USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 64
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On the 7th of January, 1823, Dr. Eli Todd, who had been for many years greatly interested in the project, was unanimously selected by the directors as superintendent, with a salary of $1,000 and the use of a dwelling-house near the institution. The contract for a building which is now the centre part of the Retreat, fifty feet square, and two wings, each thirty by fifty feet, - one for each sex, - with capacity for.forty patients, was awarded to Mr. Scranton, of Derby. The cost of the whole building was nearly $13,000, and it was completed and formally opened for patients within one year.
Dr. Todd, a native of New Haven, and a graduate of Yale College in 1787, was settled for many years in Farmington, where he acquired an extensive practice. In 1819 he removed to Hartford. He was a dignified man, with a handsome and benevolent face, his keen, large eye lighting up his whole countenance in conversation. His carefully chosen language was expressive, earnest, and convincing, and he had a large measure of personal magnetism. He was especially familiar with the medical literature of insanity and the European modes of treat- ment and care of the insane. He viewed the subject hopefully ; but his feelings were so enlisted that his report on the sufferings of the in- sane, as they were then cared for in the State, is said to have moved nearly all his auditors to tears when it was read before the Connecticut Medical Society. A retentive memory enabled him to make good use of his extensive reading in matters outside of his profession. He pos- sessed the rare ability of convincing his patients of his deep interest in their welfare, and manifested his sympathy often in unlooked-for ways ; and with his remarkable powers in conversation he sought to divert their minds from their discomforts. A few sentences will illustrate the plan of moral treatment of the insane which he inaugurated when he entered on duty at the Retreat.1
"It is our endeavor to make the Retreat an eligible place of residence, to allow the patients every liberty consistent with their safety, and to subject them to no severe restraints. But in order to secure this desirable object it is necessary to be provided with a competent number of attendants, who by assiduity and vigilance shall supply the place of bolts and keys. It is their business to walk or ride with the patients, to engage with them in their various schemes of recrea- tion, and if possible to induce them to engage in some useful employment. The expense of supporting patients is materially increased by the plan to which we have alluded ; but when it is remembered that it is attended with greater suc- cess, that it is more humane, . . . it will be admitted that no other, or at least no better, course could be adopted. .
" The first business of the physician on the admission of the patient is to gain his entire confidence. With this in view, he is treated with the greatest kindness, however violent his conduct may be, is allowed all the liberty his case .
1 It may be proper here to note that this was prior to the time when Dr. Connolly, in Eng- land, first announced the theory of "non-restraint," and endeavored to carry it into practice at the Hanwell Asylum, in London ; while the plan of Dr. J. Batty Tuke, of caring for patients by attendants with unlocked doors, is of quite recent date. From the statement which I now quote, it appears that a plan almost identical was devised and carried into practice more than sixty years ago in the Retreat at Hartford, by Dr. Todd.
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admits of, and is made to understand, -if he is capable of reflection, - that so far from his having arrived at a mad-house where he is to be confined, he has come to a pleasant and peaceful residence, where all kindness and attention will be shown him, and where every means will be employed for the recovery of his health."
In referring to the results of this mode of management the Board of Visitors say : -
" The proportion of cures which have been effected at our Retreat has satis- fied your committee that the mode of treatment there adopted is highly salu- tary and proper. During the last year there have been admitted twenty-five recent cases, of which twenty-one have recovered, - a number equivalent to 91.3 per cent. The whole number of recent cases in the institution during the year was twenty-eight, of which twenty-five have recovered, - equal to 89.2 per cent."
