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Brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

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Welcome to Common Ground.

I'm producer-director Scott Knudson.

In this episode producer-director Randy Cadwell takes us along on a tour of the Fergus Falls State Hospital and poor farm cemeteries.

So, I want to welcome everyone to the Ottertail County Historical Society's tour of the state hospital, Fergus Falls State Hospital and Poor Farm Cemeteries this morning.

So, we're going to get going down the path here and we'll start the tour.

So, this is from the Fergus Falls Weekly Journal of July 31,1890.

Wednesday afternoon's train on the Great Northern Road had attached a special car from the St. Peter Asylum and in the car were 80 lunatics, the first detachment that has arrived from the other asylums.

The car was sidetracked and taken directly to the asylum in front of which its cargo was unloaded.

With this announcement the Fergus Falls State Hospital began operations and within a month of the opening, the hospital experienced its first patient death.

67 year old John Olson died of tuberculosis and became the first person buried in the state hospital cemetery.

So, from that first burial in August 1890, to the final one in 1968 over 3,200 people are buried at the state hospital cemetery.

Now the graves were originally marked with simple wrought iron stakes that were stuck into the ground with just a number in the middle.

There were no names.

There were no dates, just a number.

Yet, people buried here, where that white, where the flag is and that white cross, that's where we're heading.

Yet, the people buried here had names.

They had histories.

So, the purpose of today's tour is just to uncover bits and pieces of that history to try to give at least some name, some recognition to the people that are buried at the state hospital.

Just not a lot because most of the information is extremely sketchy on people that are buried here because these are the forgotten ones.

So, the late 19th and early 20th century saw considerable growth in state-sponsored treatment of the mentally ill. Because in previous decades in the 19th century, the insane were dealt with by basically confining them to prison-like settings or poor houses where abuse or neglect were common.

But in about 1850 - 1860, a new breed of physicians sought more progressive methods of treatment.

Now one of the most influential figures in changing the mental health landscape was a man named Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride.

Kirkbride called for more humane treatment, centered on improved medical care.

He felt the mentally ill were suffering from illnesses that could be treated or even cured and so putting theory into practice Kirkbride developed what he called a moral management plan and that even incorporated new architectural concepts for asylums.

So, his plan called for a central administration section of the asylum flanked by patient wings with setbacks to allow for maximum light and ventilation.

Central administration tower flanked by patient wings and usually connected by corridors.

So, Fergus Falls was awarded Minnesota's third state hospital in December 1886.

First was St. Peter and then Rochester and I tell you the competition to get that third state hospital was really intense throughout the State of Minnesota.

Well-known Minnesota architect Warren Dunnell was retained to draw up plans for the new asylum based on Kirkbride's concepts.

So, when we call our state hospital the Kirkbride, I don't always do that.

I like to call it the Fergus Falls State Hospital because it's just based on Kirkbride's concepts.

He was not an architect.

Construction began in the spring of 1888 and then the westernmost part, the west detached building opened in July 1890 and it really was intended to be the most complete and modern institution available of its kind.

So, despite the progressive approach, one area of hospital management that did not seem to really live up to Kirkbride's moral management plan was how the hospital dealt with death.

I mean during the hospital's first years of operation the average annual death rate was four percent.

Okay, so even though patient deaths were an inevitable part of operating an asylum, it just did not appear much thought was given on what to do with the patient when they died.

For example, in the very first biennial report to the State Board of Control in 1892, Dr. Williamson asked for funding for a morgue.

His request was denied.

Two years later the hospital's new superintendent Dr. George Welsh also requested funds for a morgue and this is what he wrote: "Since the opening of the hospital, we have been using a basement room under one of the wards for the purpose of a morgue.

This, besides being entirely inadequate for the purpose is located immediately underneath a large room occupied by patients neither a healthful nor cheerful arrangement.

I would recommend the appropriation of a sufficient fund for the erection of a morgue outside the hospital building."

You would think, okay, but once again Welsh's request fell on deaf ears as his request was denied.

So, in addition to keeping dead bodies in the basement, they were also placed in plain pine coffins that were made by patients themselves.

So, needless to say this arrangement was disconcerting for patients and staff alike.

So, every two years Dr. Welsh requested funds for a morgue and each time the State said no.

