USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume II > Part 27
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to the house by Jacob Taylor, of Stoddard, was passed, which re- quired the selectmen of the several towns to make return to the sec- retary of state of the number and condition of the insane in their respective towns and districts. Further evidence of the activity of the friends of the insane is found in the fact that the house granted the use of their hall a second time to Dr. William Perry for the deliv- ery of a lecture upon the condition and wants of the insane of the state.
On the 20th of June of the next year (1835), a resolution was introduced in the house of representatives by Charles H. Peaslee, of Concord, "appropriating twenty-five bank shares for an asylum for the insane," which subsequently, on the 25th of June, on motion of John Woodbury, of Salem, was postponed to the next session of the legislature. The next day, however, the house passed a reso- lution, introduced by Dr. George W. Kittredge, of Newmarket, pro- viding for the appointment of a commission, to consist of one from each county, to ascertain the number and condition of the insane in the several counties of the state, and make report to the next legisla- ture.
At the next session of the legislature (1836), the subject of an asylum for the insane was again brought forward by Governor Hill in his message, and on the 7th day of June a select committee of ten was appointed "on so much of the governor's message as relates to insane persons in this state, the memorials and petitions praying for the establishment of an insane asylum and the statistical returns from the towns of the number and condition of the insane." This committee consisted of Messrs. Charles H. Peaslee, of Concord ; Luther V. Bell, of Derry; Thatcher Bradford, of Hancock ; Augustus Jenkins, of Portsmouth ; Benjamin F. Folsom, of Gilford ; Benjamin Pettingill, of Salisbury; Cyrus Frost, of Marlborough; James Breck, of Newport ; Henry H. Lang, of Bath; and Aaron Potter, of Milan.
To this committee were referred the petitions of sundry inhab- itants of the towns of Richmond, Fitzwilliam, Nelson, Winchester, Gilsum, Keene, Exeter, Sullivan, Dover, Roxbury, Portsmouth, and Claremont, besides others of individuals whose residences are not mentioned. At the autumn session, other petitions of like purport were introduced and similarly referred.
On the 15th, Dr. Luther V. Bell, for the committee, made to the house of representatives an able report, whereupon the house post- poned the further consideration of the subject to the next session of the legislature. Immediately after, on motion of Joel Eastman, of Conway, the clerk was ordered to procure one thousand printed copies of this report for the use of that body.
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Early in the June session of this year, Samuel E. Coues, of Ports- mouth, was granted the use of the representatives' hall for the deliv- ery of a lecture upon insanity and the insane. A few days later, on the 15th, a resolution of the previous legislature, appropriating twenty-five bank shares belonging to the state for the erection of an asylum for the insane, was referred to the select committee above mentioned. Upon the same day, John L. Hadley, of Weare, intro- duced to the house a joint resolution which soon afterwards passed both branches of the legislature, that the governor be requested to issue his precepts to the selectmen of the several towns, to take the sense of the qualified voters upon the question, " Is it expedient for the state to grant an appropriation to build an insane hospital ?"
At the opening of the November session (1836), Governor Hill, in his message to the legislature, remarked in relation to the returns made in conformity to this resolution, that " less than one half of the legal voters of the state have expressed any opinion, and the official returns, so far as received, would indicate that the vote had been nearly cqual for and against the proposition."
In 1837 neither the message of the governor nor the proceedings of the legislature contains any allusion to the subject of an asylum for the insane. Great financial depression, extending throughout all parts of the country, may possibly have discouraged efforts in this direction, which, under other circumstances, would have been made.