These few sentences are important, as indicating how thoroughly Dr. Todd anticipated and carried into practice, during his second year of experience at the Retreat, views concerning the moral management of the insane which have more recently been claimed by others. Dr. Todd was succeeded in the superintendency of the Retreat by Dr. Silas Fuller, who had for several years had the care of some in- sane patients in his own house, which doubtless led to his selection for the position. In general appearance and bearing, and in many mental characteristics, the contrast between him and his predecessor could hardly have been greater. Dr. Fuller was a native of Lebanon, and studied medicine under Dr. Scott, of Bozrah, receiving from the board of examiners of the Connecticut Medical Society a license to practise. He was a surgeon in the War of 1812, serving under Generals Scott, Harrison, and Jackson, and afterward lived in Columbia, where he practised medicine until nearly or quite sixty years of age, when he was invited to take charge of the Retreat. His habits of professional and domestic life had become fully settled, while the conditions and the na- ture of his professional duties at the Retreat differed greatly from those to which he had been accustomed. That he succeeded in maintaining the high reputation the Retreat had secured under his predecessor might be disputed by many who were intimately acquainted with them both; but probably all who knew Dr. Fuller best would admit that his reading was extensive and varied, his judgment sound, his ability in diagnosis unusual, his personality large, -so that he possessed the confidence and respect of the profession generally, - his treatment of his patients generous to a fault, and his unselfishness extreme. He believed in the efficacy of medical and mechanical treatment of insane patients, using such measures freely and at times heroically.
The third superintendent was Dr. Amariah Brigham, who was born in western Massachusetts, and came to Hartford from Greenfield, about 1828. He became widely known as a surgeon and physician, and published two small volumes. One of these, on " The Influence of Study on the Brain," was extensively circulated in this country and repub- lished in Scotland, and received high commendations from medical au- thorities on that side of the Atlantic. The other, on "The Influence of Religion on Health," was very unpopular among many of his friends, as it was regarded as tending towards irreligion. This book cost him many
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CONNECTICUT RETREAT FOR THE INSANE.
patrons, and doubtless had some influence in causing his removal to New York City, where he lectured during one winter in a medical school. He then returned to Hartford, and in 1840 published his third volume, entitled " An Inquiry concerning the Diseases and Functions of the Brain, the Spinal Cord, and the Nerves." This volume, which has long been out of print and indeed superseded by more recent works, he regarded as his most important one. During this year he was ap- pointed superintendent of the Retreat. A little less than three years after, he was invited to take a similar position in the Asylum at Utica, New York, where he remained until his death, in 1848. Probably no person became more widely known in his time, or has ever attained a more generous recognition of his ability and service in connection with the specialty of insanity in this country.
Dr. John S. Butler, of Boston, a graduate of Yale College in 1825, who had for some time been superintendent of the South Boston Lunatic Hospital, was appointed after the resignation of Dr. Brigham, and re- mained nearly thirty years. Dr. James Denny, of Boston, succeeded Dr. Butler, and remained one year. Dr. II. P. Stearns succeeded Dr. Denny, and is at this date superintendent.
Dr. E. K. Hunt, of Hartford, has been acting superintendent of the Retreat on several occasions during considerable periods of time. Of assistant physicians there have been seven : first, Dr. William H. Rock- well, who was afterward and until his death superintendent of the Ver- mont Asylum, at Brattleborough; second, Dr. G. B. Hawley, of Hartford, who has been so largely instrumental in establishing the Hartford Hospital ; third, Dr. Daniel Brooks; fourth, Dr. S. W. Hart; fifth, the late Dr. William Porter, medical superintendent of the New York Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb; sixth, Dr. James Denny, who was afterward superintendent during one year; and, seventh, Dr. C. W. Page, who at present occupies the position.
In 1832 the accommodations in the Retreat were found to be insuffi- cient, and sixty additional rooms were provided. Again, in 1844 and 1845 two wings were added, with capacity for about one hundred more patients. In 1855 and 1856 more commodious lodges were built. In 1868 and 1869, after the hospital for the insane poor of the State was erected at Middletown, the board of directors decided to have the larger part of the buildings occupied by patients remodelled. The rooms on the first floor were abandoned, while those on the other floors were enlarged and made in every way more convenient. Money was contributed by citizens of Hartford for the purpose of grading the Retreat lawn, and arranging the trees and shrubs in accordance with plans submitted by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, of New York City. In 1875 Dr. G. W. Russell, of Hartford, erected the beautiful Elizabeth Chapel on the west side of the grounds, and presented it to the Retreat. In 1876 the whole of this portion of the grounds was changed, and the old executive buildings replaced by modern ones built of granite, to correspond with the exterior of the chapel. A large greenhouse was also built by Dr. Russell for the use of the Retreat. In 1880 a beauti- ful cottage was erected on the lawn by the Hon. I. Luther Spencer, of Suffield. In 1881 new buildings, with twenty-four rooms, were erected in the vacant spaces between the third and fourth halls, north and south.
