued that it was far cheaper to house the insane in large institutions that were nearly self-sustaining, than to throw them in prisons or poorhouses where there was little opportunity for them to help earn their keep. Additionally, some chronic insane would be cured in an asylum, thus saving society the expense of housing them for a lifetime. Because of these arguments, several states built asylums specifically for their chronic insane.

Winnebago County Asylum for the Chronic Insane, 1899

Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane

 

 

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Better Treatment for the Insane


A Growing Population of the Insane

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AMSAII, courtesy National Library of Medicine

In 1844, thirteen superintendents of insane asylums met to exchange ideas about how to best run institutions for the insane. From this meeting, they formed the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII). As recognized experts in a very young field, they felt themselves the top authority on all matters concerning mental disease. Some of the superintendents were somewhat arrogant, but were undoubtedly sincere and enthusiastic.

In 1844, the Association proposed some ground rules for asylums. Among other propositions, they agreed that asylums should be in the country, but easily accessible from a large town. Each site should have about 50 acres of landscaped grounds besides other acreage for its needs. Superintendents felt strongly that no building should hold more than 200 patients, and only 250 at the very most. In 1866, they increased that acceptable number to 600. The original members would have been shocked to find how quickly overcrowding became one of the worst features of asylums, with sometimes thousands of patients crammed together in filth and disorder.

Crowded New York Lunatic Asylum

Unruly Patients at Blackwell's Island, from Harper's Magazine, 1860, courtesy New York Public Library

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Building for the Insane

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Thomas Kirkbride

During the heyday of insane asylums, every aspect of building design had a purpose. Buildings were designed to uplift troubled minds, separate types of insanity, and provide fresh air, sunlight, and lovely views. Thomas S. Kirkbride was an expert on asylum design, and wrote a comprehensive book on it called On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane in 1854.

Nothing escaped Kirkbride’s notice. When he wrote about proper bathing accommodations, he specified that a little cold water should flow into the tub before any hot water, so that no vapor would be produced. Ceilings in patient rooms should be twelve feet high, and corridors in the wings of the building should be twelve feet wide. All stairs used by patients should be made of iron. Though he felt that large, supervised dormitories were the best solution for most patients, Kirkbride recognized that some patients would appreciate the privacy of a private room. Throughout this extensive book, Kirkbride demonstrates a vast experience in caring for the insane and considering both their welfare and comfort.

Danvers State Lunatic Hospital, built on the Kirkbride plan

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