Canton Asylum

Dr. Harry Hummer

Dr. Harry Hummer, the second (and last) superintendent of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, created most of his own problems. He was a well-trained psychiatrist who had worked at the large government insane asylum, St. Elizabeths. Hummer took over a fairly new facility, but chose to concentrate his attention on administrative details and running the asylum’s farm rather than on his patients. He sought to keep expenses down by not filling the assistant superintendent’s position, thus making himself the only medical person on staff until nurses were assigned to the facility many years later.

Hummer had no excuse for the way patients were mismanaged. He was thoroughly capable of devising therapeutic plans for his patients, but never did. He kept many of the amusements Gifford has initiated and even built on them to a point, but discontinued other occupational-therapy types of activity, like beadwork.

Laundry Room, Northern Michagan Asylum for the Insane

Hummer was also responsible for his own overcrowding. Though he undoubtedly felt pressure to take in as many patients as possible, no one at the Indian Office was likely to have overruled him if he had put up a fight to keep his patient numbers down. Even though the Commissioner of Indian Affairs technically had the sole power to commit or release patients, commissioners nearly always bowed to Hummer’s recommendations.  Hummer continually complained about overcrowding, but used it as a reason to expand his facility. Hummer always had fewer than 100 patients, far less than the caseloads of other superintendents at other facilities. Yet, he quickly abandoned even the most rudimentary psychiatric examinations and relied on unschooled attendants’ notes to keep him apprised of patients’ mental conditions.

Patients at Worcester State Hospital, courtesy Life Magazine

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Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Cato Sells

Asylum superintendents were very powerful, but they were (theoretically) denied free rein. Most asylums had a board of directors or a board of commissioners to give oversight to the entire asylum, including the superintendent. Boards were often composed of local men who might be assumed to know what was going on, though sometimes board members had to travel from a distance to meet. Not all boards had direct hiring and firing authority, however, and could run into problems controlling or disciplining a superintendent protected by appointment.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, superintendents reported directly to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on the other side of the country. No boards met on a regular basis to supervise the asylum, though visiting doctors within the Indian Service occasionally stopped by to inspect and report on the facility. Because they weren’t trained in psychiatry and therefore not competent to discuss patient treatment, most inspectors concentrated on the physical part of the institution, commenting more on its buildings and farming operation than anything else. Sometimes the inspectors were not even doctors, but merely field agents who happened to be in the area. Because of this situation, it was generally easy for superintendents Gifford and Hummer to explain away any problems inspectors might bring up.

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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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Dr. Harry Hummer

When Dr. Harry R. Hummer took over the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians after Gifford’s resignation, he immediately became caught up in the many details of running an asylum. In 1917, Hummer engaged in a fruitless round of complaint letters and rebuttals concerning a defective heater body for the asylum boiler. The Herbert Boiler Company sent a length of pipe to the Indian Bureau to finally end the dispute.

The assistant commissioner of Indian Affairs informed Hummer that though the pipe was solid with lime deposits, the boiler company wasn’t responsible for the break in it, which was the point of contention. Hummer should have made sure he ordered a water purifier with the boiler feed to prevent the problem, and hadn’t. Assistant Commissioner Meritt threw the problem back in Hummer’s lap, telling him to investigate the problem before it affected the boilers as well as the piping.

It seems little short of laughable that someone with Hummer’s medical training, and in his position,  should be handling problems with lime buildup in his facility’s boiler pipes. However, Hummer brought many of his problems on himself by refusing to delegate. Since he knew little about mechanical systems, he could not foresee issues that might arise. Eventually, his refusal to delegate brought him problems completely opposite to those of his predecessor, Gifford, who had delegated far too freely.

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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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Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1913-1921)

Allen Owl, a patient at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, demonstrates how difficult it was to convince Dr. Hummer that a patient could safely leave his care. Owl wrote to the commissioner of Indian Affairs on December 16, 1919, and ended his letter by saying: “Would be glad to get my discharge from this place. Also will obey the public & government laws from now on.”

Hummer wrote to the commissioner in reply: . . . “In other words he is about as well as he ever will be. He has a good home here, is well taken care of, is well-behaved and trusted with parole privileges of the grounds and an occasional pass to town to the picture shows. In addition to which he was permitted to work with neighboring farmers this season, earning about one hundred and fifty or sixty dollars.”

Unfortunately for Owl, Hummer added, “This, however, does not mean that he could or would do as well were he discharged and thrown upon his own resources. . . . Accordingly, I must recommend adversely to his request and hope that your Office will write him a nice letter to that effect.”

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Though some families initiated their member’s confinement to an asylum, others missed their presence very much. Particularly in the case of patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, who may have been sent to the facility for reasons other than insanity, families often pleaded to have  a patient released. Dr. Hummer usually dodged responsibility by claiming he could not release anyone without the permission of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The reality was that the commissioner would almost always take his cue from Hummer’s assessment and wishes in the matter.

Frank Cox wrote to the commissioner on July 14, 1926, saying that Dr. Hummer had told him he needed the commissioner’s permission to release his son, John Charles. Cox said, “I am his father and all his family would like to have him home if possible. I am 52 yeas old, I know I can provide for him. I have lost my wife and John being around me it would me a little joy to live for.”

Edgar B. Meritt, courtesy Library of Congress

The assistant commissioner (Edgar Meritt) replied, “You are advised that this is not deemed for the best interests either of you or of your son, inasmuch as it is not shown that John Charles Cox has been pronounced sane, and having once been committed to an insane asylum it would not be safe to have him returned to your home until a cure has been effected. For this reason your request will have to be denied unless Dr. Hummer can give a certificate of sanity.”

Visitors to the Texas State Lunatic Asylum, courtesy Austin Library

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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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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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Pennsylvania Institute for Feeble-Minded Children Drum and Bugle Corps, circa 1900

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians had a fairly stable population, since so many patients had epilepsy or other chronic conditions. Dr. Hummer also felt that “defectives” should not be released even if they were doing well under his care, as they could have problems later.

In 1927, Hummer had a number of patients who did not fit the profile of most asylum patients. Amelia Moss was 10 years old, Henry Frenier was 12, Richard Fairbanks and E.F. Mahkimetass were 14. Winona Faribault (born to patient Elizabeth Faribault) was 9 months old, and had been already diagnosed as an imbecile.

A Case of Paralysis in an Insane Child, 1899, courtesy National Institutes of Health

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