USA > Illinois > Cook County > Growth of Cook County; a history of the large lake-shore county that includes Chicago, Vol. I > Part 18
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The main building at the county poor farm at "Jefferson," which we hereafter shall refer to as Dunning, was completed and occupied in 1855. It was a three-story affair costing $25,000.
Adjoining this main building, the county erected a smaller structure in which to care for the insane. Care of the mentally ill then was a county function, later to be taken over by the state.
The crude and cruel handling of mental patients in those days makes one shudder. Types and degrees of mental illness were little noticed and certainly not understood. No cures were attempted.
If you were adjudged "crazy" in those days, into the cell you went. Such cells were seven feet wide and eight feet long.
"The doors of these cubicles," wrote James C. Russell, "were fitted with apertures through which to pass food. The only heat came from a stove in the corridor which did not raise the temperature in some of the cells above the freezing point. The cold, however, did not freeze out the vermin with which the beds, walls and floors were alive. The arrangements for bathing were so imperfect that during the winter months there were no ablutions of the body; even in summer the
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number of tubs was too small and they were inconveniently located."1
In 1870 the county built a new asylum at the Dunning location. This was a three-story structure, 272 feet by 116 feet, costing $135,000. The following year its capacity was increased by placing cells in the basement, and in 1873 a fourth story was added. By 1878 the insane institution was housing 437 inmates, of whom 100 had to sleep on the floor, but expansion soon remedied this overcrowding.
(Between 1863 and 1866 the county also maintained a general hospital at Dunning.)
Horses Had The "Epizoozy"
In perusing the files of the Chicago Tribune, kept in the vaults of the Chicago Historical Society, we came across the following brief item in the Nov. 5, 1872 issue of that news- paper:
"The County Commissioners met yesterday .... The Super- intendent of Public Charities .... recommended the purchase of two yoke of oxen to take the place of the Insane Asylum horses suffering from epizoozy. The purchase was ordered."
To the young generation of today, born even since the advent of motor scooters and jet-propelled airplanes, the days in which ox-drawn vehicles still were in use in Cook county must seem to have been back in the Middle Ages. Yet there can be and probably are persons still living in Cook county today who can remember back to the times when oxen finally yielded completely to faster-stepping horses in the evolution of transportation.
(Reference to the "epizoozy" among horses in 1872 prob- ably deserves a bit more explanation before continuing with the subject of county poor farms.
(The horse was the principal source of local transportation
1. History of Medicine and Surgery, Biographical Publishing Corp., 1922, p. 242.
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power of that day. It was used for pulling buggies, coaches, wagons, farm implements, and even street cars. Thus when a widespread disease struck the horses thruout the nation that year, particularly those in cities, transportation was so dis- rupted that many persons had to walk miles to their destina- tions, and drayage came almost to a standstill. Newspapers were filled with accounts of it.
(Nearly all horses became extremely ill, many died, many were slow in recovering, and many were left unfit for work. The disease never was diagnosed, veterinary medicine of that day being at a low stage of development. Possibly it was a particularly virulent form of distemper. The term "epizoozy" is spelled "epizooty" in modern dictionaries and is defined as an "epizootic disease," or one of epidemic proportions among animals. )
In addition to its infirmary for the destitute, and its institu- tion for the insane, the county in 1898 built at Dunning a consumptive hospital.
Shortly after the turn of the century the county commis- sioners realized that a complete rebuilding program was needed for Dunning; all buildings were too small and were in disre- pair. Also, in that era, tho a large number of destitute persons sent to the "poor farm" were sufficiently able-bodied to help raise foodstuffs consumed at the institution, the tillable acreage was insufficient to grow all the grains needed for feeding the farm's livestock.
In the meantime, the state had decided that the care of the insane was a state function, rather than that of the counties, and in this Cook county was in complete agreement.
For the year of 1910, shortly before Cook county was to move its poor farm to a new location at Oak Forest, and just before it was to turn over to the state all its Dunning prop- erties for insane institution purposes, let us look at the Dun- ning institution population figures.
