OSH Cottage Architect Makes Mark on Salem

A post on the Capital Taps Blog recently featured an article on Louis Hazeltine, an architect responsible for the design and furnishing the “Physicians’ Cottages” at the Oregon State Hospital.

At the start of the Oregon State Hospital Replacement project, there were 21 cottages along the southern edge of the hospital campus (see map here.)  A fixed asset ledger from the Oregon State Hospital indicates that the earliest of these cottages (1 and 2) were built in 1909, with brick garages added in 1946.[1]   These appear to be the only ones built prior to the 1911 article quoted.

Museum this Way

Museum preparations are in full swing, with our tentative opening set for May of next year (2012).  The hospital has gotten a head start on us, installing these great directional signs to lead people from the parking lot to the museum’s future home in the Kirkbride building that can be seen in the distance.

Come Visit Us at Cooke Stationary

The museum will have a display up in the window of Cooke Stationary (370 State Street) in downtown Salem during the month of June.  Come get a taste of what the museum will be like when it opens in May 2012.

An Interview with Simeon Edward Josephi

From the Oregon Health Sciences University's Archives

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The following is an interview with Dr. Simeon Edward Joesphi, physician (1877-1881) and superintendent (1881-1883) at the Oregon Hospital for the Insane and one time superintendent of the Oregon State Insane Asylum (1886-1887).[1]  The article appeared in two editions of Fred Lockley’s column, Impressions from a Journal Man, in the Oregon Journal starting September 1, 1926. The column regularly featured interviews with influential people in Oregon.

Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man

By Fred Lockley
9/1/1926

Here begins an installment story of the career of a pioneer physician of Portland, who came hither in 1867.  A second chapter is forthcoming.

Dr. S.E. Josephi is, in point of service, dean of the medical profession of Portland.  When I interviewed him recently at his office in the Corbett building, he said:

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“I was born in New York city on December 3, 1849.  My father, Edward Josephi[2], with his brothers Henry and Isaac, conducted a wholesale jewelry establishment in Maiden Lane.  My father was born at what was then St. Petersburg but is now Leningrad, Russia.  My mother’s maiden name was Sarah Mendoza.  Her parents were Spanish but she was born in England.  You can see that I am a product of the melting pot.  There eight of us children.  I had five sisters and two brothers.[3]  I went to school to Professor Quackenbos.  He had a private school in New York city at that time and was the author of an arithmetic that was very popular.  Later I attended the public schools of New York city and still later the Free Academy, now known as the New York college.  I secured work as a clerk in a wholesale hat house.

War Risk Bureau

Clerks at the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, 1918, Smithsonian Photograph

The Bureau of War Risk Insurance, a subset of the Treasury Department was created by an act of the federal legislature in 1914 to provide for Marine Insurance during WWI.[1]  Eventually the bureau’s duties were expanded to handle disability and life insurance claims of World War I Veterans.[2]  This included providing hospital care for those veterans.  A clarifying bulletin, published in 1919, reads: “The Medical Department of the Army has been advised by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance that any soldier who has been honorably discharged since October, 1917, for disability incurred in the line of duty and whose present condition is a reactivation of that disability or is consequent upon it, is entitled to hospital or sanatorium care under the provisions of the war-risk insurance act.” [3]  At least 25 WWI veterans were sent to the Oregon State Hospital through this program.  Their names are included below.[4]  By 1921, the duties of the War Risk Bureau were transferred to the newly created Veteran’s Bureau by a

The Tale of John Krine, 1913

John’s tale begins with a paperclip.  In putting away some old records found in storage today, I came across one employee card with two rusting paperclips clipped to the back of it, making it difficult to refile the two cards I had been looking at.  Irritated, I pulled out the offending card and found the bizarre and intriguing story of John Krine/Kirne (the exact spelling is a little unclear, as you can see in the signature above).

John Krine was hired on as an Attendant at the Oregon State Hospital on April 3, 1913.  The tall, blue-eyed 52 year old widower had come from Indiana where he was previously employed as a clerk.  As an attendant, he received $30 dollars a month and worked on a ward directly supervising and caring for patients.  Krine worked at the hospital for just over two months before he was discharged, not an uncommon occurrence for new employees at the State Hospital during that time.  The payroll cards show a high attrition rate for new staff members.   If not for the paperclip, Krine would have just been another short-tenured attendant.

Hospital Snapshot, July 1951

The following statistics relate to a snapshot of hospital operations in July 1951, and were part of a collection of monthly reports compiled in a 4-A Report for the years 1951-1953 (T2011.002.054).

Budget

Inmate Statistics:

Population at beginning of the month	3,016
New Admissions	130
Returned Escapees	11
Returned paroles	54
Discharged	72
Paroled	89
Escaped	16
Died	19
Transferred	3
Population at End of Month	3012

A Bushel of Shoes, 1969

Superintendent Brooks with a bushel of shoes, 1969.

On September 15, 1969, Dr. Dean K. Brooks, then superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital, gave a speech before the Association of Medical Superintendents of Mental Hospitals at a meeting in Houston, Texas.  In it he described an experience while visiting a mental health facility on the East Coast that affected his outlook on institutions across the country.  While visiting a ward, he stumbled across a basket of shoes.  Women living on the ward were required to take off their shoes at the end of the day and put them in the basket.  The shoes could then be collected on a first come first serve basis the next morning.

This bushel of shoes represented to Dr. Brooks a dehumanization of the people living on that ward.  As he writes:

Dehumanization can be defined as the divestment of human capacities and functions and the

Straitjacket

T2009.002.222 Straitjacket, Oregon State Hospital Museum

This straitjacket is thought to be from the Eastern Oregon State Hospital in Pendleton.  It has a tag in the back that reads “Melrose 4000.”   It is well-worn, and there are patches on both shoulders where the canvas fabric has been torn and repaired.

Another interesting note.  Although this straitjacket was commercially made, a 1918-1920 record book (T2011.002.016) from the OSH sewing department lists straitjackets as one of the many garments that were being produced at the hospital.  Other garments included:  overalls, jumpers, mittens, restraint sheets, white coats, and pants.  The sewing department also pressed and cleaned suits, made alterations and repaired pants.

How to get to Salem from Baker City, 1906

Baker, Circa 1900. Image courtesy of the Oregon State Library.

The following is an excerpt from a ledger (T2011.002.071) containing expense reports for the transportation of patients (and an accompanying staff member) from their  home to the Asylum in Salem.  These are the expenses incurred by OSIA staff member S.A. Parks.

For expense actually and necessarily incurred and paid in going to Baker City, Oregon and conveying John Welkey, an insane person from Baker City, in Baker County to the Oregon State Insane Asylum at Salem, under appointment of the Medical Superintendent dated October 30, 1906 per the following statement:

October 30
$ 1.15 One RR Fare Salem to Oregon City
$ 0.25 One RR Fare Oregon City to Portland