History of the Alton State Hospital
Alton State Hospital Cemetery
HISTORY OF THE ALTON STATE HOSPITAL
(Now Called the Alton Mental Health Center)
In September 1912, the State Board of Administration, along with the
State Architect, W. Carbys Zimmerman, visited Upper Alton in
preparation of choosing where to build the new hospital “for the
insane,” to relieve overcrowding in various other hospitals
throughout the State. In 1913, Senator Edmond Beall (Alton resident)
introduced a bill in the Legislature appropriating $500,000 to start
work on the hospital. By July 1913, land was purchased just east of
Upper Alton, between Fosterburg Road and Parker Road, on both sides
of Rts. 140/111. The land was purchased from William Cartwright,
Edward Rodgers, Colonel Andrew F. Rodgers, and Harriett Kirkpatrick,
and included the farmhouses and buildings that were already
existing. Part of this land was previously owned by Captain Abel and
Mary Moore, of Wood River Massacre fame. Frank Dinges was appointed
the hospital site manager. In 1914, problems and conflicts arose
between some Chicago politicians who wanted the hospital to be built
near Chicago. There were difficulties with utilities, roadways, and
transportation to the hospital that Alton officials claimed they
were unaware of. These issues were eventually resolved, and by March
of 1914 cattle and other livestock began arriving to the site. By
1915 work began on the hospital, and although not yet officially
opened, there were small numbers of patients housed on the grounds
in the vacated farm houses. By October, five hospital buildings were
completed, although not yet fully utilized.
By October of 1916, underground concrete tunnels had been completed
under the hospital site, running over the entire building site, and
connected various buildings. The tunnels were high enough for a man
to walk in, and all electrical wiring were housed in them. The
tunnels required six thousand barrels of cement. Also, that same
year, the "monster" smokestack for the powerhouse was completed, 225
ft high and 19 ft in diameter.
By July of 1917 the hospital was ready for occupancy and patients
were brought in from other hospitals (the official grand opening was
held in the Fall of 1917). Dr. George A. Zeller, previously from the
Peoria Insane Hospital, became the new superintendent of Alton State
Hospital. Dr. Zeller was a pioneer in mental health, and was
credited with starting the movement which resulted in occupational
therapy as a treatment for insanity. He was a believer in the
"non-restraint" policy, which meant patients were free to roam as
they pleased - no locks on the doors or bars on the windows. This
policy soon troubled neighboring farmers, as the patients would
wander to their farms, frightening the women and sometimes causing
havoc. In 1922, hospital patients were blamed for the burning of the
Culp School.
The Alton State Hospital became known for its beautiful grounds.
Some patients were allowed to farm and care for the animals, which
included a large herd of dairy cattle, and tend to a well-stocked
pond, apple orchard, and tobacco crops. One patient grew peanuts and
sold them in Upper Alton. In 1918 the hospital cemetery was created
to bury those who were unknown or unclaimed. Later, the hospital was
used to house shell-shocked soldiers coming home from battle in
World War I.
In 1921, Dr. Zeller resigned his position at the hospital and
returned to the Peoria State Hospital, where he found overall
neglect. He checked himself into the hospital as an inmate for three
days, living on a different ward every night. So profound was his
experience that he ordered all staff to serve an 8-hour shift as an
inmate. He stepped down as hospital administration in 1935, and died
June 29, 1938.
DR. G. A ZELLER DIES - SERVED ALTON
HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 30, 1938
Peoria, June 30, (AP) - Dr. George Anthony Zeller, 79,
superintendent emeritus of the Peoria State Hospital for the insane,
died suddenly Wednesday of pulmonary infection. Dr. Zeller opened
the state hospital here 37 years ago, and was a pioneer in
revolutionizing treatment of insane persons. He said they were "not
criminals, they were sick." He ordered the iron bars taken from the
windows and instituted the system of cottages, now widely used. Dr.
Zeller died in an apartment at the hospital where he had lived for
many years. He retired a few years ago because of age.
The death of Dr. George Anthony Zeller at Peoria removed one of the
greatest alienists in the country. Dr. Zeller had taken a
distinguished part in the improvement of the care of the insane. He
was a member of the state board of administration when the Alton
State Hospital was built, and he sought appointment as managing
officer of the hospital. When he took the post of the first managing
officer, Dr. Zeller inaugurated some startling reforms. He had the
theory that there should be no restraint upon insane patients. They
had no locks on the doors that would lock the patients in the Alton
hospital, though outsiders would have difficulty getting in. The
theory of non-restraint was along the right line, though it was
found impractical to pursue the theory without variation or
exception. Dr. Zeller also established the use of occupational
therapy in the state hospitals. He introduced modern treatments for
insane which had been found successful elsewhere and had yielded
good returns in restoring to sanity the patients. After long service
in the Alton hospital, Dr. Zeller was transferred to the Peoria
hospital, and a few years ago he became superintendent emeritus,
continuing to live in the hospital and giving the benefit of his
knowledge and experience. His wife died a year ago.
As an interesting note, in September of 2005, 150 evacuees from
Hurricane Katrina were housed at the Alton State Hospital. Today,
the Alton Mental Health Center occupies the former Alton State
Hospital.
***********************
STATE PLANNING THE INSANE HOSPITAL AT ALTON
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 12, 1912
The State Board of Administration came to Alton Wednesday to make
their final inspection of sites offered for the new insane hospital
to be erected by the State of Illinois here. The members of the
Board, consisting of Lawrence Y. Sherman, Frank D. Whipp, Dr. Frank
Norbury, Judge B. R. Burroughs, and Thomas O'Connor, were
accompanied by the state architect, W. Carbys Zimmerman of Chicago,
whom is charged with the responsibility of preparing plans for the
hospital, and by Thomas Downes, the supervising engineer. The board
of administration went over both sites this morning, and again this
afternoon. They made a good survey of the property on their morning
tour, and then decided to make a closer inspection of the Rodgers
and the Bowman sites this afternoon. They were accompanied by
Senator Beall, Eben Rodgers, H. J. Bowman Jr., J. M. Pfeiffenberger,
and Fred Zimmerman, who went in automobiles with them. It was stated
by members of the Board of Administration this afternoon before they
started for their afternoon trip, that they were not sure that they
would reach any decision as to the site today. According to the
state architect, Mr. Zimmerman, the new hospital will be the finest
in the world, and will embody new ideas which have never been
applied in this country. Mr. Zimmerman, who is a prominent Chicago
architect and a student, has been working for eight years as a state
architect to bring about reforms in insane hospitals. He has ideas
that he believes should be applied, the ruling feature of which is
this, that places where insane people are confined should have as
little appearance as possible of being places of confinement. Mr.
Zimmerman, who has traveled abroad and inspected hospitals in
Europe, to ascertain the best plans for such institutions, said that
there is one bad feature of all such institutions, that is, the
appearance of restraint, which has a bad influence on those who are
confined there. While there must be restraint for insane people,
there should be no appearance of it, and the walls which really do
restrain them should be so disguised as to remove the mental effect
that would be produced by confining influences. Mr. Zimmerman plans
to do away with all such objections in the new hospital. He says
that the mental effect on the patients will be the same as if they
had perfect freedom, yet they will be closely held at such times
when they are not to be given freedom of the grounds. In Italy, he
found, the old Catholic cloisters were built around a courtyard, and
he adopted this plan for the insane hospital. The buildings that
will house the inmates will be built around a series of courtyards,
which will be separated from each other by concrete walls inclosing
pergolas built around beautiful gardens and lawns, and the walls
will be covered with vines. In these courts the patients may walk or
recline when the weather is fair and suitable. The pergola walls
will connect all parts of the institution so that patients may walk
inside them and not get out in making their trips from one part of
the building to the other. On the front and back and the sides of
the series of buildings which will constitute the hospital, will be
lawns and fields where the patients may walk at times when
accompanied by attendants. It will not be necessary for them to have
any attendants with them when patients are in the enclosed gardens
of the courtyard, as they cannot get out. The buildings will be made
of brick or concrete, the material to be decided upon when the bids
are received. Mr. Zimmerman says that the new hospital buildings
will cover an area 2,100x600 feet. The buildings will be set well
back from the road in front. Fire proof structural material will be
used throughout. There will never be any addition made to this
hospital, according to the plans. It will house about 1,500
patients.
RODGERS SITE APPROVED FOR HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 02, 1913
The Illinois Board of Administration today voted unanimously to
accept the site known as the Rodgers tract, east of Upper Alton, for
the new insane hospital. This means that a tract of 1,140 acres of
land will be bought for an average price of $189.54 an acre. The
decision was reached after long investigation and much hard work on
the part of the members of the Board of Administration and the Alton
Board of Trade. Alton people have been much worried of late because
of the shortness of the time, and the fact that there remained much
information to be obtained before members of the Board of
Administration would vote to take either the Rodgers tract or the
Bowman tract. A few days ago, as told by the Telegraph, the Bowman
site was withdrawn by the Bowman family, to cut short any further
delay and to insure that the good natured rivalry would not prove
fatal to the chances of the city of Alton in consummating the sale
of the site. With the site purchased, the Legislature could hardly
____ to make the remaining appropriations, which would be necessary
to erect the hospital. The original tract upon which options were
offered consisted of 1,013 acres. To this, the Board of
Administration insisted a tract of 127.49 acres must be added. It
belongs to Mrs. H. E. Kirkpatrick, who refused to give an option
until recently, and it is said, the price she asked is higher than
asked by some of the others. The high average price per acre of the
Rodgers tract includes the value of some very fine buildings and
other improvements. It was said today that unless a lower price than
that fixed for the Kirkpatrick tract could be secured, other land
would be purchased ....[unreadable] ...The Rodgers site is an idea
place for an insane hospital. The land is rich, there are orchards
of young trees on the place, and the place is near enough to Alton
for the fire department to render aid in case of emergency. The
selection of the Rodgers site by the Board of Administration today
cinches for Alton the hospital. The abstracts are all in good shape,
and when passed upon by the Attorney General will be ready for the
transfer of the property.
LANDS ARE BOUGHT FOR HOSPITAL SITE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 06, 1913
The members of the Board of Administration, who came here Saturday
to close the deal for the purchase of the land for the insane
hospital site, completed their work and departed last Saturday
night, taking with them signed contracts to sell their lands as
follows: Edward Rodgers, 250 acres; Col. A. F. Rodgers, 185 acres;
Mrs. H. E. Kirkpatrick, 145 acres; John Cartwright, 130 acres; Henry
Cartwright, 140 acres; William Cartwright, 200 acres. The average
price paid per acre is $194.50. The total amount of land bought is
1,050 acres, and the price that will be paid is $204,000. The deal
hinged upon the willingness of Mrs. Kirkpatrick to accept less than
she was asking. She was demanding $33,000, and finally agreed to
take $28,000 for her tract. It was stated by members of the Board of
Administration that as soon as the Attorney General approves the
abstracts of title, that the warrants for the land will be issued to
the owners who sold. Some land belonging to the Edsall's was not
bought. It was originally in the tract proposed for sale, but owing
to the fact that it was necessary to buy all of the land of Colonel Andrew
F. Rodgers, as he did not wish to have his place cut up, it was
decided to omit the Edsall land.
SENATOR BEALL ASKS LEGISLATURE FOR BIG SUM FOR INSANE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 18, 1913
Senator Beall today introduced in the Legislature a bill for
$500,000, appropriating that sum to start work on the insane
hospital at Alton. Senator Beall said that this, with the $300,000
left after the site of the hospital is paid for, will give $800,000
to pay for erecting the necessary buildings, and that this amount
will be increased as there is need for it. Senator Beall said also
that Attorney H. S. Baker will go to Springfield some day this week
to take up the deeds and abstracts of titles, and give his written
opinion that the site titles are correct and good.
MONEY FOR HOSPITAL SITE ARRIVING TOMORROW
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 10, 1913
Word was received today from Judge B. R. Burroughs that he would be
here tomorrow with checks from the state for $203,000, which will be
distributed among six owners of land sold to the state as a site for
the new insane hospital. This will close the transaction of the sale
of the land.
COMMITTEE WILL DECIDE ON HOSPITAL LOCATION
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 23, 1913
A committee consisting of the State architect, some members of the
State Board of Administration, the chairmen of the appropriations
committees of the Senate and House, and some other State officers,
will be here Monday morning to make a tour of the ground recently
bought by the State of Illinois for a site for an insane hospital.
Senator Beall says that it is not definitely known who will be
included in the party. It will be at that time the exact location of
the buildings will be decided upon, and the ground will be staked
off. The land owners who sold to the State may then find out what
ground will be available to them for farming purposes if they desire
to continue on the property this season, until the State is ready to
make use of the property.
NO INSANE ASYLUM FOR TWO YEARS - TENANTS MAY LEASE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 08, 1913
D. A. Wyckoff, custodian for the State in the tract bought for a new
insane hospital, returned from Springfield yesterday where he
attended a meeting of the State Board of Administration. Mr. Wyckoff
is, in consequence of his trip to Springfield, informing the tenants
on the 1,100 acres that they will be given a lease on the ground for
another year, and maybe they can stay two years on their farms if
they desire. The reason for the decision being made public is that
some of the tenants on the farms have been desirous of knowing when
they would have to move, and some of them have been making a move
toward leaving the places and getting other homes, as they feared
they might be unceremoniously ordered off their places. However, it
has developed that the State Board of Administration is not at all
near ready to start construction work on the insane hospital
buildings. The plans are not started, it is said, and will not be
started until the topographical survey and map are completed and
then the plans will be adjusted to the ground on which it stands. By
that time another State architect may come into office with
different ideas and there may be another delay. The men who are
tenants on the hospital tract are not yet informed just what they
are to be charged. They are expecting a demand of one-third of the
crop on cultivated land, and about $5 an acre for pasture land.
DEEDS FOR HOSPITAL SITE RECORDED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 30, 1913
The deeds conveying the tracts of land for the insane hospital site
east of Upper Alton have been recorded at Edwardsville, which
completes the transaction for the purchase of the land. The records
of the County Recorder, John Berner, show the following transfers:
William H. Cartwright and wife to State of Illinois, pt survey 714,
claim 756 and other land, $35,000. J. R. Cartwright and wife to
State of Illinois, 128.45 in sections 9, 5, 9, $21,000. H. M.
Cartwright and wife, Charity Cartwright, to State of Illinois, pt.
se 1-4 sec. 4, 5, 9, $28,000. Edward Rodgers and wife to State of
Illinois, tract in se 1-4, sec. 5, 5, 9, and other land, $61,000.
Andrew F. Rodgers and wife to State of Illinois, sw 1-4 sec. 3 and
pt. se 1-4 sec. 4, 5, 9, $30,000. Harriett E. Kirkpatrick to State
of Illinois, sw fr's 1-4, sec. 4, 5, 9 and other land, $28,000.
FRANK R. DINGES APPOINTED HOSPITAL SITE CUSTODIAN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 06, 1913
The State Board of Administration yesterday announced the
appointment of Frank R. Dinges to the position of managing officer
of the property of the Alton State Hospital. Mr. Dinges will hold
this place pending the appointment of a permanent medical
superintendents, after the new hospital has been built. He will have
the custodianship of approximately 1,100 acres of land and other
State property needed in the building of the new $1,500,000
institution. D. A. Wyckoff of Alton has had charge of the property
for some time.
HOSPITAL SITE MANAGER ARRIVES
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 7, 1913
Managing Officer Frank R. Dinges, of the property of the insane
hospital grounds, was in Alton today making arrangements to move his
family from Belleville to the Rodgers homestead on the hsopital
site. Dinges will give up his entire time to looking after the state
property. He spent today on the property making himself acquainted
with the farmers, and will go to Springfield this evening to make a
report to the state officials. Dinges said today that he did not
think any of the land on the site would be leased to the farmers for
more than a year, but he was not certain. In case some of the land
is leased, and it later becomes necessary to build on it, the
farmers are to be repaid for their trouble. Dinges is pleased with
the hospital site and Alton in general, and says he is glad to move
his family to Alton where he can be near his work and keep the
former owners of the land posted as to what is to be done.
EDWARD RODGERS REFUSES TO VACATE STATE HOSPITAL SITE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 22, 1913
The State Board of Administration has been unable to get possession
of the residence that was sold with his tract to the state of
Illinois by Edward Rodgers. Demand for the house has been made by
Frank R. Dinges, who was appointed superintendent of the hospital
site property, and the demand was refused. Mr. Rodgers claims that
the state owes him additional money for various improvements he made
and for some equipment in the house, and belonging to the place. He
refuses to leave his old homestead unless the state settles his
claim. Among these items he is claiming, he demands compensation for
spraying and trimming the orchard trees, also he asks pay for the
wires carrying the electricity to his place. The Board of
Administration has refused to allow the claims Mr. Rodgers has made,
and insists that possession be given to Mr. Dinges who is desired by
the Board of Administration to enter upon the place and take
possession for the State of Illinois. Mr. Rodgers also demands that
the state allow him to keep the crops grown on the place this year.
