Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1873-07-18
Vermont Insane Asylum.
REPORT OF THE LEGISLATIVE INVEST
eating COMMITTEE.

eating COMMITTEE.
TO HIS E.rceHeney, julius Coauerse, Cor
ernor Of Vermont
The joint committee, to whom was re-
ferred joint resolution of the Senate
and House of Representatives, in rela-
tion to the conduct and management OF
the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, To-
Gated at Brattleboro, in the county of
Windham, and who were authorized by
joint resolution of the Senate and
House of Representatives to report to
your Excellency, on or before the first
day of July next, after the adjournment
of said two Houses of the Legislature,
beg leave to make the following report
The testimony introduced before your
committee ON behalf of the people and
on the part of the asylum was very vol
luminous, SO much so that its publication
would necessitate the printing of very
considerable volume, and very much OF
it would hardly prove profitable read
ing. 1t has been carefully examined
and candidly considered by us, and we
deem it best to embrace only our conclu-
sions deduced from that evidence. 1t
was matter of surprise to some mem
bers of your committee to learn, at the
inception of their investigation, that the
asylum was not the property of the
State, but a private corporation; we
deem it best, therefore, in order to place
the matter understandingly before the
people, to give brief history of its orr
gin and a statement of the aid it has
from time to time received from the
State. In 1884, Mrs. Anna Marsh of
Hinesdale, N. H., by will bequeathed
the sum of ten thousand dollars in trust
for the purpose of founding an hospital
for the insane, as will be seen from the
following extract of her will:
81 give to Samuel Clark, John Hol-
brook, Epaphronitus Seymore, John G.
Holbrook, all of Brattleboro, in the
county of Windham, and their success
sors, ten thousand dollars, in trust, for
the purpose of erecting ana supporting
in the county of Windham, near Con-
necticut River, hospital for the relief
of insane persons, and in case of the de-
cease of one or more of said trustees,
the survivors shall, from time to time,
fill all vacancies, and the said trustees,
being four in number, shall forever here
alter have the sole superintendent and
direction of said insane hospital. And
1t Is my will that said trustees procure
an act of Incorporation as soon as may
be after my decease /"
In November, 1884, the Legislature
passed an act Incorporating "The Ver-
mont Asylum for the insane" which act,
in words, followed very nearly the Ian
guage of Mrs. Marsh's will This act is
referred to and made part of this re-
port In 1885, the State, by the act of
their Legislature, gave ten thousand dol
lars to he paid in five annual INSTALL
ments of two thousand dollars each. In
1886 the State granted an additional two
thousand dollars. In 1887, four thou
sand dollars. In 1910 two annual in
stallments of two thousand dollars. In
1S43 three thousand dollars, making in
all twenty-three thousand dollars. We
do not find since the gift of 1843 by the
State of three thousand dollars, that any
considerable donation has been made to
the institution by the State, or by any
corporation or by private individuals,
hence the present property of the insti.
tuition has grown from the fund of thirty
three thousand dollars, received previous
to 1914. In 1862 the centre building
and wings of the institution were burned.
They were Immediately rebuilt, and
again occupied in 1864 The expense
of rebuilding was about forty thousand
dollars. The whole cost of the institu-
ton, as reported by the Commissioner
for the Insane, in his Biennial Report of
1872, was $1,000; including twelve
hundred acres of land. The present
value of the property, as estimated by
Gov. Holbrook, one of the trustees, is
S500,000. Your committee estimate it
at very considerable excess of that
amount. The interest of the State in
this vast property is simply that by the
acts Of 1910 and 1S43, if it ceases to be
an insane asylum, the State have q
lien upon it for the security of the
twentythree thousand dollars heretofore
invested. The property is owned by
private corporation. the trustees of which
are A. Keyes, N. u. Williston, Frederick
Holbrook and Daniel Kellogg.
The trustees, while refusing to recog-
nize any authority in your committee,
yet afforded them free access to all parts
of the building and grounds, and inspec-
tion of the records and other papers of
the institution, and treated us with uni
form courtesy. In the progress of our
investigation, besides visiting the asy-
lums at Northampton, Mass, and Con-
cord, n. H., Gas directed by joint res
olution of the Legislature), we visited
the asylum at Brattleboro on three diff
ferent occasions. viz: Oct. 18th, 1872;
Nov. 10th, 1872; and June "a, 1878.
At the time of our first visit, we found
the number of patients at the asylum to
be four hundred and eighty-fve-a num-
Der, as the committee believe, and as the
officers Of the-institution admit in their
testimony, far too large for the capacity
of the buildings comfortably to provide
in this view, your committee is sustained
by the testimony of Commissioner Bull
lard, who fixes three hundred patients as
the maximum number which the asylum
could accommodate. About seventy
FIVE of the patients we're at the time of
our visit, confined in the underground
apartments which were damp, unwhole-
some, and entirely unfit for occupation
by human beings. The sleeping apart
ments in this underground portion were
81