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In the 1910 annual report of county institutions, covering the fiscal year from Dec. 1, 1909 to Dec. 1, 1910, we learn that the average daily population for that year at Dunning was as follows:
Insane department, 2,252 (1,165 males and 1,087 females); consumptive patients, 176 (145 males and 31 females); and poor farm inmates, 1,731 (1,347 males and 384 females).
This last figure, showing that many more elderly men were being cared for at the poor farm than elderly women, bears out the statement of the late Frank Venecek, superintendent at Oak Forest from 1923 to 1949, that "grown children always are more willing to care for their old mothers than their old fathers."
The county board meanwhile, had sought and found a new site for its poor farm.
At a board meeting on March 18, 1907, while Edward J. Brundage still was president, Commissioner William Busse (Mt. Prospect) secured the adoption of his resolution directing William McLaren, superintendent of public service, to advertise for offers of sale to the county of farm lands "not to exceed 100 acres" for use as a county farm and location of the poor- house.
The board opened the bids (13 of them) on April 8 and found that prices ranged from $12,000 for 100 acres near Arlington Heights to $99,610 for 99.6 acres near Dunning, the site of the existing poor farm. These the board eventually rejected as being either too high or the property unsuitable.
(On April 15, 1907, Brundage resigned as president and member of the board and was succeeded as president by Com- missioner William Busse who was chosen on that date by his fellow board members.)
The board readvertised for bids for the poor farm, opened the 21 that were submitted on Oct. 21, 1907, and again re- jected them for similar reasons.
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More Acreage Needed
By this time the board realized that if the 160 acres at Dunning were not enough for poor farm purposes, it should not be content with a mere 100 at some new location. There- fore, the board changed its specifications and advertised for from 200 to 300 acres.
This time five bids were submitted and opened on Dec. 9, 1907. They were referred to a special committee, consisting of five commissioners and five citizens.
On Dec. 16, 1907 the special committee recommended the prompt acceptance of one of the tracts offered-the one in Bremen township which eventually was to be chosen. This land belonged to C. L. Buss who asked $140 per acre for 120 of its acres, and $125 per acre for the remaining 129 acres, making a total of $32,925 asked for the 249 acres he said was in the tract.
In his offer, Buss wrote: "The ground is high, rolling and fertile, with natural drainage, about 40 acres of which is covered with fine timber."
The special committee also recommended that a $2,000,000 bond issue be submitted to the voters at the following April election to raise money for infirmary construction costs.
The entire matter was referred to William F. Struckman, assistant county attorney, for a legal opinion. (The duties of the county attorney now are handled by the state's attorney, who assigns most of the county's legal work to the head of the civil branch of his office.)
On Jan. 27, 1908 Struckman reported at a board meeting that a survey of the land showed it to consist of 254.38 acres, instead of the 249 as first reported, and that this would raise the price to $33,624.28.
The finance committee, at this Jan. 27 meeting, recom- mended the purchase at this price and the commissioners, reconvening as the board, then and there unanimously approved
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the purchase.
(In later years-around 1925-the board purchased addi- tional parcels of adjoining lands to bring its Oak Forest hold- ings to the present 337.5 acres.)
On Feb. 3, 1908, the firm of Holabird & Roche, architects, was employed to design buildings at Oak Forest that would care for 2,300 inmates; also to supervise the construction of the buildings and the landscaping. (This was the noted firm that had designed the present county building and also the connecting city hall.)
John M. Ewen was retained as consulting engineer, a posi- tion he held during the construction of the county building in 1906 and 1907.
On March 2, the board directed the then county clerk, Joseph F. Haas, to place the $2,000,000 bond issue proposal before the voters at the April 7 election. (This was done and the proposition carried. )
On April 30, the board directed Superintendent of Public Service McLaren to enter into negotiations with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway for construction of a spur line into the infirmary grounds and the building of a terminal depot, with the cost to be paid by the county.
The board on that date also specified that "the site of the new infirmary be known as Oak Forest."
(These new Oak Forest holdings adjoined and lay to the southeast of the unincorporated settlement known as Auborn Park in Bremen township. By 1915, the Auborn Park residents had changed the name of their unincorporated village to Oak Forest, naming it after the institution, according to Fred Kohl- mann, long-time resident and merchant in the village. It was not until 1947, however, that the village officially incorporated itself as Oak Forest. The county institution is not included within the village boundaries.)
