USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 44
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In 1869 the subject of a state almshouse to accommodate paupers who were without legal settlement began to be agitated, and in the same year definite action was taken by the legislature looking to the establishment of such an institution at the State Farm in Cranston. The matter being referred to the attention of the Board of State Charities and Corrections, that body wisely judged that the whole subjeet of state pauperism, pauper settlement laws, and the removal from the state of such as had within its limits no legal settlement, must be investigated before they could intelligently proceed to erect the required buildings. An opinion was expressed that the number for whom provision should be made could never be very large and that these might be accommodated in the old work house at the State Farm in Cranston when a new building, then in process of ereetion, should be completed and oeeupied. In accordance with this view, the old workhouse was to some extent remodeled, and upon trial was found to answer the purpose perhaps as well as could have been expected; but at the best, it was an old and inconvenient strueture which had once demonstrated its un- worthiness to be regarded as more than a temporary expedient, and which could be retained only until the state should be ready to provide something better adapted to the end sought. In the meantime, oppor-
'Report for 1870.
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tunity was given the Board to learn how many state paupers would be likely to present themselves, and what would be needed for their pro- per care, and thus to be prepared to build intelligently when the time to do this should arrive.
The State Almshouse was opened on the first day of August in the year 1874. At the end of the month the inmates numbered eighty-one, and on the thirty-first of the following December, one hundred and forty-one, and on the twenty-seventh of January, one hundred and sixty-five. These numbers were so much larger than had been antici- pated as to suggest the necessity of at once providing additional room, by converting into a dormitory another building which stood in the yard. And still the numbers increased. An old "storehouse" was util- ized. All the buildings were of wood, low studded, and so constructed as to make a proper ventilation impossible. Everything was done that could be done under existing conditions for the comfort of the inmates, but at the end of two years, the decision was reached that "until the state provides a better building for the inmates of the almshouse, the Board can never give a satisfactory report of this institution."
From year to year thereafter the attention of the legislature was directed to the matter, and with increasing urgency permission was sought by the Board to take the initiatory steps toward the erection of a suitable almshouse. The suggestion was made more than once that the good name of the state had already been injured by delay.
At last the time arrived when it seemed proper to ask an appropria- tion to secure plans and estimates for a new almshouse, these plans and estimates to be presented when prepared to the general assembly for its consideration. This request was granted and five hundred dollars appropriated for the purpose at the January session in 1888. At the June session of the same year, fifty thousand dollars were appropri- ated, with which to begin work. The long-felt need would now soon be met.
Two sites for the new building were given careful consideration. One on the west side of the road that crosses the Farm from the Pon- tiac road to the New London turnpike, since known as Howard avenue. The other near Pontiac road and on the ground occupied by the old almshouse buildings. Both were excellent locations, but the latter possessed advantages which easily rendered it the more eligible, and it was selected. It was decided to build of stone, such as is found in abundance on the Farm and in the simplest manner, with no attempt at architectural display ; but the elevation of the ground and the crest of hill on which it stands made easy the arrangement of the several buildings in blocks, agreeable to the eye, from whichever direction they may be approached or viewed.
Briefly described, the new alsmhouse consists of a central building, which may be called the administration building, in which are all the
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
rooms necessary for the residence of the keeper, or deputy superin- tendent, and his assistants, with a chapel for the inmates in the upper story ; a wing for the men, a wing for the women, and beyond the latter a building for the children. These several parts are eon- nected by corridors, one story in height, the whole structure having a frontage on Pontiae road of about seven hundred feet. The walls are of rough faced stone, cracked boulders, with trimmings partly of granite and partly of briek, the roof being covered with variegated slates. The design was to aceommodate three hundred adults, an equal number of men and women, and sixty children. Sinee its eom- pletion, as many as three hundred and ninety-six have at the same time found shelter and comparative eomfort within its walls. The work of eonstruetion began in the autumn of 1888, and in October, 1891, lad been so far finished as to be oeeupied in all its several departments. The eost was upward of two hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. The result is an institution seeond to no other of its kind in the United States.
