Remembering Farnhurst

Table of Contents
 
 
PART ONE – Background Information
 
1.   Introduction
  • Introduction
  • The discovery of the ledgers and the creation of the database
  • The structure of the database
  • Chapter Two (description): The history of the Delaware State Hospital
  • Chapters Three to Twenty-One (description): The case studies
  • Chapter Twenty-Two: Final Thoughts, plus the Appendices (descriptions)
  • Myths and realities about mental hospitals
  • Genes/Culture/HIPAA: Does it matter who your relatives are?
  • Caveat lector, caveat indagator (reader beware, researcher beware)
 
2.    A Brief History of the Delaware State Hospital
  • The Early Years: 1741 to 1894
  • The First Three Superintendents: Drs. Richardson, Hancker, and Tarumianz
  • The Time of the Ledgers: 1894 to 1920
  • The Later Years: 1920 to 1966
  • The Delaware State Hospital Spiral Cemetery
  • The New Castle County Hospital/Almshouse and the “Cemetery in the Woods”
 
PART TWO – People with a Cognitive Impairment
 
3.    “Congenital Imbeciles”
  • Maggie Carpenter (African American; epilepsy; incorrigible; raped by fireman at DSH)
  • Short Brothers (3 adults, brought when their mother died)
  • Samuel Townsend (African American; microcephaly? grew “fat and happy” at DSH)
  • Martha Spencer (all her children died; very eccentric/manic)
  • Charles Bell (African American; 59 years at DSH)
  • Mary E. Grubb (“Has not been downstairs for 30 years”)
  • Ralph Regenauer (Elwyn, DSH, Stockley)
  • Bertha Williamson (mother died; abused at home)
 
4.    Traumatic Brain Injuries
  • George Staton Melson (hit by lightning, then fell on ice)
  • Margaret Biles (botched forceps delivery; epilepsy)
  • Francis Street (fell down stairs at 18 months, fractured skull, trephination, epilepsy)
  • Charles Densmore (fell down elevator shaft; confused and lost on train)
  • Anthony Hallman (head injury; trephination; syphilis?)
  • John Devlin (fell out of wagon at 4 years, epilepsy, Elwyn)
  • James Lester (African American; depressed skull fracture from fight)
  • Harry Williams (fell against stove as infant, skull fracture, epilepsy)
  • Clement Dougherty (football concussion; family vacations)
  • John Hughes, Jr. (fell from building, suicidal, violent; letter from father)
  • Florence Shoff (fell down stairs at 4 years, scissors in forehead)
 
5.    Acquired Brain Injuries
  • Isabella McCall (brain tumor; misdiagnosed as syphilis)
  • Ellen Carson (scarlet fever at age 3; brought to DSH age 36, after mother died)
  • Ellen Amelia McLaughlin King (Cardiff to Arden, kicked by horse, La Grippe, chorea)
  • Homer Kinsler (gassed during World War I; spent time at St. Elizabeths)
  • Clara Morris (illness at age 4; parents died, sister got too sick to care for her)
 
6.    Syphilis
  • Henry Clay Turner (Civil War, Wilm. city solicitor; quite the character)
  • Myrtle Thomas (prostitute, tried to build fire in Wilmington)
  • Joshua Pusey Smith (detailed description of syphilis; father murdered)
  • John C. McCaulley (delusions of grandeur; violent; crib bed)
  • Willard Cahall and Jeanette Norris (alcoholic, “half-breed Indian”; daughter also)
  • Joseph F. Hastings (fell off tug in NY harbor; heart-breaking letter from wife)
  • Clemens S. Cabott (excessive smoking, schizophrenia, stealing cars, jumping in river)
  • Oakley Taylor (African American, tried to claim church in Wilm.; TB)
  • Charles Ramsberger (beaten; delusional; died soon)
 
7.    Epilepsy
  • Ethel Guthrie (8-year-old with seizures; died during 1918 flu)
  • Ebenezer Tyre (epilepsy, hallucinations, TBI during seizure)
  • Elvin Elmer Spindler (most of family had problems with epilepsy, blindness, etc.)
  • Cordelia Kronemeier (epilepsy, violent, broken legs, cancer of stomach)
  • Charles W. Greenlee (epilepsy, TBI, trephination)
  • Wayman Wood (African American, worked for Dr. Conwell, died of TB)
 
