HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO - History (published 1881) Ch 13 The County Institutions - pgs 200-203 ************************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Tina Hursh ribbit@clubnet.isl.net http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohhamilt/histhc/mnindex.html March 24, 2003 Trancribed by Dorothy Wiland *********************************************************************** Ch 13 The County Institutions - pgs 200-203 *********************************************************************** History of Hamilton County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Compiled by Henry A. Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford, L.A. William & Co., Publishers; 1881. pages 200-203 ~pg 200~ CHAPTER XIII THE COUNTY INSTITUTIONS " faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind' concerned in charity; All must be false that thwart this one great end, And all of God that bless mankind of men." Alexander POPE, " Essay on Man." THE LONGVIEW ASYLUM For many years an embarrassing and increasing number of incurable lunatics had been confined in the old Commercial hospital in Cincinnati. By midsummer of 1853, one hundred and forty-seven inmates were confined in the lunatic department of that institution, and ~pg 201~ it was considered injudicious and even dangerous to receive any more. A communication setting forth these facts was made by the board of directors of the city infirmary to the board of commissioners for Hamilton county, and on the twenty-fourth of August, of the same year, the commissioners appointed Messrs. J.J. QUINN, David JUDKINS, and A.S. DANDRIDGE, all M. D.' as a committee of examination and report upon the condition and demands of the unfortunates. These gentlemen did prompt, faithful and intelligent duly, and soon reported ably and at length, setting forth the absolute necessity of further provision for the insane of Cincinnati and Hamilton county. They were then authorized to ascertain where a temporary asylum could be located; and their next report recommended the lease of the mansion and grounds of Mr. AMES, on Lick run, near the city, at eight hundred dollars per year. The report was accepted by the commissions, and on September 1, 1853, only three weeks and two days after the original complaint of the infirmary directors was made, the arrangement with Mr. AMES was effected and a commencement made of preparations for the reception of lunatic patients in his building. On the third of the following October, Dr. QUINN, of the committee, was appointed superintendent of the new asylum. The better conditions of situation, living, attendance, etc., greatly ameliorated the physical and mental state of the afflicted ones, and the reputation of the new asylum soon brought large additions to its numbers, two hundred and ninety-six patients, or more than double the number before mentioned as confined in the old Commercial hospital at the time of the change, being inmates at the period of their removal to the institution at Carthage in the spring of 1860. During the time (nearly seven years) the Lick Run asylum was maintained, its cost to the county was but one hundred and eighty thousand, four hundred and eighty-three dollars and seventy-seven cents, or an average of about twenty-six thousand dollars a year. This includes the expense of refitting and furnishing it at the beginning of its occupation, and at the close putting it again in order for its owners, as a residence. Preparations were not long delayed for the construction of a more permanent retreat for the insane of the county. The Lick Run asylum had scarcely been secured, and the lunatic patients transferred from the Commercial hospital, when the board of commissioners moved for the erection of a more spacious and permanent institution. On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1853, they ordered advertisement to be made " the proprietors of lands in Hamilton county," that they desired to " an entire tract of land of fifty or sixty acres within twelve miles of the city of Cincinnati, for the purpose of a county poor house and lunatic asylum. Sealed proposals of the terms of sale, with a correct surveyed description of said tracts of land, with its natural and artificial advantages, will be received from proprietors until the eighth day of November, 1853, at the auditor' office." Many land owners in various parts of the county sent in offers of sale by way of response, and on the eighteenth day of January ensuing, after full and impartial examination of the several properties and sites offered, the board of county commissioners determined upon the purchase, from several land owners in Mill Creek township, near Carthage, of one hundred and nine-tenths acres, at rates varying from two hundred dollars to five hundred dollars per acre. The next year, March 19, 1855, the largest and most eligible of these lots, one of thirty-eight acres, bought of R. W. LEE and James WILSON, for five hundred dollars per acre, was formally set aside for the purposes of the asylum, leaving the remainder to the county infirmary. This was done, in the words of the order, "the purchase of the grounds and the erection of a lunatic asylum sufficiently large to accommodate the wants of said county, may be separate and distinct from the county infirmary, and for that purpose we make the above order." Meanwhile plans and specifications had been procured for an asylum building; Mr. Joseph TALBERT had been appointed superintendent of the work, on behalf of the commissioners; the excavation of a cellar and basement had been commenced, and a considerable amount of work done. Thus far materials were purchased and labor paid, at the order of the commissioners, as the work went on, but presently, on the twenty-first of March, 1855, contracts were made for the erection of the asylum as follows: For the stone work, with Jesse TIMANUS; for the brick work, with John HAWKINS; for the plumbing, with Mssrs. Hugh MCCOLLUM & Company; and for the tin roofing and copper cutters, with William DUNN. The board was not unanimous in the award of these contracts, and the third member of it, Commissioner