During construction of a new road on the grounds of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson last year, workers unearthed multiple graves containing deceased residents of the Mississippi State Insane Asylum, a state hospital built in 1855 and closed in 1935. Between November and March, crews digging out the subsoil to make sure it was solid enough to support the road unearthed 66 bodies in pine boxes. The coffins were about six feet long, as you would expect, but much thinner than normal human width because they were compressed by the weight of the soil. There were no grave markers identifying the burials.
Experts from the state archives and the Mississippi State University anthropology department removed and documented the remains. They will study the bones for two years, doing isotope analysis of the teeth to determine what kind of food they ate, and therefore where they lived, as children, before reburying them in a UMMC cemetery used for donated anatomical remains and previous archaeological discoveries.
The number of bodies found at the road site made the excavation and reburial possible while still allowing the road to be built. That is not the case with the most recent discoveries. Soil testing on locations slated to become a parking lot, the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge (an $11 million project) and the Children’s Justice Center have found evidence of 1,000 bodies and probably more than that. Since each reburial costs about $3,000, that would add a whopping $3 million to the budget, money they don’t have. It puts a lot of pressure on the UMMC to find new locations for these construction projects, but they’re doing the right thing and leaving Asylum Hill and its many dead free from development.
The Mississippi State Insane Asylum was a cutting edge facility when it opened in January 8th, 1855. It was the first state institution for the mentally ill in Mississippi. Before its construction, people deemed insane were kept locked up in the attics and basements of family homes, or chained in jails and prisons. It took almost a decade for the asylum to be built, after appropriation struggles in the legislature and a five-year yellow fever epidemic delayed construction.
It was designed by architect Joseph Willis who patterned it after the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, built in 1848 according to the Kirkbride Plan, an all-encompassing holistic approach to the treatment of mental illness conceived by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a Quaker physician and a lifelong advocate for the curability and humane treatment of the mentally ill. The Mississippi State Insane Asylum was the sixth Kirkbride Plan asylum built in the United States, and the first in the South.
Kirkbride was a co-founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), the organization that in 1921 would become the American Psychiatric Association. He had an enormous influence on how mental illness was treated in second half of the 19th century, thanks largely to his book On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, first published in 1854. You can read a digitzed copy of it on the U.S. National Library of Medicine website.
The Kirkbride Plan was an incredibly detailed approach to the construction of mental institutions that would best benefit their patients. He detailed the optimal standards for everything from the staggered design of wings to building materials to the landscaping of the grounds to ventilation and drainage systems. Kirkbride asylums were designed to be large, bright, airy buildings on estates of at least 100 acres to provide inmates with pleasure grounds and land to farm. Kirkbride promoted “moral treatment,” based on the idea that pleasant environs, outdoor work, social interaction, cleanliness and edification of the mind were more effective at curing mental illness than harsh confinement and medical treatments like bleeding and purging.
From On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals:
A hospital for the insane should have a cheerful and comfortable appearance, every thing repulsive and prison-like should be carefully avoided, and even the means of effecting the proper degree of security should be masked, as far as possible, by arrangements of a pleasant and attractive character.
And it can’t be crammed full of beds either. Again from Kirkbride’s book:
All the best authorities agree that the number of insane confined in one hospital, should not exceed two hundred and fifty, and it is very important that at no time should a larger number be admitted than the building is calculated to accommodate comfortably, as a crowded institution cannot fail to exercise an unfavorable influence on the welfare of its patients.
That 250 figure is the maximum number of patients he calculated could be visited daily by the chief medical officer. Anything more than that and the man in charge would have to delegate and that almost inevitably meant a steep decline in conditions. Those 250 residents would be divided into eight classes of mental illness. Each class would get its own ward, and since the sexes were segregated, there were 16 total wards with an average of 15 patients. Each ward should be outfitted with a parlor, a dining room with dumb waiter, a speaking tube leading to the kitchen, a corridor, single rooms for patients, larger rooms for patients who needed their own special attendants, small dormitories with a connected chamber for a group attendant, a clothes room, a bath room, a wash and sink room, a water closet, an infirmary, two works rooms, a museum and reading room, a school room, drying closets, a forced ventilation system along with a natural ventilation system that allowed “fresh cool breezes” to pass through the wards.