This has been a point of contention for some time. Shortly after the
money was paid for the site and Judge B. R. Burroughs came here to
negotiate with the former owners about the title to the crops, the
demand was made by Mr. Rodgers that the crops be given to the former
owners. Judge Burroughs' position was that the former owners could
not claim benefit of the law relating to tenants on a farm, as the
owners who had sold the land had voluntarily sold it, and they were
the occupants themselves and the state had paid a good price for the
land, so that the former owners must give possession and the state
owned everything growing on the places. The state, however, gave
permission for the former owners to remain indefinitely, and was
willing to share the crops with them. Mr. Rodgers has stuck to his
original contention that the former owners are entitled to take off
all the crops and is standing pat, refusing to vacate the place.
EDWARD RODGERS MOVING ON
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 23, 1913
Edward Rodgers, who has been having a controversy with
representatives of the State Board of Administration over the
possession of his old home, today agreed to move next week off the
place, and will surrender his old home to the representatives of the
state. Mr. Rodgers claims a verbal agreement was made whereby he was
led to believe he would be allowed to remain this year on the place.
However, the state's representative chose the Rodgers' house as the
one in which he desired to live, and Mr. Rodgers' plans for spending
the summer there were shattered. He was engaged today in packing up
his possessions and will be out of the mansion within a few days.
UTILITIES AND ROADWAY MATTERS NOT SOLVED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 31, 1914
It is singular that, if there has been so much trouble arranging the
details of getting started on the new insane hospital at Alton,
there has not been a single word of the trouble to get out until
Chairman Kern of the State Board of Administration makes
announcement of it in Chicago. From the viewpoint of a Chicago man,
possibly it was too bad, as Governor Dunne said, that the site was
not selected further north, nearer Chicago. Inspired communication
in the Edwardsville Intelligencer, owned by Charles Boeschenstein,
the Democratic National Committeeman, says: "The progress of the
Board has been so unsatisfactory, that the members are not in a very
cheerful mood over the situation. Governor Dunne expressed his views
as to the selection of the site shortly after his election. He held
that the institution should have been located in some county further
north. Within the past two weeks he has suggested that if
satisfactory arrangements cannot be made speedily for the things
that have stood in the way of going on with the work of
construction, the site purchased by the state at Alton should be
sold and a location be secured elsewhere." If there was any
difficulties which the Board of Administration was having, why did
not they inform the people of Alton and let the Alton Board of
Trade, which had previously rendered valuable help, know of the
difficulties? Further, the Intelligencer said in its inspired
communication: "Some delay was experienced when the negotiations for
the sale were about to be closed. Considerable time was spent in
perfecting the deeds, and in doing this it is claimed other
important terms which were believed to have been settled were left
open, and these are now causing the trouble. The board of trade and
citizens, members of the Board of Administration say, made the usual
promises of transportation both steam and electric, and agreed that
satisfactory terms would be made for water and electricity. While
absorbed in getting the titles to the land, the other requirements,
it is claimed, were not put in writing, and the representatives were
merely verbal and informal as is frequently the case when
enthusiastic citizens tell commissioners of a proposed enterprise
what their city will do. Having purchased a site, the state has
since been engaged in straightening out differences on various
matters just as important, and in the long run involving a far
greater expenditure of money than the purchase of the land. It might
have been thought by just plain people that the steam roads would be
glad to connect with the property by reason of the large amount of
material, etc., to be hauled. Not so, however. The Chicago & Alton
railroad wanted something like $17,000 to lay a switch from their
main line nearby. At length, the board induced the Burlington, which
is less available, to contract to build a switch for $7,000. The
necessary electric transportation has not been arranged. The county
board granted a right of way for an extension of the present Upper
Alton line to the hospital site. The line would cross the steam
roads. These refuse to permit the electric company to go over the
track on grade, insisting that the electric road be required to
cross on an overhead bridge. The railroad and warehouse commission
ordered this to be done. The electric road declared that the expense
of a viaduct is so great that the company cannot afford it. The
matter will go before the new Utilities Commission, and if the
ruling of the old railroad and warehouse commission is upheld, no
grade crossing will be permitted. It is admitted by both sides that
an overhead bridge is really what should be provided, but it will
cost a good deal of money. The question is who is to build it, the
railroads will not, and the state cannot. The terms for water and
electricity are in an unsettled condition, and the figures asked,
members of the commission say, are much higher than they are in
other cities where state institutions are located. The sewerage also
is sure to cause trouble. The institution will have to discharge
into Wood River, and this they say will probably lead to litigation.
Fred. J. Kern, president of the Board of Administration, brought the
facts to the attention of Charles Boeschenstein, Tuesday, and asked
him to lend his aid to get matters adjusted. He thought no time
should be lost to settle the differences, so that the question of
location cannot be brought up again and this institution stay in
Madison County. Thomas O'Connor, who was a member of the old board
and is a member of the new, said the state was in possession of a
beautiful tract of land, but is not able to avail itself of the
opportunities the tract should present." Judging from the fact that
the whole matter was kept a close secret from Alton people, it
appears very much as though there was a plan to deprive Alton of the
insane hospital without giving Alton a chance to defend her rights
to what was awarded. It may be said that the old Board of
Administration understood all these matters which are now causing
such difficulty, and they believed that everything was all right.
TWENTY-FIVE CATTLE DRIVEN TO PASTURE AT ALTON STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 04, 1914
A car load of twenty-five heifers, some yearlings and some two years
old, were received today in Alton via the C., B. & Q. for the new
state insane hospital at Upper Alton. This is another indication
that the state means business in regard to fixing the location of
the state insane hospital in Alton. The heifers were shipped from
Quincy, having come from the Old Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in
Quincy. They were unloaded at Alton in charge of the supervisor of
the grounds, and were driven to Upper Alton to the hospital farm.
BIG BULL SHIPPED IN CRATE TO ALTON STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 17, 1914
That the State of Illinois won't often choose the express routes for
shipping bulls hereafter, is the earnest wish of the Big Four
railroad operating department, as a result of a half hour delay of
two trains this morning while the big animal was being transferred.
He caused trouble first to the crew of train No. 5 coming in to East
Alton, and he caused more trouble to the crew of the Flyer coming
out of East Alton. He disorganized railroad time cards and he ruined
the temper and the nervous systems of the men who were handling him.
Two thousand pounds of meanness was handled by the American Express
Co. at Alton this morning, when they received a Holstein bull
weighing exactly one ton for the Alton State Insane Hospital. The
bull was shipped from the State hospital at Elgin, Ill., crated and
was one of the largest packages of livestock that the Alton office
has ever had to handle. It was necessary to send two extra men to
East Alton on the Big Four railroad to transfer the bull from one
car to another, and over fifteen minutes was consumed this morning
in getting the bull from the car to a truck after he had arrived at
the Union Station. Superintendent Dingas of the hospital was
informed of the arrival of the bull, and he took it to its new home
in a large wagon this afternoon. The Big Four Flyer was delayed a
half hour making transfer. The large animal did not fancy the trip
to any extent, and several times it threatened to give the men
handling it trouble.
STATE WILL MAINTAIN FISHERY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 29, 1914
Today twenty cars of fish arrived in Alton to be placed in the new
pond at the site of the insane hospital, east of Upper Alton. The
pond was built last fall and filled with water then. The work done
on the dam must have been of excellent character, as the pond has
held the water and there is now a large body of water behind the
dam. Although the drouth has reduced the amount of water in the
pond, still there is sufficient water to warrant its use for
stocking it with game fish, and by the time the hospital is built it
is expected the fish will be large enough to afford amusement for
some of the inmates of the hospital, who may be in an improved state
of mind. The pond will not be for public use.
STATE BOARD INSPECTS HOSPITAL SITE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 30, 1914
The members of the State Board of Administration, accompanied by
State Architect, James B. Dibelka, State Engineer Martin Schwaab,
and Superintendent of Construction C. J. Sutter, arrived in Alton
this morning to inspect the work on the new insane hospital. It is
likely that a number of minor changes will be made in the location
of some of the buildings before the Board of Administration leaves
the city. After a careful inspection of the grounds, and the farm
buildings today, the board will decide just how long before they
will move some two hundred inmates of Kankakee hospital to Alton.
The tenants on the Rodgers farm have been notified to leave
tomorrow. The buildings the state bought with the land were
inspected by the party today, with the view of deciding what
improvements would have to be made to handle the two hundred
patients. It is expected that some patients from Kankakee will be
moved to Alton in two months, and it may be that they will take up
quarters here at a much earlier date. The patients who will be
brought here, it is said, to be kept in the farm colony, are those
who are in advanced stage of convalescence, and can be trusted to go
about the place without being constantly attended.
COLONY AT ALTON HOSPITAL WILL BE INCREASED IN SIZE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 13, 1915
While in Alton during the past few days, Dr. Zeller of Peoria, one
of the members of the State Board of Administration, announced that
plans were under way to bring still more of the paroled insane
patients to Alton. The other state hospitals over the state keep
crowding to such an extent that any relief which can be obtained
will be welcomed. When the first forty patients were brought to
Alton it gave some relief to the institution at Anna, but the
patients have been coming in rapidly there, and the institution is
still crowded. It will be impossible to handle any more patients at
the old Rodgers home, but the plan is to improve the Cartwright
home, which is on the property owned by the state, so that about
fifteen more patients can be placed there. It is more than likely
that this will be done in the near future. As soon as it is
completed the new patients will be sent to the Alton farm.
RAPID PROGRESS BEING MADE ON BUILDINGS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 26, 1915
The contracting firm which is building the new state hospital east
of Alton has about 120 men at work on the grounds. Work is being
pushed with all possible speed. The nurse's home is ready for the
roof and the building for the untidy patients also is ready to be
roofed. On the administration stones the coping stones for the walls
are being set. The other building is being pushed fast, too.
According to a statement given to a reporter for the Telegraph this
afternoon by State Architect C. J. Sutter, who is here, all of the
building under construction at the Alton State Hospital will have
been completed by the first day of July 1915, with favorable weather
conditions. The buildings now under construction will cost the state
one quarter of a million dollars, and include the administration
building, the nurses home, two infirmatories, and one hospital
cottage. Mr. Sutter visited the Alton hospital today and said that
he was well pleased with the progress that the contractors had made
in the past two weeks since his last visit here. Enough money has
been appropriated up to the present time by the state to finish the
powerhouse. Bids for the boiler were opened at Springfield several
days ago which means that the contract for the powerhouse will be
awarded in the near future. Mr. Sutter said today that the present
session of the legislature would be asked for an appropriation of
$1,000,000 to be used in the construction of new buildings at the
Alton site. If this amount is granted it is likely that the Alton
institution will be ready to house the patients next winter.
CAN'T TREAT DOPE FIENDS AT HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 11, 1915
Dr. H. Seiwell, who is in charge of the Alton Insane Hospital, said
today that it would be impossible for any of the dope fiends in this
part of the state to receive treatment at his institution. He said
that he knew Governor Dunne had issued a proclamation which stated
that treatment could be had at any of the state institutions. "But,"
said Dr. Seiwell, "the Alton hospital is not equipped at the present
time to handle any such case. To date, no one has applied to us for
help, but if they do the best, we can do will be to hold them until
such time as they can be sent to other institutions over the state."
While it is said by Alton physicians and druggists that there are a
large number of dope fiends over the city who are suffering as the
result of the dope being taken away from them, only one has applied
to the St. Joseph's hospital in Alton for relief to date. He is
still too weak to take any sort of treatment, and is said to be in a
very serious condition.
ALTON HOSPITAL COMES INTO ITS OWN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 13, 1915
The Alton State Hospital is to be put on its own footing by Rev. S.
D. McKenny. It will no longer be known in the state records as a
branch of the Anna Institution. Rev. S. D. McKenny, acting in his
State official capacity, went to the institution this afternoon and
made a record of the names of all the patients that have been
brought here from Anna. These will be forwarded to Fred Huber of the
Anna Institution, who will take the names off the Anna books and
forward all records concerning them and their estates to Alton. Many
of the inmates of the Alton Insane Hospital own small estates and
have conservators who turn the money from these estates over to the
State so that the patients are not at the institutions as a matter
of charity. Before this time, all of such money was turned over to
the Anna Institution, but now it will be put to the credit of the
Alton State Hospital. The records of all the patients and their
affairs will be turned over to the Alton institution as soon as
possible, and they will be kept by Dr. H. Seiwell, who is in charge
of the Alton Hospital. While the Alton State Hospital has been
opened for several months past, it has been known to the state
officials as a branch of the Anna State Hospital, and all of the
records have been this way. As soon as the working of checking up
the Alton patients and moving their records to Alton has been
completed, the Alton institution will be placed on an independent
footing.
FIRE AT HOSPITAL SITE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 29, 1915
About $150 worth of damage was done to a pile of window frames at
the hospital site Saturday evening when a grass fire starting from a
trash fire spread to the pile of window frames which are ready to be
placed in the insane hospital building. Only a few men were at the
grounds when the fire started.
WORK ON ASYLUM PROGRESSES WITH 150 MEN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 07, 1915
The work on the asylum buildings is progressing nicely with about
150 workmen handling the work. The cottages are now most completed
and the marble and tile workers are on the job putting in this last
work. Work on the big dairy barns and the silos will be started by
Contractor Wardein soon, and by the time the snow flies there will
be quite a finished look to the group of buildings at the asylum
site. General Supervisor U. S. Nixon is using the greatest care in
all of the various departments of work as the specifications trim
some things pretty close and fix that the work shall be the very
best.
TWO INSANE PATIENTS FAIL TO RETURN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 06, 1915
Two patients at the state hospital east of Alton failed to return to
the institution Sunday evening at 8 o'clock, when it was time for
the curfew. It was stated at the hospital that the men were paroled
patients and that they were harmless. They had merely strayed off,
and it was expected they would return of their own accord. Patients
at the hospital are given considerable liberty, as all of them are
in an advanced stage of convalescence. The liberty is believed to be
good for them and hastens their recovery.
BIG ORCHARDS AT ALTON HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 15, 1915
Over 4,200 bushels of apples will be shipped from the Alton State
Hospital site to the other state institutions this year. To date,
over 1,700 bushels have been shipped, and there are another 2,500
bushels ready to be sent as soon as the state can see fit to place
them. All of the work of caring for the trees and picking the apples
has been done by the inmates of the institution. Besides this, they
have kept 225 acres of the farm under cultivation and raised 1,640
bushels of oats and filled the site with 150 tons of feed for the
160 head of cattle which are to be wintered there. Manager Dinges of
the State Hospital said this morning that more of the farm would be
put under cultivation next season when there would be more inmates
to help with the work. Alton is also dairy herd supply headquarters
for the state institutions.
FIVE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS COMPLETED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 26, 1915
Five of the buildings at the Illinois Hospital for Insane, east of
Alton, have been completed - the administration building, two
receiving buildings, nurses’ home, and the hospital for the untidy.
They represent a cost of $310,000. The buildings cannot be used
until other buildings are constructed to be used in connection with
them, and ground is being broken now for the three other structures
- laundry, bakery, and kitchen, which includes the dining hall and
storehouse. There are five contractors on the grounds, three of them
from Alton, Henry Wardein, J. J. Wuellner & Son, and F. A. Voorhees
Construction Co. The two others are Stohlman and Moorehoff. The
barns are going up rapidly, and the same is true of the big power
house. It is a remarkable fact that with all the building work that
has been going on at the hospital site the past year, there has not
been a single accident. U. S. Nixon, the superintendent for the
state, is being kept very busy going from building to building
inspecting the work done by the contractors. There is no possibility
of the hospital being put into use for a long time to come. The
institution must include certain departments before the patients may
be handled there successfully, and while work is being pressed with
all possible speed, and a small army of men is swarming over the
ground doing construction work, it is necessarily slow work getting
such large buildings finished up to specifications of the state.
SANTA CLAUS COMING TO STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 22, 1915
The state will play Santa Claus to all of the inmates of the Alton
State Hospital, and Superintendent Frank Dinges will be the
representative of the state in that role. Every one of the inmates
of the Alton hospital will wake up Christmas morning to find in his
room a package containing Christmas candy, some fruit, and a number
of other little dainties. A big Christmas dinner will help to
celebrate the day at the institution, and in the afternoon and
evening an informal program will be given. The program for the most
part will consist of musical numbers.