The friends of the enterprise, however, were not disheartened, nor were their efforts abandoned, as they cherished a belief that these must ere long be crowned with success. In this anticipation they were not disappointed. On the 21st of June, 1838, a bill was re- ported to the house from the select committee, to whom had been referred so much of the governor's message as related to insane per- sons in this state, and petitions praying for the establishment of an insane asylum. This passed to a third reading, when a motion was made by Reuben Wyman, of Albany, to postpone its further consid- eration to the next session of the legislature, and "that the secretary of state be required to notify the selectmen of the several towns in this state to insert an article in their warrants for holding the annual March meetings, to take the sense of the qualified voters upon the subject of granting an appropriation for building an asylum." Upon the yeas and nays being called for by Warren Lovell, of Meredith, it was found that the motion did not prevail, the yeas being eighty-five and the nays one hundred and forty-four. The bill was then passed, and in a few days its passage was concurred in by the senate.
Thus, after a severe struggle of six years, during which they encountered a most obstinate opposition, its advocates succeeded in
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
obtaining for the asylum a charter. The limits of this chapter forbid a further mention of the names of these early and devoted friends, to whose protracted and unwearied efforts the institution owes its exist- ence. But for their efforts in its behalf in the legislature, the pulpit, the lecture room, by the way, and wherever an opportunity offered, its erection might have been much longer delayed than it was. In its success, they afterwards had proof of the correctness of their early foresight of its importance, and in a practical demonstration of its usefulness their reward.
By its charter the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane was constituted a corporation, with power to hold real and personal prop- erty in any amount necessary for its maintenance and support, "Pro- vided, that its annual income from real and personal estate should not exceed thirty thousand dollars." The institution was placed under the management of a board of twelve trustees, the offices of three of whom should become vacant annually, eight to be chosen by the corporation, and four by a board of visitors, consisting of the governor and council, the president of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives for the time being. Its charter also provided that when the sum of fifteen thousand dollars should be secured to the asylum by individuals, the state should make over to it, in aid of its benevolent aims, thirty shares of New Hampshire bank stock, worth at that time about eighteen thousand dollars.
Six months after the passage of this act, a controversy arose be- tween the corporation representing the subscribers to the voluntary fund, and the board of visitors, representing the state, relative to certain powers of control assumed by the former, and different inter- pretations of the act were urged. So urgently was this controversy waged that Governor Hill, upon retiring from office in June, 1839, was constrained to call to it the attention of the legislature by a special message. This proved timely. The questions involved were settled shortly after by an act of the legislature, " in amendment to and explanatory of the incorporating act," which provided that "the direction, management, and control of all the property and concerns " of the asylum should be vested in the trustees, without power of interference by the corporation.
When, the next year, serious differences of opinion regarding the location of the asylum were found to exist among the trustees, the · legislature thought it best that the institution should be placed entirely under the control of the state, which, in accordance with an act passed by that body in 1840, assumed its sole management through a board of twelve trustees, to be appointed by the governor and council. Another act, passed the same year, provided that all
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contributions by private individuals, previously made, should be refunded to them if claimed within a specified time.
The location of the asylum at some point in the town of Concord was left to the trustees, who, on the 21st day of January, 1841, selected that which it now occupies; the town of Concord having previously voted to give to the asylum the sum of nine thousand five hundred dollars, provided it should be located within its limits.
Allan Cunningham says, in his Life of Robert Burns, that the storm was abroad when the poet was born, and that " He loved to allude, when he grew up, to this circumstance; and ironically to claim some commiseration for the stormy passions of one ushered into the world by a tempest."
As if the tempests, heretofore mentioned as attending the birth of the asylum, in the legislature, the corporation, and its board of trus- tees, were not enough, the citizens of Concord raised still another regarding its precise location within their town. The people at the south part of its main village wanted it placed in their section, while those at the North end claimed that a proposed site within theirs was the fittest.
The final contest proved lively but short. The South-enders pre- vailed, and about one hundred and twenty-one acres of their choice building land were surrendered to the asylum's uses. Great as may have been the chagrin of the North-enders it was, presumably, removed by the subsequent conversion by the city of a nearly equal area, in their section, to the peaceful purpose of a burial-ground for the dead.