It was not until 1914, 24 years after the hospital opened did the State finally appropriate five thousand dollars for a suitable morgue.

Notice that there's a smattering of headstones up in the cemetery.

So, up on the hill and you can kind of see there's indentations, you know, a little bit, that's places you know where they were buried.

But the hospital did not pay for these markers.

They were likely paid for by family members or maybe descendants.

Okay.

The in-ground markers that we're going to see, there are several in-ground markers and there are little crates on the side.

That's a result of a project called Remembering with Dignity, an organization whose goal is to provide markers for those buried in all of Minnesota's Asylums.

They have done some here in Fergus Falls.

None for a number of years because they don't have the funds to do it.

So, there are a number of these crates along the side of the cemetery with names on them that are waiting to be placed and for funding to do that.

So, just in this section by this tree, I want you to kind of look over here.

I'm going to talk about a patient who is buried here.

Louisa Leaf was one year old when she left Sweden with her parents in 1880.

They settled in St. Louis County where her father took in boarders in their house for extra income.

Now around 1900, Louisa became romantically involved with one of the boarders, a man who ended up betraying her.

As the betrayal wreaked havoc on Louise's mental state, her family attempted to deal with the situation themselves, as the September 21,1903 Daily Journal reported.

The article says 24 year old Louisa Leaf was imprisoned in a crude pen made of cedar posts in a corner of her parents home.

Some months ago her mind was affected in a mild degree and she was sent to the state hospital.

A short time later her parents secured her release by promising to care for her.

But once back home Louisa became violent and at this point her brother built the pen that she was forced to remain in.

A lock secured the door and inside was a bed, chair and chamber pot.

Food was passed through an opening.

Louisa is a sweet-faced creature and her tortured brain dwells on the cruel deception that was played upon her by a man only known as Frank.

Louisa Leaf died at the state hospital in 1907, becoming the 617 burial in the cemetery and she is buried in this section by this tree, unmarked.

So, here is the gravestone of a man named August Boltner and this is what we know of August Boltner.

He was born in New York to German immigrant parents.

He was living in Oak Valley township here in Otter Tail County when he was admitted to the hospital in September 1890, shortly after it opened, at the age of 46.

He's listed as single, Lutheran and a farmer.

Boltner had been apparently ill for 23 years it says in his papers and he died in April 1904 of tuberculosis.

Single, Lutheran, farmer, German, lived in Oak Valley township that's it.

When a patient died, hospital officials made every effort to contact relatives so patient could be buried at his or her home area.

But for many there was simply no place to go.

If a patient was alone or no one wanted to claim him or her such as Louisa Leaf, officials had no choice but to bury them here at state expense and for most of them little information is available on their lives.

So Edward Ranknerud.

He was born in Norway, lived in Big Stone County before being admitted to the state hospital in February 1895 at age 46.

He was 5'5", 123 pounds, blue eyes with auburn hair, single.

His occupation is listed as farmer and he died on September 13,1901 at the state hospital of pneumonia and he's buried here.

Civil War veteran, Henry St. Cyr was a member of the Second Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery.

Now the Second Battery is really not memorialized in history books as, you know, being great war heroes.

They didn't make any heroic charges or hold back Confederate lines sweeping across Union troops.

They simply did what thousands of other soldiers did during the Civil War - their duty.

Made up of Minnesota boys from all walks of life.

They served together in battle, overcoming disease, homesickness and rebel bullets and after doing their part to ensure the Union's preservation, they came home and lived their lives as best they could.

So, little is known of Henry St. Cyr.

All we know is that he was committed to the state hospital and died there January 25, 1893.

This headstone was installed in 2015, with a military ceremony conducted by the Second Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery reenactors to just give some recognition to Civil War veteran Henry St. Cyr right here.

Now remember, I said less than a month after the hospital opened John Olson died.

Well, this is what the paper had to say: Less than one month after the hospital opened the August 28, 1890 Fergus Falls Daily Journal published a notice under the heading "Probate Court".

It read: John Olson found insane and committed to third state hospital for insane.

Superintendent's receipt filed.

The same day that 67 year old Olsen was committed, he died of tuberculosis and became the first person buried in the state hospital somewhere in this corner.

We don't know, here's the little stone that they're they want to install but it could go over the fence line.