LIVESTOCK LOSS HEAVY ON HOSPITAL FARM
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 8, 1916
Up to the present time the state has suffered quite a loss by the
death of more than thirty registered Holstein cattle at the hospital
farm east of Upper Alton. About three months ago the trouble started
among the cattle on the state farm. There were at that time about
seventy head on the farm when the sickness started and several
animals died. This herd was shipped out in the fall to some other
state institution and others were brought here. At intervals an
animal would be lost and there was hardly any time, according to
workmen on the grounds, that there was not a sick one in the barn.
The number of cattle lost by death in the last three months in
somewhere in thirty. William Manns of the Minard Joehl farm across
the road from the state farm, has had his stock of hogs almost wiped
out by cholera. His trouble started some time ago, and he lost fifty
head. The disease has now departed from his farm after taking almost
all his hogs. Frank Sargent, tenant on the Frank F. Moore farm, is
losing his hogs by cholera at the present time. In the last week or
ten days he has lost more than twenty valuable animals. The state
veterinarian has been treating the cattle on the hospital farm, but
just what is the matter with them is not given out by this official.
BELIEVES HOSPITAL RAILROAD LINE WILL GO AHEAD
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 11, 1916
The members of the State Board of Administration have confidence in
some settlement being reached in regard to the Alton and Eastern
Railroad matter. The Board of Administration is confident that the
Public Utilities Commission will do something to adjust the matter
in the near future as is shown by the plans for the septic tank
system which are proposed for the new institution. Charles J.
Sutter, an engineer who is an expert in that line of work, visited
the Alton State Hospital this morning with the view of making plans
for a modern septic tank system. The plans, according to Thomas
O'Connor, member of the State Board of Administration, will be for
one of the most modern septic tank systems in the country. The plant
is to be built to handle the sewage from an institution housing
three thousand people. It will cost between ten and twelve thousand
dollars, and the sewage will all be treated with air and electricity
before being turned into Wood river. Mr. O'Connor said that the
plans for the system were to be made with a view to handling sewage
from all the buildings that would ever be erected at Alton. He said
he believed that the Alton and Eastern Railroad matter would be
adjusted and that the work at the Alton Hospital would go on as
before. When asked why he believed the railroad matter would be
adjusted, Mr. O'Connor said that if some arrangement could not be
made, he believed that the Public Utility Commission would order the
road to fulfill their promise and construct the line to the Alton
Hospital. The first of the patients for the new buildings at the
Alton Insane Hospital site will not arrive in Alton until sometime
in August or September, according to present plans of the State
Board of Administration. At that time about three hundred will be
sent to Alton from other parts of the state and will be handled
here. Thomas O'Connor, of Peoria, one of the members of the Board of
Administration, said while in the city today that the patients could
not be sent to Alton until the kitchen and dining room buildings,
which are under way, were completed. On account of the unfavorable
weather conditions for the past week, and the promise of the
continuance of the same, it is not likely that these buildings will
be completed until late in the spring. This will mean that the Alton
institution will not be really put in operation until sometime in
the summer. With exceptionally good weather from now until July, it
might be possible to bring the patients here by that time, but this
does not seem probable. Mr. O'Connor was inclined to believe that
the last of August or the first of September would be about the time
the Alton institution would be put in operation. As soon as the
Alton institution is opened it will mean the re-districting of the
entire State of Illinois. Most of the patients for the Alton
institution will come from the institutions which are located at
Jacksonville and Anna. There is a great need for the Alton
institution, as all of the state insane hospitals are crowded.
PATIENT AT HOSPITAL GROWS PEANUTS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 11, 1916
At the Barrioz store on Third street there is on sale some peanuts
that have a little story connected with them. They are the product
of the mania of one of the patients at the state hospital east of
Alton. The patient, a man who had been transferred from the Anna
Insane Hospital, had a mania for growing peanuts. He would not be
content unless he was allowed to run a small peanut farm. He
prepared the ground, planted the seed, and when the vines came up he
tended them as a mother would a baby. With his hands he worked with
the soil, and he tenderly picked off any bugs and kept the weeds out
of the patch. The peanut vines did well. They prospered amazingly
under the devoted care of the insane patient. When the peanuts were
ripe they were gathered, and they were sold to the Barrioz store
where they were roasted and are on sale. Peanut connoisseurs say the
homegrown peanuts the insane patient raised have a flavor that is
all their own. At the state hospital the story was corroborated. If
the peanut grower still wants to grow peanuts next season, he will
be allowed to do it, but the statement was made that he might have
another mania then, and would not wish to carry out his big project
of the year 1915, to become a peanut growing king. The peanuts are
of the Spanish variety and are luscious, though the kernels are
small in size. The money paid for the peanuts was put into a fund to
the credit of the patient, as an earning.
WILL ENLARGE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 14, 1916
State Architect James Dibeika was in Alton yesterday and visited the
state hospital site. The Telegraph is informed that while here, Mr.
Dibeika disclosed that plans are being prepared for the erection of
two additional "cottages" at the hospital capable of housing 150
patients each. The plans will be rushed through and the contracts
awarded at an early date. Work will be started this summer on the
job. The Telegraph has learned that the plans for the hospital call
for 27 buildings of all kinds. Five are completed, four under
construction, and two additional ones will be started soon. The
plans call for a $2,000,000 hospital, the finest in the world. The
two new cottages, which are being planned, will be fireproof in
every detail, and will be the latest in the way of a hospital for
the insane. The fact that the electric line is soon to be built to
the hospital site has justified the state board of administration in
enlarging the plant it will build at Alton to care for insane wards.
Insanity is growing fast in the state, and owing to the delay in
building the Alton hospital it is necessary to provide for more
patients than when the plan was originally made.
INSANE PATIENTS WILL SEE CIRCUS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, May 11, 1916
There will be forty insane patients who will attend the Cole Circus
tomorrow afternoon, if the weather is favorable. It is being planned
to take the patients at the Alton State Hospital to see the circus.
The state has found that circuses are good for the convalescent
folks who are inmates of the state asylums. They are entertained,
their minds are diverted, and their time is taken up with pleasant
things. Fred Dinges, the superintendent, will have charge of the
forty patients who will go in a body to see the menagerie, and to
watch the circus actors, and to laugh at the clowns. There will be a
demand for the seats near where the hospital patients sit, as it is
said to be quite amusing to see the patients as they enjoy the
circus.
WILL HURRY ALTON INSANE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, May 24, 1916
While in Alton this morning, members of the State Board of
Administration made plans to hurry the completion of the first unit
of the Alton Insane Hospital. The room at the institution is badly
needed, as all of the other institutions in the state are
overcrowded at this time. While no definite time was stated today as
when it is hoped to open the first unit of the Alton Hospital, it is
understood that the Board of Administration are expecting to ship
the first inmates to the new buildings some time during the coming
summer. How soon they will be sent will depend to a great extent on
the progress made by the contractors at the institution. In the
party this morning was George A. Zeller, Thomas O'Connor, Fred A.
Kern and F. N. Harrigan. They went over the grounds to consider some
grading and sewerage plans which are under consideration at the
present time. At the present time there are about forty inmates at
the Alton hospital, but these are being cared for at the old
buildings and are what is known as trusties. The patients who are to
be brought here during the summer will go into the new buildings
which are being completed or are nearing completion at the present
time. The institution is being constructed in units, and the first
unit will handle about 350 patients. This will relieve the congested
conditions in some of the other institutions over the state. This
afternoon a tractor plow was put to work on the farm and the machine
was giving a testing out. The machine draws four plows and is said
to give the best of satisfaction.
MONSTER SMOKE STACK GOING UP AT HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 2, 1916
A smoke stack, which will be the highest around Alton and the
highest in this vicinity with the exception of the two tall stacks
recently built at the
Standard Oil refinery, has been started up at
the Alton State Hospital. The big chimney will be in connection with
the powerhouse, but its construction is an entirely separate
contract from the powerhouse. J. J. Wuellner & Son are putting up
the powerhouse, having been awarded the contract by the State Board
of Administration. The board recently awarded the contract for
building the chimney to the Heine Chimney Company of Chicago, but
the Alton firm is superintending the construction of the chimney. It
will be the highest smoke stack around the country, because it is
being built on high ground. The stack when completed will be 225
feet high, 19 feet in diameter at the ground, and tapering to ten
feet at the top. It will take something like sixty cars of special
chimney brick to do the work. The brick for the chimney are known as
radial chimney tile, and are made for the purpose. The work has been
commenced, and today the new stack had attained a height of about
eighty feet. Recently the Standard Oil Company put up two smoke
stacks right at the main entrance to their plant at Wood River, and
these are 250 feet high. They are the only stacks in this vicinity
that are any ways near that high, and they can be seen for many
miles away. The stack to be built at the hospital will be much more
conspicuous, as the hospital is located up on the hills and the
bottom of it is pretty close on an air line with the top of the tall
stacks at the refinery. All the material for the big smoke stack at
the state hospital is on the ground and the first part of the job is
naturally much quicker work than when the stack begins to get up
into the air. It was stated today that it would take about three
weeks longer to complete it.
HOSPITAL PATIENTS FARM ON BIG SCALE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 20, 1916
Supt. Frank Dinges of the Alton State Hospital, is doing some
farming on a large scale at the hospital tract, with the aid of the
patients. This year he has engaged deeper than ever in the farming
work, and the outlook is that the hospital grounds will yield a
large amount of foodstuff for the other hospitals in the state. Mr.
Dinges has under him a number of patients who are able to work and
enjoy doing it, and when properly directed they get good results. A
large area of ground has been planted, and because of the large
number of hands available among the patients, it is possible to give
the farm better attention than most farms can get. The Alton
hospital farm is being transformed into a model farm under the
supervision of Mr. Dinges, and while the patients are at work doing
this, they are getting the altogether necessary outdoor exercise
that hastens their recovery.
DEFER OPENING OF ALTON STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 11, 1916
The opening of the Alton State Hospital will have to be deferred at
least two months. It was planned to open it September 15, but from
the incomplete state of some of the units of the hospital, it is not
seen possible to receive a large number of patients there. The
kitchen, dining hall, and storeroom, a very important part of the
institution and without which the hospital could hardly be opened,
is incomplete. This is true of the power plant and of the septic
tank system to take care of the sewage. The hospital is now long
overdue in its opening, and there is pressing need for it. However,
it would be difficult to operate it without the electric line from
Alton. This, however, is not an absolute necessity, as motor cars
could serve until the electric line is built. Work on the power
plant and the kitchen, dining hall and storeroom is being rushed by
the contractors and it is expected that two months time will see
these buildings ready for use. The sewer system should be ready
before that time. The Board of Administration has long been desirous
of getting the hospital ready for use before the coming winter, as
the other state hospitals are very crowded. The failure to let the
contracts for the custodial buildings and the sidewalks and road
paving in the grounds is a big disappointment as it was desired to
get that work done in a hurry, owing to the demand for use of the
custodial buildings and the need for proper walks and roadways in
the grounds.
NEW METHODS OF HANDLING INSANE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 24, 1916
Dr. George A. Zeller of the State Board of Administration is quoted
by an Alton man to whom he talked as saying that there will be no
dangerous insane cases incarcerated in the new insane hospital which
will be opened next spring. Dr. Zeller said that by the new method
of treating the insane, the patients do not become dangerous. Those
who are dangerous become so through ill treatment, and it is said by
Dr. Zeller that new methods of handling the mentally afflicted have
resulted in great improvement in their condition. Dr. Zeller said
that the two custodial buildings, bids for erecting which were
called for and rejected because there was no money in the state
treasury will, when erected, be used to house the very best kind of
patients the state will have in the Alton hospital. Dr. Zeller said
that the worse cases would be handled in the other departments,
while those in the two custodial buildings, the largest on the
grounds, would be the patients who are able to take care of
themselves. There is a great need for the Alton hospital. Reports
from some of the state institutions indicate that there is a great
crowding, and that at Kankakee, at least, it has been found
necessary to remove the cots and lay mattresses on the floors to
save room, so that more patients may have sleeping room.
TUNNEL JOB AT HOSPITAL IS COMPLETED - RUNS OVER THE ENTIRE STATE
FARM
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 28, 1916
The tunnel job at the Alton State Hospital, which has been underway
of construction for more than a year, was finished this week, the
finishing touches to the big job having been put on today. It is one
of the biggest jobs of the kind ever done in the vicinity of Alton.
The tunnel was in the hands of Strubel & Helmich, and it will be
remembered that when this job was awarded, the Alton firm that
captured the contract were more than ten thousand dollars below the
next lowest bidder. The tunnel is solid concrete, and it runs over
the entire State farm, connecting all the various buildings of the
institution. It is high enough inside for a man to walk in, and all
the electrical wiring of the whole institution will be done in the
tunnel, and no wires of any kind will be above ground. It extends
over many acres of ground and it would take a person a good long day
to walk through the entire length of the underground passage. The
concrete tunnel forms a neat granitoid walk on the surface of the
ground. It required six thousand barrels of cement to build it, and
with six hundred sacks of cement to a car and four sacks to a
barrel, the size of the job can be appreciated.
LAST HOSPITAL BUILDING NEAR DONE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 14, 1916
Thomas O'Connor, member of the State Board of Administration, was in
Alton today and visited the state hospital grounds. Mr. O'Connor
said today that Contractor Voorhees is putting the finishing touches
on the building he has had under way the past year, and that it is
about ready for acceptance. He said that this completes most of the
building there until more money is available. Some other contracts
are nearing completion, but under no circumstances could the
hospital be used until the roads are built around the grounds or the
grounds become dry enough to make roads unnecessary. This is the
reason it is not expected to open the buildings until next April or
May. While in Alton today Mr. O'Connor was a caller at the residence
of Bishop Ryan.
STATE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS NEAR READY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 22, 1917
It is expected that the final acceptance of all the hospital
buildings east of the city will take place within two weeks. This
does not mean that the state hospital will be ready for use in two
weeks. It was stated today on good authority that, as predicted
before, the hospital cannot be occupied until next April or May. The
heating system and the power plant is being built, and work is not
near complete on these jobs. Further, the pumps for the water plant
have not arrived, and it will be impossible to occupy the hospital
buildings until the water, heat and lighting systems are ready for
use. An ice plant also is being installed. The completion of the
hospital is about two or three years behind the time it was planned
to be finished originally, and more than that behind the demand for
its use.
ESCAPED PATIENT WANTED TO ATTEND CHURCH
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 21, 1917
A telephone call from the Alton State Hospital this morning told the
police that a man had escaped from there. The doctor at the other
end of the telephone informed the police that he probably could find
the man at St. Patrick's Church. He explained that every time the
man got away, he wanted to go to church, and that he preferred St.
Patrick's Church. The doctor at the hospital was so certain that he
would find his man at the St. Patrick's Church, that he said he
would start someone in after him at once. The church-goer did not
reach the church, however, for he stopped at the corner of Broadway
and Washington street and told officer George Mayford that he was
going to church. Upon further inquiry the policeman found that he
had left the insane hospital. He was brought to the police station
and held until the men from the hospital arrived.
ALTON STATE HOSPITAL IS BADLY NEEDED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 26, 1917
When in Alton today, Frank Whipp, one of the members of the State
Board of Administration, said that the Alton State Hospital was
badly needed at present. All of the other hospitals in the state are
crowded to overflowing, and there is urgent need of more room. The
Alton institution will be opened as soon as it is possible. At first
it will care for 450 patients. Jacob Frisch, who is the chairman of
the house sub-committee on appropriations, was unable to come to
Alton several weeks ago on account of illness, and he was being
taken over the institution today.
MAKING PLANS TO OPEN STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 03, 1917
Plans are being made to open the Alton State Hospital for the insane
some time during June or July. Members of the State Board of
Administration and the State Board of Charities, while in Alton
today, stated that these were the plans. The exact date for opening
the institution has not been decided upon. It is badly needed on
account of the crowded condition in the other state institutions.
The State Board of Administration has asked for bids for fitting up
the kitchen, laundry, and the cold storage plant. This is one of the
last steps in getting the buildings ready to be used. Another part
of the work which must be done is the lowering of the Burlington
switch track. The Burlington has agreed to do this. The lowering of
this track will make it possible for carload lots of food stuff to
be shipped to the level of the storage platform. Work will be
started on this in the near future. The Board of Administration has
also received the promise from the Alton and Eastern Railroad that
the work on the railroad would be started by April 15. Mr. O'Connor
said this morning that they expected the work to be started at that
time, and to be pushed through to completion as soon as possible so
that the street car line could be used shortly after the Alton
Institution was thrown open to the public.