PART THREE – “Garden Variety” Mental Illness
 
8.    Interesting Delusions
  • Warren Farra (delusions of grandeur; printing business; Del. Bldg. at World’s Fair)
  • Isaac Thomas (homicidal urges, under control of a “clairvoyance”)
  • Levi Johnson (Flying Whispers)
  • Anna Dolly Bowen Silcox (rambling letters; delusional, paranoid, almost 50 years at DSH)
  • Cornelia Jane McNamara (Graves’ disease, exophthalmic goiter, paranoia)
  • Howard D. Burchard (appendicitis, St. Vitus’ Dance/chorea, Order of Red Men)
  • Lizzie McCuster (x-ray delusions, witch across street, House of the Good Shepherd)
  • Henry Singer Robinson (musician, gun, looking for Gov. Lea, pianist for silent films)
  • Kate E. Dickinson (N. Carolina doctor’s wife, pawn shop in New York)
  • William Henry McKeen (box of bones under bed, Eloise State Hospital, Michigan)
  • Delia Fitzpatrick (lost her house to foreclosure, threw bricks)
  • Clara Plummer (thought she caused mother’s death; stopped bathing)
 
9.    Schizophrenia/Dementia praecox
  • Jennie Tatnall (religious mania; catatonic; 55+ years at DSH)
  • Alice Daly (Canadian, paranoid delusions, catatonic)
  • Edward Seeney (American Indian, thief, Ferris Industrial School, died from bad oysters)
  • Daniel & Joseph Norton (delusions of persecution, catatonic, 31+ years at DSH)
  • Isabella Brear (delusions about Dr. Spruance; St. Elizabeths, dysmenorrhea)
  • Edward Rothwell (African American, Navy; at DSH, then Naval Hosp. 38 years)
  • Thomas Jordan (split personality; eloped, jumped off RR bridge)
  • Joseph Mazur (hears noises; burns in hell; catatonic)
  • Charles Harris (hears voices, TBI, congenital syphilis; 35 years at DSH)
 
10.  Suicides/Suicidal
  • John Hibbert (broken leg, hung himself at home from doorframe)
  • Antonio Cardinelli (fruit seller; business troubles; body found in Christiana)
  • J.T.V. Blocksom, M.D. (syphilis, religious mania, hung himself at DSH)
  • Elizabeth Farley (depressed, many suicide attempts; died of exhaustion from mania)
  • Antonio Catania (involved in brawl at restaurant; stabbed himself at workhouse)
  • Colena B. Snee (manic depression; claimed Doctor Bell sexually assaulted her; Pa.)
  • Benjamin Larrimore (manic-depression; body found in Christiana)
 
11.   Depression: What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?
  • Charles Simister (mother accidentally burnt to death)
  • Lillian Hamlin McCall (death of beloved niece; mother waited years for inheritance)
  • Leroy Tatman (fiancé called off wedding; multiple suicide attempts; found in river)
  • J. George Hey (dysfunctional household, abusive father; lost wife and 3 of 4 kids)
  • Timothy Slaughter (3 oldest children died within a week from disease)
  • Vernon Baldwin (lost his young wife and daughter in childbirth)
  • Eva York (distraught over sale of farm; eloped DSH, hit and killed by train)
  • Emilia Facciolo (children hit and killed by trolley, lost pregnancy}
  • Mamie Saxton (daughter died, talks to stars and planets)
 
12.   Long Timers
  • Chella Conner (sleep-walked 17 miles along train tracks, 45 years at DSH)
  • Ellen & William Kelly (at Mt. Hope for decades, then DSH for many years)
  • Samuel & Joseph Lieberman (father insane, other asylums, then DSH for decades)
  • William T. & Augusta See (‘annoying’ Salvation Army folks; Augusta, 42+ years at DSH)
  • Frank Finnan (excessive study, paranoid schizophrenia, 43 years at DSH)
  • Alice Mills (climbed windmill, Inwood Sanitorium, Pa.; at DSH 39 years)
  • John E. Hendrickson (Kirkbride’s, schizophrenia, catatonic, 44+ years at DSH)
 
13.  ​Mania, Religious Mania, and Bipolar Disorder/Manic Depression
  • Gillis Hitchens (sacrificed his toddler to God)
  • John H. Hollis (African American, religious mania; “takes care of the little black boys”)
  • Elizabeth Stewart (delusions about electricity, religious mania, nude on roof)
  • Harry Daisey (religious mania; bitten by snake)
  • Mary E. Forrest (religious mania; hit policeman in face)
  • Rev. E.W. Long (minister, religious mania, affair with “Mary M.” at hotel)
  • Thomas Shannon (hypergraphia, delusions of grandeur, touring country)
  • Wesley Cooper (African American, four admissions)
  • Minnie Schulz (upset by lynching of Negro in New Castle)
  • Mary Muldoon (mania, fell down stairs, broken arm)
  • Albert Anderes (became insane on train from Montana, sent back to Switzerland)
 