VOL. I. - 34.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
While the capacity of the Retreat is now only one hundred and forty-five beds, whereas formerly it was two hundred, it will readily be understood how much larger are its comforts and conveniences as compared with those it formerly had. More than six thousand patients have been admitted since it was opened, and of these more than two thousand eight hundred have been discharged as recovered.
AO Steams
OTHER BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS.
BY W. I. FLETCHER.
THE ORPHAN ASYLUM. - HOSPITAL. - OLD PEOPLE'S HOME. - CITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY. - UNION FOR HOME WORK, ETC.
THE first institution in Hartford for the care of orphan children was the Hartford Female Beneficent Society, which was organized in 1809, and incorporated in 1813. The objects of this society at first included the affording of "relief to needy, indigent females," but its actual operations were mostly confined, from the first, to the care of orphan girls ; the method employed being the placing of them in suit- able families, where they should " receive religious instruction, and be taught reading, writing, and good housekeeping." Later, the girls under care - the number never exceeding twelve or fifteen - were boarded and taught in the family of a person appointed as matron. As it was thus female orphans only that were provided for, there soon came to be a demand for similar provision for orphan boys. The fact of a settled conviction on the part of some of the managers of the Female Beneficent Society, that the two sexes should not be mingled in such an institution, deferred for a time a response to this demand. But the feeling in favor of an institution which might receive boys grew in strength, and was brought to a head in 1829 by a case of the orphan- hood and suffering of a young boy, which attracted public attention and commiseration. Arrangements were at once made for the care of this boy and some others in like circumstances, and in 1831 a public meeting was held, - the Hon. Thomas S. Williams presiding, - at which it was voted to establish an orphan asylum for boys. A fund was raised by subscription, and nineteen women were chosen as direc- tors, Mrs. Joseph Trumbull being the first president. On the petition of Daniel Wadsworth and others, an act of incorporation was granted in May, 1833. At first, the institution was dependent for its support on subscriptions and gifts, including the proceeds of a collection taken after the annual sermon, which was preached at a union service held on . behalf of the Asylum in one of the churches. The Right Rev. Bishop Brownell and the Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes were the preachers in 1833 and 1834 respectively.
THE HARTFORD HOSPITAL.
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OTHER BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS.
The boys under the care of the Asylum were boarded in a family until 1836, when friends of the institution purchased a building on Washington Street, formerly used as a boys' school, and presented it to the Orphan Asylum and the Female Beneficent Society jointly. The building was occupied by the Orphan Asylum ; but the girls under the care of the Beneficent Society only attended the school exercises in the building, and continued to board in a neighboring house until 1865, when the two institutions were combined under a new charter, continu- ing the use of the name Hartford Orphan Asylum. Soon after this union was effected, the need of larger and better quarters than those afforded by the old building became pressing, and in 1870 the lot now occupied was purchased, and a good beginning was made on a building fund. The building was not begun, however, until 1876. It was com- pleted and occupied in October, 1878 ; its whole cost being over $65,000, all of which was raised by gifts or subscription, without drawing on the invested funds of the Asylum. The new building, while presenting a fine exterior appearance, is especially noteworthy for its admirable in- terior arrangement and furnishing. Among its best features are the day and night nurseries, enabling the Asylum to receive infant children, which it was not able to do in the old building, and a hospital entirely isolated from the rest of the building.
The Asylum has always been a favorite charity with Hartford peo- ple, and the new building was almost wholly furnished by special gifts from different churches, Sunday schools, and individuals. It has re- ceived numerous legacies. The largest were those of Mrs. Elizabeth Averill, in 1846, $7,776.50; Mr. David Watkinson, in 1859, $10,000; and Mr. Alfred Smith, in 1869, $30,000. They are not, however, suffi- cient for the support of the institution, and it is dependent upon annual contributions. Over one thousand children have been cared for by the Asylum, the average number of beneficiaries at one time being about. eighty since the occupancy of the new building. At least eight former inmates of the Asylum perished honorably as soldiers in the War for the Union.