HOUSE PASSES BILL AUTHORIZING ALTON HOSPITAL TO BE ENLARGED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 12, 1917
By United Press, Springfield, IL - The House today passed the
Garesche bill, authorizing the increase in capacity of the Alton
State Hospital from 1,500 to 5,000. The bill was offered because it
had been found possible to handle the insane better in large numbers
than in smaller lots, and for that reason the House favored the bill
which would require that the state enlarge all present institutions
to 5,000 capacity before building new state hospitals for insane.
TRANSFERRING INSANE PATIENTS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 13, 1917
The transfer of twenty patients from the Jacksonville State Hospital
to the Alton State Hospital was effected today, and seventeen
patients from this place were taken back to Jacksonville. The new
hospital buildings have not been occupied, and for the present the
old buildings on the grounds are still being used. Only such
patients as are easily handled may be held at the Alton State
hospital now, and as some now here could not properly be cared for,
the exchange was made. Dr. Smith, medical director, said that in two
months it is expected the new hospital will be thrown open and
patients will be brought here from other institutions, which are
overcrowded.
FIRE AT STATE HOSPITAL GROUNDS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 03, 1917
A temporary frame building, put up by the Campbell Plumbing and
Heating Company of St. Louis on the State Hospital grounds, burned
this afternoon, causing considerable loss to the company, as much of
their working material and tools were stored therein. No reason can
be given for the fire, as the building was locked up and no one was
about the place. The fire could be plainly seen by the people in
Upper Alton and the report quickly spread that the old Edward
Rodgers home, now a part of the hospital, was burning, and within a
short time at least a hundred automobiles had arrived from lower and
Upper Alton, the sightseers coming to witness a big fire. Number
Three fire department responded, and the fire was confined to the
one building. Officials at the State Hospital this afternoon
reported that the loss would be about $3,000. In speaking of the
response of the firemen, the official at the State Hospital said
that he was very much delighted with the splendid work done by the
Alton firemen. He said he himself had been a fire chief for ten
years at Belleville, and that he new how to appreciate good work.
ALTON INSANE HOSPITAL WILL OPEN SOON
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 16, 1917
A part of the State officials of the Public Welfare Department of
the State of Illinois were in Alton today making plans for the
opening of the Alton State Hospital very soon. After a careful
inspection of the grounds and the buildings, the men announced that
it would be only a matter of another week until the institution
would be ready. From that time the patients will begin to arrive,
until four hundred have been received at the Alton institution. In
the party that visited Alton today were Charles H. Thorn and Frank
D. Whipp, directors of Public Welfare; A. L. Bowen, Superintendent
of Charity; F. J. Postel, Superintending Engineer of the Department
of Public Welfare; Charles Sutter, Superintendent of Construction;
and Ed D. Martin, the new State Architect. Dr. George A. Zeller also
accompanied the party to Alton, and took charge as superintendent of
the Alton State Hospital. His bond was accepted by the Welfare
Department today. The men decided today that the office should be
moved at once to the Administration Building, and that was being
done today. The old Rodgers place will remain as one of the
colonies, and the nurse’s home is to be used for the present as a
place for the patients, as the nurses will have plenty of room for
their quarters in the Administration Building. A. L. Bowen said this
afternoon that the best patients from the other institutions would
be sent to Alton. There is considerable work to be done at Alton,
and a large part of it will be done by the patients. For this
reason, those that are most fitted to care for themselves will be
brought to the Alton institution. How soon they will come is still a
question. There is still considerable detail work to be done before
the institution will be ready to open, but this should be attended
to in another week. It seems as if the place will be in operation
not later than the first of August. While new buildings are not to
be constructed, a large part of the grading work remains to be done.
The State Architect is making plans for that at present. As soon as
the plans have been completed, the contract will be let, and it is
expected that this work will be done this summer. When the buildings
were constructed, they were built on one level, and all of the walks
and so forth have been constructed with the same view. Now the work
of grading the grounds to be single level will have to be done.
DR. ZELLER GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 19, 1917
There is no manana [sic] to Dr. George A. Zeller, the new
superintendent of
the new Alton State Hospital. He has cut yards and
yards of red tape since he came here and found a fine hospital
capable of accommodating 1,000 patients, he plans to occupy. There
was nothing to do but to take possession, viewing it one way, and he
did. But looking at it in another way, there was much work to be
done before he could occupy the hospital in full. Much of the
equipment had arrive, but much more was not here. Said Dr. Zeller
today, "there has been much going on here in the last 18 hours. We
are moving into the administration building this afternoon. The
patients have been moved out of the old farm buildings into the
building made for them. The old buildings were fire traps and
unsuited for the uses they were being devoted to. The farm buildings
are being filled with employees. A dining hall expert will be here
Friday to see what is needed and to arrange what is already here. We
can feed 1,000 people in the dining hall with no trouble. We plan to
put 1,000 patients here as fast as we can do it, and relieve other
institutions. The first step taken was to notify the St. Clair and
Madison county judges to commit all insane patients to the Alton
hospital. That relieves the other hospitals. We have ordered forty
patients to be shipped here at once. We already had 40 here. We plan
thereafter to transfer about 100 patients a week to the Alton
hospital, which is about as fast as it would be convenient to
transfer them. In all, we will probably have about ten counties
sending patients to the Alton hospital." In the course of his talk,
Dr. Zeller said, "There will be no more building for the present at
Alton. We found eight buildings ready here, and nobody in them.
There were fifteen buildings ready at Dixon and nobody in them. We
decided to use what we had and do it at once, and we will use them
to capacity. We will camp out in here until we get the equipment,
but we will use the buildings nevertheless." The harvesting of wheat
has been finished on the hospital grounds. About 1,500 bushels of
wheat is being threshed now. Patients are doing almost everything.
Dr. Zeller said he found a fine lot of workers at the hospital when
he came, and he could use them to advantage. So far as possible, all
farm work will be done by the patients in the hospital. It is good
for them, he said, and they like it. He expects to keep business
moving fast at the hospital, and it will be only a short time until
Dr. Zeller has the Alton hospital in fine shape, fully equipped, and
used to capacity. Dr. Zeller anticipates that war may bring a call
from the government for Illinois to carry a big burden in caring for
insane. He says that the accommodations at the hospital may be
stretched, as there are buildings on the grounds which may be used
for dormitories, and would be very satisfactory. He plans that, when
a call comes, Illinois, and especially the Alton hospital, will be
ready. Those who know Dr. Zeller know he is great on efficiency and
swift in execution. He works under high steam pressure all the time.
The dispatch with which he has seized control, and has started to
the buildings has aroused the admiration of those who come in
contact with him. Indications are that he will make a live and
hustling superintendent, and at the same time a man who will give
the best kind of care to those unfortunates whose mental disorders
have made it necessary for them to be held in the hospital.
GETTING HOSPITAL INTO CONDITION
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 23, 1917
As a step toward getting the Alton State Hospital into condition for
immediate use, F. J. McCullough, representing the state engineering
office, came to Alton to look after getting the plumbing and wiring
of the buildings in good shape. Mr. McCullough said that some of the
buildings had been finished and had stood idle for two years, and
that defects had appeared in the plumbing and electrical fixtures
due to disuse. It became necessary to put these systems in good
repair so they could be used, and this is being done. The
arrangement of the equipment of the kitchen also was taken up by Mr.
McCullough, and he hoped to be able to get everything in shape in a
short time. In the meantime, the buildings are being occupied by the
patients.
OCCUPATION BEGINS - PATIENTS IN NEW BUILDING
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 26, 1917
The Alton State Hospital is taking on the appearance of business
since the arrival of Dr. Zeller, who is now in charge. The new ice
plant was started yesterday and successfully turned out its first
ice. The big smoke stack that was built a year ago to a height of
225 feet is smoking for the first time, and the electric light plant
has been started. The patients have been transferred to the new
buildings and the big hospital is now in working order throughout,
but is on a small scale. The scale will grow steadily, however, as a
hundred patients are expected to arrive now any day. As soon as this
hundred arrives, more will follow at about the rate of one hundred a
week until a thousand are here. The two railroad crossings on the
road to the hospital have taken on a busy appearance within the last
day or two. Monster steam shovels are at work at both the C. & A.
and the C. B. & Q., and the earth is being moved from one place to
another at a rapid rate. The Mulville gang is at work at the "Q,"
and they are making a showing. Their work is to build the approaches
to the overhead crossing over the C. B. & Q. tracks. The steam
shovel is loading the dirt into dump wagons and it is hauled to the
approaches. The Wuellner company has their new excavating machine at
work today at the cut-off crossing, and both places are very busy
ones.
INSANE HOSPITAL PATIENTS BEGIN TO ARRIVE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 27, 1917
Dr. George A. Zeller, the superintendent of the Alton State
Hospital, is going ahead fast with his preparations to put the Alton
State Hospital in a habitable condition. Today he received a bunch
of about sixty patients, which he installed in the buildings along
with the patients who had already been on the grounds for a long
time. Dr. Zeller found the situation in chaos when he came, and he
got busy straightening out the tangle. Someone asked him if he
thought he would be able to get this hospital shaped up, and at the
same time have patients coming in on him to be taken care. He
replied that years ago in the wilds of the Philippines he built a
hospital with no city close at hand to supply the things he needed,
and he believed he could do better here with Alton so close. He made
good on it, and he is housing the patients very comfortably with the
work of straightening up is going on. He is one of the busiest men
in the State of Illinois. As mentioned before, the buildings were in
need of much work to get them in shape to receive patients, but Dr.
Zeller declared there was just one time to do things, and that was
at once. He cut yards and yards of red tape, terminated a long
period of inactivity and got busy putting the buildings in shape for
use. The patients who came today were hauled in trucks to the
hospital and installed in the rooms prepared for them. It is
expected that in a few weeks the place will be perfectly equipped
and that the best of conditions will prevail there. Though he is no
longer a boy, Dr. Zeller is full of vitality and he keeps things
humming all the time.
SIX MEN MISSING FROM STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 01, 1917
Six of the inmates of the Alton Insane Hospital were reported
missing early this morning. All of the men are harmless, and there
is no danger of trouble for any of them, but the Alton police were
asked to keep a lookout for them and turn them back to the
institution as soon as they were found. The men are all patients who
have been transferred to the Alton institution from Jacksonville. As
yet, they have not become accustomed to their surroundings and there
is always a chance of them leaving. One of the men was picked up
this morning and turned over to the authorities at the hospital.
FIRST WOMEN COMING TO HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 07, 1917
The first women to be inmates at the Alton State Hospital will
arrive in the city at noon tomorrow. These patients are to come from
Jacksonville. Dr. Zeller, superintendent of the Alton State
Hospital, was busy today making arrangements for the arrival of the
first women to be confined at the new institution. All the patients
up to this time have been men. Dr. Zeller this afternoon completed
arrangements for transferring the patients from the train at Alton
to the hospital site. They will be conveyed in big trucks in the
same manner the men have been handled.
ONE HUNDRED PATIENTS WILL ARRIVE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 10, 1917
The largest number of patients to arrive yet at the Alton State
Hospital is coming tomorrow about noon. One hundred will be in the
party, which will include both men and women, and they are coming
from Anna. The grounds of the hospital today was the scene of a busy
place, getting ready for the big shipment of patients tomorrow. This
will be the first lot of patients to be received at Alton from the
institution at Anna. Dr. Zeller has hustled things up at the Alton
institution, and at this rate he is going to get the big place
filled up. Patients will keep on coming in these large numbers the
remainder of the month until the thousand mark is reached.
FIFTY MORE PATIENTS ARRIVE AT ALTON HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 17, 1917
Fifty male patients for the Alton State Hospital arrived last
evening from the Kankakee institution. They were taken from Kankakee
to Madison over the Illinois Central railroad, and came from there
on the interurban cars. The arrival of these patients swells the
number of patients at the Alton hospital to 282. As soon as the new
kitchen has been completed, it will be possible to care for 300 more
patients at the Alton hospital. Work is being done on that now, and
it is believed that it will be but a short time until there are 600
patients located at the Alton institution. Dr. Harry E. Seiwell,
formerly of Alton, is at the Alton hospital, and is playing a big
part in assisting Dr. George A. Zeller to receive the new patients
and put the new institution in working order.
NO RESTRAINT ON STATE HOSPITAL INMATES
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 20, 1917
Not a lock on the door to keep in the patients at the Alton State
Hospital is one of the interesting features of this new system of no
restraint for the people of broken mentality. Everything is wide
open - doors, gates, windows. The new state hospital which Dr.
George A. Zeller has been struggling to get opened under
discouraging circumstances, is the latest development of the theory
of no restraint in handling the insane. Miles and miles of fences
around the place offer no restraint to the patients, and they are
free to wander over the 1,000 acres of land, and also to go outside
whenever they please. No one tries to hold them in, except when some
of them become violent. Then they are given the water cure, quieted
down, and allowed to run at large again. The patients, coming from
institutions where they were more under restraint, have been unable
to understand the change in the situation. They imagine someone is
trying to play a joke on them. Moving the 350 mentally sick from
other hospitals made a great change for them. They have been
somewhat disturbed because of the change from their former homes,
and some have shown a tendency to run away. It is said that,
considering the change in home and change in keepers, the fact that
only a dozen out of the 350 have escaped is remarkable. As time goes
on and the patients are accustomed more and more to their new home
and their keepers, there will be less and less trouble with the
patients. Temporarily, Dr. Harry Seiwell, former medical director,
is here helping Dr. Zeller in getting opened up. It has been a
tremendous job. There is not enough equipment here, and Dr. Zeller
has been "camping out" with his patients, as he puts it, but he
expects to be settled down soon as he should be. The central kitchen
plan is not in use yet because the central kitchen is not ready for
use, and probably never would have been but for Dr. Zeller cutting
yards and yards of red tape that had long been delaying things. The
power plant is already to go, to furnish electric current and to
operate the ice machines and serve other purposes needed, but there
has been some difficulty and delay in getting men to run the power
plant. Dr. Zeller is digging out the concrete sidewalks, deep buried
in the ground, and putting them into use. He is also saving some
temporary walks laid around the premises, until the state can build
permanent walks. The patients at the hospital are enjoying their
full of apples. The orchards on the hospital grounds are full of
fruit, and they are filled with the patients almost continually. It
is planned to engage in intensive farming on the place this fall and
next spring. It is planned also to increase the herds of cattle.
HOSPITAL INMATES MAY SETTLE SOON
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 24, 1917
Though the inmates of the new Alton State Hospital are now flying
around the country just like a swarm of bees that has been stirred
up, soars around until it is ready to settle again, so the inmates
of the hospital are expected to settle down soon and become
reconciled to the change into new quarters and also to accustom
themselves to the "no restraint" rule that is being given a tryout.
This theory of caring for the insane is one that Dr. Zeller wanted
to try out. The belief is held that the changing of the patients
from other hospitals to their new one unsettled them, just like bees
might be unsettled. Then the putting of new nurses in charge of them
further tended to unsettle them. Once they get settled down, and the
attendants get better acquainted with their charges, and the charges
with their attendants, it is believed that there will be less of the
wandering of the patients around the country, making calls on people
in the neighborhood, and for miles around. Many already are getting
settled and the others should become attached to their new home and
mode of living. As soon as they are used to having no locks on the
doors to keep them in, and realize that it is no joke that is being
played on them, they will do less traveling about and acquire a
stronger "homing" habit. Men who are students of mental defectives
say that Dr. Zeller is fully capable of working out the problem and
they believe that he is on the right track, but the plan has not
been given such an extensive tryout before as he is giving it,
considering all the circumstances of an incomplete hospital, an
unorganized corps of workers, and new surroundings.
AGED MAN KILLED BY TRAIN WAS HOSPITAL INMATE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 28, 1917
When the bloodstained, tattered coat of a victim of the car wheels
was found hanging on the pilot of the C. & A. locomotive that drew a
passenger train leaving Alton at 5 o'clock Monday afternoon, there
was written the word finis in the life of somebody who had a tragic
enough close of his life, but his death was not near as tragic as
his living. The man - he must have belonged to somebody who was
interested in him, who will never know what happened to the old
fellow - was an inmate of the Alton State Hospital. He died as he
had been known, ever since he came into the care of the state in
1912 at the Dunning hospital in Chicago. He passed under the name of
John Doe, No. 6, and inasmuch as he was never known to speak to
anybody, that is the name under which he will be buried. He never
told his name. One day in 1912, the hospital records showed, an old
man, apparently a nice old man, was picked up in Chicago on the
streets, his mind deranged. He was taken to the Cook county
hospital, then was sent to Dunning, and later was sent to Kankakee.