14.   Murderers
  • Mary Adams (African American, prevented from killing young girl with hatchet)
  • William Wyatt Pratt (African American, cognitively impaired, accused of murder)
  • Edith Hollis (murdered her husband when he said she was going back to DSH)
  • Irene Stopka (psychotic break; murdered her two daughters)
  • Edward Jarosloski (murdered his daughter with strychnine)
  • Sallie E. Wells (shot her husband in the back)
 
15.   Rare or Unusual Conditions
  • Huntington’s chorea family (five family members with Huntington’s)
  • Annie Burley (narcissistic, society girl, died Phila. Home for Incurables)
  • Virgie Cooper/Russell (African American, “deaf and dumb”)
  • Rachel Roe (sociopathic personality disorder; patient annoying and troublesome)
  • Mary Wood (persistent genital arousal disorder; shawl pin)
  • Matilda Otwell (blind, cognitively impaired? at DSH for 60 years)
  • Clara Wilson (sociopathic personality disorder, neurasthenic)
  • Lena P. Huston Poulson (acute intermittent porphyria, 16+ admissions, died of leukemia)
  • Titus Roth, Jr. (deaf; Pa. Inst. For Deaf & Dumb)
  • Lillian C. Towers (UTI; murdered in home invasion in Baltimore)
  • Lilly May Prettyman (facial disfigurement; “crazy cat lady”)
  • Edith Lea Chase (niece of Gov. Lea, bigamist, associative disorder)
  • Charles Rose (plumbism/lead poisoning; race riot)
 
PART FOUR – Not Technically “Mental Illnesses”
 
16   .Age-related Senility
  • Caroline/Hannah Roach (African American, born into slavery; from Almshouse)
  • Caleb E. Hickman (quiet life; early onset dementia)
  • Mary Wells (prisoner in her house in Wilmington; saved by Jos. Wigglesworth)
  • Samuel Hallman (typical case of senility; multiple tumors when admitted)
  • Elmira Minner and her son Merritt (run-down house, cognitively impaired son)
  • Ruth B. Fisher and her son Jessie (3 children died of diphtheria; son has epilepsy)
  • Thomas Freese (at Gettysburg, refused to enter Almshouse, walked to Wilmington
  • Tamsey J. Abbott (mania, senility; son and grandson committed suicide)
  • Caswell Boyles, Jr. (African American, from Alabama, son of a former slave)
 
17.   Pregnancy-related Conditions
  • Sarah C. Crumlish (mother of Baby Crumlish; syphilis)
  • Lena Murphy (Bancroft Mills, several children died)
  • Sarah J. Proud (weak-minded, “seduced,” had child, father unclear, epilepsy)
  • Annie E. Slaughter (weak-minded; had child at DSH; later threw child out window)
  • Adeline Short (had baby by herself at hospital; most of her kids died of TB)
  • Lulu Fairlamb (distraught because of abortion; 41+ years at hospital)
  • Mary Woodford (unmarried cook from Boston; botched abortion; five black pills)
  • Lizzie Weber (husband abusive, forced her to have abortions)
  • Celia Ross (African American, leucorrhea; not mentally ill; amazing accomplished family)
  • Sarah K. Bendler (husband deserted her; sued him for support)
  • Martha Ford (African American, two sets of twin boys,2nd set born at DSH, mother died)
  • Sarah L. Neal (African American, post-partum infection; puerperal mania)
  • Elsie Mansfield (cognitively impaired, walked pregnant from Smyrna to DSH; died of TB)
  • Jincey Adeline (Marvel) King (overwork and worry; 14 children, stroke)
  • Viola Beatrice Gebhard (raped by step-father, had an abortion, PTSD)
 