The Board of State Charities and Corrections in the State of Rhode Island is a unique body, exereising the functions of those bodies which in other states are known by the same name, together with the fune- tions of what is elsewhere ealled a Board of Control.
In its origin it was an evolution and not a direet ereation. At the January session of the legislature in 1867 a joint committee of the senate and of the house of representatives was raised "to inquire into and report upon the expedieney of ereeting a State Asylum for the Insane, with the probable eost thereof, and suitable loeation for the same; with instructions to embody in their reports sueh faets as they may be able to obtain in regard to the cost and the manner of support- ing the pauper insane in other states."
One year later this committee reported, aecompanying its report with a series of resolutions, which after being amended at various points were passed by the legislature ; the effeet of which resolutions was to appoint a commission entrusted with the following duties, viz. :
"First. To seleet and make report to the general assembly of a suitable loeation not less than two hundred aeres of land, for the eree- tion of an Asylum for the Insane ; and to prepare and report plans and estimates of the eost of said Asylum.
"Seeond. To examine and report upon the whole subjeet of the care of the insane, paupers, eriminals, and helpless, as now exereised in this state; and to suggest sueli a plan for state aetion over the whole, as to them may seem most desirable, in aeeordanee with the report of the committee upon the Insane Asylum appointed at the January Session, A. D., 1876, as made at this Session.
"Third. To draft and report sueh legislation, by aet or otherwise,
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as they may deem proper and efficient to establish and carry into effeet the system which they may recommend."
This eommission of which the attorney-general was a member, was authorized to draw upon the general treasurer for expenses actually ineurred, but not for time employed or service rendered.
Its report made a year later (1869) was unanimously adopted, and a new committee consisting of one person from each county, together with the mayors of the eities of Providenee and Newport, was raised and "empowered to negotiate for and purchase a suitable farm of not less than two hundred aeres, for the location.of a House of Correction, a State Asylum for the Insane Poor, and for such other purposes as the General Assembly may direct." At the same time a resolution was passed direeting this committee "to report to the next May session of the General Assembly a plan for the organization and the establish- ment of a House of Correction and State Pauper System, with the necessary bills or resolutions to carry the same into effect, and also plans for and estimated cost of such buildings as may be needed until permanent structures are ereeted."
At the date named the committee reported that the William A. Howard farm, so-called, located on Soekanosset Hill had been pur- chased. A bill "to establish a Board of State Charities and Corree- tions" was also at this time reported, which after inneh diseussion and some amendment was enacted and became a law. This act as passed provided that the "Governor with the advice and consent of the Sen- ate shall appoint six persons, two from the County of Providence, and one from each of the other Counties, who, together with the Seeretary, shall constitute the Board of State Charities and Corrections." In aceordanee with this provision, Governor Padelford announced in the senate, May 27th, 1869, the following persons as constituting the first Board of State Charities and Corrections in the State of Rhode Island, viz .: Henry W. Lothrop of Providence county, Thomas A. Doyle of Providenee county, Jonathan Brayton of Kent county, James M. Pendleton of Washington county, Samuel W. Church of Bristol eoun- ty, and Henry H. Fay of Newport county. Thus was completed the legislation necessary to the establishment of one of the most important and useful ageneies of government in our commonwealth. Its organ- ization was effected in the eity building at Providenee on June 1st, 1869, by the unanimous eleetion of Thomas A. Doyle, chairman, and Edwin M. Snow, M. D., secretary.
At a later date the Board was inereased in number to nine members -three from Providenee eounty, one from each of the other counties, and one from the state at large, together with whoever should be ehosen seeretary of the Board. At a still later date it was enacted that this officer should no longer be a member of the Board, but its
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
servant only, since which the constitution of the body has not been changed. The members hold their office for a term of six years, unless for cause sooner suspended or removed. The secretary holds his office during the pleasure of the Board which appoints him.