The clouds that had settled down on his mind never lifting. He was
quiet, was always regarded as trustworthy, but he would not talk. It
is not known that he had the ability to talk from the time his mind
became affected. He was recently transferred to the hospital at
Alton. Here, he was treated as he had been at Dunning and at
Kankakee. He was allowed liberty. In the past he had always taken
care of himself, but this time he failed to take proper safety
precautions. He walked on the railroad track and was hit by a train.
The train crew knew nothing of the accident until they reached the
Summit and the coat was seen hanging on the pilot. A searching party
was sent back, and the mangled body of the old man was found. It was
brought to Alton. Search of the body revealed the name of John Doe,
No. 6 on the collar. It was reasoned out in the office of Deputy
Coroner Bauer that the name indicated the man must be a patient at
the Alton State Hospital. Word was sent to the hospital and Dr.
Harry Seiwell came to Alton to look at the body. He identified him
as the man known at the hospital by the name on the collar.
Doubtless, he belonged to somebody, somewhere, but they will never
know what happened to him, as his people, if he had any, never knew
that he was in the state hospital. He perhaps is listed by his
family as among the number of missing men, whose fate will never be
known to those closest to him.
FORMER ALDERMAN SENT TO STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 11, 1917
Former Alderman Max Rubenstein, one of the best aldermen the city of
Alton ever had, was committed to the Alton State Hospital today by
order of Judge H. B. Eaton of the County Court, who held a special
session of the court at the State Hospital. Rubenstein had been held
in detention at police headquarters on complaint of members of his
family, and Judge Eaton agreed to come over after him. He has been
sick for a few years, and his mental breakdown was attributed to
that. During the time the former Alderman was in the police
headquarters, he spent much of his time telephoning to friends about
the city. It was said by Dr. Zeller that he believed he would be
able to restore the mental poise of the former alderman. The failure
of Rubenstein's health undoubtedly began from worry over the death
of his daughter, Mrs. Sam Gould, a few years ago. He had gone to
many placed in the hope of benefitting his health.
FARMER SURPRISED BY INSANE MAN - PATIENT KILLED AND DRESSED CHICKENS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 27, 1917
When William Manns, a farmer living in Wood River township not far
from the property line owned by the state and used as a hospital for
the insane, went to his barn to feed his horses this morning about 4
o'clock, he found a man standing inside the barn door, which was
open. "Hello, what are you doing here?" he asked. "I have a dozen
chickens here, dressed and ready for market, and I am waiting for it
to quit raining so that I can take them to town," was the answer.
"Where's that white horse that belongs here?" he suddenly asked Mr.
Manns. The latter said the horse was in the pasture. "Well, I want
him," said the barnstormer. Mr. Manns recognized that he was dealing
with an inmate from the hospital, and began to use diplomacy. He
managed to quiet the man somewhat, and told him he had better come
to the house and get a cup of coffee before starting to town, and
the man went. Then the authorities at the asylum were notified. Mr.
Manns found one of his horses fully harnessed, and found a dozen of
his best chickens with their heads wrung off. The heads were
scattered around the barn floor, but the chickens were piled
together near the door. It is not known how long the man had been in
the barn, or how long it took him to do his chicken killing job. The
chickens were taken from another building some distance from the
barn, and it is supposed were carried to the barn alive, one or two
at a time, by the insane man. The man was attired in a coat and
undershirt only, but he wore a pair of shoes. It is said this
morning that the same man last week drove a team of mules attached
to a wagon away from where the owner had left the outfit in Upper
Alton, and when overtaken a mile or so from town, he explained that
he knew where he could sell the outfit for a good price. He was
returned to the hospital this morning.
APPEAL TO GOVERNOR TO HAVE HOSPITAL PATIENTS RESTRAINED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 28, 1917
It is reported on good authority that some Upper Alton people, or
people in the Upper Alton neighborhood near the Alton State
Hospital, have quietly taken up the matter of having the hospital
patients restrained with Governor Frank C. Lowden. While most of
these patients who have been running at large are perfectly
harmless, a good many people have been considerably stirred up
because of visits made to their homes by the patients and they do
not feel safe with the patients wandering about their places. It is
a fact that some of the farmers in the vicinity of the State
Hospital farm are very uneasy while at work in the fields, fearing
the hospital patients might visit their homes while they are in the
field and badly frighten the women folks. A case or two of this has
been reported of the patients badly frightening the women while the
men of the family were in the fields at work a long distance from
their homes. Lately since several stunts have been performed by the
patients while away from the institution, an appeal to the governor
to take a hand in the matter has been prompted. Employees at the
State Hospital say they have only two or three patients in the
institution that cause them any trouble at all, and one of these
makes more trouble than all the rest in the hospital. They have made
every effort to keep these patients at home, but once in a while
they will escape unnoticed, and the next thing heard of them is when
someone telephones the institution to send for them.
MENTAL EXPERTS WATCHING NEW PLAN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 28, 1917
The letter which Dr. George A. Zeller, managing officer of the Alton
State Hospital, sent to the city council Wednesday evening, was
being commented on by a man who has had wide experience in the
handling of mental defectives, and he said that it was perhaps the
first time such a communication had ever been sent by the managing
officer of a state hospital. The reason is this, according to the
expert, Dr. Zeller is the first manager of a hospital for mental
defectives who has ever had occasion to do it. The Alton State
Hospital is the only institution in the country that gives its
patients the freedom given there. It is the only institution that
has no restraining walls or fences around its grounds, and for that
reason is the only one that gives liberty of action to the inmates.
It is an old theory of Dr. Zeller, and he is giving it a thorough
tryout, that patients in a hospital of that kind can be handled to
much better advantage if their freedom is increased, rather than
curtailed. As told before in the Telegraph, the hospital was built
with a view to allowing freedom to the inmates, restraint being
thrown off to a degree that has never been attempted in such
institutions before. On the results of this experiment may depend
the future course of treatment for those mentally afflicted. Dr.
Zeller so far is pleased with the showing he is making. Said the man
who is the Telegraph's authority, Dr. Zeller is a man who is
thoroughly learned in the business of caring for the mentally
afflicted. He is square and honest, and he will get the results if
anybody can get them with this new system. The authority quoted is
watching the experiment with much interest himself, though he says
that he is glad it is someone else than himself who is pioneering in
this direction, as he says Dr. Zeller has undertaken great
responsibilities which would terrify anyone but a man of strong
resolution and fixed purpose, and with a mind single to making a
success of the newest theory in the caring for the insane. In
speaking of Dr. Zeller's letter, the Telegraph's authority says that
even Dr. Zeller has not yet apparently, concluded that all insane
may be given absolute freedom, but that most cases may, and that as
soon as guards and patients come to know each other well, it will be
possible to determine what cases may be safely trusted to enjoy more
freedom and what ones must be subjected to close supervision. The
letter, he said, indicates that such a sifting process is in
progress. It will be of interest to Alton people to know that the
new state hospital at Alton is being made the place for the
demonstration of a great idea that had not been given a tryout on
such a broad scale as it is being tried here. If it fails, the state
will be compelled to fence in the grounds and restrict the patients
as in other institutions of the kind. If it succeeds, the fences
elsewhere may be removed and perhaps the ultimate recovery of many
mentally afflicted may be accomplished where only negative results
were achieved in the past. The eyes of experts all over the country
are trained on the Alton hospital experiment, in the view of the
expert who conversed with a Telegraph representative. It is true
that Dr. W. H. C. Smith at Beverly Farm, an institution conducted
for another class of mental defectives, those who never had a normal
brain, has tried the non-restraint plan with great success. His
theory, successful after years of trial, is to make the home so
pleasant for the patients they prefer to stay there. Dr. Zeller's
idea is applied chiefly to people whose minds once were normal, but
where reason has been dethroned, through sickness or other causes.
PLAN FORMAL OPENING OF STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 05, 1917
Dr. George A. Zeller, managing officer of the Alton State Hospital,
is planning for the formal opening of that institution. One of the
big events of the day will be a flag raising on a new pole recently
set up. Dr. Zeller wants to have Governor Lowden here to participate
in the formal opening. The date has not been set, it being
contingent upon the convenience of the Governor. Dr. Zeller has been
so busy getting the hospital opened he has not had a bit of time to
plan for an opening of a formal character. When he came here, he
found things in a state of disorder, with hardly a chance to get the
big institution going. It is one thing to build a state hospital,
another thing to get into shape to have patients put in it. The
buildings stood there, monuments of inefficient planning. There was
much that was finished and ready for use. There was a great mass of
business that had to be disposed of before it would be safe to bring
in the patients. Dr. Zeller dispatched orders for the patients about
the same time he began dispatching orders for needed equipment. He
knew the patients would get here first, and he also knew that the
men filling orders would fill them faster if they know that a lot of
insane people were "camping out" in a brand new state hospital,
waiting for the arrival of the equipment. The result was Dr. Zeller
got his institution occupied, while a brand new epileptic colony at
Dixon, in exactly the same fix, was not being occupied at all. To
get ready for the opening Dr. Zeller had to run stove pipes through
windows, and set up temporary stoves. He could not use the great
kitchen because there was nothing anywhere near ready in there, so
he established kitchens in all the buildings and made every unit of
the hospital a separate hospital to itself. Then he began making
drives after supplies. He was in a great position to get quick
action. He knew that the state of Illinois would exert every ounce
of its influence and power to get the hospital shaped up, when Dr.
Zeller had a lot of insane patients there dependent upon somebody
acting quick. The result was that the Alton hospital has been able
to increase its quota of patients steadily. The number will be
increased more and more, relieving the overcrowded state
institutions that have been needing relief. Planned to be one of the
finest in the state of Illinois, the new hospital has many
drawbacks, so it is said, but it is believed that expert management
will make it a success. The use of the new system of caring for the
insane has complicated the difficulties that were in the way of a
successful opening of the institution, in the unfinished state it
was. Governor Lowden has promised to attend the grand opening, and
when he does come the Alton Board of Trade wants to give him a
proper welcome. It is planned to have a Board of Trade banquet the
same night, and have the Governor there. Dr. Zeller has a plan for
giving national aid through the use of the Alton State Hospital. He
plans to have this institution in shape to look after an increased
number of patients who may suffer from mental troubles, either
temporarily or permanently, as a result of the war. The idea was
suggested to him when he noticed the immense kitchen where
accommodations could be made for cooking for 10,000 men. The kitchen
and bakery of the Alton State hospital constitute one of the
curiosities of the state. Those who planned those buildings
evidently thought that there was to be an immense amount of cooking
done on the grounds. It is said that the bakery could supply the
city of Alton with bread if it were run night and day, and the
kitchen could serve one third of the city with food. This fact made
Dr. Zeller think. He considered that there may be necessity for more
hospital service when the war advances a bit. If the government
chooses to take advantage of such an opportunity as this, it could
erect barracks buildings all over the ground to accommodate war
victims, and could feed them without any trouble. There is plenty of
ground, and the men could be well cared for there. They would have
plenty of garden space, if they were able to do gardening. If in an
emergency it should become necessary, all the present patients in
the state hospital could be shifted elsewhere, and this institution
given over entirely to war victims. Shell shock victims are said to
be the ones which will require hospital attention chiefly, and would
be shipped back to this country for treatment, a United Press
dispatch says this and a Washington date line. Of all the American
soldiers who will be invalided back from the ..... [unreadable].
NOT ALL INSANE WHO ACT STRANGELY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 20, 1917
Dr. George A. Zeller, managing officer of the State Hospital, wants
to plead an alibi. He says he isn't responsible for all the queer
acting people who disturb the people of Alton and vicinity. Not all
the folks who are queer looking and queer acting, and might be
suspected of being escaped patients from the hospital, are really
out of that institution. Appearances sometimes are mighty deceiving.
Dr. Zeller says he is willing to assume responsibility for a share
of the annoyances which have been caused by patients running at
large, but in proof of his claims that he isn't the only one
responsible, he cite four cases. Three of them arose in one day.
Yesterday, Fred Dinges was summoned to East Alton to get a man who
was acting strange. When he got there, he found he was a workman at
the cartridge plant, had money in his pockets, and was evidently
loitering about with some evil purpose in mind. Then he was summoned
to Rock Spring Park to pick u another man, and the hospital suspect
proved to be an old citizen of Alton. Late the same night he was
summoned to pick up another man who proved to be an epileptic, who
had wandered away from St. Joseph's Hospital. A few days ago, the
police picked up a man who was acting queer, and it turned out the
man was a brother of a patient at the hospital, but he wasn't
legally insane and therefore had a right to be at liberty. These
circumstances were cited in support of Dr. Zeller's defense to a
committee of citizens, who, headed by the Mayor, called upon him
Friday to see about keeping the patients under restraint. Dr. Zeller
believes that he will have the moral support of the community in his
efforts to handle the patients at his hospital under his new theory.
In an interview today, he declared he had reduced the cause of
complaint by a big percentage, but that there were still instances
of men wandering at large. The women have not been running around.
He said: "We have 350 mentally afflicted people here. They sent here
about 200 of the very worst cases they had in other hospitals,
especially those from Anna. The 200 are the worst in Illinois. We
have made great progress with them, and have been taking in new
patients at frequent intervals. We gradually get them in hand and
quiet them so that we reduce the number of escapes. It will grow
less and less as time goes on." Dr. Zeller says the Alton police
have been very helpful and he feels grateful. But he warns that you
can't always tell by looking at a man whether he belongs to the
state hospital or not. He may be somebody you have been used to
seeing around all the time, and never paid any attention to him, as
is proved by the three instances he cites as having occurred Friday,
when none of them was escaped from his hospital.
HUNTERS MUST KEEP OFF HOSPITAL GROUNDS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, November 14, 1917
Dr. George A. Zeller has joined the ranks of the landowners and
tenants who declare that hunters must keep off their grounds. Dr.
Zeller says that the state hospital grounds constitute a game
preserve. Not only is the hospital site to be regarded as a game
sanctuary, but there would be danger of some hospital inmate popping
up in front of a hunter and being killed by men who had no such
intention. Dr. Zeller says the state will not tolerate any shooting
on state property used for hospital purposes, at any time.
FRESH FISH FOR STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 6, 1917
Since the opening of the State Hospital at Alton, the fish and game
wardens have been instructed to turn over to the hospital all the
confiscated fish they get. Dr. G. A. Zeller, managing officer of the
hospital, says that he is receiving two or three barrels of fish a
week from the wardens. They seize the fish because they have been
illegally caught. Dr. Zeller said that the confiscated fish is
chiefly carp and buffalo, and that most of it comes from Grafton. It
makes a very acceptable addition to the menu at the State Hospital.
INMATE KEEPS UP CONTINUAL SCREAMING
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 07, 1917
An insane negro was picked up in the vicinity of Granite City the
latter part of last week, and was taken to the State Hospital in
this city for treatment. When he was picked up the negro began to
yell, and not once in the past week has he let up his insane
screaming, much to the discomfiture of all others employed at the
hospital. He is in a cage, in order that no one will be harmed by
him, in case he becomes violent. The negro refuses to eat, and the
attendants say that he has become twice as small as when he was
taken to the institution. If nourishment cannot be forced on him and
he continues to keep his fast, it is said that he cannot live two
days more.
WILL TRANSFER PATIENTS WITH TRUCKS AND SLEDS
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 11, 1917
A shipment of almost one hundred patients from the State Insane
hospital at Dunning will arrive in Alton on the Prairie State
Express at 5 o'clock, and will be taken to the Alton State Hospital.
Dr. Zeller was notified Sunday that the shipment of patients would
probably amount to about 85, but today he was informed there may be
a hundred people in the crowd. Arrangements were being made this
afternoon to transfer the patients from the Alton station to the
State Hospital in the snow storm, without exposing them any more
than necessary. Several auto trucks will be used, but on account of
the heavy condition of the roads it was feared the trucks might not
be able to make the trip. Several big bobsleds have been secured for
the purpose also. Several trips of the sleds may be necessary, and
in tis case the patients will be watched in the Alton station until
the vehicles can carry them to the grounds.
PATIENT AT STATE HOSPITAL KILLED AT POWERHOUSE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 31, 1917
Henry Scheibe, a patient at the Alton State Hospital, was killed
Sunday afternoon while at work at the power house on the hospital
grounds. Schiebe was so far advanced in his improvement that he was
able to do much work about the place, and was the best worker on the
grounds. Sunday he was helping at the power plant where an automatic
ash conveyor lifts the ashes out of the boiler room to the outside
of the building. Scheibe climbed up on top of the cinder pile just
over the ash chute. A frozen crust of cinders on which stood broke
under him and let him plunge down into the chute and on top of him
fell about 15 feet of ashes. It was a difficult task to get him out.
