[or-roots] Oregon State Hospital

[Susie]

I found the following information to be very helpful and explains the move
you refer to in you message. I found Van and Thirza McCullough's records
there. You may need to hire someone to get the information you need. Hope
this helps.
Susie
 
Oregon State Hospital 
(formerly the State Insane Asylum)
As early as 1862 Governor Addison Gibbs recommended to the Oregon
Legislature the establishment in Salem of an asylum to provide for the care
and medical treatment of "insane and idiotic persons".
Prior to the passage of any act dealing with the insane, each county had
dealt with such unfortunate citizens on an individual basis. A document in
the Oregon Archives offers an instance of this bid procedure: dated August 6
 1845, William P. Dougherty of Oregon City awarded a contract for "Boarding,
clothing, and keeping" Eli Smith, "a lunatic," to Andrew Hembrie for $1.00
per day. Hembrie was under $600 bond to fulfill the contract. Similar
contracts could be found in each of the counties, usually under "Pauper
Accounts."
By 1862, Dr. J. C. Hawthorne had opened his Portland Institute for the
Insane. Marion County, along with most of the counties then in existence,
contracted with Dr. Hawthorne to care for their citizens "of unsound mind."
At county expense, these unfortunates were shipped to Portland.
Funds were allocated in the Fall of 1880 for the Oregon State Insane Asylum;
the site selected was north of the state prison on a slight rise just east
of Salem, its present location. Ground breaking took place in May 1881 with
much of the labor force and brick building material coming from the
penitentiary.
Completed in the summer of 1883, the main building of the hospital ("J"
building) is a familiar sight to anyone traveling on Center Street east of
downtown Salem. The street leading to the hospital was originally designated
Asylum Avenue. To oversee the operations at the facility, Dr. Horace
Carpenter, a local physician, was hired as first Superintendent of the new
facility and a staff was engaged to serve the 412 patients the hospital
could accommodate. In the Morning Oregonian appeared an account of the
transfer of 261 male patients from Portland's Hawthorne Asylum to their new
home in Salem. The reporter characterized these patients as "representing
almost every known stage or degree of insanity, idiocy, imbecility or
helplessness". (Actually, records indicate that 268 patients made the trip
to Salem that day.) On October 24th, 1883, 102 female patients were
transferred to Salem, including three girls, ages six to nine.
For three decades the facility operated as the Oregon State Insane Asylum.
In 1913 the name change to Oregon State Hospital occurred. In this year also
a crematory was put into use on the hospital grounds and all burials in the
Asylum Cemetery were disinterred and cremated. Following the enactment of S.
B. 109, deaths at "any eleemosynary, penal, or corrective institution of the
State of Oregon located at or near to the city of Salem," if unclaimed by a
friend or relatives, would be subject to cremation. Their ashes now rest in
the Memorial Circle on the western limits of the hospital grounds, "In
Memory of Those Who Have Passed Away at the Oregon State Hospital." The
incinerator, called "Steiner's Chimney," (for then-superintendent Dr. Lee
Steiner who had it built in 1910) can still be seen, though now the
structure enclosing it houses the power plant.
An extension of the hospital’s north wing ("Cascade Hall" or "J" building)
in 1899 and the addition of seven separate buildings, including the familiar
1912 "Dome Building" where the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was
filmed, in succeeding years reflect the growing realization that the mental
health of Oregonians is a continuing concern.
Researched and written by Sue Bell.
Bibliography
Bell, Susan N. The Asylum Cemetery 1883-1913. Salem: Willamette Valley
Genealogy Society, 1991.
"Echoes of Oregon," State of Oregon Government and Territorial Records,
Document 1122.
Governor Addison Gibbs' Message to the Legislature - 1862, p. 49.
Marion County Commissioners Court Journals, various volumes in Oregon
Archives.
Morning Oregonian 24 Oct. 1883, pp. 1 & 4.Oregon Statesman Illustrated
Annual, 3 Jan. 1900, p. 29.
Oregon State Insane Asylum Admissions, Volume G, Oregon Archives.
Senate Bill 109, Oregon Laws. 25 Feb. 1913. 
The State Hospital has its share of ghostly visitations, not surprising
considering the disturbed mental condition of most of its residents, and the
fact that many were taken there under duress. The labyrinth of underground
tunnels connecting the various buildings of the complex on both sides of
Center Street is spooky enough, or so ex-employees and former residents have
reported. Add to that, the strange happenings of :
> doors closing on their own,
> sounds of wailing and footsteps when no one is around to make them,
> "cold spots" in the halls,
> and shadows that persist in corners and doorways but disappear when looked
at directly - -these are sufficient to raise the hairs on the back of
anyone’s neck.
Explained by skeptics as simply the creaking and idiosyncrasies of old
buildings as they settle, others declare there are definitely spirit
energies still attached to the Hospital, particularly to the original "J"
Building - - which dates back to 1883. Some of the buildings on the north
side of Center Street were constructed over the abandoned asylum cemetery
(including the Dome Building); when the crematory was installed on the
grounds in 1913, burials in the 30-year-old graveyard ceased as any
subsequent unclaimed bodies were cremated as well as those previously
interred in the cemetery. These remains were later installed in the Memorial
Circle near 25th Street.
Susan N. Bell, "The Asylum Cemetery 1883-1913" (Salem: Willamette Valley
Genealogical Society, 1991), p. 15
Dr. J. C. Hawthorne, Portland
Superintendent of the Insane, 1865-81
Dr. Horace Carpenter, First Oregon State Hospital Superintendent, 1883
Published with funds granted by the Oregon State Library under the Library
Services and Technology Act 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: PS
Date: 06/26/05 10:34:10
To: or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
Subject: [or-roots] Langworthy/Longworthy gravesite?
 
I
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