The oversight, management and control of the various penal, correctional and charitable institutions loeated at Howard, in the town of Cranston, is vested in this Board. These now inelude the State Farm, the State House of Correction and Workhouse, the State Hos- pital for the Insane, the State Almshouse, the State Prison and Provi- dence County Jail, the Sockanosset School for Boys, and the Oaklawn School for Girls, with an aggregate population of about 2,400 souls. Besides the government of these institutions the Board is charged with a general supervision of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, and of all the city and town almshouses in the state; also with an inspection of "the jail in each County, except the County of Providenee, at least twice in each year, and to inquire into the state thereof, as respects security, treatment, and condition of prisoners therein."
The Board appoints an agent, holding office during their pleasure, who has charge of "the examination of paupers and lunaties for the purpose of ascertaining their place of settlement," and of "their re- moval to their homes or places of settlement, or to the State Almshouse or to the State Hospital for the Insane," as the ease of any may re- quire, and of such other duties as may be required of him by the Board.
The value of this offieer will be seen in the faet that in the year 1900 he caused to be removed to their homes outside the state no less than 727 persons who must otherwise have been supported in our charitable institutions. One hundred and three of these persons were sent to foreign countries.1
The Board also appoints a superintendent of the State Farm, with the State Workhouse and House of Correction, and the State Alms- house, situated on the State Farm: a superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane, a superintendent for each of the two Reform Schools, and the warden of the State Prison. Deputy superintendents are appointed upon the nomination of their respective superintend- ents, also a Deputy Warden upon nomination of the Warden. Besides these the Board appoints the Physician and Religious Instructor. All officers appointed by the Board hold their respective positions during the pleasure of the body that appoints them. All assistants and em- ployes of every sort and grade are hired by their superintendents or by the warden, and hold office during the pleasure of their employers.
The members of the Board receive no compensation for their ser- vices, only their necessary traveling expenses being paid out of the
1Report for 1900.
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public funds. They have uniformly been intelligent and broad- minded men, of generous impulses and marked skill in the manage- ment of affairs, under whose supervision and guidance has grown up a system unique as to many of its features and of great efficiency.
It is quite the fashion with certain writers upon social topics to assert that because of sundry peculiarities in our New England life and thought, and because especially of that great influx of foreigners which has taken place during the last generation, insanity has been and still is rapidly upon the increase : and in support of such a view a confident appeal is made to census tables compiled by officials acting under the authority of the state. Such census tables have an unques- tioned value, but they are insufficient to establish the point at issue. We should remember that social statistics are but a recent invention, and also that our charitable systemis are now more nearly perfect than at any earlier date in the history of the country. To compare the showing of a community that sceks out diligently and gathers scrupulously all the mentally discased persons within its borders into suitable hospitals where they may be cared for tenderly according to their individual needs, with the same community before any special attention was given to those who suffered from the loss of reason, would seem absurd enough ; but a more absurd thing is done when the present record of such a community is compared with the record of another community which still rests content while its insane and demented ones are chained in attics and cel- lars, or shut up in poor-houses, or permitted to wander un- heeded in the streets; and the extreme of absurdity is reached when we are told that the first community because it numbers and ministers in a Christian way to the good of its unfortunates, is therefore afflicted with an epidemic of insanity from which the com- munity which does not consider them enough to find out how many they are is exempt. The social and physical evils that now afflict men are not new. They all existed when they were unnoted and un- named. We are shocked by unusual suffering, the very commonness of which in our fathers' day caused it to be passed by uncommiserated. It was Macaulay who said most truthfully of such sufferings, "that which is new is the intelligence which discerns and the humanity which remedies them."