On July 6 tentative plans for construction of the institu-
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tional buildings were approved by the board. Water Works First Award
On Sept. 21, 1908 the board awarded a contract for the first project at Oak Forest-the construction of a water works. The successful bidder was the William H. Cater Contracting Company whose low bid was $1.85 per foot for well-drilling and $2,974 "for the balance of work required."
Giving a good insight as to the Oak Forest infirmary prob- lems that confronted the county commissioners of that day is the annual report of President William Busse, dated Dec. 7, 1908. The report says:
"Contracts for sinking wells to provide a water supply and the construction of a railroad track to connect the main plant with the station have been let, and today bids have been re- ceived for the construction of various buildings.
"These buildings constitute the principal features of compre- hensive plans that are expected to give Cook county the best arranged and equipped poorhouse in the country.
"It rests with this board to see that these plans are faithfully carried out. The undertaking is something new in almshouse construction and it is highly important that no mistakes be made.
"One of the important things the board will have to do in connection with the new infirmary is to devise a scheme of administration. I realize that to organize an institution of this magnitude will require a great deal of thought. To assist us in this matter I would recommend that the recently appointed Citizens Committee be asked to cooperate with the board to bring about the best results.
"Another question that will have to be considered in con- nection with the new infirmary is what Cook county shall do with its consumptives who are in the early stages of the disease and without the means of procuring proper diet and care.
"Physicians and charity workers prominently interested in
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the war against the white plague have urged upon me the necessity of the county's caring for tuberculosis sufferers whose health might be restored if given curative treatment on the first appearance of the disease.
"It is contended that these sufferers in the congested tene- ment districts, surrounded as they are by insanitary conditions, cannot be properly cared for, and that they are prolific sources of the spread of contagion. It has been suggested that a building of a temporary character be erected on the new grounds for the purpose of accommodating this class of patients.
"Last year the board adopted the policy of caring for only such patients as were in the last stages of the disease. This action was taken on the recommendation of the Dunning con- sulting staff, for the reason that only patients in a dying con- dition were received at the consumptive hospital at Dunning. It was decided to make no attempt at curative treatment, but to provide the greatest possible comfort for the patients during their last days. Whether this policy shall be changed and effort at an open-air and dietary treatment shall be made is a ques- tion for this board to answer.
"I would recommend that some provision be made for these patients in early stages of the disease who have become de- pendent on public charity. They should be given some light work about the farm or grounds that would enable them to live outdoors in seasonable weather.
"With proper care and diet it is believed that many of them would be restored to health and become able to support them- selves and families. To provide for them will require the con- struction of a building not included in the present plans. It need not be of a permanent or expensive character, as the adoption of the scheme would be in the nature of ar. experi- ment. If it should prove unsuccessful or prohibitively expen- sive, it could be abandoned.
"Work on the new consumptive hospital at County hospital
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grounds is well under way. Under the contract it should be completed by May 1, (1909), and it probably will be ready for patients early next summer. It is planned for patients in the last stages of the disease, and every effort has been made to provide for their care and comfort.
"It should be the object of this board to push the construc- tion of the consumptive hospital and the new infirmary plant at Oak Forest to early completion, in order that the inmates of the old Poorhouse and Consumptive hospital at Dunning may be removed as soon as possible to their new quarters.
Institutions Always Overcrowded
"The overcrowding of our charitable institutions presents a question to which I invite your early and earnest consideration. There is a persistent demand for more room, more beds, more help, from each of these institutions. The increase of inmates is exceeding the natural growth of the population and each year places a heavier burden on the financial resources of the county, but Cook county must provide ample facilities for the care of her unfortunate and helpless, her insane and afflicted, no matter what the cost. . ..
"The insane Hospital seems, at this time, to be the most overcrowded. A large number of patients have been sleeping on the floors. This fact has led to serious charges being made against the institution.
