The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-08
THE ASYLUM HIS CASTLE
Death Of One of the Most Remark
able Lunatics of the
Century.
"Count" Van Courtland Had Lived
in Bloomingdale Fifty
Six Years
Even Tradition Had Lost tho Cause of
His Malady in the Lapse
of Time.

Count" Van CORTLAND is dead at last.
Everybody familiar with Bloomingdale
lunstio asylum will feel this to be q per-
sonal loss, as the count had been in that
institution f~ifty-six years and four months,
and everybody knew him who knew any
thing about the asylum, says the New York
Recorder He was the most courtly
man in New York. Whenever visitors came
to the corridor where he set outside his
room he rose to his feet and made them a
~courtly bow. Sometimes he spoke to them
in well chosen, polite language, for he was
under the delusion that Bloomingdale was
his private residence and the lunatics
about him his dependents. Medical super
~intendents succeed each other in long pro-
cession during his term, but he treated
them all alike as his subordinates in the
mammoth sanitarium which it was his
whim to project and sustain.
Count Van CORTLAND died Saturday
evening at the age of 80. He was the oldest
lunatio in the state of New York and prob
ably in America. There is no record of
any man living in an asylum az long as he
did in Bloomingdale. When he first went
to Bloomingdale that institution had been
in existence only thirteen years, though
George III. had given crown lands for the
purpose fifty years before.
The count belonged to a family dis
tinguished for its fidelity to the colonists
during the wars of 1776 and 1872. The
mansion of the Van Courtlands in Frank
fort street received and Gen. Washington
twice and Lafayette several times. 1t was
one of the finest in the young city during
colonial times. The counts grandfather
was one of the early Dutch settlers. He
established himself at Middletown, Conn,
when Middletown was ahead Of New York
in tho Importance of it's busines interests.
AS shipbuilders and fur traders, the Van
Courtlands thrived and grew wealthy. One
branch of the family thereupon moved TO
the rapidly growing town of New York and
opened a general store on the corner of
Pearl and Wall Streets. 10 this branch Of
the family tbs count belonged.
Nobody in Bioomingdale now knows why
the count was FIST committed. The physi-
clans believe thes he was always weak
minded, but thsre is a tradition to the CT
feet that he was committed on account of a
duel in which he killed his antagonist.
ltowss~r this may be, he has certainly
hnen insane for tno last quarter Of a cen
tnry. When FIRST admitted he was known
Ne plain IA Vtc CORTLAND" His elder
hJctnar thsn bore the title of "the count"
conferred C2 1iru Dy tGB early wits OF New
1erE bsnsusa ke Wig the Beau Brumnel of
the period--in point ct atess and manners
the most aleaSnt nan the CITY then boasted.
After the cider brother died tbs title was
conferred On thu patient in Bloomingdale,
ara he has horne it ever since.
Tbs count w&s very auavs and complei-
amt. IL was tho custom Of tae rhyscians to
consult hi1u Ah,ut any changes that were to
Ls made il his csat!e. Therefore its growth
and the wide extension of what he supposed
was his private charity was a matter of
qualification to him. He was allowed per-