The first mention made of insanity found by the writer in the annals of this state is in a letter written by Roger Williams to the town coun- cil, and dated Nov. 11, 1650, in which he called attention to the "la- mentable" case of a Mrs. Weston, whom he believed to be "a distract- ed woman." His communication breathes a most humane spirit; but his only requests are that the town council take measures to prevent the waste of any little property of which she might be possessed, and
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
that such provision be made for her sustenance as should be necessary. She was presented to the attention of the council as a person redueed to want by mental disturbance, who might be easily overlooked by the constituted authorities.1.
In the following January the case of Margaret Goodwin came up for attention. She had some property in her own right. She also had a husband, who seems to have been unable to support her or unwilling to do so out of his own substanee. She was aeeordingly given into the keeping of six reputable eitizens of the town, who should have eharge of her person and her estate "during the period of her distraetion," with power to sell of her property so much as might be needed to indemnify them for any expense that they might ineur on her behalf. It would appear that the eare exercised over her person eould not have been extremely vigilant, for a month later she perished from exposure to a midnight storm, having wandered from the house alone and un- clothed.2
In 1655 a man named Pike, who had previously and at different times applied to the town for aid in the support of his wife who had gone "distraeted," was voted help in the sum of fifteen shillings, with a promise of further relief as it should be needed "to the value of ten pounds."3
These may be taken as speeimen eases. They have this in common. that eael unfortunate was a pauper or in immediate danger of beeon- ing a charge upon the town ; and the ease of each was disposed of pre- eisely as would have been done had her need arisen through physical rather than mental disorder either in herself or in those upon whom she naturally might depend for a support. Like the town's poor to whom had been preserved the right use of their faculties, the insane were aided at their homes and their relatives paid for any special eare or expense that might be entailed upon them; or in the absence of home and relatives they were farmned out to the lowest bidder for the time being, or perhaps a lump sum of considerable value was paid and a satisfactory guaranty given that the town should be "forever eleared of them."
And whichever it might be the ease of the poor unfortunate would be pitiable. When one must be treated as a wild beast, whether this shall be at the house of a relative or of strangers ean make but little differenee to the vietim. "A little house, seven foot long and five foot wide" might be built hard by the house of some relative, in which he or she would be ehained like a dog in a kennel, or a stranger might make such provision for the
1Town Papers, vol. xv. 39.
2Town Papers, vol. xv.
3Town Papers, vol. xv.
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wretched maniac as he could afford at the rate perhaps of eighteen pence a week.
There was such a building as is suggested in the town of Jamestown situated on the highway. It was elevated on posts some feet above the ground, having a floor of slats with spaces between them, the design being to make unnecessary frequent cleaning of the inside. In this place a man named Armstrong was confined the year round, without fire, for twenty years, with little clothing, and only such light as might enter at the sides and at the bottom, till at last he suddenly died, as we may suppose to the great relief of himself and all others concerned. It is wonderful that he should exist in such conditions for so long a time.1
Willard Wade, born and reared in the town of Glocester, was arrested when a young man for setting fire to a building in that town, but it being evident that his mind was disordered the case was not prosecuted ; instead of which he was placed in the care of his relatives, his father giving bonds that he should not be permitted to go at large. He was kept in the home of his father till the death of the latter, who bequeathed some not very valuable real estate to a young man who had married a relative on condition that he should maintain the insane son during the period of his natural life. A distinguished citizen2 describing a visit made him in the quarters thus provided for his safe keeping, says, "We found him four miles from Chepachet, locked in an outhouse some six or eight feet square, into which after some diffi- culty we succeeded in obtaining entrance. The room was as comfort- less and filthy as could be imagined, and did not appear as if it had been cleaned for years. The apology for a bed was completely rotten and saturated with ordure. In this room or one similar to it I was credibly informed this poor man had been imprisoned for thirty- three years, nearly thirty of which he had been chained by the leg, which limb then bore unmistakable marks of the iron that had lacer- ated the flesh, the latter being much discolored and seemingly united in one solid mass with the bones and sinews. Although he conversed freely and tolerably rationally, still he uttered no complaint. Neither did he exhibit any indication of suffering, unless as such might be interpreted a sigh which seemed unconsciously to escape from his lips as he dropped heavily into his seat. My attention was directed to his feet which were thrust into the lower extremities of what appeared to have been a pair of old boots. Upon being asked he drew forth a foot; one of the toes was entirely eaten off, the remaining four were black and matterated as was also the extremity of his foot for some inches adjoining. This was caused as I was told by his feet having been frozen, I think the previous winter."