"These conditions are due in a large measure to the small number of transfers made to state asylums during the last two years. In 1906 there were 517 transfers; in 1907, 96, and so far in 1908, only 89. The State Board of Charities has auth- orized the county court to send all new patients to state insti- tutions, except those whose friends wish them to go to Dun- ning. . . .
"It is hoped that the state authorities will take over the asylum in a short time, but it will not do so soon enough, it is feared, to relieve existing conditions. The state is required
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to provide for the insane in other county institutions before taking over the hospital at Dunning, and this may cause a delay of several months." ,
Thus we see from the Busse report that a new hospital for consumptives was being built at County hospital, and that thought was being given to effecting a cure for other consump- tives who would be sent to Oak Forest.
Why, one may ask, was something not done about this before? The answer is simple. Medical knowledge was just in the awakening stage. Medical scientists, hospital administrators and nurses were turning over the flat rocks under which the disease bugs had lived, undisturbed, thruout all preceding gen- erations of mankind. A school child of today can be eternally grateful that he was born in the era of modern medicine.
The years of 1909 and 1910 were marked with the con- struction of 19 infirmary buildings and the adoption of plans for additional buildings.
The Feb. 11, 1909 letting was the largest. On that date the board awarded to the Alling Construction Company, whose low bid was $1,257,018, the contract for construction of six ward buildings, each to house 210 inmates; a general hospital for 188, an aged couples building for 32, an irresponsibles building for 160, a receiving building for 32, and temporary tubercular quarters for 100. A total of 1,772 inmates could thusly be accommodated.
On that same date the board received a communication from its special committee and architect stating that because 320 tubercular patients from among the 1,870 inmates at Dunning were to be transferred to the city tuberculosis hospital, the new poorhouse and tuberculosis quarters at Oak Forest would care for 222 more inmates than the number provided for.
On March 7, 1910 President William Busse appointed Nel- son A. Cool as superintendent at Oak Forest. On the following Dec. 12, Peter Bartzen, who had succeeded Busse as president,
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replaced Cool by appointing Edward N. Stein to the super- intendency.
From a report of Superintendent Stein, covering the 12- months-period from Dec. 1, 1910 to Dec. 1, 1911, we learn of the first occupancy at the new institution. The report said, in part:
"This institution was opened on the first week in December, 1910, with 1,731 inmates who were transferred from the old Infirmary at Dunning. During the year the admissions were 2,412; 1,859 left or were discharged and 399 died. The daily average for this year was 1,694 compared with 1,582 last year at the Old Institution, a daily average increase of 112. ...
"The water supply was not sufficient until a double acting pump was installed, and since then a new well has been bored to the depth of 1,400 feet and equipped with an air compres- sor; the capacity of this well will insure water for a much larger population ....
"During the summer months, July and August, an average of 350 of the poor children of the city were sent here weekly for an outing and games, refreshments and amusements were furnished them under the direction of Mr. Henry Lynch, busi- ness manager at Dunning Institutions.
"Tent" Treatment For Tuberculosis
"In the workshops all the shoes were repaired, mattresses made and overhauled, brooms were made for this and other institutions.
"The Tuberculosis Hospital is now completed and ready to be furnished. The ground around it has been graded, seeded for lawn, and sidewalks laid. In connection with the hospital, a tent colony has been established, consisting of 80 'tents' which will be of great benefit to incipient cases."
The Stein report also said that the tuberculosis hospital at Oak Forest had been erected at a cost of $179,850 and would be occupied in 1912.
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Tying up some loose ends .... we see by the report that the recommendation of the former president, Busse, regard- ing tubercular patients, was being tried out.
Busse had suggested that an attempt be made to cure such patients, whose cases were not too far advanced, by housing them in tents. Also, that the new tuberculosis hospital was to be used for patients in the moreadvanced stages of the disease.
During the period from December of 1910 to June 29, . 1912, the county continued to operate the Cook County Insti-
tutions at Dunning, but with most of the poor, infirm, and tubercular moved to their new home at Oak Forest, the Dun- ning inmates consisted principally of the insane.
But even with more space available for the insane at Dun- ning because of the mass movement to Oak Forest, conditions for treatment of the mentally ill were not first class and the county was anxious for the state to take over.
