Library Collections: Document: Full Text


The State Wards

Creator: n/a
Date: April 7, 1883
Publication: The Lowell Weekly Sun
Source: The Pollard Memorial Library


Introduction

Founded in 1852, the Tewksbury almhouse was one of three poorhouses run by the state of Massachusetts. Previously, poor people relied on the aid of their town or county. The influx of German and Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century overwhelmed local poorhouses and created a large population of people who did not fulfill residency requirements for town and county poorhouses. Starting in 1866, the Tewksbury almshouse also admitted paupers diagnosed with chronic insanity.

Local and state almshouses had much in common. The managers of both types of institutions tried to provide care at the lowest cost possible and had little oversight—even after state legislatures established supervisory boards of charities in the 1860s and 1870s (termed the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in Massachusetts). Consequently, almshouses were rife with abuses and poor care.


Page 1   All Pages


Page 1:

1  

THE STATE WARDS.

2  

THEIR TREATMENT AT TEWKSBURY AS TOLD BY EX-OFFICIALS.

3  

THE BARBARITIES WHICH THE GOVERNOR PROPOSES TO PROVE BY THE INVESTIGATION.

4  

The almshouse investigation was resumed in the green room of the State House shortly after 2 o'clock Monday afternoon. Charles H. Dudley, formerly night watchman at the almshouse, resumed his testimony at the point where he left off last week. He testified that when he detected Mr. Marsh, as he had before stated, a conversation had ensued, Mr. Marsh telling him to keep still about what he had seen of the loading of the bodies at the dead house. Marsh said: "We have got to have some pay for our trouble taking care of these 'critters.'" Marsh then went at once to his room. A drunken man who was brought to the almshouse from Boston was left in a cell without any attention or food except water given him by Dudley, though the latter urged Dr.Lathrop, the resident physician, and also Capt. Marsh, to attend him, and the man died on the day after the third night. When Dudley got up in the afternoon he was told by "French Joe" that the man had died during the forenoon and that there was enough of them left. Saw Mrs. Marsh several nights taking clothes from the room where the inmates trunks were kept. The housekeeper, whose name is Mrs. Jennie T. Pope, and who is alive now, employed at the hospital for the insane at Middletown, Ct., told me that she had seen the same thing, and that the most valuable of the dresses were taken up by Mrs. Marsh to her private storeroom; Mrs. Pope added that, as they were out of style, they were cut over for the Davis girls, Mrs. Marsh's granddaughters, who lived at Exeter, N.H. There were some twenty children in one of the wards who used to cry at night, and they told me it was because they were hungry. The state of food for the inmates and insane was always very poor; the bread was sour nearly all the time, and the quantity was very small, especially for those who had to work about the farm; I spoke about it once to Capt. Marsh, and reported especially the condition of the hungry children; he said he guessed they got enough; I said I thought they didn't, and I had taken the liberty several times to carry them pieces of bread; he told me he didn't want me to do that any more. Several times I saw a light at the burying ground; I went down there and saw a double wagon and two men taking out coffins or bodies from the ground by means of a hook about five feet long; the coffins came up very easily, for they were only buried about four or five inches in light sandy soil; I remained there until they had removed four bodies; the men were Manning and his negro, and they started off toward Boston, as I suppose. Most any key would lock or unlock the dead-house; Thomas Marsh and I had each a key, and there might have been a dozen others for all I know. A man there named Thomas Hall drove the hospital team; he asked me one night if I was going to take up the work of packing the dead; I told him no; he said he had taken up 68 bodies inside of eight months, and had gotten very little extra pay for it; he showed me a roll of bills which had been paid him; said it amounted to several hundred; he left the next morning. After being night watchman I was appointed, with my wife, to the care of the female insane; we have an average of about 140 in our charge; I saw that they had taken the trunks away that belonged to the patients; I told my wife of that; then I noticed that the beds made of straw where in a rotten condition, fairly steaming with filth; most of the beds had only one sheet, and some not any; there was only one thickness of blanket; most of the females were without underclothing or shoes and stockings; nothing but a thin calico dress; this was in July; the cells were also in a filthy condition, as of the person has been confined there a week or ten days without their being cleaned; in the attic in another cell I found a woman lying on the straw perfectly naked; the straw was bad and filthy; I was told by one of the assistants that this woman had been in this cell about a year, she was so near a skeleton that she would not have weighed more than forty pounds; my wife immediately clothed her and I had the room cleaned out and fed her, and in five or six weeks we had the woman out of the cell and down into the sitting room, so changed that her own husband did not know her; her name was Mary Barron; her husband lived in Boston. There was another woman who told me that she'd been kept nine days in one of the filthy basement cells with nothing but water, and her story was corroborated by others, including Mrs. French; her name was Margret Hennessy; they said that she was very violent and was kept there to reduce her strength so that they could manage her; that woman was with us for a year and we never had occasion to use any such remedies; the insane women were employed at all kinds of work, including the care of patients at the hospital who might be afflicted with contagious diseases; I spoke to Capt. Marsh about that and his reply was that insane persons could not take a disease; I also told him that our women were so worked that their food was insufficient, and his reply on at least three occasions was that they were brought there to die; Dr. Lathrop used to come to the insane building about once a week, sometimes not so often; one night, after we had retired, one of the thirty-seven women in one of the dormitories fell out of bed and hurt herself; her name was Bridget or Margret Burns; we went and told Dr. Lathrop she was bleeding to death, blood was gushing from her, but he would not go to her aid, saying he was tired,-- she died that night of internal hemorrhage; he refused to go near the body next day either, and I buried her.