Mr. David Watkinson -always a chief supporter of the Asylum, and its benefactor by his will, as noted above - also made provision by bequest for the establishment of the Watkinson Asylum and Farm School, intended as a training-school and home combined, for boys, not necessarily orphans, in need of such care. For this purpose he left by his will property which he valued at $60,000, including $40,000 worth of unproductive land. By careful management this fund las become about $200,000. A charter was obtained in 18-, under the name of the Watkinson Juvenile Asylum and Farm School. Since 1864 twelve boys have been maintained at the expense of the fund at the Orphan Asylum. In 1881 about twenty acres of land were pur- chased, and a school was opened. At present there are eighteen boys at the school, besides the twelve at the Orphan Asylum.
The disastrous boiler explosion which occurred in 1854 at the car- factory of Fales & Gray, by which nineteen persons were killed and about forty others wounded, forced upon the attention of the public, and especially of the medical profession, the need of hospital accom-
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
modations to meet this and similar emergencies. A committee was soon appointed by the City Medical Society, to take the necessary steps for the establishment of a City Hospital. Mr. David Watkinson, whose name occurs so frequently in the history of the benevolent and other public institutions of Hartford, had expressed his intention of giving $40,000 by will for this purpose, and from the first he was one of the most earnest promoters of the measure.
A public meeting was held, May 2, 1854, the mayor in the chair, and a committee was appointed to draft a constitution and procure an act of incorporation. This was immediately done, the charter passing the General Assembly at the session then holding. Among the incor- porators were David Watkinson, Samuel Colt, S. S. Ward, Amos M. Collins, Albert Day, James G. Bolles, and A. W. Butler. In February, 1855, twelve directors were chosen by the incorporators, and in the course of the year the present site was purchased, and $50,000 raised for the erection of buildings ; of which sum $10,000 was appropriated by the General Assembly. The corner-stone was laid in April, 1857, Governor Buckingham officiating. The central building and the north wing were first erected, and were dedicated in April, 1859, furnishing accommodations for forty-four patients. During the war of 1861-1865 the Hospital was taxed to the utmost, to care for the many sick and wounded soldiers who became its inmates.
In 1868-1870 the south wing and two east wings were added to the building, at an expense of over $160,000; of which sum the State paid $40,000, and the rest was raised by subscription. In 1876 another sum of $25,000 was expended in the erection of a surgical ward and a ward for special cases, in 1880 a new operating-room was added, at a cost of about $3,500, and in 1884 a lying-in ward was added at a cost of about $26,000. The whole cost of the land and buildings has ex- ceeded $270,000. A considerable portion of the large current expenses of the Hospital has been repaid by the State, the various towns, and the individual inmates : but nearly one half of the whole has been paid from the income of the funds of the Hospital, which have been con- stantly increased by numerous bequests. On a tablet at the Hospital are inscribed the names of more than thirty persons who have made bequests to the Hospital, the largest being those of Chester Adams, $68,000; Harriet Hall Hosmer, $46,000; Mrs. Charles H. Northam, $46,000 ; David Watkinson, $41,000 ; James G. Bolles, $16,100; Alfred Smith, $14,000; Henry Taylor, $13,000; James Root, $11,000; A. S. Beckwith and D. P. Crosby, each $10,000.
In 1873 an amendment to the charter was obtained, authorizing the establishment of an Old People's Home in connection with the Hospital ; which object was made feasible, in 1881 by a bequest, of $50,000 from Mr. Charles H. Northam, late president of the Hospital. The Home was opened Dec. 1, 1884, and its fine building on Jefferson Street is one of the noteworthy structures of the city. It has received gifts of $10,000 from Messrs. H. & W. Keney, $10,000 from T. M. Allyn, and $5,000 each from Mrs. Lucina H. Goodwin, Thomas Smith, and Mrs. Lois Sargent of Hartford, Charles Boswell of West Hartford, and Mrs. David Gallup of Plainfield. It cares for old men and old women who are in reduced circumstances.