When the Mississippi asylum opened, it had a mere 150 inmates, well-within Kirkbride’s maximum. During the Civil War, in 1863 the asylum was taken over by the 46th Indiana Infantry Regiment who used the inmates’ pleasure grounds and vegetable gardens for fortifications, embankments and to supply their troops. Under Reconstruction, African-American patients were first admitted and in 1870 the inmate population doubled to 300. The death rate was contained at around 21 per year, and the state legislature compelled the asylum trustees to visit once a week.
With the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the legislature stopped giving a crap, funds dried up and the asylum went into a steep decline. When Dr. Thomas J. Mitchell was appointed superintendent in 1878, he found conditions “verging on what the original Bedlam must have been like.” It took a major fire and the death an inmate before the state appropriated funds to install electrical lights and connect the asylum to the city water system (as opposed to the pestilent and drought-prone ponds that were its sole source of water before then) in 1894.
Additions and repairs were made, but not sufficient to keep up with the increase in admissions. By 1920, the Mississippi State Insane Hospital (so renamed in 1900) had 1,670 inmates. By 1930, the number of residents had increased to 2,649. Obviously the Kirkbride Plan was no longer. Finally conditions were so atrocious that in 1935 the hospital was closed and the patients moved to the new state hospital in Whitfield where it remains to this day.
The old asylum was demolished and in 1954, the new University Medical Center was built. Evidence of burials from its asylum days has turned up on occasion, not always handled with the proper respect. In 1990, 20 headstones were reportedly thrown in a gully. A few years after that workers installing a laundry steam line found 44 unmarked graves. Considering how many thousands of poor wretches lived and died in that asylum over the years, the entire campus is a likely cemetery.
Insane ! – but ‘pleasant environ[ment]s, outdoor work, social interaction, cleanliness and edification of the mind’ are still cutting edge and indeed highly advisable, even if there are situations where institutions of that kind, depending on the stage of illness and medication, need to be ‘repulsive and prison-like’. Thus, it takes mind-boggling responsibility to cope with both of these aspects.
Keeping that in mind, it seems a bit hard to tell if ‘unearthing 66 pine boxes of human remains’ and a thousand bodies more really counts as ‘advisable outdoor work’. Who gets the 3m USD that they don’t have ? Cemeteries on hospital grounds don’t seem uncommon.
They’re very common, you’re right. It’s just that for a long time people acted like it didn’t matter, that they could do whatever with the property no matter how many bodies were buried four or five feet under the topsoil. Sensibilities have changed now so they have to come up with respectful solutions. The entire UMMC campus isn’t a cemetery. Asylum Hill, however, pretty much is. I think this is going to mean the end of expansion plans involving that particular area.
Typo: “During the Civil War, in 1843”
Fixed. Thank you kindly. :thanks:
Discovering abandoned cemeteries on proposed construction sites is a growing problem as urbanization spreads into undeveloped areas.
The agency for which I work has encountered similar issues. In one case a highway was built in the 1920s through a large, urban freedmen’s cemetery. Unlike the Mississippi situation these graves had already been disturbed and mitigation was needed. The headstones were discarded and the graves paved over 90 years ago. When reconstruction of the highway occurred in the 1990s, the archeological studies program excavated the human remains from the right-of-way. We ultimately removed 1160 interments.
The people buried there were freed slaves, people who still had descendants in the community. The deceaased deserved respectful removal into a dedicated, perpetual care cemetery after the egregious way their remains had been treated decades ago. The community worked closely with us to arrive at an equitable solution.
I suspect the $3 million estimate for removal of the Mississippi cemetery is too low, as it doesn’t take into account work days lost to weather and other delays. Deciding to move the construction elsewhere and leave the cemetery in place is probably the wisest move.
Does anyone know if a fund or campaign has been started to re bury or even identify and relocate the bodies?
Thanks
Amy
You mean the 66 bodies unearthed last year? They are studying them in the hope of getting some idea of who they may have been. All will be reburied at UMMC’s expense after two years.
