[or-roots] Hawthorne Asylum

[Susie]

The Asylum Cemetery is a book published by Susan Bell in 1991.Published by the Willamette Valley Genealogical Society  P.O. Cox 2083 Salem Oregon 97308


As my GG grandfather is buried there I hired a researcher to find him and she sent me information from that book. On page 3 it states until such time as the State was able to afford the establishment of an asylum in Salem, it would be state policy to use the facilities of the recently open Hawthorne Asylum in Portland. In the fall of 1880 the Oregon State Legislature appropriated  $100,000. for the building of the Oregon State Insane Asylum. Page 4 has a notice of the completion and invited the public to inspect the premise in the fall of 1883 with a notice in the paper  dated October 24 1883.

On page 9 the Daily Oregonian carried an eyewitness account of the transfer by train of male patients from Portland's Hawthorne Asylum to their new home in Salem. (For details on the day's events, as well as lists of the patients transferred to Salem that day and the next, see "Beaver Briefs, " Vol 23 pp 21-24.

In 1913 the name was changed to the Oregon State Hospital.Page 12 tells of the bill S.B. 109  of the deposition of the bodies.If not claimed within one week of death shall be delivered by the officers of such institution for consumption at the crematory  and the ashes sent to the relatives or other persons having an interest in the deceased if requested.

Section 3 All remains of persons who have heretofore died, as inmates of the Oregon State Insane Asylum, and which have been buried in the burying ground belonging to said institution, shall be exhumed and cremated in said crematory and all monuments marking the graves of such persons, shall be removed and placed in some suitable place on the Cottage Farm.
 
Page 15 For the remainder of the Cemetery's previous residents, their last resting place became the basement of the Adolescent Ward until 19 76 when all were place in  vaults in the Memorial Circle on the hospital grounds. Each receptacle is numbered and cross-referenced.

Patient 637 and his wife patient 595 are in a vault in the Memorial Circle.  

I would be most interested in following the information about the release of names in the Statesman Journal 
Thank you ,
Susie in Iowa
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: MStang5165 at aol.com 
  To: or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us ; pswitzertatum at peoplepc.com 
  Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:52 PM
  Subject: Re: [or-roots] Is it slow or am I missing emails?


  The Hawthorne Asylum was in Portland and is not, nor ever was, the same as the Oregon State Hospital which is in Salem in Marion County. Not in Lane County. Some of the oldest parts of the State Hospital (the parts used in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) are being torn down to be replaced with new buildings.

  According to a web site Salem Online History through the Salem Public Library, Dr. Hawthorne first opened his hospital for the "insane" in Portland in 1862. In 1883 the Oregon State Hospital in Salem was opened. 

  The canisters you referred to with cremains are here in Salem at the Oregon State Hospital. Just this week there has been a legal Public Notice in the Statesman Journal "Notice of intent to publish the names of the individuals whose cremains are in custody of Oregon State Hospital."  ..."Shall disclose to the general public the name and the dates of birth and death of persons whose cremated remains are in the possession of the department for the purposes of: giving a family member an opportunity to claim the cremated remains and creating a memorial for those persons whose cremated remains are not claimed."

  What the notice does not mention is that many of the canisters no longer have a label that is legible or a label at all.                      Mimi Stang


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