Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-08-18
Dr.. POWELL 5 WORK
By His Death Iowa Loses an
Eminent Authority on
Epileptics
FAITHFUL STUDY OF HUMANITY
Upon Becoming Superintendent of the
State Institution for the Feeble Mind
ed, Dr.. Powell Applied Himself to the
Problems Before Him-His Import
ance in the Scientific World.
Special to Times Re publican.


Des Moines, Aug 1S.-In the death Of
DR.. f. NJ. Powell of Red Oak, formerly
and for many years superintendent of
the state institution for the feeble
minded, the state has lost one who has
been regarded as among it's most emf
nent students of humanity in general.
He has been III charge of the institution
at Glenwood for twenty years. He had
first gone to Hastings then to Glen
wood to practice medicine. When he
was selected as superintendent Of the
institution he had had no experience
in that line Of work, but he applied
himself to the problems before him an
soon became deeply interested in his
large family of men and women and
children of the defective class One of
the things which engaged his attention
early was the fact that among the de-
fectives who were committed to his
care there We're many who were not
feeble minded properly. but who were
subject TO epilepsy. He srsted to the
upwards of 800 all the time at the
Glenwood institution who are not prop
erly there, who are epileptics and ought
not to be classed as idiots at all, and
it was his deep regret that the state OF
Iowa had neverm made any progress In the
direction of sequestration of this class
from the feeble minded proper. DR..
Powell had spent many years making
a study of the epileptics and gathering
statistics in regard to them. He was
recognized everywhere as an authority
on the subject. In the office of the
state board OF control there is a large
volume beai the title Care and
Treatment entics." Judge Kline
took this boo Yn from the shelf and
turning its pages said:
'Dr. Powell had high standing among
specialists in the matter OF feeble mind
ed children and epileptics. l had oc-
casion to look thru this volume some
time ago and fohnd a reference to DR.
Powell as authority. Out of curiosity
turned thru to see these references
and found that he was quoted oftener
and more freely than any other of the
many authorities, American and Eur
opean, who are cited here. You will
find quotations from DR.. Powell all
thru the work, and his views are ac-
cepted with confidence. The book was
written by William Pryor Letchwcrth.
of New York, who is not doctor, bae
and published this book at his private
expense"
for superintendent Of the institution at
Glenwood. He was regarded as perhaps
too easy with the assistants and help
ers around him and always had things
running along smoothly without any
evidence of discipline. His teaching
force was very fine. He was always
looking ahead to pick out good teach
ers, and keeping his eye on them TO"
several years then he would get good
ones for his school. And the accom-
pliskments of the school at the instltu-
tion were his pride, and even with the
half witted people who We're in these
classes great things were accomplished.
One of his last plans was to have whas
he called cripple's class at the institu-
ton, sort of kindergarten, for the
children who We're weak mentally anu
crippled physically. In regard to the
epileptics he kept them separate from
the idiots as far as practicable at the
institution He believed that there was
no POSSIBLE cure for them and that
nothing would ever be discovered that
would cure them. In mild cases epilep-
tic spells could be warded off for time
hy medicines but there could never be
any final cure of a true epileptic. His
thoueht was that Iowa should follow the
example of the progressive states and
establish colonies where the epileptics
could have out door work and plenty
of exercise. as that Is best suited to
them, and where they could be largely
self-sustaining Their sense of inde-
pendence and freedom from association
with those of another class would
help them and MAKE their lives more
cheerful. Many of the eplleptics are
in the state insane hospitals and many
others at the county farms. Some are
classeG as insane, others as Idiots, ana
others as paupers-but the state does
not recognize them as class Dr.
Powell prepared an exhaustive report
on this subject some years ago and
brought it before the legislature. He
sought the republican nomination for
representative in Mills county this year,
after his retirement was announced,
largely because he believed that in the
legislature he could be of some service
to the state in advocacy of some of the
things in the management ana care OF
detectives which he believed ought to
receive some serious attention. But he
was already a dying man and his
friends had seen this before he did.
Frederick Bond. state engineer of
Wyoming and irrigation expert, who
died at his home in Cheyenne, was an
Iowan. He and his twin brother Frank,
were reared in northern Iowa, and both
attended the Iowa state college at Ames.
Frank became editor of newspaper in
Cheyenne but is now connected with
the national irrigation survey work.
Frederick Bond became an engineer
and In 1890 was made city engineer of
Cheyenne. later going to Buffalo where
he. worked under Captain Chittenden
in locating the first reservoir sites ever