The 1,000+ bodies haven’t been excavated. The current plan is to leave them where they are.
If ever there were a horror movie script to be written:
Attractive young medical students vs crazed lunatic zombies!
Mentally ill people are not crazed lunatic zombies and they are not “crazy”. People with the most severe type of scizophrenia are not “crazy”.
Sane people are crazy.
Think about that for a while. Stop. Think. Observe. Ponder (“STOP”). You will arrive at the same conclusion.
My Great-Grandfather died in this hospital in 1920. All I have is some memories of why he was in there. He had been married with three daughters. Is there any records of patients from that time?
Each state in the United States has Data Practices and Records Management laws that drive how long records are to be retained and when they should be destroyed or transferred to archives, depending on the type of record. Records from a mental health hospital (“insane asylum”) are usually required to be retained 30 years, then destroyed. It is very unlikely that records still exist for your ggrandfather’s admission and stay at this facility. However, someone needs to find out for sure what happened to records from this place and time. I’d suggest contacting local county and state historical archives, as well as the new mental health hospital that was built to replace this one. In my home state, a new facility was built to replace a regional hospital that treated the mentally ill and people with chemical dependencies. Records that hadn’t met the 30 year retention period were transferred to the new facility.
By the way, just because someone was hospitalized in an “insane asylum” or regional hospital that treated the mentally ill or chemically dependent doesn’t always mean the person had a mental health issue. It could mean that someone was too impoverished to be able to pay the hospital bills at any other type of hospital — but their bill would be paid at this type of hospital. Many of these facilities received state and/or federal funding.
Whatever your ggrandfather’s situation was, I hope you can learn more about him.
Iam trying to locate my father mother, which would be my grandmother. She come from a small town crawford mississippi, her name Sallie Stewart, Samuels around 1930 thru 1935. When she entered whitfield he was only 9 years old and no one have heard any information about her.
Hi Cora,
I am writing this 10 years late. While working on genealogy, I just discovered a distant cousin who was a patient in the facility and is listed in the 1910 census. In the same census, I found your grandmother’s name on the first page. She is listed with Nolan Stewart, a Physician.
Nolan Stewart, Head, male, white, age 46, married 6 years, 3 children, Place of birth: Mississippi, Father’s birthplace: United States; Mother’s birthplace: Tennessee; Speaks English, Trade or Profession: PHYSICIAN, General nature of Industry: Insane Asylum, Whether an employer, employee, or working on own account: “W” [worker?]; Whether out of work on April 12, 1910: No; Own or Rent: Rent; Farm or House: House
Sallie B. Stewart, Wife, female, White, age 41, Married 6 years, 3 children; Place of birth: Mississippi; Father’s birthplace: Virginia; Mother’s birthplace: Mississippi; speaks English; Occupation: None
Doris O. Holder is listed as a stepdaughter, age 17, born in Tennessee
Nina T. Holder is listed as a stepdaughter, age 15, born in Mississippi
You should be able to find the same census and census data for other years on the FamilySearch web site or Ancestry web site.
My grt grt grandfather was on census there in 1910…his name was transcribed incorrectly.
They put Willis Mernhill, but it should be Willis Thornhill.
I would love to find out if there are records that I can purchase and to know if he was buried there and is one of the hundreds found there!
Please respond…thank you!
Jeannette
My god, can no one spell anymore? Can anyone construct a grammatically correct sentence? I am not sure what is worse, the article or the comments.
Can you get old records from the 1930’s and 1940’s my great grand mother was in that place, I was told she was removed and went home to die, but the death certificate says she died in that place, a question I want to have answered what really went on in that place she was mentally ill and over 89 years old. they say she died of hearth trouble.. something just don’t add up to me I always have something in the back of my mind, that hit’s into my soul..
My paternal grandmother was placed in here one month after giving birth for the first time to my father, around March 28, 1918.
Probably postnatal psychosis of some sort.
Once in there, I know she did not live longer than a few years.
I was told by an elderly relative that it is possible she was exhumed years later and reburied above her mother.
I have a picture of her as a child. She was well cared for and from a wealthy family.
