Scary Mental Health

View in the Full Blog

We have two female cemeterians who were confined for years in the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Florida.

In studying their history, I became interested in the general subject of mental institutions in the 19th century and specifically as to why so many women were confined there.  And by whom?

Here is the story of one such woman - confined to an insane asylum in Illinois in 1860 by her husband, The law at that time allowed a husband to commit his wife without a public hearing or her consent. All other persons were by law to have a public hearing before committal.

The Strange Case of Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard

Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard

Her husband, the Reverend Packard was a Calvinist minister with an austere interpretation of his faith, and he claimed his wife's religious views had convinced him that she was "slightly insane," a condition he attributed to "excessive application of body and mind." 

On June 18, 1860, he had her committed to the Illinois State Hospital where she was confined a ward with the criminally insane.

Three years later at the insistence of his now legal-aged son, he signed for her release but on her return home, he locked her in the nursery of their home and nailed the windows shut. She slipped a letter out the window begging for help and a friend took it to a judge who ordered a trial. For although there were no laws to prevent a husband from committing his wife to a insane asylum, there were statutes against holding someone against his/her will within a house.

Testimony Given at the Trial: Abijah Dole, brother-in-law of  Reverend Packard, testified that he knew Elizabeth had become disoriented because she had told him she no longer wished to live with Reverend Packard. Abijah also testified that Elizabeth had requested a letter terminating her membership in her husband's church.

"Was that an indication of insanity?" Elizabeth's lawyer inquired.

"She would not leave the church unless she was insane, “ Abijah replied.

Sarah Rumsey, a young woman who had briefly served as a mother's helper for the Packards, also gave evidence of what she considered Elizabeth Packard's insanity:

"She wanted the flower beds in the front yard cleaned out and tried to get Mr. Packard to do it. He would not. She put on an old dress and went to work and cleaned out the weeds until she was almost melted down with the heat. Then she went to her room and took a bath and dressed herself and lay down exhausted. She was angry & excited & showed ill-will."

On January 18 1860,  the jury reached its verdict in seven minutes. "We, the undersigned, Jurors in the case of Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard, alleged to be insane, having heard the evidence … are satisfied that [she] is sane."

Judge Starr ordered: "that Mrs. Elizabeth P.W. Packard be relieved of all restraints incompatible with her condition as a sane woman."

Neither the judge nor jury addressed the question of whether, had Mrs. Packard been found insane, Mr. Packard had the right to confine her at home rather than in an asylum. 

Amazingly, the Packards remained married but estranged for the remainder of their lives. Elizabeth Packard wrote, lectured, and lobbied on behalf of the rights of women and those alleged to be insane; she was instrumental in changing the commitment laws in four states and in passing a married woman's property law in Illinois.

She founded the Anti-Insane Asylum Society and published several books, including Marital Power Exemplified, or Three Years Imprisonment for Religious Belief (1864), Great Disclosure of Spiritual Wickedness in High Places (1865), The Mystic Key or the Asylum Secret Unlocked (1866) and The Prisoners' Hidden Life, Or Insane Asylums Unveiled (1868). Through her book sales she became financially independent.

After her children were grown, Packard went back to lobbying for people locked up in mental wards. She got a bill passed in Iowa, then in New York. Connecticut followed. Maine was a tougher nut to crack, and so she switched tactics. She decided to go to the federal level and went to Washington, DC.

First, she won over First Lady Julia Grant, then President Grant, and worked on a federal bill with feminist lawyer Belva Lockwood, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court. The bill was passed.

Traveling by railroad, Packard spent the following fifteen years organizing in 25 other states. She was able to use her influence to change the laws in many of those states, with a greater emphasis on rights of the "insane" as the years went by.

She died July 25, 1897, at age 80.

In the year 1900 - One of our female cemeterians was in Florida's insane asylum. Follow-up in the next two posts.....