Tag Archives: Athens Lunatic Asylum

And the Patients’ Side

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Patient Dining Room at West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, 1912

Patient Dining Room at West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, 1912

Employees at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians had clear instructions concerning their duties, including the all-important attendants who were at the heart of patient care. (See last post.) They were charged with keeping rooms neat and clean, attending to their patients’ needs in terms of clothing and personal care–basically what anyone would expect of an institution set up to care for the insane. The reality was often different, and the conditions many patients lived under would have been disheartening.

Though foreign to their own experience on or off a reservation, patients arriving at Canton Asylum when it first opened would have walked into a spacious, light-filled building. Electricity and running water might have been exciting to use, and regular meals supplemented by garden produce would have been tasty and welcome. As the asylum deteriorated over the years, however, patient comfort declined. The early structure had been pretty and airy, with pictures on the walls and nice furniture. As time went on, the pictures disappeared; the floors, clothes, and bedding became dingy and worn; and the nourishing food evolved into a monotonous diet of starches and vegetables. Patients used chamber pots instead of toilets, which allowed human waste to create a stench and promote disease in the midst of crowded rooms.

By the time the asylum closed, one inspector likened patient care at the asylum to that of a prison. Patients who had been sent to the institution for mental problems received no mental health care at all–the whole purpose for the asylum. Ultimately, authorities concluded that almost no amount of money could make the asylum function  as it should and decided to shut it down.

Female Ward at Athens Lunatic Asylum, 1893

Female Ward at Athens Lunatic Asylum, 1893

Women's Sewing Room at Spring Grove, 1910s

Women’s Sewing Room at Spring Grove, 1910s

Physical Environment at Canton Asylum

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Male Ward at Athens Lunatic Asylum, courtesy Ohio University Libraries University Archives

There are only two or three pictures available of the Canton Asylum; since they are only of the outside, it’s difficult to get a good idea about the physical layout of the rooms or what it might have been like to live there. In 1910, there were eighteen buildings associated with the asylum. These included barns, sheds, granaries, and similar structures. The main building was two stories high, with jasper granite stone foundations. Underneath, a basement ran underneath the entire building. The basement was divided into several compartments by brick partition walls. The first and second stories had eleven foot ceilings, which should have made the inside look spacious.

The main building held four wards. Two were on the first and second floor of the east wing (males) and two on the first and second floor of the west wing (females). Each ward had an attendant’s room, plus three private rooms where patients could be secluded if necessary. The superintendent (Dr. Harry Hummer) and eighteen employees lived in the main building, though Dr. Hummer eventually got a detached cottage for his family. The asylum had electricity which came from a small electric plant about two miles away. The facility was heated via radiators and used hard well water, along with rainwater collected in two cisterns.

Physician's Bedroom at One of Willard Insane Asylum's Buildings (The Branch)

Cisterns Held Precious Rainwater Runoff

A nicely maintained lawn surrounded the building, and patients often sat outside during nice weather. Inside, the building was often stuffy and smelly. The hard water made it difficult to launder clothing and sheets and keep them really clean, and eventually the entire facility began to look shabby and rundown.

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Women’s Lives in Asylums

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Athens Female Ward, 1893, courtesy Athens County Historical Society and Museum

Going to an asylum was psychologically difficult at the best of times, but women could be expected to suffer a bit more . . . after all, many asylum patients had been homemakers unused to much interaction outside their own houses. Ironically, the paternalistic society in which women lived, with all its “protections” gave them few skills to cope with sudden changes to their routines and environments. Of course, women have responded heroically to all sorts of negative situations, but it seems reasonable to assume that between the two genders, women would have been less exposed to communal living and interactions with strangers during the 19th century. In general, women had been taught to seek protection and rely on others, and to find their satisfaction in home, family, and close friends. Their feelings of abandonment and friendlessness upon entering an asylum would be dependent upon how strongly they had adhered to this “womanly” ethic.