For three hours men worked hard to release Scheibe, and at last they
succeeded in getting the ashes out and drew out the dead body of the
insane man. He was 38 years of age. Sheibe was horribly burned by
being dumped into the ash chute along with a lot of hot coals. To
cool off the coals and kill the gas in them, in the hope of saving
the life of the man, a great quantity of steam was formed down among
the cinders, and this added to the burns which he suffered. At a
coroner's inquest it was testified by S. R. Baker, engineer at the
power house, that he had left the building to perform an errant and
that when he came back, he noticed some legs sticking out the top of
the ash chute. Another patient there told him that Sheibe had been
on top. Closer inspection disclosed the leg of Scheibe sticking out,
but it was impossible to dislodge him. The patient had not been
ordered to go on top, it was testified, but had gone of his own free
will. It was testified there was about a car and a half of ashes in
the hopper when the accident occurred, and Scheibe was caught under
this when the frozen crust was broken and he tumbled into the chute.
The chute through which he passed is about 24 inches square.
TWO STATE HOSPITAL ATTENDANTS GO TO ARMY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1918 [World War I]
The Alton State Hospital lost two more attendants today, making five
in Alton, when two more men, Frye and Oldham of Alton, volunteered
to go into the army. These two raised the list of attendants leaving
the hospital for camp to five. The men will go to Camp Taylor this
evening, and later expect to be placed in the Hospital unit of the
army. While the men are away, their wives will remain at the
institution and work for the State.
FRIENDLESS HOSPITAL INMATE DIES - BURIED IN HOSPITAL CEMETERY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1918
Margaret Fishbacker, aged 52, died today at Alton State Hospital.
The woman has been a State charge for five years, and belonged to
the great unclaimed lot. The woman will be buried in the small
cemetery at the Wood River Monument, which the Alton State Hospital
is now keeping up. The hospital will bury all its unknown dead, and
those bodies which relatives do not care to have moved, in this
cemetery. The cemetery is being fixed up and will furnish a good
burial ground for the unfortunates who are left for the State to
handle.
MORE PATIENTS FOR STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 18, 1918
After Wednesday night there will be 625 patients at the Alton State
Hospital, according to the officials at the institution. Large
numbers are being shipped out of the northern institutions at
regular intervals, to relieve the crowded conditions, and are being
sent to Alton. The Alton hospital was built with the purpose in mind
of relieving the crowded conditions at the northern institutions,
the number of afflicted being very large in and around Chicago. On
Wednesday evening at 5 o'clock, special coaches will be carried on
Train No. 3, bearing one hundred women patients being sent down to
Alton from Chicago. The patients will be accompanied by nurses and
.... [unreadable].
ELIZABETH WATERHOUSE DIES AT HOSPITAL
Source: February 20, 1918
Elizabeth Waterhouse, aged 78, died last night at the Alton State
Hospital after an illness of pneumonia. She was buried in the
cemetery on the hospital grounds today.
AVIS HELLMAN DIES
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 26, 1918
Mrs. Avis Hellman, aged 73 years, died today at the Alton State
Hospital where she was a patient. Mrs. Hellman formerly resided in
Trenton, Illinois, and the funeral will be held there, the body to be
shipped out of Alton Wednesday morning. Mrs. Hellman is the mother
of Mrs. Frank Heilig of 609 Central Avenue, this city.
LEGLESS MAN RUNS AWAY MORE THAN ANY OTHER PATIENT
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 21, 1918
Frank Dinges of the State Hospital was given a chase yesterday by
the patient in the institution, Clarence Weeks, whose legs have been
amputated. It will be remembered that Weeks lost his legs by having
them frozen. During the last couple of weeks, the man named Weeks
has been everlastingly running away from the hospital, and every
time he runs off the hospital manager has to send their car out to
bring him back. This time Weeks beat Frank Dinges to it in bringing
him back. Monday afternoon Weeks was found missing at the hospital,
and as no word was telephoned in by anyone who had seen him,
consequently the management had no idea as to what direction to go
in search of the man who had no legs. The night went by and all-day
Tuesday, and Weeks was not heard from. On Wednesday noon a telephone
message came in on the Kinloch lines from the country, saying that
the legless man was in the corn field at the George Walters farm,
four miles north of Upper Alton. The message further stated the man
was trying to set fire to the corn shocks, and that all the farmers
were afraid to go near him. The message was transferred to the
hospital over the Bell telephone, and Frank Dinges started out to
the Walters place with the little truck. The road was very rough,
and the trip with the machine was a very hard one. When Dinges
finally got to the place Weeks was gone, and the farmers did not
know what had become of him. Dinges returned to town, and after
being delayed a good while in getting back to the institution, he
found Weeks had beat him back and was home all right. Weeks can
evidently get over the ground with his "stubs" a good deal better
than many who have their legs.
A. C. STALDER DYING AT STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 02, 1918
A. C. Stalder, who was taken to the Alton State hospital about two
weeks ago from Upper Alton, is in a very low condition and it is
believed he is in a dying condition today. Mr. Stalder bought the
bakery establishment on Washington Avenue that was formerly owned by
his brother, the late F. M. Stalder, after the sudden death of the
brother last Fall. Very shortly after the young man took charge of
the business, his mind collapsed and he was taken to the hospital.
His condition has grown worse each day since being taken to the
institution, and his relatives have been at the institution with him
continuously. Last night he was practically exhausted, and has been
in a prostrated condition since. The wife of the young man and his
mother, Mrs. M. A. Brown of Upper Alton, are with him.
DEATH OF ARTHUR C. STALDER
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 12, 1918
Arthur C. Stalder, who was recently taken to the State Hospital,
died there this afternoon. He was a member of a well-known Upper
Alton family and had worked in Alton at the barber trade. He
recently planned to take charge of a bakery in Upper Alton, but his
mind broke down from the effects of illness.
NEW RULES IN USE AFTER INMATE HENRY DIEZ FOUND DEAD
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 10, 1918
Announcement was made yesterday afternoon at the Alton State
Hospital that the freedom of inmates would be greatly curtailed.
This follows a protest made by the Board of Trade directors, joined
with numerous protests from residents of that neighborhood. The
announcement was made following the finding and identification of
the body of an inmate of the hospital, Henry Diez, aged about 50,
who had been in the state's care for about 33 years. The man was
found lying dead on a farm outside of Upper Alton, and when the
hospital was notified it was learned he was a missing patient. His
absence had not been noted. Then came the announcement that there
would be a tighter rein held on the inmates. The statement issued
was that a new doctor and new nurses had been secured, and that the
hospital would be managed on a stricter plan so that patients would
have less chance to get away. In making the announcement, the
request was made also that the public be assured that the petty
thieving going on around Alton was not due to the escaped patients
of the hospital. "Such conduct, " it was said, "is not
characteristic of insane people. They do not engage in petty
stealing." This statement was made to set at rest the minds of any
householders whose places may have been visited by thieves, as in
the recent past when a number of Alton homes were raided. The
wandering of the hospital patients over the country has been the
cause of much trouble among the people living for miles around the
hospital. The people of the vicinity have been very patient while
the experiment of "no restraint" in handling insane patients was
being tried out. The public were told that it was a good way to get
good results from the care of the patients, and the public was
hoping that results were good, or soon would be, but the public was
growing very tired of it. Threats were being made that some of the
people would move away from the neighborhood unless some relief was
given them from the visits of the wandering patients. It was
following numerous complaints that the Board of Trade directors
asked that something be done to restrain the patients, and the
request has been complied with, it appears, in view of the
announcement made by the hospital authorities that there was to be a
much tighter rein hereafter in handling the inmates. There will be
more restraint and those in charge will confine the patients who
show a tendency to wander about. Generally, the view is taken that
there can be no proper conditions at the hospital until a tight
fence is built around the grounds, camouflaged so as to let the
patients think they are at liberty, but nevertheless a very potent
means of keeping them inside the hospital grounds at all times. It
is going to be impossible, neighbors believe, to be certain that the
patients are under control unless a fence is built. Dr. Zeller has
always had a theory that the best results in handling insane could
be accomplished by removing all idea of restraint and thus making
the inmates better satisfied. The inmates have been well pleased
with the system in vogue, as they have been able to make pleasant
excursions when and where they pleased. The neighbors have not been
so well pleased with it.
STATE HOSPITAL MANAGER SHORT OF HELP - NEEDS ELECTRIC LINE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 16, 1918
Assistant State's Attorney Gilson Brown has received a communication
from Dr. G. A. Zeller, managing officer of the State Hospital, in
which he takes up the subject of the needs of the institution for
more help. Dr. Zeller says that one reason why the hospital is so
short of help is the lack of transportation facilities to and from
Alton. The help around the hospital desires to get away from there
frequently, and they are so far from an electric line it is very
difficult to keep the help at the institution. Dr. Zeller says that
when the electric line is finished to the State Hospital, he thinks
that much of the troubles there will be solved. He thinks it will be
easier to get help to stay at the institution when it is possible
for them to have easy means of getting to Alton and back. Dr. Zeller
says that he wishes the Alton people would get behind and help push
to bring about the early completion of the electric line, as he
believes that he will be able the to keep much more adequate helpers
there, and will be able also to prevent the escape of patients, even
under his "no restraint" plan of handling the institution. It is
said that the Alton and Western is making good progress with its
line, but that it is being held back somewhat by shortage of labor
needed for construction work. All the material is ready and there is
nothing in the way now, except labor shortage that would prevent
getting the line in operation to the hospital very shortly.
STATE HOSPITAL HAS A CEMETERY
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 31, 1918
The Alton State Hospital has established a little burying ground of
its own, and at this early date in the history of the institution
twenty people have been buried upon the little cemetery. The piece
of ground that has been made the hospital cemetery amounts to about
an acre, and it is the old ground in the entire possessions of the
State here that extends across the Fosterburg road on the north
side. It is a part of the old Kirkpatrick farm, and the Fosterburg
road crosses the farm just at the point where it cuts off the acre
from the farm, leaving the little piece of land on the other side of
the road to complete the tract. The little tract adjoins the
monument erected a few years ago to the memory of persons killed in
the famous Wood River massacre. Two deaths occurred at the State
Hospital yesterday. Dora Johnson, aged 37, was the first death
yesterday, and as she has no friends or relatives, she will probably
be buried on the State Hospital burying ground. Each body is buried
on this cemetery with appropriate services. Heart trouble was the
cause of this death. Ann Gou_, of Trenton, Ill., aged 75, died
yesterday at the State Hospital. She was brought over from Trenton
in an auto, the first of July, and had been in the hospital only a
month. Undertaker C. N. Streeper shipped the body to Trenton this
morning.
WILLIAM RAY SATISFIES CAPTORS THAT HE IS NOT INSANE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 20, 1918
Seized as he descended from a train and hustled off to an insane
hospital after a vigorous struggle in which he sustained a shoulder
dislocation, William Ray, elevator man at St. Joseph's Hospital, is
now in a bed in St. Joseph's Hospital instead of being under
restraint as a violently "disturbed" man in the Alton State
Hospital. It was a case of mistaken identity. According to the story
told by Ray after Dr. G. K. Worden, the county physician, had
patched him up, he had worked a few days at the Western Cartridge
plant and starting home had boarded the wrong train. He discovered
he was on a C. B. & Q. train and asked that the train be stopped and
he be put off. The next station happened to be Upper Alton, near the
State hospital. Ray had just descended from the train and was
getting his bearings when, he says, two strong men seized him and
insisted upon carrying him off to the State Hospital. Ray's story is
that he fought desperately, and in the struggle his shoulder was
dislocated. Finally, overpowered by superior strength, Ray was
hustled off to the hospital. He protested that he belonged in Alton
and had friends there, but at the state hospital all sorts of queer
tales are heard from escaped lunatics, and no attention is given to
them. Ray's story fell on deaf ears. It was so like all the others.
Finally, when a checkup was made it was discovered that Ray did not
belong in the State hospital, and he was released. He went to his
old home at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he is recounting his
experiences. He was mistaken for an insane patient who was at large.
INSANE MAN DIES, MIRED IN THE WOOD RIVER
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 10, 1918
A man was found Wednesday afternoon, mired in the mud of Wood River,
near the plant of the Alton Stoneware & Pipe Co. He had died a
horrible death while vainly struggling for life in the quicksand and
foul mud of the creek. Two boys out hunting came across the body in
a lonely bend of the river, east of the East Alton tile works. They
were Victor Cook and Charles Parker. They informed people of East
Alton of the discovery, and an investigation showed the man had been
dead several days. Deputy Coroner Bauer was summoned, and the body
removed from the mud. The man, it was discovered, was an inmate from
the Alton Insane Asylum, and attendants from the institution
identified him from the clothing worn and his general appearance.
The man had wandered or fallen into the quicksand from the high bank
that overhangs the creek at this point. He had struggled hard, and
in his fight for life had torn most of the clothing from his body.
The place is a lonely one, far from any habitation, surrounded by a
thick wood, and the cries of the man for help could not be heard.
The jury empanelled by the coroner at the scenes of the tragedy
rendered a verdict of death from exhaustion. The body was buried at
once in the grounds of the hospital, after the head physician had
viewed the body and identified it as one of the hospital patients.
Deputy Coroner Bauer did not think the man was caught enough in the
mud to have imprisoned a man in normal condition of mind, but, he
said, the man not having his right mind and unable to plan to
extricate himself, perished from exhaustion. One leg was caught to a
depth up to his thigh. The other leg was not mired, nor was any part
of the body or the arms.
STATE HOSPITAL UNDER STRICT QUARANTINE
[Flu Epidemic of 1818]
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 14, 1918
Some Altonians who made a trip to the Illinois State Hospital at
Upper Alton yesterday were not permitted to enter the grounds. They
were told that visitors are barred during the influenza epidemic in
the state, and that the institution is quarantined. No patients are
allowed to roam at will, as has been the custom for some time, and
although an occasional one may slip out in spite of the few guards
and watchers, they are not causing terror among the women and
children by entering houses at unseasonable hours without knocking
or peering through windows. For some weeks past it was said at the
institution, there has been a tightening of regulations and much
less liberty has been allowed patients. Now all liberty outside the
grounds is stopped.
SMALL MORTALITY AT STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 26, 1918
Dr. George A. Zeller of the Alton State Hospital said that of forty
cases of influenza at the State Hospital, twelve developed
pneumonia, and two deaths occurred. He was able to loan three nurses
to Jefferson Barracks to nurse the sick soldiers.
MINNIE WILSON DIES
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 28, 1918
Minnie Wilson, an inmate of the Alton State Hospital, died Sunday
from pneumonia. The body was shipped to Olney, Ill. this morning for
burial.
INFLUENZA FATALITIES ON THE INCREASE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, November 05, 1918
The past few days have been marked by a great increase in the number
of fatalities from influenza. While the number of new cases is not
increasing as fast as formerly, the cases which were reported are
developing into fatalities, which accounts for the great increase in
the death roll. Undertakers have been kept busy, and private
funerals are numerous, but not near so numerous as they have been in
other places much smaller than Alton. The death rate from the
influenza is still comparatively low in Alton, being far below other
cities, but undertakers are preparing to take care of many bodies if
occasion arises. At the Alton State Hospital, where the patients
have low vitality due to their mental troubles, the number of deaths
is increasing steadily. The local undertakers have not been seeking
this work, as in almost all the cases, nothing but the meager amount
allowed by the state is available to pay for the burial. The bodies
must be removed from the State Hospital to the undertaking
establishments, and held there the required length of time to make
certain whether claimants will appear. In almost all the cases, no
one claims the bodies, as it is the experience of the state
authorities, the families pay little attention to the State Hospital
inmates once they are consigned there, and many of the inmates have
never been recorded with their right names, owing to lack of
information on the subject. The secretary of the Board of Health,
Miss Margaret Dennison, reported 23 new cases of influenza.
Fifty-one cases were reported Monday.
HOSPITAL PATIENT HAS HOBBY OF WEARING NECKTIES
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, November 19, 1918
The State Hospital was kept busy nearly all day yesterday chasing up
escaped patients who came into Alton. There were two in the forenoon
that took up all the time of the hospital's "hunting up" force, and
they were taken back to the institution at noon. Late in the
afternoon a man wearing eight or ten neckties, all at the same time,
and acting queer, was noticed on Washington avenue near Mill's bend,
and was soon recognized as a patient from the hospital. The hospital
was notified and sent in for the man, and he was taken back without
any trouble at all. Last evening about 7 o'clock, a colored woman
thinly clad, wearing no hat at all, applied to several business
houses in Upper Alton for money to get to St. Louis. She was
recognized at once as a hospital patient. She was detained by a
crowd of young men and boys in one of the stores until the hospital
was notified. There was a good deal of delay in locating the help at
the hospital and the woman waited in Upper Alton a long time before
the machine could be sent in from the hospital. The police officer
on the Upper Alton beat later took charge of the woman and kept her
in out of the cold at the council room while the hospital helpers
came in for the patient.