A building committee, previously appointed, now entered upon the discharge of their duties and procured the completion in October, 1842, of the front portion of the present center building and the adjoining north and south wings, which afforded accommodations for ninety-six patients. From the trustees' report of 1844 it appears "that the whole amount expended in the erection of the hospital, barn, and out-buildings for the farm, consisting of one hundred and twenty-one acres, supply of water, furniture, farming tools, stock, and other property was thirty-five thousand two hundred sixty-six dollars and seventy cents," and that of this sum nineteen thousand dollars only had been paid by the state, the balance having been received from contributions by the town, and citizens of Concord, the society of Shakers, and other benevolent individuals, or realized from the board of patients.
According to Dr. D. Hack Tuke, there were in 1883 eighty-nine asylums for the insane in the United States. Among these the New Hampshire asylum ranks in age as the seventeenth.
The older ones were organized as follows, viz. : Williamsburg, Va.,
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
1773 ; Frankford, Penn., 1817; McLean, Mass., 1818 ; Blooming- dale, New York, 1821 ; Hartford, Conn., 1824; Lexington, Ky., 1824; Columbia, S. C., 1827 ; Staunton, Va., 1828 ; Worcester, Mass., 1832; Brattleboro, Vt., 1836 ; Columbus, Ohio, 1838 ; Bos- ton Lunatic hospital, Mass., 1839; New York City Lunatic hospi- tal, N. Y., 1839; Augusta, Me., 1840; Nashville, Tenn., 1840 ; Philadelphia, Penn., 1841 ; New Hampshire asylum, 1842.
The asylum was opened for the reception of patients on the 29th day of October, 1842, under the superintendence of Dr. George Chandler, who, in June following, reported to the trustees the admis- sion of seventy-six patients during the previous seven months. Dr. Chandler remained at the head of the institution for about three years, and to him it was indebted largely for the initiation of a wise routine of management. He was succeeded in 1845 by Dr. Andrew McFarland, afterward superintendent of the Illinois Asylum for the Insane, who discharged the duties of superintendent for about seven years, and resigned in the summer of 1852. In 1849, three years before he retired from his office, the Chandler wing was built.
Dr. McFarland was succeeded by Dr. John E. Tyler, who held the office for a period of about four years and a half. During his super- intendency the first portion of the Peaslee building was erected, in 1854 ; steam fixtures for warming the halls and other parts of the house were introduced in 1855; and, in consequence of increasing applications for admission, the Rumford wing was erected the same year, increasing the limit of accommodations to two hundred and twenty-five patients.
In consequence of impaired health, Dr. Tyler resigned his position as superintendent in 1857, and was succeeded by Dr. Jesse P. Ban- croft. His period of service was a long one, extending from 1857 to 1883. It was also an active one, during which no less than seven important buildings were added to those previously provided.
The first of these, in the order of construction, was the Kent building, erected in 1867. This is the corresponding building, on the female side of the asylum, to the Peaslee building, on the male side. It embodied most of the advanced ideas pertaining to the cus- tody of highly excited patients prevailing at the time of its erection, and is still well abreast of those of the present period.
The very greatly-enlarged number of patients in 1868 rendered · necessary a new kitchen, bakery, cellar, dining-room for employees, sewing-room and chapel. These wants were all supplied in the pres- ent chapel building, which was built this year and designed to meet them.
The ventilation of the old buildings proved more and more defec-
,
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tive as time elapsed and the number of patients increased. In 1869 Dr. Bancroft devised a new system for the halls and rooms in these, and from time to time, as fast as practicable, it was introduced with gratifying success.
The enlargement of the asylum structure on the south brought into very objectionable contiguity the barn and stable of the insti- tution. The necessity for larger structures of this character, better planned and more remotely located, was met in 1871 by their removal and reconstruction upon the sites which they now occupy.
In 1874, the Peaslee building, originally occupying a foremost rank among buildings of this description, was found to have become of insufficient capacity and wanting in some important features, which the experience of the period following its erection had suggested. It was accordingly enlarged to double its original size, and furnished
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Twitchell Building.
with such additional conveniences as the most advanced treatment of excited patients required.