A letter from Mary Page to her sister (in 1871) speaks to the anguish many forgotten women felt:

“It has been a long and trying time since I saw or heard from you or any of the rest of your family or any of my relations. . . . Almost four years have this band of enemies been at work on me with foul play . . . . You all can pity my condition and picture to yourselves my sad fate all too unjustly committed. I have never given anyone in this whole world the first cause for themselves to fight poor me . . . ”

The letter is written from Williamsburg Hospital in Virginia, probably referencing Eastern Lunatic Asylum. Though the letter is somewhat rambling and makes a series of bitter comments and accusations against “unjust enemies” (which may have been the result of hallucinations/paranoia and the reason for her commitment), the woman’s pain is evident. Undoubtedly men were sent to asylums and forgotten, too, but given their social conditioning, women would have felt it more keenly.

Eastern Lunatic Asylum

Female Department, Michigan Asylum for the Insane, 1892, courtesy Kalamazoo Public Library

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Female Asylum Patients

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Western Lunatic Asylum, Male Ward 1892, Female Ward, 1893, courtesy Virginia.gov

Women were assumed to be more delicate–mentally as well as physically–than men, and thus would become insane more often. Alienists (early psychiatrists) accepted this as the truth, but there does not seem to be a comprehensive 19th-century study that actually verifies this assumption. If some asylums held more women than men, it may have been because women had fewer legal rights and were easier to commit. And, as homemakers and primary caregivers, women often looked after male household members who were insane and thus kept them out of asylums. Men could not always do the same even if they had been inclined to, since most heads of household had work obligations. It is likely that many women ended up in asylums because no one could take care of them, or it was simply easier on their male relatives.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, men outnumbered women as patients over the life of the asylum. From available records, about 212 men and 155 women spent time at Canton Asylum; this figure includes two babies who were confined with their mothers for a period. Though the patient list is doubtlessly incomplete, it does show both the gender imbalance at the asylum as well as how few patients the asylum actually treated over more than 30 years. Though Dr. Hummer pleaded continually for expansion, there does not appear to have been a patient population which would have made expansion justifiable.

Female Ward in Athens, Ohio, Lunatic Asylum circa 1893

Staff, Athens Lunatic Asylum

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What a Day

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Canton Asylum

Canton Asylum

Life in most insane asylums was highly regimented, and the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was no exception.

During the day, patients had a number of chores: They performed labor in the gardens, cleaned their rooms, helped in the kitchen or dining room, or assisted in the general maintenance of the asylum. For leisure, those who were able walked outside, played ball, fished, or even went into town if an attendant could go with them. Since attendants were also very busy, outdoor activities and town visits were not as prevalent  as reports made it sound–many patients spent most of their time indoors, doing nothing.

The asylum eventually got a moving picture machine that played (preferably) 7-reel comedies in the dining room once a week. Dr. Hummer also purchased playground equipment, such as swings and a see-saw, which were very popular; the swing set is visible in most pictures of Canton Asylum. On Sundays, those who desired sang hymns and recited the Lord’s Prayer–again, in the dining room–if there were no visiting clergy to give a more formal service.

Canton Main Street

Canton Main Street

Staff at Athens Lunatic Asylum

Staff at Athens Lunatic Asylum

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Oh, To Be a Woman

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American Woman and Her Political Peers, 1893, couresty Library of Congress

American Woman and Her Political Peers, 1893, courtesy Library of Congress

Women could contract pellagra or masturbate (see last two posts) and become insane, but they were thought to have specific weaknesses that made them susceptible to insanity.

An acute illness of the uterus or ovaries could cause insanity, said Dr. Alexander J.C. Skene in 1889, as could frequent childbearing. Other physicians believed that women could become insane through mistreatment, poverty, too many household cares, grief, or fear. Even the tight-lacing of corsets could lead to insanity. Half the women brought to the Athens Lunatic Asylum in its first three years were insane because of the change of life or “menstrual derangements.”

There was a wide-held belief that women were the weaker sex–physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Because women’s brains weighed less than men’s, alienists thought that they were less developed. Women were therefore more susceptible to mental problems. Anything that might tax a woman’s brain could contribute to insanity; some experts estimated that education drained away about 20% of a woman’s “vital energy.”

Example of Tight Corset

Example of Tight Corset

Bedrest for Hysteria

Bedrest for Hysteria

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