By Ellen | November 15, 2010
Last week, research team member Niesje Steinkruger visited Denali Center, pursuing a lead from the Elders and Youth Conference. She provided the following report on her visit:
[image title=”BFMH_Denali_Exterior_homepage_web” size=”full” id=”543″ align=”left” alt=”Denali Center, Fairbanks, AK” linkto=”viewer” ]Eddie R., patient #1524, admitted 9/26/33 to Morningside from Ruby, Alaska, also known as “Eddie the Pig” was the reason for my visit to Denali Center today. The name “Eddie the Pig” was related to us when someone from Ruby recognized his name at the AFN conference and said they remembered calling him that as a child. When asked why the elder said it was because his mother used to always watch the pigs and then she had a baby that looked like a pig! The same person said that Eddie’s brother was living in the Denali Center (a nursing home in Fairbanks).
Don Thibideau, a saint, is the social worker there and he helped me. He talked to L.R. and arranged a visit for me today. L.R. is 89 years old. He has been in Denali Center for 37 years! His speech is difficult to understand but he is very alert when he listens and talks. Read More »
By Ellen | October 22, 2010
[image title=”220px-Oregon_State_Hospital_1920″ size=”full” id=”531″ align=”left” linkto=”viewer” ]Prior to the Morningside Hospital years, the Department of the Interior contracted for care of Alaskans at the Oregon State Insane Asylum, now known as Oregon State Hospital (Salem).
Between 1901 and 1903, 69 Alaskans were sent to there, 31 of whom were later transferred to Morningside. Six men died while in Salem, including:
- William Johnson, d.23 Aug 1901 (age 30, b. England)
- Thomas A. Wilson, d. 9 Jan 1902 (age ___, b. England)
- Alexander H Carpenter, d. 30 Mar 1902 ( age ___, b. ___)
- Robert Sweet, d. 9 Nov 1902 (age 48, b. American)
- Wm. Ukas, d. 24 Jun 1903 (age ___, b. Alaska)
- Louis Bronson, d. 27 Jun 1903 (age 68, b. Germany)
On January 11, 1902, the Oregon Statesman published Thomas A. Wilson’s obituary. They reported that he committed suicide by jumping from a third floor window. The article went on to say:
“Wilson was committed to the Insane Asylum from Alaska, and he had recently shown marked signs of improvement. When realizing that he was in an insane asylum, he was very much distressed. He had thus far shown no signs of suicidal tendencies, and was generally considered a model patient.”
One of the interesting aspects of this is that the six men who died at the Oregon State Insane Asylum may be among those whose remains are in the copper canisters I wrote about on September 15. Another lead to follow the next time I’m in Oregon.
By Ellen | October 20, 2010
[image title=”DSC06146″ size=”large” id=”523″ align=”left” linkto=”http://documents.morningsidehospital.com/2010/10/DSC06146.jpg” ]Two great days at the Elders and Youth Conference. We had a booth (thanks to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority) and did a presentation yesterday afternoon. Forty (40) elders and youth were in the audience. We focused the presentation on telling the stories of some of the people who were sent to Morningside. A number of adults had heard of Morningside, and some had family members who were sent there. The best part was telling the story to young people, none of whom had heard of Morningside Hospital, but they all understood the tragedy of being sent so far from home.
By Ellen | October 2, 2010
[image title=”UAF logo” size=”full” id=”510″ align=”left” linkto=”viewer” ]Lisa Morris of the UAF Archives has produced the “Research Guide to Alaska Mental Health History Sources“, an invaluable guide to information resources in Alaska and elsewhere. The guide covers the history of mental health services from 1900 to the present, including the Morningside Hospital years (1904-1960s).
By Ellen | September 16, 2010
[image title=”Access Logo with tag line” size=”full” id=”456″ align=”left” linkto=”https://www.morningsidehospital.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Access-Logo-with-tag-line1.jpg” ]The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority recently approved a grant of nearly $60,000 to support our research. Because we are all volunteers and not a part of any organization, Access Alaska graciously agreed to manage the funds. This grant will support the development of the patient database, archival support, and research related travel. Thanks to all who made this possible, and especially Doug Toelle, our Access Alaska project manager and friend.