J. VICKES DIES AT STATE HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, November 23, 1918
J. Vickes died suddenly this morning at the Alton State Hospital
from what is reported to have been a stroke of apoplexy. Deputy
Coroner William H. Bauer was notified and will hold an inquest this
afternoon. Vickes formerly lived at Madison, Illinois.
STATE HOSPITAL IS FILLING UP
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 24, 1919
Out of 650 insane people at the Alton State Hospital, 280 are from
St. Clair county, and only 154 from Madison County. These figures
are shown in the latest report of that institution prepared by the
managing officer, Dr. George A. Zeller. The institution has been
receiving many new patients of late, and notwithstanding the fact
that there were forty deaths from influenza in the hospital, the
number of patients has grown. Although 80 percent of the hospital
attendants had the influenza, none of them died. The cause of the
large mortality among the patients is that they are lower in their
vitality and cannot resist the ravages of disease. Dr. Zeller says
that the mortality at this hospital was no greater than at any other
insane hospital, all of them showing high death rates during the
influenza epidemic. Seven uniformed men from the army are among the
attendants at the hospital now, Dr. Zeller said. Five of them are
men who were in the hospital's employ before going to serve the
colors. The other two are new help furnished by the Federal
Employment Service. Dr. Zeller says that his soldier attendants
covered a wide field of service in the army. Some of them wear wound
stripes on their sleeves, some having served through the second
battle at Verdun. The health of the State Hospital has been
remarkably good of late, there being few cases of severe sickness.
WANDERING PATIENTS BELIEVED TO HAVE STARTED BRANDT FIRE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 25, 1919
That there would be a vicious attack made before a Legislative
Inquiry Committee against the non-restraint plan of handling insane
patients at the Alton State Hospital became apparent today when it
was given out by Representative Norman G. Flagg that a large number
of complaints would be laid before the committee by residents in the
territory for miles around the State Hospital. Mr. Flagg,
incidentally, is of the belief that insane patients at the hospital
started the fire that destroyed a building on the Charles Brandt
place. Mr. Flagg says that no other theory is tenable. The theory is
that some wandering patients from the hospital entered the
unoccupied house, found some potatoes in the cellar and started a
fire there to roast potatoes, thereby setting fire to the house. The
appraisal committee of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, consisting
of Mr. Flagg and Fred Zoelzer, took that view and will so report to
the insurance company. They allowed the insured $1,276 for the fire
loss. Mr. Flagg said that a Legislative committee will come down
from Springfield to visit the State Hospital in a few days, and he
said he is urging all the farmers in that part of the country where
the patients roam to insist that the state provide a tight fence
around the hospital grounds, and that the patients be put under
restraint. Mr. Flagg will probably be with the committee when it
comes here. In speaking of the continuance of the non-restraint
system at the hospital, Mr. Flagg said that there were numerous
complaints. One farmer, he said, was roused on a cold night at
midnight by an alarm at his front door. Going to investigate he
found a burly negro, much bigger than the farmer, and it developed
the negro had come to stay. The farmer could not eject him from the
house, and so he was forced to rekindle the fire and keep it going
while he sat up with his insane visitor until morning. Numerous
incidents are being reported which point to a vigorous protest being
made to the Legislative Committee against a continuance of the
practice of non-restraint for these insane people.
DISCHARGED SOLDIER, ROY W. BRATTON, ATTEMPTS SUICIDE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 07, 1919
Judge J. E. Hillskotter of the County Court had a ghastly experience
this morning when he, with Doctors Lemmen and G. K. Worden, went to
the home of Roy W. Bratton, at 517 Market street, to hold an inquiry
into his sanity for the purpose of recommitting him to an insane
hospital. Bratton, a relapsed patient, had been acting queer, and
his family sought to have him sent back to the State Hospital. Judge
Hillskotter came over to make the examination and called at the
home. The family said the patient was in the next room, and they
would call him. Going in to call him out to where the county judge
was sitting, members of the family were horrified to see him draw a
razor across his throat, inflicting a nasty wound. He was hurriedly
taken to the hospital for surgical attendance. After cutting his
throat, Bratton walked around the room for a while and even sat up
in the ambulance. Judge Hillskotter held an inquiry into the sanity
of William War also. Bratton is a discharged soldier. He was sent
home from the army, a victim of dementia praecox, and is incurable.
Doctors attending the man said that if he would last a few hours he
would probably live on. Notwithstanding his mental condition and his
desperate physical condition after he had cut his throat, the
surgeons worked hard to patch up the severed blood vessels, and they
also filled his arterial system with salt water in the hope of
maintaining circulation, to make up for the loss of blood. The
doctors said that after the patient had fled from the room on their
entry, he went to the bathroom where he found some razors that
belonged to shaving outfits. With one of these he slashed his
throat. It was reported at a late hour this afternoon by officials
at St. Joseph's hospital that Bratton's condition remained
unchanged.
ROY W. BRATTON RECOVERING FROM INJURIES IN ATTEMPTED SUICIDE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 12, 1919
Roy W. Bratton, who made an attempt on his life last week by
slashing his throat with a razor at his home at 517 Market street,
has recovered completely from the injuries and will be discharged
tomorrow from St. Joseph's Hospital. Dr. George K. Worden states
that Bratton's injuries have healed so completely that scarcely a
scar remains where the razor wound was inflicted. The razor severed
blood vessels, and Bratton bled so much that the doctors injected a
saline solution into the arteries to keep up the blood supply.
Bratton made the attempt on his life when County Judge J. E.
Hillskotter, of Edwardsville, accompanied by Doctors Harry R. Lemen
and George K. Worden, went to his house to conduct an inquiry into
his sanity. The insanity inquiry was postponed and the man rushed to
the hospital in the effort to save his life. The physicians look
upon Bratton's complete recovery from his injuries as remarkable.
WANDERING INSANE MEN DISCOVER FIRE AT ORR HOUSE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 25, 1919
Dr. George A. Zeller's policy of non-restraint evidently has served
one good purpose, as on Sunday the fears which a fire excited in the
minds of two hospital patients who were passing, caused the fire to
be discovered by others who gave an alarm. It is only a matter of
justice to Dr. Zeller and his idea of non-restraint in the handling
of insane patients, to say that much more damage might have been
done to the Orr house, neighbors say, had it not been for two
wandering hospital inmates whose attention to the fire was attracted
first. Then when they saw the fire, the two hospital inmates seemed
to become very much excited and they turned quickly and started to
run as fast as they could go. Whether they had been warned about
fires, and seeing the house ablaze had fears that they might be
blamed with starting it could not be ascertained. They became so
terrified that other people noticing their alarm looked in the
direction the two patients had been gazing when they made the start
to run, and there the neighbors discovered the Orr house was on
fire. John W. Olmstead is authority for the story, and he says that
the two patients were undoubtedly the first to know the house was
ablaze. The argument is presented by some people that but for the
policy of non-restraint, the fire in the house might not have been
discovered in time to be of any benefit in preventing destruction.
NON-RESTRAINT POLICY WILL BE CONTINUED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, May 10, 1919
The difficulties of conducting a state institution for the insane
and demented, especially during war times when such institutions are
overcrowded, were told to 15 farmers who attended a hearing before
members of a sub-committee of the Appropriations Committee of the
Illinois House at the Board of Trade last night. Representatives
Jacob Frisch and M. F. Hennebry, members of the sub-committee, who
are making a tour of the state's institutions, and Charles H.
Thorne, head of the Department of Public Welfare, were present to
hear complaints on the policy of non-restraint now used at the Alton
State Hospital. President George M. Potter, of Shurtleff College,
one of the spokesmen, told of an inmate of the state hospital who
comes almost daily to the Carnegie library at the college. The man
is peaceable and has always conducted himself in a gentlemanly
manner, Dr. Potter said, but while he is there the woman librarian
and the women students of the college are under a strain. In
replying to this shortly afterward, Dr. Zeller, superintendent of
the hospital, said the man is the son of a great educator who
formerly held a chair in the divinity school of Chicago University,
and was a writer and professor of national renown. One other son of
the professor was killed in battle, while the third was drowned. The
wife of the Chicago University man, whose name was given by Dr.
Zeller, still lives. President Potter stated after the meeting that
he had heard the father of the demented man, who died last fall,
speak on several occasions. In making his complaint against the
policy of non-restraint, President Potter, who spoke after several
farmers, had told of various incidents, and Representative Frisch
had told of the limitations of the past imposed on the state, due to
war conditions, declared he wished to complain against the policy,
not a fact here and there. While personally neither he nor the
members of his family have come to personal harm, Dr. Potter said
the people of his section of the city are laboring under a certain
strain. The strain caused by the fear that a man might go to his
home at night and find his wife and children in a frightened
condition because of attempts of escaped inmates to enter the house.
In leaving home at night one must always lock the house securely,
Dr. Potter said, and even then there is the fear that property might
be damaged, thus increasing the strain under which people must work.
Saying he did not propose to know more about the treatment of insane
people than Dr. Zeller and other experts in the work, Dr. Potter
said he wonders if the policy is accomplishing anything insofar as
the patients are concerned. If they are benefited, he continued, is
the benefit to them great enough that a whole community should live
and work in constant fear and under a constant strain to accomplish
it. Having been raised on a farm, Potter declared, he has some idea
of the size of an acre. The farm on which he worked was a 160-acre
tract, and he considered it quite a large expanse of territory to
roam in. He thought the distance far, particularly after a hard day
of plowing when he walked it to go home. With this experience as to
the size of an acre, President Potter said he considered 1300 acres
a large expense of territory for patients to roam in. Representative
Frisch acted as chairman of the meeting. In assuming the chair, he
told of the difficulties of financing state institutions. He said
that Alton had asked for the state hospital. He said the hospital
had to be used before it was really ready for occupancy because of
over-crowded conditions in other institutions of the state. With a
number of people larger than its capacity, the local institution
faced difficulties. It was impossible, he said, to have a systematic
system of control when the institution was handicapped. Then, during
the war, men enlisted were drafted and entered war work. Women
entered war work, and it was a difficult matter to secure proper
help for the state institutions. But now that the war is over,
Frisch said, conditions are better, more money will be available,
and things generally will be much improved at all state
institutions. He asked the people to "bear with the state
officials," and said that with their cooperation much can be
accomplished which will be of benefit not only to patients, but to
the community as well.
WILL START HOSPITAL BUILDINGS SOON - WILL DEMAND STREETCAR LINE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 18, 1919
Col. Frank D. Whipp and Supt. of Charities A. L. Bowen are authority
for the statement that the State of Illinois will start, in a short
time, erecting the new buildings which will be added to the Alton
State Hospital. The Legislature has given the appropriation of
$500,000 for making extensions to the Alton State Hospital, and it
is this money that will be spent as fast as plans can be perfected
and contracts let. The Alton Hospital is to be gradually enlarged
and the accommodations improved. The same state representatives
declared that they would insist that the electric line be extended
to the hospital grounds according to a contract that was made at the
time the hospital was erected. The state not only has a written
promise to extend the lines to the hospital, but it also has an
understanding and a written agreement whereby the Alton & Eastern
will build the line, the state having put up $22,000 toward the
viaduct on which the car line operates. The state may demand return
of that amount of money unless the car line is extended to the doors
of the hospital as agreed long ago. On Monday, the representatives
of the Alton & Eastern were summoned to Springfield to have an
understanding about the extension of the line. It is understood that
the Alton & Eastern representatives, while pleading financial
inability to build the line, were told that the state would insist
upon the line being completed according to the agreement. The
company has heretofore declared its inability to get the money to
make the extension. It is claimed by the state it would be cheaper
to build the line than to pay back the $22,000 the state invested in
the viaduct.
FRANK DINGES RESIGNS AT ALTON HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 28, 1919
Frank Dinges, for six years the head farmer at the Alton State
Hospital, has offered his resignation to take effect at once, and
the state has announced a change in policy in conducting the farm
end of the institution as the result of the resignation of Dinges.
Dinges, with his brother-in-law Hugo Gruenewald, who have been at
the Alton State Hospital since it was started, will go to
Belleville, where they will open up in the automobile and garage
business. At the same time, an announcement is made the the Alton
State Hospital will start construction of twelve new buildings not
later than the first of October. A. L. Bowen, Superintendent of
Public Charities of Illinois, was in Alton yesterday with the plans
for the twelve new buildings, which are to cost the state $510,000.
He said that the work would be advertised at once, and he expected
to have the construction on the first of the buildings started not
later than the last of September or the first of October. The
construction of the twelve new buildings will make the Alton State
Hospital the largest in the State of Illinois. It is now one of the
best equipped hospitals in the world for the care of the insane. The
state is also announcing a change in policy at the hospital in
regard to the farming end. The office of head farmer will be done
away with, and the state farm will be turned into a model farm that
will serve as a kind of experiment station for the State of
Illinois. The office of Supt. Farmer will be created, and it will be
filled by a graduate in agriculture from the University of Illinois.
For several years the Alton State Hospital has been farmed for the
herd of cattle on the place. These will be added to and improved,
and everything possible will be done to make the state farm a model.
Dinges, it is expected, will leave in the next few days for
Belleville to take up his new work there. He has made a number of
friends who will regret to see him go. Authorities at the
institution wanted it made clear today that Dinges was leaving of
his own free will because he believed he could earn a better
livelihood at the automobile business in Belleville.
DR. ZELLER BUYS LOUIS XIV BED
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 09, 1919
Dr. George A. Zeller, managing officer of the Alton State Hospital,
has acquired a wonderful old bed, he says. A few days ago, the
Telegraph published an account of the sale of the belongings in the
old Cole home in Upper Alton, and that the one remaining object of
interest was a 10-foot-high bed of the days of Louis XIV, the Grand
Monarch of France, under whose reign furniture and decorations were
designed with lavish ornamentation. This old bed was offered for
sale with its beautiful hangings for only $25, but the drawback was
it was so tall no ordinary room could receive it. Dr. Zeller is now
looking for someone with a 10-foot-high ceiling, so he can let them
use the bed, but a condition that he will attach is that Dr. Zeller
is allowed to sleep in it sometimes. He is a writer of much ability,
and the Institutional Quarterly published by the state contains
frequently works from his pen, some of them facts, some of the
fiction, and some of the middling. Dr. Zeller has just written one
story that is in the last class, and now he sees in this old bed
inspiration for a sizzling work of fiction. He plans, some night, to
sleep in that old bed, and then let his fancy run riot. He thinks
that there ought to be inspiration that would bring forth a great
work of literature. The bed he has purchased is something he is very
proud of. He does not intend to part ownership, but he will let
someone keep it who will take care of it for him, but the question
is, who has a room with ceiling high enough to accommodate it.
BUILDING PROJECT ON HOLD UP - STREETCAR LINE THE CAUSE
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 30, 1919
The prospect of a half million dollars’ worth of buildings for the
Alton State Hospital to be constructed this fall and next spring is
slipping. State authorities are in no hurry, they said today, to
have the buildings constructed in Alton. The twelve new buildings
were to cost $510,000, and would have made the Alton State Hospital
the largest in the State of Illinois, and one of the most modern in
the world. The money has been appropriated by the Illinois
Legislature, and it was expected that the contracts would be awarded
this fall and the construction of the buildings would be started at
once. A. L. Bowen, Superintendent of Charities, told the Telegraph
in an interview today that his department was doing nothing to hurry
the work on the new buildings in Alton. "The plans for the new
buildings have not been submitted to this department or approved by
it. The department is in no hurry to begin work at Alton because the
street car line, which was promised when the institution was located
at Alton, has not been finished. Our employees are still forced to
walk a long distance and to pay an "exorbitant fare," he said. He
indicated that there was little chance of the buildings being
started this spring, and there was some question as to when they
would be started. The street car matter, which he referred to, is
the old problem of the Alton & Eastern. At the time an effort was
being made to bring the State Hospital to Alton, the company
promised in writing to construct a road to the hospital. After the
hospital was located here, the company failed to keep its promise,
and the matter was taken up by the state with the Public Utility
Commission. The Commission ordered the construction of the road. The
company complied by putting the road over Wood River, but it does
not go up the hill and still stops a great distance short of the
hospital. Efforts of the State Board of Charities to get the company
to extend the road, or to have Alton force the company to extend the
road have all ended in failures.