I am named after her. I see a bit of my daughters image in her jaw and cheekbone.
These were real people. And they have real relatives trying to find out their demise.
We know nothing of my grandmother.
But I do know she does not resemble a crazed zombie.
Thank you for understanding.
Im looking for information for TWO of my great grand mothers that died there. No one in the family knows much about their illness necai5in that day and time it was a socially unacceptable conversation.
In search of my great grand mother Spedia Ann Redrick-Williams. When I first found out I called and was not given much information which was in 2014. We seek to know information about Our greatgrand mother. Please reply back. I was informed a journal was found with the names of people that was admitted.
Has anyone had any success finding records from this hospital yet? I have census records from 1920, 1930 and 1940 indicating a relative was an inmate. Has anyone checked with MDAH? I have heard they have admissions records there, but i am out of state.
I too had a paternal great great grandmother in this institution and would like to know more about records and the remains that have been disinterred. Wondering about DNA on them, I have had mine done by Ancestry and I am willing to have it compared. Plus anyone with any info on records would be greatly appreciated. My gr gr grandmother was Susan (Booty) Gullick, she had to have been put in the institution after 1880 and most likely past by 1900. Any help would be greatly appreciated so please respond. Thank you.
My maternal great Grandmother a patient in 1930. Tommie Sims. Her remains were lost there.
The information from death records housed at the Mississippi State Department on Health between November 1912, and March 9, 1935, are now searchable online through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Link here: http://opac2.mdah.state.ms.us/burials2.php
If your relative is not listed here, it doesn’t mean they aren’t buried on what is now the UMMC campus, but rather that they did not have a state-issued death certificate which indicated burial there during those dates.
I’ve been doing some work on this project. Please feel free to email me with questions: lidagrace@gmail.com.
Lida Gibson
Jackson, MS
Ms. Gibson:
I’m trying to determine the death date and any other information for my paternal grandmother, Mary Holton, who was consigned to the Mississippi State Insane Asylum and whose name appears on the 1920 census. The census record indicates Jackson Ward 5, Hinds, Mississippi.
I did a search under the link you provided above for inmates from Hinds County, but her name did not appear. Any information you might be able to provide would be helpful.
Thanks.
Hi, My apologies for not responding sooner. I just saw this post. I have not been able to find any information about Mary Holton. Do you know if her name appears on the patients listed at the asylum in 1930?
She will not appear in the MDAH online records unless she both died and was buried at the asylum before 1935. Apparently some patients who died there were claimed by family members and buried elsewhere.
She could also have been transferred from the Old Asylum to the new one at Whitfield or released at some point. There are original records of admissions and discharged with more information about patients at MDAH, but those records are not yet available digitally. They have to be viewed at the archives building. I will put her name on my list to check the next time I am there.
What about patients from the late 1800, say from 1880 to 1900? My great great grandmother Susan (Booty) Gullick was there sometime during those years. How can I get info about her? Any help you can supply would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you, in advance, for your help in this matter.
God bless you,
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
I Have not found anything yet, but please email me at lbgibson@umc.edu. I have some additional questions about your relative that may help me narrow my search. Thank you. Lida
I understand the void in your soul Aline… My grandmother, whom I never had the pleasure of meeting nor ever seeing a photograph of, died there in the 1940’s. I would love to being able to get old records, and photo would be a gold mine..
I was wondering if someone could help me find some more records regarding one of my ancestors. Her name was Elmira Sorrels. Here is a link to some information on her. But, what I was wondering if there are any patient records. It seems she was there for 40 plus years.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79829776
Hi Jason,
Have you contacted the creator of the Find A Grave memorial? The info added came from someone and it’s possible they might know something more. I don’t know how much you know about Find A Grave but the memorials like this are created because someone knows something. Try contacting the creator if the memorial has been taken over by a maintainer, they would possibly know more but I’m pretty sure this memorial was created by a family member and we don’t pas on family memorials. You’ll find the creator at the bottom of memorial page. Try that and good luck! I’ve been looking for info on my for 30 yrs but don’t ever give up, I haven’t.
God bless you,
Cindy