RUFNER, protested in writing against all the contracts, mainly on the ground that advertisement of their letting had not been made, and that none except the successful bidders had had the opportunity to make offers for the work. The matter was taken into the courts; and, a month or two afterwards, Judge Bellamy STORER, of the superior court of Cincinnati, rendered a decision holding that Jesse TIMANUS and others, contractors aforesaid, were not acting in compliance with law. The board of commissioners was therefore enjoined from proceeding with the work under these contracts. They were vacated, the work stopped, and the commissioners, under direction of the court pending future operations, placed it in a condition of safety against damage from weather and depredations. The sum of one hundred and two thousand six hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-seven cents had already been expended upon the building and grounds. Before proceeding to incur further expense, it was deemed advisable to submit the whole matter of the erection of a lunatic asylum at Carthage to the voters of the county for their decision. The vote was taken at the October election, 1856, and resulted in a majority for the asylum. The commissioners accordingly, on the twenty-third day of the next March, ordered the work to be recommenced and the foundation walls carried up to a level with the first floor. The construction of the remainder of the building was to be done under contract; and in July the board directed the county auditor to ad- ~pg 202~ vertise for proposals, and again, in September the bids under the former advertisement having exceeded the appropriations made, he was directed to call for further proposals, but not for the construction of one wing of the asylum. Numerous bids were submitted accordingly, and on the fifth of October the board concluded a contract with Mr. Wesley M. CAMERON for the completion of the asylum entire, with the exception of the north wing, according to plans and specifications, for the total sum of one hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-six dollars and ninety-three cents; also for the delivery of three million brick, at six dollars and twenty-five cents per thousand, or an aggregate of eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. An act had been passed by the legislature, at the session of 1856, to " the commissioners of Hamilton county to sell certain real estate in said county, and to provide for the erection of a county infirmary and lunatic asylum therein." This act was amended March 8, 1858, enlarging the powers of the commissioners; and an issue of bonds was made in pursuance thereof, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. The securities were placed without difficulty—twenty-five thousand dollars at eight per cent interest, and a like amount at nine per cent in Cincinnati, at par; and fifty thousand dollars at eight per cent and a premium of one-fourth of one per cent, in Philadelphia. The whole thus realized to the county one hundred thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The county auditor was now authorized to advertise for proposals for the erection of the north wing and gas-house, and Mr. CAMERON, in the face of many favorable bids, received the contract on his entire bid, as the lowest in the aggregate, for the sum of seventy-nine thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars and thirty-one cents. The work proceeded rapidly and satisfactorily under his contracts, and in a little more than two years after the signing of the first obligation the whole was completed. November 25, 1859, Mr. Isaiah ROGERS, architect of the asylum, gave the board commissioners formal notice that Mr. CAMERON had fulfilled his obligations. There was, however, still a great deal to be done upon out-buildings, water-works, and the grading and preparation of the grounds—much of which, indeed, was not effected until the building had been occupied and was under the control of the directors of the asylum. To add to the delays and cost, the asylum building, on the twenty-first of May, 1860, shared in the destruction wrought by the tornado which swept through this region on that day, losing six roofs and sustaining serious damage to two others. Again an arrangement was made with Mr. Cameron, who speedily replaced the roofs. The entire expense of grounds and buildings as provided for by the county commissioners, from 1854 to 1861, was five hundred and eighteen thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-five cents, of which two hundred and seventy-nine thousand six hundred and eighty-eight dollars and sixty-five cents were raised in the years 1855, 1858, 1859 and 1860, and the balance was received from the sale of bonds and other sources, including one hundred and forty thousand one hundred and fifty dollars in transfers from the county fund at various times. The house-furnishing complete, stock, and farm implements, in July, 1874, according to an inventory then taken, were valued at fifty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-four dollars and forty-eight cents. The entire cost of the asylum to November, 1877, was seven hundred and ninety-six thousand eight hundred and twenty-six dollars and twenty-three cents, including all out-buildings and the grounds belonging to the institution, which amount to about one hundred and twenty-five acres. An act was passed by the legislature May 13, 1868, which authorized the commissioners to procure additional lands for the use of the asylum, in accordance with which the board, at the request of the directors of Longview, retained the county infirmary farm of sixty-three acres, and passed twenty-five thousand dollars from the asylum fund to the credit of the infirmary fund, in compensation therefore. There were also purchased the lands and lots south of Centre street and west of the canal, for twenty-four thousand and eighty dollars and fifty-five cents. The directors, in the course of their management, from the date of the organization of their board, July 13, 1859, to the end of their fiscal year, November 1, 1877, also made many improvements on the grounds and