1Hazard's Report.
2T. R. Hazard.
27-3
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
The first step toward those disciplinary and reformatory institutions which are now so numerous and so well conducted in the state was taken in the year 1725, in a law which empowered the towns on the mainland to build a House of Correction for vagrants "and to keep mad persons in."' Earlier than this mention had never been made of insanity in any enactment of the general assembly. Vagrants and insane persons were put in the same class and the same treatment was deemed proper for cach. Vagrancy and insanity were alike mis- demeanors to be dealt with according to one rule. A few years later in 1742, the care of insane and imbecile persons was by law given to the town councils, with power to appoint guardians of their cstates. This was a formal recognition of society's responsibility for the well being of such unfortunates. But it does not appear that they fared better in the town's almshouse than when left with their relatives and neighbors.
In the Newport asylum there was at one time a woman whose name was Rebecca Gibbs, who had lost her reason through disappointed affection. and thereafter had been for thirty years a charge of the town. She seemed to be in a sense folded together, her lower limbs being drawn up to her breast so that her knees and her chin met and from this position there was never a change.2 Her deformity was caused by her having been for several winters shut up in a cell without fireand without clothes, where she had drawn herself as compactly as possible together as a protection against the cold and had so continued till sinew and muscle were unable to relax. In another town in the same county efforts were made year after year for a more humane treat- ment of the insane poor, but those who would have such a change were uniformly out-voted, and the effect seemed only to rivet more firmly the maniac's chains. On one occasion when the subject was under discussion in town meeting a man who had been overseer of the poor shouted that he himself had once flogged an insane person at the town asylum, and the inajority present were not disgusted by this frank avowal, but rather applauded him. It was in the same asylum that a young man was not only chained but so wrapped in bagging that when an apple was placed within his reach he could only gnaw it like an animal as it rolled about the floor and he rolled after it.
Such treatment of the insane was not universal. In most cases friends did as well as they knew how to do and as their circumstances permitted ; and the same may be said of the insane who were kept in the alınshouses. But their proper treatment was not understood, and if it had been understood would have been impossible; and again in- excusable abuses were common. The only apology was in the absence of a hospital for the insane in the state. A measure of relief appeared only
1Arnold, vol. ii, 80 and 140.
2 Hazard's Report.
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when in the last will and testament of the Hon. Nicholas Brown, a wealthy and wisely philanthropic merchant of Providence, dated March 3rd, 1843, was found the following:1 " And whereas it has long been deeply impressed on my mind that an Insane or Lunatic Hospital or Retreat for the Insane should be established upon a firm and per- manent basis, under an act of the Legislature, where the unhappy portion of our fellow beings who are by the visitation of Providence deprived of their reason may find a safe retreat and be provided with whatever may be conducive to their comfort and to their restoration to a sound mind. Therefore for the purpose of aiding an object so desirable and in the hope that such an establishment may soon be commenced, I do hereby set apart and give and bequeath the sum of Thirty Thousand Dollars toward the erection or the endowment of an Insane or Lunatic Hospital or Retreat for the Insane, or by whatever other name it may be called, to be located in Providence or vicinity." He was not the only one who had perceived the existing need. The matter had been discussed, and his views had been accepted by not a few enlightened and public spirited citizens; but he was the first to give to his interest in the subject so practical an expression.
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