To James J. Leddy, who has worked in the office of the county comptroller since 1911 and now is chief clerk, we are indebted for an eye-witness account of an incident at Dunning that reflects conditions there shortly before the transfer of the institution to the state.
Recalls Leddy: "One hot summer day in 1911 when I was out at Dunning delivering the employes' pay checks to the timekeeper, I walked about the grounds and was attracted by an insane patient who had gone berserk.
"They had him strapped in a tub full of water to calm him down. His feet and legs were strapped, they had his arms and hands strapped to the sides of his body and he was hol- lerin' for all get-out. As I stood there looking at him, I saw that a house fly kept lighting on his nose and face, and he was unable to brush it away. This was an annoyance that did not lend to the poor fellow's already disturbed peace of mind.
"When I got back to the County building, I looked up President Bartzen, who was a wonderful man, and told him
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they should have netting to place over the patients who couldn't help themselves.
" 'Old Pete,' as we called him, didn't say a word, but that very day went out to Dunning to try to correct the situation."
Dunning Sold For One Dollar
On June 29, 1912 the county board "sold" to the state for the token price of one dollar the county's entire Dunning hold- ings, then valued at $1,519,128.
The board members were only too glad to be relieved of the responsibility of caring for the insane. The state renamed the institution the Chicago State hospital and operates it to this day in caring for and treating, by improved methods, the mentally ill.
As we move on with our narrative, the great institution at Oak Forest was caring for the indigents of Cook county in a humanitarian fashion generally unknown thruout the ages of civilized man, and a thousand times better than the custom of certain uncivilized peoples who permitted their old folks to wander purposely out into a blizzard, there to die, so that the tribe would no longer have to care for an unwanted burden.
The Aged Were Proud Producers
Instead, new concepts of caring for the destitute aged have been evolving. Those who were able and could give full or part-time service were encouraged to do what they could. They hoed in the garden, worked in the fields, tended the chickens and the pigs and mended and rebuilt mattresses, cobbled shoes, fashioned artificial limbs, helped in the kitchen, wove rugs, knitted and sewed, worked in the flower gardens, and even painted pictures. They enjoyed one another's company.
As Tennyson says in his poem, Ulysses: "Old age hath yet his honor and his toil."
Lest one gain the impression that these destitute aged were merely doing token work in a pretense of helping themselves, let us cite the annual message of then county board president,
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Between 1851 and 1910 Cook county maintained a poor farm at Dunning. In addition to caring for able-bodied destitutes, the institution at one time was used as a county general hospital (No. 3), and, later, as a hospital (separate buildings) for the mentally ill and the tubercular. County, having transferred its poor farm activities to Oak Forest in 1910, "sold" Dunning holdings to state in 1912 for token payment of one dollar.
Pictured (top) is Dunning administration building and (lower) walled detention hospital for insane as they appeared at turn of century.
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the late Anton J. Cermak, which covered the year of 1927.
That was during a period, the so-called "Roaring Twenties," when, according to popular misconception, everybody was working and everybody was happy. Yet at that time, specifically on Nov. 25, 1927, the total population at Oak Forest was 4,037, including 517 destitute tubercular patients.
The Cermak report said that the Oak Forest Institutions, with the aid of many of its aged destitute, that year produced $246,546 worth of products, divided as follows: farm, $65,931; greenhouse, $11,690; industrial shops, $65,818, and bakery, $103,106.
Concerning this, the report stated: "The sum of $246,546 is a large item when figured to a degree as retrenchment, as it is representative of more than a fifth of the entire appropria- tion for the conduct of the Oak Forest Institutions this year."
The farm products alluded to included hay and grain, fed to the farm's livestock, and enough vegetables to supply the entire institution, in season, with sufficient left over to send material amounts to both County hospital and the county jail. In addition Oak Forest canned 1,387 gallons of its own toma- toes, made 21,385 heads of cabbage into sauerkraut, and stored in pits for winter consumption 825 bushels of carrots, 3,000 bushels of beets, 1,000 bushels of parsnips, and 1,900 heads of cabbage.
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