Page 2:

5  

There was a night nurse in the foundling building who showed me a bottle containing a mixture of morphine, which he said the day nurse had left; she said she gave it to the children, and one dose kept them quiet the rest of the night; she said she didn't care whether it killed them as that was none of her business. I reported it to Dr. Lathrop, but it was ten days after that before she was removed; all the babies that were born there and that were brought in during the first year we were there were 78; I know about them because my wife had to count them; out of the 78 that we knew of but one babe was alive at the end of the year; that was little Jimmy Riley, who survived; they never had any service over the dead during my term there. From Tewksbury I, my wife accompanying me, went to Danvers; I got a recommendation from Dr. Lathrop, but I didn't rely on it, thinking that it would not be of much account; in fact, Dr. Goldsmith said that he didn't care anything about it; I showed him the recommendation of Dr. Earle of Northampton, and he said that was all right; I have stayed at Danvers ever since; it will be five years in July. In the cross-examination by Mr. Brown, counsel for the almshouse managers, the witness said that he was not discharged from the almshouse; that he was neither requested nor ordered to leave; that he went to Capt. Marsh and told him to fill the places of himself and his wife as soon as he could.

6  

The Governor read letters -- from Dr. Lathrop of Tewksbury, Dr. Earle of Northampton and Treasurer Ross of the Danvers asylum, commending Mr. and Mrs. Dudley in the highest terms, the last speaking in particular of Mr. Dudley's reliability.

7  

The Governor -- I now desire to have sent to my office the books of the institution showing the purchases for the last five years and all the sales of the institution for the last ten years.

8  

TUESDAY'S TESTIMONY

9  

The first witness at Tuesday's hearing was Miss Manning, whose team transported the dead bodies from Tewksbury to Boston, who testified as follows: Lived with her now deceased brother, Thomas Manning, for several years at Tewksbury; up to the time of his death he did a transportation business for the almshouse; did not know what her brother used to transport; he had a two-horse and a one-horse wagon, and used to go somewhere every week; after her brother died, she carried on the business of transportation herself, and was paid so much apiece for the things transported; witness received $10 apiece for carrying to one place and $12 apiece for carrying them to another, but she persisted that she did not know what the things were; Thomas Marsh, Jr., paid for the transportation. She admitted having a conversation with Thomas Marsh, Jr., about the price to be paid for "the little ones."

10  

Governor Butler asked her to state on her oath whether she knew what was transported. She trusted to Thomas Marsh, Jr., to settle the bill correctly -- trusted to his honesty; had not been paid for transportation since November last, and could not tell exactly how many "things" had been transported in that time; thought about five were transported in January.