INTERURBAN KILLS HOSPITAL PATIENT NEAR OLDENBURG
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 09, 1919
Charles Clark, 48, of Alton, an escaped patient from the Alton State
Hospital, was killed by a limited interurban [railroad] car near
Oldenburg just before noon yesterday. The body was taken over by a
Granite City undertaking establishment and an inquest will be
conducted there this evening. According to an official at the State
Hospital this morning, Clark was one of a detail working on a coal
pile, when he left the hospital. With the other members of the
detail, Clark left the building and went to the coal pile about 8
o'clock. It was shortly after this that he was missed. Efforts to
find him failed, and the news of his death received last night was
the first information of his whereabouts. Clark had been at the
hospital for some time and was described this morning as a quiet man
who was in the habit of wandering about. He was never violent and
talked but little, it was said. Mrs. Henry Kemper, 460 Bluff street,
is the wife of Clark's adopted brother, and has visited him several
times at the hospital. The funeral will be from her home at 10 a.m.
Wednesday. Clark was not married. The body of the man was brought to
Alton last night and is in charge of Deputy Coroner Bauer. The
funeral will be tomorrow from Mrs. Kemper's home.
PRESENTATION ON STATE INSTITUTIONS GIVEN BY COLONEL FRANK D. WHIPP
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 27, 1919
That Alton and Madison County had an important place in the history
of Illinois state public institutions was asserted by Col. Frank D.
Whipp in a speech at the Y. M. C. A. yesterday. In Alton, he said,
the first state institution was started ninety years ago, the Alton
penitentiary, later moved to Joliet. This reference was made by Col.
Whipp in prefacing his talk on the subject, "The Wards of the
State," in which he made the further statement that in the state
institutions, Madison County has 275 inmates, of which 100 are
classified as insane, 25 feeble-minded, 100 are prisoners, and the
remainder are in other state institutions. Col. Whipp also referred
to the projected increase in the size of the Alton State Hospital,
which he said will be made, as well as increases in other state
institutions. He said, before the meeting, that he expects to see
the plans for this addition to the hospital finished during the
winter, and work may be started next spring. He said that the ardor
of the state for building a bigger institution here is being shilled
by the attitude of the street car company in not extending its line
to the hospital as promised. The lecture was illustrated by motion
pictures of State institution activities at the Lincoln feeble
minded institution, State reformatory, old and new penitentiaries at
Joliet, Chicago State Hospital for the insane, Eye and Ear
Infirmary, Industrial Home for the Blind, Geneva Training School for
Girls, and the St. Charles Training School for Boys; also scenes
from the State Capitol, of Governor Lowden, other State officers,
the Supreme Court, and both branches of the Legislature in session.
Starting with the early history of the State, he described its
progress up to the present time, expanding more particularly on the
institutional area, beginning with the establishment of the first
State institution, the penitentiary at Alton, 90 years ago. Of the
State wards, he said the insane constituted the greater portion,
there being 17,000 cared for by the State, also that there were
2,200 feeble-minded, and 4,000 prisoners in the penitentiaries and
the reform schools. He gave also the number of employees in the
service as 4,000; that the rate of mortality of inmates each year is
approximately 10 percent, and that on an average of eight inmates of
the State institutions die every day. He stated that the annual cost
of these institutions was approximately eight million dollars. He
stated that there were six hundred buildings required to take care
of the unfortunates, that the plants, twenty-four in number, located
in various parts of the State, were valued at $25,000,000. The farms
consist of 11,000 acres of land. Last year's crops amounted in value
to $780,000.00; also, that 98 tons of pork were produced for
institution consumption, that these institutions own 1,500 head of
dairy cattle and 607,000 gallons of milk were produced last year.
The films were new ones, taken during the months of July and August,
and have not heretofore been shown in this part of the State. A
scenario was presented showing the old way of receiving and treating
insane patients compared with new methods, and also pictures of some
of the difficult problems this State has to deal with. The colonel
stated that it is not the object of the department to arouse the
sympathies of the people by showing morbid and horrible pictures,
but the purpose is to bring to the public a realization as to what
the department faces every day in the way of difficult problems, and
to show the citizen of the State what is being done with part of the
large sums they pay in taxes.
INSANE FOLKS GATHER FIREWOOD
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 08, 1919
Alton may find a real asset in the hospital for insane, just east of
town. The inmates of that institution have undertaken, with the
encouragement of Dr. George A. Zeller, managing officer, to gather
fuel to supply homes in the city of Alton who may stand in need of
it. To keep the inmates employed is one of the problems of the
insane hospital management. There are few things they can do, but
when Dr. Zeller picked out of his large family enough patients who
could be employed in gathering firewood, and set them to work
picking up pieces of wood on the state hospital grounds that would
be suitable for use in heating or cook stoves, they got busy with a
will. The inmates of the place had found in the wood gathering stunt
a task they were very glad to do. Notice was sent to Alton by Dr.
Zeller that he would have a large quantity of wood ready for use as
fuel in Alton, all gathered by the hospital inmates, if there was
any need for it. Dr. Zeller also turned over a car of coke to the
local dealers. The sawing and sale of wood will be started when
Mayor Sauvage finds that it is impossible to get any more coal.
FARMING IS WELL CONDUCTED AT STATE HOSPITAL - APPLE CROP A RECORD
BREAKER
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 28, 1922
A great, systematically working farm, with each worker having his
task to perform - and performing it - and contentment apparent
everywhere - the is the impression one gets when he visits the Alton
State Hospital. One thinks of it as a farm, particularly when he
makes a tour of inspection such as newspaper men made as guests of
Dr. C. E. Trovillion, the managing officer, yesterday. The apple
orchard was first visited. The crop this year broke all records. It
will total 3,500 bushels. A large quantity of cider has been made,
and apples are now being barreled, prepared for winter use.
Seventeen hundred gallons of apples have been canned. Groups of
patients were at work picking. About ten or 12 patients to a tree,
formed the working group, each group in charge of an attendant. The
crop includes many varieties of apples. Joe Copeland, formerly of
Calhoun County, is the gardener and orchardist at the hospital. He
has introduced modern methods of picking and sacking. After a walk
through the great orchard, the newspaper men, in company with Dr.
Trovillion and Dr. Waters, his assistant, visited the agricultural
exhibit in the administration building. In the exhibit are samples
of all products grown on the hospital farm. They include various
kinds of corn, pumpkins, watermelons, hay, tobacco, turnips and many
others. Included was broom corn, from which all brooms used at the
institution are made. This year was the first tobacco crop. Tobacco
is rationed among men patients, and growing of the crop there will
cut down expenses. The crop was a good one, 30 acres having been
planted. In the same room were products of the occupational therapy
department. In this department, demented persons are re-educated.
Much of the work is similar to that of kindergartens and opportunity
rooms of public-school systems. They included door stops, ornamented
in several colors; cardboard parrots in many colors; finely woven
rugs; and similar articles. It was after the stop at the
agricultural exhibit that the farm was visited. There are three farm
houses, each occupied by a director and his wife, and several
patients. At one was a pond in which were swimming ducks and geese.
At the institution are 100 geese, 200 Indian Runner ducks, and 200
Pekin ducks. The party also visited the dairy. It is a modern dairy,
too, in which the cows are brought to feed at milking time. This
building was spotless. When the reporters visited it, it was being
cleaned by a patient. Keeping the dairy clean is the one goal of
this patient, who, Dr. Trovillion said, puts in virtually all his
time cleaning the building. An alfalfa field, from which three crops
have already been cut, was visited. An asparagus field, watermelon
patches, cornfields, also were viewed - all finely kept. The
patients make excellent workmen, and once fully cognizant of their
tasks are reliable. They are mechanical workmen, but are consistent.
Time prevented a visit to the occupational therapy department, where
patients are re-educated, and only the outdoor activities could be
observed. Yesterday was one of perfect weather, warm sunshine
keeping the temperature at just that right point. It was a typical
autumn day. The patients, garbed in blue overalls, worked with
apparent contentment, many of them smoking pipes which a poet would
have called peaceful. Women patients were sitting on benches near
the buildings, some in groups, others alone. Others sat or lay on
the ground, dozing in the warm sunshine. Following the trip the
newspaper men were driven to Dr. Trovillon's home, the former
Rodgers homestead. In the drawing room, where the party sat before
luncheon, is furniture formerly in the old Governor's Mansion at
Springfield. In a parlor was a picture of the bouquet of flowers
presented Dr. Trovillion by employees when he became head of the
local institution, painted by the artist-patient, whose paintings
attracted such wide attention. The institution impresses one as a
place where inmates are given work, not too arduous, but enough to
occupy their attention and wherever possible, in the line of work
which is their bent. By this means their minds are occupied, their
existence as near normal as seems possible for persons in their
mental condition. This, of course, results in the saving of money
for the state. Production is increasing yearly, and the work which
makes the lot of the demented more bearable, produces gratifying
economic results. In the wards are those persons not permitted
outside, senile cases of persons so old as to need constant care.
This is the "other side" of the hospital, where one's pity is
aroused. Time prevented the newspaper men visiting the wards. At the
hospital today are more than 700 patients. The institution will grow
until its capacity is 2,500. That has been the policy in Illinois.
Several new buildings, half-completed, were halted by labor
difficulties. Blocks are on the way now for the industrial buildings
which the hospital itself will build.
FILMING INSANE MEN CUTTING WOOD
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 10, 1919
The Telegraph published the story that Dr. Zeller had offered to
supply wood to the city of Alton, collected by the insane patients
at the Alton State Hospital. Already he said they had gathered up
much wood and cut down trees. The Fox Film Co., which issues a news
weekly, sent a camera man to Alton today and is
watching....[unreadable].
STATE PREPARES FOR HOSPITAL ADDITION
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 05, 1920
The State of Illinois will begin at once preparations for erecting a
$500,000 addition to the Alton State hospital. W. J. Lindstrom,
assistant state architect, was in Alton today, authorized to get the
work started. Mr. Lindstrom said that the first work to be done will
be the making of concrete block out of cement, sand and crushed
stone. The plans for the addition to the state hospital are
practically completed, and about all that remains to be done is to
select the places whereon the buildings will stand. The plans call
for six "cottages" capable of housing 100 patients each, an addition
to the dining room and kitchen, the erection of two tubercular
buildings, and a hospital building. The plans of the building call
for a much simpler style of external architecture and more comfort
inside than is found in the other buildings on the grounds. It is
said that Dr. G. A. Zeller, the managing officer, has never been
pleased with the use of too much ornament on the outside of the
buildings and neglecting the interior facilities for handling
patients. In the simpler architecture it is taken that Dr. Zeller
has come off victorious for his pet hobby. Mr. Lindstrom says that
the state will furnish all the cement and the face bricks for this
job, also the crushed stone.
SOLDIER SHELL-SHOCKED - NOW AT HOSPITAL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 18, 1920
Another tragedy of the war, the fourth of its kind in four months,
was brought out in the Probate Court at Edwardsville today, when
Robert W. Vaupel was appointed conservator for his son, Robert M.
Vaupel. The younger Vaupel was a soldier in France and was shell
shocked. He lost his memory and has not regained it. Though
possessing all his physical faculties and apparently his mental
faculties, he has no memory. He was at first in a federal hospital
and later was sent to the Alton State Hospital by the government. He
has $400 cash, so far as is known. It has not yet been determined if
he holds an insurance policy. There have been four cases of
shell-shocked soldiers, who were mentally defective, in the Circuit
Court, in as many months.
FIRST PATIENT AT ALTON STATE HOSPITAL KILLED BY FREIGHT TRAIN
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 19, 1920
Charles Fitton, who was the first patient to be accepted by the
Alton State Hospital, was killed by a C. B. & Q. freight train at
Woods Station about midnight Monday. The body which was badly
mangled by the wheels of the train was carried to Brighton, and
later was brought back to Alton by a passenger train. It was
identified by Dr. Zeller, superintendent of the institution. Dr.
Zeller said Fitton was Number 1 at the hospital, having been the
first inmate received after the institution was opened. He escaped
from the home some time Monday, Dr. Zeller said, and apparently had
wandered to Woods Station. No record of Fitton's connections is
available at the hospital, Dr. Zeller said, except that he had told
attendants he was born in England and had worked as a coal miner
there. He was about 45 years old.
DR. ZELLER SAYS FAREWELL AS HE THANKS PUBLIC
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, November 14, 1921
Dr. George A. Zeller will turn over the management of the Alton
state hospital tomorrow to Dr. C. E. Trovillion, who has been
appointed as his successor, and the day following Dr. Zeller and his
wife will depart for Peoria, where he will take charge as managing
officer of the state hospital there. In leaving Alton, Dr. Zeller
asked that the Telegraph make public the following expression of
appreciation of the consideration shown by the people in the
vicinity of the state hospital while he was putting in effect there
his theory of non-restraint. Only the thought of returning to the
scenes of my childhood and my life's activities compensates me for
leaving the charming and intellectual atmosphere of Alton. In Peoria
I take charge of an institution three times as large as this, which
I also built. I came here a stranger, in a sense, and my work was a
new one to this community. The advent of a large population of
insane people under conditions of freedom not thought possible a
generation ago caused consternation and unwarranted fear. I am happy
to say that there were big broad-minded men in Alton, who dismissing
personal inconvenience, rose to the occasion and took a stand for
the broader humanity that vouchsafes the greatest good to the
greatest number. Their support at a critical period in the history
of this institution not only guaranteed its uninterrupted operation,
but made it possible to secure the half million-dollar appropriation
for its extension and enlargement. The seven buildings at present
under construction are now the largest factor in solving the
unemployment situation in and about Alton. The institution will
continue to grow. By statute its ultimate population is fixed at
5,000, a number never yet reached by any of the other state
hospitals. Its influence will grow and as contemplated improvements
are carried out, it will attract thousands of visitors. Already it
is beginning to claim the attention of public officials in other
states, and a number have been here of late, all expressing their
unqualified endorsement of its policies, but regretting that public
opinion in their respective communities had not reached the stage
where their introduction and application is possible. In leaving, I
desire to express my sincere gratitude to the press of Alton. The
papers have been most helpful. The have never exploited our
misfortunes and shortcomings, but have stood by in a manly, helpful
way and are entitled to the fullest measure of credit in building up
the Alton State Hospital.
INSANE PATIENTS BLAMED WITH FIRE AT CULP SCHOOL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, June 26, 1922
An inquest will be held tomorrow afternoon at the grounds of the old
Culp school to discuss the subject of the cause of the recent
destruction of the school house by fire. Last week the building
caught fire late at night and was burned before anything could be
done to save it. The Telegraph has been informed that Dr. C. E.
Trovillion, managing officer of the Alton State Hospital, has been
invited to attend and has promised to be there. The belief is held
by some that patients from the state hospital were responsible for
the fire. They say they had been hanging around the building a great
deal, and that there is good reason for supposing that they set fire
to the place. There was no one else in the neighborhood of the
school and no one would have any reason for setting fire to the
building. Indications are there will be another drive made to bring
about a change in system of handling the hospital patients. The
neighbors are still favorable to the abolishing of the non-restraint
method of handling insane people in the hospital and out of the
meeting ground tomorrow afternoon may come some important
developments. The incident at the W. B. Sinclair place last week has
added to the strength of the convictions of the people in the
neighborhood that something ought to be done to reduce the nuisance
of hospital patients wandering at large.
INSANE PATIENT BURNS OUTBUILDING AT CULP SCHOOL
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 21, 1922
The directors of the Culp school district have another claim against
the state of Illinois for incendiarism on the part of nomadic
patients at the state hospital. Last night an outbuilding on the
grounds where the burned school house had stood was destroyed by
fire. Patients of the state hospital were seen around the place and
leaving there at the time the fire broke out, so it is regarded as a
proper charge to make that hospital patients who are at large
started the fire. One of the members of the committee in charge of
the interests of the Culp school said today that a claim of $2,500
had been filed with the state Court of Claims. Attorney General
Brundage had written to the committee saying that the State of
Illinois, being a sovereign state, cannot be sued. Any claim against
the state must be filed with the Court of Claims, investigated by
that body, and if favorably viewed, is recommended to the
Legislature's good graces for an appropriation to pay the claim.
There is no recourse if the claim is disallowed by the court of
claims or later by the Legislature. The school directors will insist
on the responsibility of the state of Illinois for the destruction
of the school house, inasmuch as it is believed certain that
wandering insane people from the state hospital did the job. They
regard it as conclusive in the light of the destruction of the
outbuilding last night immediately after insane hospital patients
were seen around and leaving the place. Too many matches in the
possession of these patients is the cause of the fires, the
neighbors say, and when it is stated that the neighbors are
exceedingly nervous, it is putting it mildly.