No one's really quite sure exactly but this is the oldest corner.

This is where John Olsen is buried.

I'm going to talk about the Scandinavians a little bit, so don't get mad at me, I'm just.

So, the state hospital, they saw many patients that were either foreign-born or children of immigrants.

Just think moving to a new country, the unending cycle of work, isolation and basic survival in those years.

It took a toll on a number of immigrants but at the turn of the century there was a prevailing attitude in the psychiatric field that genetics also played a role in insanity.

In Dr. George Welsh's 1904 report to the State Board of Control, he wrote this: "Statistical tables show that about 80 percent of patients admitted during the past two years are either foreign born or foreign parentage.

The increase is even more noticeable every year.

Now it is to be expected as this section of the country becomes more settled and the struggle for existence becomes less acute, that the children of coming generations will be of a higher mental type.

The difficult problem at present, said Dr. Welsh, is to keep as far as possible the degenerate offspring of the older generation from procreating until in the natural course of time this undesirable material passes away.

Very little, however, can be done to solve the problem until society is educated to a fuller knowledge of the danger that menaces it".

Well here's the story - when Emma Lundeen turned 21, she left Sweden for a better life in America.

Now on the voyage over she met a man named Carl Wick.

They obviously fell in love and they married in September 1883 and several years later homesteaded in Pennington County, Thief River Falls being the county seat.

So, by 1895 Carl and Emma had four daughters and two sons.

That's six.

Seven years later a son and three more daughters had been added to the family.

in 1903, Carl suddenly died leaving Emma with 10 children, little money and no means of support.

Within a year of his death, she was committed to the state hospital.

Her mind having, as they said failed from the responsibility of being left penniless with 10 children to care for.

15 months after her committal, she died at age 44 and is buried here at the cemetery.

I don't think genetics has anything to do with that.

I think 10 children and no means of support, wow.

There's a white marker, another one that looked like Henry St. Cyr's.

I want, that's a very fascinating story.

That is a monument to World War I veteran Joseph Pearson and unfortunately we have another sad story.

Born in Sweden in 1893, Joseph Pearson immigrated to America in 1911.

While working as a hired man on the Wood farm in Anoka County, Joseph fell in love with the Wood's daughter Grace, Grace Wood and apparently much to the dismay of her parents, Joseph and Grace were married on June 30, 1915.

So, a couple years later, the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 and Joseph of course had to register for the draft.

According to their great-granddaughter, Joseph's in-laws disliked him so much they bribed the Anoka County Draft Board to have him sent directly to the front lines in France and sure enough Joseph was assigned to the 350th Infantry Division of the 88th Battalion, after 12 weeks of training at Fort Dodge, Iowa he was on the front lines in the trenches in France.

He survived and he was honorably discharged in May 1919.

So, in October he was living in St. Louis County but in December he was declared insane in a Probate Court hearing in Duluth and he was transported to Fergus Falls in December, four days short of his daughter's third birthday.

But Joseph's paperwork indicates that he was single with one child and his attack of insanity was the first one that he had had.

Documents reveal that Joseph believed his wife's relatives wanted him dead and he had long periods of melancholia.

Again, according to his great granddaughter Pearson's in-laws did in fact want him dead.

This, of course, coupled with the brutality of trench warfare and to come home to a wife who wanted a divorce, his melancholia was understandable likely, of course, related to post-traumatic stress.

In his intake report at the state hospital notes: "this patient is emotionally unstable, cries easily and is subject to severe depression.

He talks rationally, is quiet and does not appear to be hallucinated but still suffers from delusions of persecution."

Shortly after being admitted, Pearson contracted tuberculosis, died June 26,1920 and in 2016, his great-granddaughter organized an effort with Veterans Services to have that monument erected with a military ceremony in August 2016.

So, you got finally some dignity that he deserved.

One of the questions I often get are about children buried here at the state hospital.

Records indicate there are 28 burials of individuals under 20, 17 of whom are infants.

The children were born to women patients who were either underage or unwed.

They were more than likely taken to the state hospital by family members or simply because they had no other place to go to have their babies.

If you're looking for Kumbaya stories on this tour, you're not gonna find them, you know, not very much.

These are all sad stories.

That's the reality of the state hospital and the cemetery here.

Thanks for watching.

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Funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, With money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.

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