On September 22, 1843, Daniel Ashmore was the eighth person admitted to the new Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, commonly known as the state insane asylum. Daniel was my 3d great-uncle, the son of John Ashmore (1767-1849), who had already lost three of four children in an 1804 hurricane that wrecked the Georgia coast. The Hospital’s admission register states that he was admitted for “intense application to study,” from which he had suffered for 12 years [1]. He was 31 years old.
Daniel was not alive during the hurricane, but who knows what family trauma might have been passed down to him. His parents, John and Sarah Farrar, had 11 children over their 52-year marriage. Three died in the hurricane: 10-year-old John, 4-year-old Sarah, and infant Ann. Rebecca and Indith also died as infants, and Esther died at 3, so only Joseph (my 3d great-grandfather), Sarah Rebecca, Mary Elizabeth and Daniel survived to adulthood. Joseph died at only 41, in 1832.
The loss of Daniel to whatever underlying mental illness “intense application to study” represented must have been devastating. They apparently cared for him at home as best they could until the Central State Hospital opened in 1842, providing segregated care for both white and African Americans afflicted by mental illness from across the state. One can only imagine the difficulty of the decision to send him there, but his parents were in their mid-70’s, brother Joseph had passed away, and sisters Sarah Rebecca Lane and Mary Elizabeth Ashmore had just started young families.
The Central State Hospital was opened in December 1842 as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum. Under an early director, Thomas A. Green, who started in 1845, the hospital was supposed to act as an exended family for its patients. Green ate with the staff and patients, and eliminated chain and rope restraints [2]. So Daniel may have been subjected to restraints prior to Dr. Green’s arrival but care appears to have improved after that. In the 1960’s, the Central State Hospital was the largest mental health care institution in the world, and had more than 200 buildings on 2,000 acres [3].
In 1841, John Ashmore had written a will leaving two enslaved African-American men, Sandy and Frank, to Daniel “for his exclusive service and support.” He added that whoever took care of Daniel would have possession of Sandy and Frank, and recommended that it be his daughter Mary Elizabeth and grandson Joseph. In 1845, he added a codicil stating that at the time the original will was written, Daniel was at home with him, but he had since been “removed to the asylum where he is supported by the state.” He then left Sandy and Frank to Mary Elizabeth and Joseph, unless Daniel was to be restored to health. [4] After Emancipation, Sandy took the name Sandy Maybank and Frank the name Frank Williams, and they continued to live in Liberty County near John Ashmore’s descendants. [5]
Was it a cold, practical decision to commit Daniel, or a heartfelt, wrenching one? We don’t know. In any event, Daniel spent four years there, found dead in his bed on December 19, 1847, at age 35, after having been in his usual state of health the day before. His mother Sarah had died earlier that same year, in May, and his father two years later.
A short, troubled life that deserves to be remembered…
Footnotes:
[1] Graham, Paul K. Admission Register of Central State Hospital, Milledgeville, Georgia, 1842-1861. Decatur, Ga.: The Genealogy Company, 2011.
[2] Monroe, Doug (18 Feb 2015). “Asylum: Inside Central State Hospital, once the world’s largest mental institution.” Atlanta Magazine.
[3] “Central State Hospital (Milledgeville, Georgia),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_State_Hospital_(Milledgeville,_Georgia), accessed 1/19/2020.
[4] Ashmore, John, Last Will and Testament, dated 15 September 1841, Codicil dated 22 February 1845, Liberty County Court of Ordinary. Accessed on Ancestry.com: Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990 > Liberty County > Wills, appraisements and bonds 1790-1850 vol B. Transcription: https://theyhadnames.net/2018/06/08/liberty-county-will-john-ashmore/ .
[5] Author’s research. See TheyHadNames.net, https://theyhadnames.net/research-sibbys-family/, for details.