buildings, putting in machinery and otherwise adding to its facilities and conveniences, to the amount of one hundred and thirty-two thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars and ninety-five cents. These, with the value of the house-furnishing, etc. as before state, and the cost of maintenance and care of inmates during that period (one million six hundred and sixty-eight thousand and forty-one dollars and fifty-six cents), made their total expenditures, during a little more than eighteen years, one million eight hundred and eighty-two thousand and sixty-five dollars and fifty-four cents. There had been received to that time for State Central district patients (1869 to 1874, inclusive), $105,221.34; for colored patients from the State at large (1869 to 1877), $44,737.70; and for pay patients (after 1861) under a system introduced by a resolution of the directors March 5, 1860, authorizing their reception and fixing the rates for their accommodation, $138,687.36; and from sales of produce, etc., at Longview, $9,640.28. Taxes for the support of the asylum had been collected by the county to the amount of $608,729.43, ranging from $1,000 in 1877 to $81,439.98 in 1868. The amount of taxation for this purpose in some other years was very light, and during the years 1874, 1875, and 1876, none seems to have been collected. The State appropriation during the eighteen years amounted to $1,109,925.94. The total receipts of those years from all sources were $2,016,642.05; the disbursements, as before given, $1,882,065.54. Two years thereafter the total sum expended had amounted to $2,063,026.26 - $90,127.64 for 1878, and $100,836.68 for the next year. Before the act of April 28, 1873, the State paid as much for the support of Longview as was raised annually in the county by taxation for general appropriations to lunatic asylums in the State. After that act an apportionment of expenditures was made upon a basis of population. ~pg203~ The first board of directors of Longview asylum was appointed jointly by the governor of the State and the commissioners of the county, and consisted of MESSRS. JOHN I. VATTIER, JOHN BURGOYNE, AND T. F. ECKERT. They were appointed in pursuance of an act of the legislature of April 5, 1859, and took the oath of office on the thirteenth of July following, when the board was organized by the election of DR. VATTIER, president, and MR. W. I. DEBECK, secretary. November 10, 1859, the board appointed DR. O. M. LANGDON, of Cincinnati, superintendent; B. C. LUDLOW, M.D. assistant physician; Mr. R. T. THORBURN, steward, and Mrs. Mary A SHARP, matron. The present officers of the asylum are: C. A. MILLER, M. D. superintendent, succeeding Dr. W. H. BUNKER in 1878; Drs. J. M. RATLIFF and F. F. HELLMAN, assistant physicians, A. V. STEWART, steward. The directors are: H. D. PECK, president; James F. CHALFANT, secretary; A. J. MULLANE, B. ROTH, Dr. C. S. MUSCROFT. Liberal appropriations have been made by the State, as just indicated, for the support of Longview asylum. The smallest appropriation was made the first year—seven thousand dollars; the largest in 1874—one hundred and eighty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents—these granted in pursuance of an act passed March 10, 1857, entitled " act to constitute the county of Hamilton a separate district for lunatic asylum purposes, and to provide for the erection and government of an asylum therein," and of amendatory and supplementary acts subsequently passed. A joint resolution of the general assembly, November 25, 1868, provided for the support and care of patients sent to Longview from the central district of the State. The jurisdiction of the State and county authorities is thus concurrent, and during some part of its history has been harmoniously exercised, and for the best interests of the institution. The Secretary of the Board of State Charities, Dr. A. G. BYERS, in his last published report, after some notice of the troubles brought upon the asylum through political "" says: " present status of the institution is, so far as known, one of quiet and any harmony. Recently, after a season of suspension, the trustees, who had so often and so openly denounced the superintendent as incapable, inefficient, and every way unfitted for such position, and who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the various and multitudinous investigations, seem to have found out that after all they were mistaken, and so voted to reinstate and retain the superintendent in charge of the asylum." At the session of 1878 a joint committee of the senate and house of representatives was appointed by the general assembly, to confer with the authorities of Hamilton county, with reference to ascertaining " and upon what terms the Longview asylum for lunatics can be acquired by or transferred to the State." This movement was prompted by the State board of charities, the members of which believed that all the insane of the State should be under the care of the State, by a uniform system applicable to all the asylums. A careful statement of the cost of Longview to the county was made by MR. W. S. CAPPELLER, county auditor, and some negotiation was had looking toward the total transfer of the institution; but the desired result has not yet been accomplished. As we write these lines (Thanksgiving day, 1880), another and similar negotiation is in progress between the county authorities and a committee of the State legislature. The new asylum building began to be occupied by patients from the Lick Run asylum March 26, 1860, and the removals continue until May 3d, when two hundred and ninety-six had been transferred. The first patient consigned to the asylum by order of the probate court was received March 31st. May 9th of the same year, all patients in the State insane asylum at Dayton belonging to Hamilton county, were also transferred to Longview. At the close of the twentieth year of its history, in November, 1879, four thousand one hundred and thirty-one cases had been received and treated, of whom three thousand four hundred and forty-eight had been discharged—one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine males and