18.   Substance Abuse
  • Henry Bridgeman (alcohol, opium, arsenic; suicidal)
  • John Gainey (alcohol, wading nude in White Clay Creek)
  • James Brown (alcohol, beaten up; died after 4 days at DSH)
  • William Real (African American, alcoholism; criminality; “The One Hundred House”)
  • Richard Carrow (pharmacy student; alcohol and chloroform, robbed store, suicidal)
  • James Cannon (alcohol, paranoid, nude in park, recovered)
  • Warren Zebley (cocomania; assaulted women and children; 55 years at DSH)
  • Arnold Morris (African American, alcoholic, Civil War Vet)
  • Robert Briggs (African American, drunk; pushing train car; phthisis Florida)
  • Carl A. Stoltenburg (morphia, laudanum, quinine; USMC, buried at Arlington)
  • George Dutcher, Jr. (alcohol, son of notorious temperance speaker; detective)
  • John J. Egan (alcohol; calls himself “this”)
  • John McNevin (alcohol; balloonist, threw woman out of car; sent to NCCH)
  • Monroe McDaniel (alcohol, painted Lyceum theater, MIL talked too much)
  • Charles Chase (African American, heroin, police informant, numerous arrests)
 
PART FIVE – Assorted Causes, Not Based on Diagnosis

19.   Famous, Infamous, and Famous-adjacent
  • George Wolsey Symonds (newspaper reporter, covered murder of Leon Pisa)
  • William G. Gross (took over hotel; thought he was de Lôme, Spanish Ambassador to US)
  • Emma Reidel and her father Carl (mania, paranoia, huckster doctor Dr. Herrman)
  • John Dixon (African American, pretended to be George Dixon, “Little Chocolate”)
  • William D. Martin (his lawyer brother sued hospital for his death, lost)
  • Augustus and Margaret Reinike (ran for governor on Socialist ticket)
  • Bankston Taylor Holcomb (lighthouse keeper, famous son and grandson)
  • Jennie Brown Pryor (gave daughter up for adoption, children sent out to farms)
  • Michael Malloy (sailed home to Nova Scotia on the S.S. Florizel)
  • Charles Berkey (tried to dig up dead mother’s body; coal mine heir)
  • Benjamin Millman (vaudeville actor; harassing newspapers, abrupt marriage)
 
20.   Miscellaneous
  • Leon Pisa (murdered by attendants, court trial)
  • Andrew, Hugh, and John Crumlish (assorted; alcoholism; epilepsy)
  • Mary Kibble (cancer of face; “Has no friends”; “Death relieved her of her suffering”)
  • Annie Barnett (very talkative, vile language, annoying; 28 years at DSH)
  • Thaddeus Lewis (African American, bit policeman’s finger)
  • William & Edward Mulvey (family fell apart after son killed)
  • Mary (Bennett) McClary & Anna (Bennett) Farrell (sisters, Mary took ‘pills for men only’; Anna distraught when husband left and took daughter)
  • Alexina Givens (African American, 6-year-old, one of a set of twins, not insane)
  • Minnie Stoss & daughter Elsie (abusive husband, miscarriages, Danvers; Elsie accidentally shot a man, kicked by horse, Grafton State Hosp.)
  • James B. & Hannah A. Burton (siblings, hermits)
  • Leslie Truss (former boat captain, hermit in hut by river)
 
21.   Completely Recovered
  • Daniel H. Sutton (sunstroke, meningitis, TBI, recurrent mania, fine in-between attacks)
  • Lillie DeMarionville (delusions re Senator Pierce; married James Dean)
  • Bessie A. Plenty (African American, almost catatonic; wife of Rev. Plenty; brother)
  • Sadie Postles Brittingham (school teacher; dancing up and down the ward)
  • Rebecca Anna Gray (delusional, calls herself “we” – herself and Professor Atkins)
  • Benjamin Rosenblatt (talks of Tolstoi and Bernhardt; excessive cigarette smoking)
  • Payton Parker (put off boat; living nude in woods near Del. City; heat stroke)
  • Simon Faber (depressed over daughter’s death, jumped off boat, politician in NJ)
  • Frank F. Shaw (excesses, 3 admissions; WWI, U.S. Consular Services in Brazil)
  • Linden Peiffer (parents divorced; Home Missionary Society; sent out to work)
  • William Lingo (Reiter’s, delusional at Ft. Dix; Battle of Argonne Forest)
  • John Robert Magee (delusions of grandeur; letter to Dr. Hancker from Hotel DuPont)
 
PART SIX – Final Thoughts and Appendices
 
22.Final thoughts
  • Introduction
  • Where are we now?
  • Where do we go from here?
 
Appendix I – List of photos & illustrations
Appendix II – Glossary of historical medical terms, personages, and places mentioned in the ledgers
Appendix III – Bibliography & References Cited
Author’s Note & Acknowledgements

 

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