Three years later it became apparent that the asylum had out- grown its boiler house and repair shops, and that a new structure to meet these wants had become imperative. After a careful considera- tion of these and of the most desirable way of providing for them, the present boiler house and workshops were constructed in 1877.
Twice since its erection has the central building of the asylum been enlarged. Its accommodations were first increased in 1860 by an addition of some thirty-six feet upon its west side. The greatly- enlarged number of employees calling ere long for still more room, an additional story was put npon it in 1879. These additions have about doubled its original capacity.
The next addition made to the asylum structure was that of the
18
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Bancroft building. This was suggested partly by the need of addi- tional room on the female side of the asylum, and partly by a desire, on the part of the friends of a somewhat limited class of patients, for more ample accommodations and a more private life than is usually found practicable at state institutions for the insane. To meet this want, the comely structure designated as above was erected in 1882.
After an active service of twenty-five years, in 1882 Dr. Bancroft resigned the superintendency, and was succeeded by his son, Dr. Charles P. Bancroft, who is still in office. Familiar with all the traditions of the institution, he has administered its affairs on lines largely corresponding thereto.
In 1894, under his immediate supervision, the balance of the asy- lum group was secured by the erection of the Twitchell building, a companion structure, on the male side, to the one last mentioned on the other; and, like that, designed to afford more elastic accommo- dations than could be had in the older halls of the asylum. These buildings have not only improved the classification of patients, but have rendered possible the specific treatment of individual cases, for- merly afforded only at institutions outside the state.
In 1899 the legislature made to the asylum an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars, for the improvement of its warming plant, the erection of a building for the use of female nurses during their in- tervals of active service, of a new laundry, of a farmhouse, and for certain specific repairs of other buildings. This work is now com- pleted. A new chimney, one hundred and fifty feet high, for the accommodation of the boiler house, has been erected, a new laundry has been built and furnished, the house for female nurses approaches completion, and the other work contemplated by the legislature has been partially executed.
Such has been the growth of the asylum structures up to the pres- ent time. Its accommodations have been increased from those at first provided for ninety-six patients to those which can now accommo- date four hundred.
The whole amount expended upon these various structures, from first to last, by the state, has been three hundred and eight thousand five hundred dollars, or, considering the character of the accommo- dations afforded, the very low sum of seven hundred seventy-one dollars and twenty-five cents per patient. Whatever the asylum has cost beyond this amount has come from sources other than the state treasury.
It is located in the very heart of the city of Concord, upon a tract of ground highly improved, of about one hundred and twenty-five acres. Some twenty acres of this are occupied by its various build-
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ings and adjacent grounds; the remainder by the pond, farming areas, groves, avenues, and paths. In addition to this tract, the asylum owns a pasture of fifty acres, about half a mile distant, and near Long pond, land to the amount of fifty-three acres more.
One of the greatest boons enjoyed by the institution is that of an unlimited supply of purest water. This is secured to the institution by a well sunk by Dr. J. P. Bancroft upon the premises in 1880, which has a diameter of fifty feet and a depth of fifteen. From it is daily taken a supply of about sixty thousand gallons.
Summer Sanatoriums at Lake Penacook.
In 1855, as before stated, the fur- naces, which had been previously em- ployed, were discarded, and appliances for warming the building by steam were introduced. Up to 1870 wood was the fuel used, but this growing more and more dear in priee, and its supply more and more uneertain, gave way to coal ; and for the last thirty years the steam for heating, washing, cooking, etc., has been made by this.
The land at Long pond, before mentioned, lies upon the west side of the pond, and has a shore line of about two hundred and fifty rods. It is sheltered from cold winds by a lofty range of hills which rise behind it. Every year, from May to November, about twenty patients of eachi sex occupy it as a sanatorium. It possesses attractive landscape features, having a varied surface, partly open and partly covered with forest. Two brooks of clear water traverse it in deep, wooded valleys. Roads, walks, and secluded paths lead over it in various directions and invite to life and exercise in the open air.
