Genealogy & Family History Community
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Leave the blood feuds at home
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Genealogy and Family History Open Thread
This is a strange diary. I've re-written it several times trying to distill the emotions evoked by what I learned about my Great great aunt Lucretia. It's still a bit of a jumble.
I'd learned that Lucretia owned her own home, was single and apparently sufficiently well-off to
be a lady of leisure, having "None" boldly written in the "Occupation" column of the census pages. It also revealed she had a chauffer and a maid living in.
Remember when I wrote about "Grandpa, the cow and the farm that wasn't"? Well, I eventually realized that Lucretia was the owner of the farm -not her father as I'd always surmised. One day, one of those "go for it moments" on the Google told me that Lucretia had attended a specially designed 2 year agricultural course for ladies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1892.
This picture of an independent, inquisitive woman began to evolve in my mind. Surely she was as headstrong as I knew her sister to be - but with a much more outward focus. I was fascinated!
And then, I opened the 1930 census. Lucretia was confined to the Worcester Hospital for the Insane.
While much of what I read indicated women were committed in greater numbers than men, I found 23 men and 27 women on Lucretia's ward. A reference I used to find the common diagnoses of women patients that was supported in other research:
Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America
Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen, co-authors
pp. 95-103
Oshkosh Scholar, Volume I, April 2006
'Hysteria' figured large in the diagnoses of the women who found themselves committed from early times through the early 20th Century.
The types of hysteria included hysteria due to lactation. We call it Post Partum Depression.
A few others on the list:
"Insane by over exertion", 7 step-stair kids, a persnickety husband, maybe the elderly in-laws and no dishwasher?
"Insane by suppressed menses" Menopause, anyone?
"Insane by Religious fantasy" Who's face do you see on your muffin?
"Insane by domestic troubles". Domestic Abuse?
And we mustn't ignore "constitution, pecuniary loss, love affair, puerperal, disappointed ambition" among others.
Truth be told, women were property controlled by men. They were thought to be weak and if not weak -unruly, troublesome. Insane. Did I say most women were committed by men?
What has changed, of course, is the modern medical criteria. By the 1950's women weren't shuttled off to the funny farm nearly as swiftly. Too much paperwork.Man discovered Valium. The housewife's friend. All was well in picket-fenceville. For awhile.
No question women have seen many gains since then, none of which means anything if we don't stop the present assault on all those uppity women that can't be dumped into an asylum anymore.
Anyone know what the Greek word for 'Hell No!" is?