A training-school for nurses was established at the Hospital in
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THE OLD PEOPLE'S HOME, ON JEFFERSON STREET.
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OTHER BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS.
1877, and proved a decided success, the pupils being of great service in the institution, and going out at the end of their course thoroughly fitted as professional nurses. The applications for positions as pupil nurses are constantly in excess of the vacancies. The capacity of the hospital is now 166 beds, - 12 in the lying-in ward, 24 in private rooms, and 130 in the five wards.
The presidents of the Hartford Hospital have been : Francis Parsons, from 1855 to 1861; James B. Hosmer, from 1861 to 1877; Charles H. Northam, from 1877 to 1881, -each of whom died in office, - and Edson Fessenden, the present incumbent.
Although City Missions have not existed under that name in Hart- ford for more than thirty years, various of the objects sought and methods employed in city missions were known much earlier. In 1792 was organized the "Charitable Society in Hartford," whose object was the charitable relief of worthy persons for whom the poor- laws did not provide "relief suitable to their condition or adequate to their necessities." This first charitable organization of Hartford has continued in active existence to the present time, its mode of operations being simply the disbursement, through almoners chosen for the pur- pose, of the income of its funds, which have grown, by numerous gifts and bequests, until the annual income is about two thousand dollars.
In 1816 the Hartford Evangelical Tract Society was organized, which was for many years efficient as a city missionary organization, but which later became a branch of the American Tract Society, and devoted most of its energies to more distant work. Among its officers have been such men as William W. Ellsworth, Thomas S. Williams, Daniel Wadsworth, and Charles Hosmer. The last was secretary from 1822 to 1865. This Society is still in existence.
Sunday schools, when first organized in Hartford as elsewhere, con- stituted a distinctly charitable and missionary enterprise. The first step in this work was the organization of the Hartford Sunday School Society, in 1818. Under the auspices of this Society, " about five hundred children and a few adults" were gathered, and divided into four schools, described as follows : "School No. 1, to be holden at the school-house in Dorr Street [now Market Street]; No. 2, at the Episcopal church ; No. 3, at the Baptist meeting-house ; and No. 4 at the South Chapel." 1 These schools, thus started by a co-operative and charitable movement, became in a few years connected with the churches where they were held, -the one held at the Dorr Street school-house becoming the Sunday-school of the Centre Church. But in the years from 1850 to 1858 there was a revival of the missionary feature of Sunday-school work in the establishment during that time of not less than ten mission Sunday schools, under the auspices of the Young Men's City Mission- ary Society, which became incorporated in 1859, under the name of Hartford City Missionary Society.
This Society had its beginning in the establishment in 1850 of the first of the mission Sunday schools just referred to, by a few young men connected with the several Congregational churches. The school was held at first in a basement room, corner of Front and Potter
1 Report of Hartford Sunday School Society, 1819.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
streets, and after various removals became finally the Union Sunday School of Warburton Chapel, where it is now one of our most flour- ishing missions. During the first year of its existence those in charge were brought into contact with so much of moral and physical desti- tution that they resolved to organize as a society, and employ a city missionary. The form of organization adopted was the simplest possi- ble, the executive board consisting of two delegates appointed annually by each of the Congregational churches; and this form has not been changed. In their first search for a suitable missionary they were providentially directed to Mr. David Hawley, a layman living in Farm- ington, where he was engaged in farming. Much against his first inclination and judgment, he was secured for a year, and commenced his labors in the fall of 1851. Beginning in a quiet way with the work which offered itself in connection with the mission school, and with the others which were soon established, he gradually extended his operations, - proving himself the man for the place, and enjoying the entire confidence of the helpers and the helped, between whom he stood. As his work turned out of the channel of religious effort, and became more largely a ministration of temporal charities, he exhibited great shrewdness and tact in the methods by which he discriminated between the worthy applicants for aid and those undeserving of charity. He devoted much of his time to visits at the homes of the poor, where he was a welcome guest for his fine cheery sympathy, as well as for the help he brought.
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