Here, upon a commanding spot, a comely house was erected in 1890, which affords accommodations to about twenty female patients. Distant from this some forty or fifty rods, some seven years later, another was built for the use of an equal number of male patients.
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When occupied, both are in charge of able superintendents and receive daily visits from a medical officer from the asylum.
To these houses and grounds an abundant supply of pure water flows by gravity from a spring belonging to the asylum.
This sanatorium has proved to be a very valuable curative agency of the institution. The patients visit it with delight and leave it with regret.
In addition to these buildings at the sanatorium, mention should be made of the neat cottages on the asylum grounds occupied by the gardener and the machinist. Both these men are permanent em- ployees and necessarily reside near to their work. Allusion should also be made to the well-planned and well-constructed farm buildings. These are important, inasmuch as the asylum raises its own milk, most of its vegetables, and all of its pork. Few farms in the state, if any, are better managed or more remunerative. The market value of farm and garden products raised in 1897 was thirteen thousand nine hundred twenty dollars and thirty-one cents.
It is an interesting fact in its history that devoted friends of the insane have ever watched the progress of the asylum and made liberal contributions to its permanent funds. It has been deemed just and proper to put on record here the names of these generous patrons.
Before its opening even, in 1837, Miss Catherine Fisk of Keene, a lady of high culture and benevolent impulses, bequeathed to it a legacy of nearly six thousand dollars, charged with certain temporary annuities, since terminated. By the terms of her will this bequest was not to be paid to the asylum until the expiration of fifty years from the time of her decease. It has since (1887) been received. Held by the state as trustee, it now amounts to twenty-six thousand three hundred seventy-eight dollars and forty-three cents.
In 1846, and at subsequent times, the state, as trustee for the asy- lum, received in partial payments from the estate of Jacob Kimball, of Hampstead, a legacy amounting to six thousand seven hundred forty-three dollars and forty-nine cents, the interest of which is annu- ally paid by the state treasurer to the asylum.
Again, in 1847, Samuel Bell, of Chester, made to the asylum a generous donation of money, to be expended in the purchase of books for the use of such patients as might be benefited by their perusal. With this some two hundred and fifty volumes of standard works, well suited to the purpose intended, were procured. These formed the nucleus about which the present asylum library has grown up. The important additions since made have resulted from numerous smaller and later gifts. This collection of books, now containing over two thousand volumes, is of great value as a remedial agency in
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the treatment of large numbers of convalescent and mildly affected patients.
Two years afterwards, in 1849, the institution received as a con- tribution to its fund the sum of two hundred dollars from John Williams of Hanover.
Abiel Chandler, of Walpole, the founder of the Chandler Scientific school at Hanover, who died in 1851, bequeathed to the asylum two legacies,-one of six hundred dollars, charged with the life estate of a niece, and another of one thousand dollars, and at the same time made the institution his residuary legatee. The several sums, paid to its treasurer and financial agent from time to time by his execu- tors, amounted to twenty-seven thousand six hundred thirty-one dol- lars and fifteen cents. This fund, which bears the name of its donor, has been fixed by the trustees at thirty thousand dollars. Increased by the addition to it of interest, it now stands upon the books of the institution at that amount.
The Countess of Rumford, who died at Concord in December, 1852, was also a benefactress of the asylum. Feeling a deep inter- est in this and other benevolent institutions in her native state and elsewhere, at her decease she left to such a very large proportion of her estate. To her kindness the asylum is indebted for a legacy of fifteen thousand dollars, which was paid to its treasurer in 1853.
Mrs. Mary Danforth, of Boscawen, who also died in 1852, after making other specific bequests, left to the asylum the residuum of her estate. From this, the sum of three hundred and forty-seven dollars and ninety cents was realized by the institution.
One of the early trustees of the asylum was William Plumer, of Londonderry, who ever manifested a deep concern for its welfare. It was found after his decease that, retaining this interest to the last, he had left to it a legacy of five hundred dollars, which was paid to its treasurer in 1863.
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