one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine females—one thousand eight hundred and seventy recovered, five hundred and ten improved, one hundred and eighty-two unimproved, twenty-three escaped, eight hundred and forty-one deceased, and twenty-two as not insane. Six hundred and sixty inmates were remaining—about two hundred more than the institution can properly accommodate; one hundred and seventy-eight were admitted during the last preceding year. Of the total number, all but fifteen—fourteen State colored patients and one pay patient—were dependent on Hamilton county. The number of inmates of the asylum pretty steadily increased from three hundred and thirty-three in 1860, when it was opened, to a daily average of six hundred and seventy-three in 1879. The average cost of maintenance of each patient has varied from one hundred and thirty-two dollars and six cents in 1862 to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents in 1867. In 1878, it was one hundred and thirty-six dollars and fifty-six cents; in 1879, one hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-three cents. In 1866 the " House," a portion of the purchase before mentioned as made south of Centre street, and west of the canal, was fitted up, as allowed by a State law, passed April 5, 1860, as an asylum for the reception of colored insane persons from the county. It has since been occupied for this purpose, with additional use, since the passage of an act of assembly April 30, 1869, as an asylum for the colored insane of the State at large. The building is old and dilapidated, however, and the State board of charities urgently recommend some better provision for the care of this class of the insane. They say: " are no apparent grounds of complaint as to the management of this department of Longview or the general treatment of colored patients; but the building precludes the idea of general comfort, while it suggests many fears for the safety of the inmates." The number of patients in this branch of the institution has always been limited; it was only sixteen November 1, ~pg204~ 1877, and two years afterwards the State colored patients therein numbered but fourteen, equally divided as to the sexes. There are about ninety officers and employes (sic) connected with the institution, which, with the patients, make about seven hundred and fifty to be accommodated in the present buildings. THE COUNTY INFIRMARY The history of this institution, so far as the original purchase of grounds for it near Carthage is concerned, has already been given in the preceding account of the Longview asylum. In 1870 the county commissioners, under the advice of the directors of the infirmary, purchased the property known as the " farm," in Mill Creek township, east of Carthage and north of the asylum. It occupies an elevation commanding a wide and pleasing view, taking in the fine scenery of the Mill Creek valley as far south as Spring Grove and Clifton, and extending northward to Hartwell, Wyoming, Lockland, Reading, and Glendale. The tract consists of one hundred and nineteen and thirty-eight-hundredths acres, and was obtained for four hundred dollars per acre. The present infirmary building was completed and opened for the reception of inmates, on the twentieth of February 1873. It is three stories high, with a north wing for the male department, a couth wing for the female and nursery departments, and a central or main building for offices, living rooms for the officers, the kitchen and baker, dining rooms, etc. It is accounted a model building for the purpose in all its departments. The superstructure is of brick, faced with sandstone trimmings, roofed with slate, and well arranged on the pavilion and corridor system. The cost of the edifice was about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The farm is partly devoted to ornamental and play-grounds for children and inmates, that part of it being well shaded with forest trees. Another part is utilized to advantage as a garden, and the remainder is kept in a high state of cultivation, and yields a considerable quantity of farm products. In 1879, twenty-four acres were planted with corn, twelve with rye, seven with potatoes, seven with oats, two with sweet potatoes, two with turnips, three with garden vegetables, and twenty acres were given to hay. Farm products, etc., were sold during the six months ending August 31st of that year, to the amount of two hundred and fourteen dollars and ninety-four cents. The number of inmates of the infirmary averages about two hundred, which is only two-thirds of the capacity of the institution. About sixty are received and discharged each half year. During the financial year 1879-9, the average cost of maintenance of each inmate was ninety-five dollars, or twenty-six cents per day, a very favorable exhibit for the economy exercised in the management of the infirmary. The total cost of the year was nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars and fifty-five cents. Inmates are received from all parts of the county except the city of Cincinnati, which has its own infirmary, located at Hartwell. One inmate, September 1, 1879 had been in the institution since 1855, two since 1857, and two since 1858. A school is maintained at the public expense, for instruction in elementary branches, and has a daily average attendance of about forty. The infirmary is managed by a board of three directors, one of whom is chosen each year by the electors of the townships of Hamilton county. They not only have full charge of the proper relief of paupers admitted to the infirmary, but also of the necessary out-door relief to be granted on the application of the township trustees. The principal officers of the institution at present are: Colonel Thomas H. HUNT, superintendent; Mrs. T. H. HUNT, matron; T. S. POTTER, M. D., physician; Miss Mary A. HARRIS, teacher. Its administration is quite warmly commended by the secretary of the State board of charities. In the third annual report of the board, published 1879, he says: " infirmary buildings are quite commodious and well arranged, and, as observed during the year, as in former years, seemed under careful management."