By Ellen | September 15, 2010
[image title=”Canister, Oregon State Hospital” size=”full” id=”444″ align=”left” alt=”Photo by David Maisel, Libraries of Dust” linkto=”https://www.morningsidehospital.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/can-with-label3.jpg” ]Over the summer, I corresponded with Cynthia Prater, a clinician at the Oregon State Hospital. She’s doing research on the mental health care of Native Americans in Oregon and came across the blog. She passed along a fabulous report created by the Willamette Valley Historical Society in 1991 on the cemetery at the State Hospital. There were 69 Alaskans admitted to the Oregon Insane Asylum between 1901 and 1903, 6 of whom died. I’ll post more information on the report soon, but wanted to pass along this bit of history.
There were 1,539 burials in the Asylum Cemetery between 1883 to 1913. In 1913 all the bodies were exhumed, cremated, and the ashes were put in copper canisters. In 2009, the American Journal of Psychiatry reported: “A grim discovery was made by a group of state legislators touring the facility in 2004. The cremated remains of more than 3,000 patients who died at the hospital from the late 1880s to the mid-1970s were found in corroding copper canisters in a storage room, the so-called “room of lost souls.” They were the remnants of a time when mental illness was so stigmatizing that families abandoned patients.”
There were a number of attempts to connect remains to family members and to honor or formally recognize them in some way. However, at this point, they are still stored at the hospital.
By Ellen | September 15, 2010
[image title=”logo_oregonlive” size=”full” id=”428″ align=”left” linkto=”viewer” ]The Oregonian Historical Archive is online! This is wonderful news. We found a limited number of articles on Morningside at the Oregon Historical Society, most of which had to do with the 1950s. The new online archive lists 345 articles on Morningside Hospital, many providing insights into the day-to-day activities there. You can get a one-day pass, which includes up to 50 downloaded articles, for $9.99. Monthly subscriptions are $19.50/month with which you can view up to 200 articles a month. Here’s where you can find the archive.
[image title=”grave marker 2″ size=”full” id=”538″ align=”left” linkto=”viewer” ]The Friends of Multnomah Park Cemetery have set up a Virtual Cemetery listing the patients of Morningside Hospital (8 so far). The links from the name or the burial marker take you to additional information about the person.
The director of Morningside sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior each time a patient died. On March 1, 1937, Wayne Coe sent the following letter to Secretary of the Interior about Joe Falardeau, whose grave is included in the Virtual Cemetary:
Sir:
Permit us to inform you herewith that our patient, Joe Falardeau No. 1269 who was admitted into our hospital, June 14, 1929 from Cordova died February 26th, 1937. The cause of death was Cerebral Thrombosis. The body was turned over to Holman & Lutz of this city for burial in Multnomah Cemetery.
Respectfully yours,
Wayne W. Coe
Former Juneau resident Marylou Elton deserves the volunteer of the year award. For the past six months, she’s spent her Wednesdays locating and scanning patient information at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. She’s focusing on the quarterly reports/invoices that Morningside sent the Department of the Interior. These documents include the names of patients who were at the hospital and information on patients who died during the quarter. Here are examples from March 1924 and March 1945. We now have a complete (or nearly complete) list of all those sent to Morningside Hospital from 1904 to 1945. Unfortunately, the quarterly reports from 1946 to the closure of the hospital in the 1960s are nowhere to be found.
The patient database is still our top priority. We expect the receive funding (through a partnership of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and Access Alaska) before the end of the summer
Charles Kurtz recently contacted the blog and offered to share his experiences at Morningside Hospital during the 1950s and 1960s. He gave me permission to post his email messages and I hope to interview him later this year. We’d love to hear more about day-to-day life at Morningside from other former employees of the hospital.
“My mother worked as a chef/cook at Morningside Hospital from the early 1950’s until 1965. I also worked there myself on a couple of occasions. As a high school summer job, I worked in the kitchen for a couple of months.
Beginning in 1962, I worked as a psychiatric aide–working nights while I finished college. I remember well–though maybe not always by name–many of the patients on the ward I worked. This was a ward mainly for men with acute psychosis. Most were in treatment focused on returning them home, so there was always a turnover, with some patients staying only a month or so. Of course there were some patients so chronically ill or so developmentally disabled they were essentially permanent residents. Read More »
