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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16

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1748  

It was about fifty feet from screen-room to bath-tub, and the attendants would take the patient by the heels and drag him over the floor.

1749  

One day, as they were about to bathe this patient, witness says, they had drawn the tub full of hot water and had him up in their arms ready to plunge him in the tub, when another patient, by the name of Cooper, jumped in and saved him.

1750  

Witness says this patient was kept in the screen-room the most of the winter of 1863-4; that the room had nothing in it, except sometimes a little straw, a strawtick or blanket, which he would tear up and wrap around him for warmth. This patient died the summer or fall after this confinement.

1751  

Mr. Haitt, of Chicago, was also kept in a screen-room almost constantly, and beat and bruised until his limbs were swollen. He was jerked and jammed until his legs were almost a perfect jelly. He went home and came back. Witness heard him speak very kindly of Mrs. McFarland for doctoring his limbs after they were bruised.

1752  

The two attendants in the ward who abused this patient were Germans. Patient complained that these attendants would not give him anything; and if he asked for anything they would beat and kick him; and witness has given him water, put through the window.

1753  

When the patient left the institution the second time, he said, if he ever came across the attendant who abused him so, he would kill him, if they hung him for it. The witness gave the names of the German attendants who abused the patients, as Pepenbring and Smultz, and said they both resided in Jacksonville. This witness said that he did not believe Dr. McFarland approved of these abuses, and that the reason he did not report them was that he was afraid if he did he would lose his place.

1754  

When he talked with the Doctor about business, he got a very short answer, or a nod of the head; and he came to the conclusion there was not much satisfaction. He left the institution because he got tired of it -- requested to be relieved several months before he left, but the Doctor requested him to stay.

1755  

Testimony of George Merrick, Attendant.

1756  

George Merrick, aged forty-five years, and residing in Jacksonville, was an attendant in hospital from February to June, 1866.

1757  

He testifies to the abuse of Jacob Myers, a young patient, by the supervisor, Mr. Doane, who, without provocation, caught him by the ankles when he was undressing and threw him on the floor and injured him severely.

1758  

Also David Ayres, a very docile man, and consumptive and sick and feeble, who, the witness states, was neglected by Dr. Dutton and refused medical treatment, and soon after died.

1759  

Also, David Smith, about twenty-six years of age, a patient who was very bad and crazy. One day witness heard a loud noise in the ward where Smith was, and looking into the ward he saw the attendant, William Roy, jamming his head against the ceiling. Smith made no resistance, but his nose bled and his eye was black.

1760  

Also a patient by the name of Creighton, who was a small Irishman about twenty-five years old. Witness one day saw him on a bench, and he was wholly speechless -- could not move his head; was swollen and was badly bruised. Akers, the attendant, told witness that the patient was a bad man, and they had a hell of a time with him. That night witness helped the patient to bed on the floor, and the next night he died.

1761  

Witness says that he did not know of any medical attendance or medicines furnished him, and he should have probably known it if they had.

1762  

Witness assisted in laying out the patient, whose head and face were very much swollen; was black under the eyes and on the cheek bones; there were bruises about his arms and shoulders and other parts of his body, and had a wound on the face.

1763  

The patients informed witness that a few days before this, James Akers, Thomas Kearney, John Doan, supervisor, John Roy and William Roy, employees of the institution, had beat the patient.

1764  

Another case was a wild young patient by the name of Veach, who escaped. Was retaken, and on arriving at the hospital, knocked Mr. Supervisor Doan down with a brick in again making his escape. On being taken he was handcuffed; his feet shackled; put in a crib and put up in one of the bed-rooms of the third ward, where he was kept about three months.

1765  

The crib was made of strips of plank about three and a half inches wide and two and a half inches apart, and was about two feet high, five and a half feet long, and two and a half feet wide.

1766  

The witness says the patient could not be in any other position in the crib but on his back; and there was some bedding, in the crib, and he thinks, a pillow under his head.

1767  

This witness says he had difficulty with Akers and Doan about their abusing the patients cruelly, and he supposes he was discharged on that account.

1768  

When inquired of by Dr. McFarland if he had not been taking liquor the evening of the difficulty with Doan and Akers, he said he had not; that he was not in the habit of drinking liquor, and resented any such imputation; that he was sometimes, by permission, absent Saturday evenings at the choir meetings, and on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at the prayer meetings; and that his character was established and well known in the community.

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