Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Brandon Asylum
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|Title= Concord State Hospital
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|Body= The Brandon Asylum for the Insane, now known as the Brandon Mental Health Centre, had a rather peculiar beginning. Originally, the site was chosen as a home for a Provincial Reformatory for boys. At a cost of about thirty-thousand dollars (a significant sum for the time), the Reformatory was constructed and in June, 1890, it was ready to accommodate misguided young lads. The first Governor of the Reformatory was John W. Sifton, father of Clifford Sifton, and he was assisted by a Chief Attendant and a Matron. This trio was later nicknamed the “Mulligan Guard” in reference to their first inmate, William Mulligan. “Billy” Mulligan was a nine year old youth who had been sentenced to five years in the Reformatory for stealing mail from one of her Majesty’s Royal Mail boxes. Billy had the distinct honour of being the first and only inmate of the Brandon Reformatory. No new young “criminals” were forthcoming, and at a cost of about three-thousand dollars per year, the “Mulligan Guard” watched over their single charge.
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|Body= About the year 1830 the condition of the insane of New Hampshire began to awaken a deep interest in the hearts of philanthropic persons in all sections of the state. As the public interest in the subject deepened, a settled conviction was formed in leading minds that the state should take the initiative in whatever measures might be adopted. Influenced in part, perhaps, by this general sentiment, but feeling deeply the importance of the enterprise, Governor Dinsmore, in his message to the Legislature in June, 1832, thus called attention to the condition of the insane: "I feel no apology need be made, in an age so distinguished for its public and private charities, for calling your attention to a subject which has so much reason and humanity on its side as a measure for the security and recovery of the lunatic or insane. The Legislature of the state has never yet recognized these unfortunate beings as entitled to any special favor from the government."
  
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Perhaps as a face-saving measure, the provincial government quickly sought an alternate use for the new and virtually unused facility. In the spring of 1891, an Act was passed in the Legislature transforming the Brandon Reformatory to an Asylum for the Insane. The Asylum was opened in May and was placed under the direction of Dr. Gordon Bell with the former Chief Attendant and Matron staying on as staff. Billy Mulligan continued to serve his sentence at the Asylum, at least for another year or so, although his quarters were separate from the dormitories housing the lunatics. The first mental patients, twenty-nine men and women transferred from Selkirk Asylum and the Provincial Gaol, arrived in July, 1891, and the Brandon Asylum was in business. [[Brandon Asylum|Click here for more...]]
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He also recommended, as a preparatory step, the institution of an inquiry: "To ascertain, with as much exactness as practicable, the whole number of insane within the state, distinguishing paupers from others, the number which have been committed to jail within a given time by authority of court, or by their friends or others, without the order or sanction of judicial proceedings, and the length of their respective terms of confinement; and to ascertain, in like manner, the actual or probable amount of cost of court and jailers' fees, and expenses of their support and maintenance in cases of confinement."
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In accordance with this recommendation, the Governor was directed "To take proper means to ascertain the number of insane persons in the state." [[Concord State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:26, 14 January 2013

Featured Article Of The Week

Concord State Hospital


Concord4.jpg

About the year 1830 the condition of the insane of New Hampshire began to awaken a deep interest in the hearts of philanthropic persons in all sections of the state. As the public interest in the subject deepened, a settled conviction was formed in leading minds that the state should take the initiative in whatever measures might be adopted. Influenced in part, perhaps, by this general sentiment, but feeling deeply the importance of the enterprise, Governor Dinsmore, in his message to the Legislature in June, 1832, thus called attention to the condition of the insane: "I feel no apology need be made, in an age so distinguished for its public and private charities, for calling your attention to a subject which has so much reason and humanity on its side as a measure for the security and recovery of the lunatic or insane. The Legislature of the state has never yet recognized these unfortunate beings as entitled to any special favor from the government."

He also recommended, as a preparatory step, the institution of an inquiry: "To ascertain, with as much exactness as practicable, the whole number of insane within the state, distinguishing paupers from others, the number which have been committed to jail within a given time by authority of court, or by their friends or others, without the order or sanction of judicial proceedings, and the length of their respective terms of confinement; and to ascertain, in like manner, the actual or probable amount of cost of court and jailers' fees, and expenses of their support and maintenance in cases of confinement."

In accordance with this recommendation, the Governor was directed "To take proper means to ascertain the number of insane persons in the state." Click here for more...

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