11  

The next witness called was Mrs. Charlotte A. Thomas, who testified that she was employed at Tewksbury from 1870 to 1880. When she first went to Tewksbury she had charge of the dairy. Afterward she had charge of the lying-in hospital. While in the latter capacity Mrs. Marsh visited the hospital very seldom -- not once during the first year, and not more than three times in the second year. There were always inmates in the hospital. Witness stated four successive cases where healthy young mothers who were well delivered, died. The cause of their death, as she believed, was the malpractice of Dr. Pease, a female physician. The doctor had a very peculiar method of practice, compelling the patients to take doses of medicine every fifteen minutes during the twenty-four hours. Mrs. Marsh used to have an immense number of dresses to rip up, which dresses Mrs. Marsh used to say she had 40 years ago, and it became a standing joke what an immense number of dresses Mrs. Marsh had 40 years ago; knew that relatives of the Marshes from New Hampshire were very frequently at Tewksbury on a visit, the visits in some cases lasting two years: always when one of the relative visitors went home to New Hampshire a large trunk went too, and they always came without trunks; it was almost impossible to get clothing enough to keep the inmates warm, and witness had frequently been obliged to dress them in damp clothing because there were no others; when a dead inmate was laid out it was very difficult to get even an old dress to clothe it in, Mrs. Marsh telling them that anything would do; knew a large amount of washing was sent to the almshouse by relatives of the Marshes living elsewhere, to be done in the laundry; some of this washing was from members of the Marsh family at Harvard college; Kate Furry, an insane patient, was, when sick, placed in a side room, off the bath-room; next day witness went in there and the patient was dead and her face was badly gnawed by the rats; witness had been told the patient died while the attendant was asleep; while in charge of the dairy, there were 325 pounds of butter made per month on the average; of this amount one pound per meal was allowed the inmates; the rest was sent down to the captain's kitchen; on some days as many as twenty pounds were sent for, and witness noticed that on these days some one of the visiting children went to their home in New Hampshire; did not personally see billets of wood placed in coffins over which services were held, but it was commonly understood that that was done; she could not see with her own eyes for the reason that the remains were never exposed to view during the services; the coffin was practically always closed during the rellgious services; witness corroborated what Mr. Dudley had said about seeing large dry goods boxes in the corridors.


Page 3:

12  

WEDNESDAY'S PROCEEDINGS

13  

At the investigation Wednesday morning, Mr. Loring said that the respondents would admit that bodies had been sent to colleges, but that they were sent under the law. The Governor said he proposed to prove that bodies were sent under law and contrary to law; that even skins were sent away to be tanned; that bodies were sent to medical colleges and elsewhere; that he proposed to spread those facts over the

14  

(Continued on fourth page)

15  

THE STATE WARDS

16  

(Continued from first page)

17  

country, that he would show that funeral services were held over supposed remains; that he would go into Tewksbury graveyard and show what was or was not buried there, and that without violating the grave of any human being; that the officials were paid for the sales of dead bodies.

18  

Mrs. Charlotte A. Thomas was put on the stand again, and testified that there were 18 persons in the family of the officials, beside the eight members of the Marsh family; when the trustees made a visit, the officials were notified two or three days beforehand; but few visitors came to the institution who were not led to Honora O'Connor to hear her relate how kind the officials were; she was paralized in the legs and was kept in one room for years; she was fed from the Marsh family table, so as to keep her looking well, and Thomas J., Jr., used to put flowers in her room, all for the purpose of making a favorable impression on visitors.

19  

Thomas Hall was next called and sworn; he said that he got $100 at one time for carrying bodies; he went to the almshouse July 14, 1874, and left about the middle of April, 1877; his wife was there only a short time; he went to driving the double team of the institution; he buried all the dead that were buried; he took them from the deadhouse under the orders of Thomas J. Marsh, Jr.; Manning used to take the team to the deadhouse and get the bodies; witness helped to load them; witness was paid $2 for every body; he began the transportation of the dead in September, or as soon as it began to be cold nights; about all the dead bodies which were not called for by friends were carried off; the digging up was done at night and under the orders of Thomas J. Marsh Jr.; sometimes the coffin was left in the grave after the body was taken out, and the bodies went to the Harvard medical school and to the female college; one went to I.J. Wetherbee at 46 Dover Street; witness did not know where else the bodies were taken; he used to see in the papers of persons who died at the State prison: "Buried at Tewksbury; died ___" on such a date, but they never got buried.

20  

Adjourned to Monday next at 9 a.m.

Page 1   All Pages

Pages:  1  2  3