The director of Morningside sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior each time a patient died. On March 1, 1937, Wayne Coe sent the following letter to Secretary of the Interior about Joe Falardeau, whose grave is included in the Virtual Cemetary:

Sir:

Permit us to inform you herewith that our patient, Joe Falardeau No. 1269 who was admitted into our hospital, June 14, 1929 from Cordova died February 26th, 1937. The cause of death was Cerebral Thrombosis. The body was turned over to Holman & Lutz of this city for burial in Multnomah Cemetery.

Respectfully yours,

Wayne W. Coe

The patient database is still our top priority. We expect the receive funding (through a partnership of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and Access Alaska) before the end of the summer

Over the past two weeks in Portland we’ve unearthed quite a bit more backdrop on the search for the burial locations of Morningisde patients. Working closely with Robin Renfroe and her sister Peggy, from Salem, we visited the State of Oregon Archives to search for death certificates for over 150 people. Robin had done research on the Wickersham Paper, US Census reports and Morningside Admittance lists to unearth as many Alaska Native people (or known family names) as possible.

OR Archives, Salem

We have now searched all 121 names on the Wickersham list (pre 1916) as well as around 50 more Alaska Native people reported from 1920 to 1957. It is not complete but an important start.  Not all of them had a death certificate, but most did. The certificates are telling, from full names, to cause of death, burial location and family members if known. Those lines were almost always empty…. It was very sad to see how many were listed with epilepsy as cause of death.

Robin

Peggy and Sally

Meg recently returned from a trip to Nome, where she spent a few hours at the Nome Courthouse:

“I was in Nome doing some work the first three days of this week and had a couple of hours at the end.  I found the federal Probate Docket book from the Cape Nome Precinct at the Nome courthouse.  I had earlier been told that Nome did not have them.  There are 5 volumes running from 1918 to statehood.  There may be an earlier volume, but I could not find it (what I saw starts with volume “2.”)

Central Washington University, James E. Brooks Library, Digital Archives

Here is some preliminary data: between 1918 and 1929 there were only 5 sanity proceedings, one of which was a finding of not insane (but he lost about 2 months later and headed to Morningside). Everyone who was found insane was transported to Morningside.

Things picked up markedly in 1930-1936, perhaps because there was a doctor in Nome.  It is apparent that all of the actions were started by a non-medical person.  The Commissioner then appointed a doctor to examine the person accused.  During most of this period, the doctor’s name was Swartz. There were 32 sanity proceedings filed. There were two findings of someone being sane, and the US Attorney dismissed another 7 cases before trial.  Some of the reasons for dismissal were great, “condition brought on by alcohol” and “he is an old man who has been placed in the Pioneer Home in Sitka” being my favorites.

My most exciting find was a 1954 letter to the Governor copied to the Nome clerk of court and pasted in the docket book.  This letter is just like those we have seen in the Juneau files. It gives me hope that we will see more in the later volumes.  The letter was about the death of Antonio Sliscovich, Morningside patient number 1507.  He was judged insane in Nome in June 1933 and was admitted  to Morningside on July 3, 1933.  He died May 27, 1954; the letter was dated the next day.  The body was turned over to Miller and Tracey Funeral Directors for burial at Greenwood Hills.  He died of congestive heart failure and a “report of postmortem examination” was referenced.  He had a niece (in California?) who was notified.  I could not copy the letter because it was quite firmly attached in the Docket Book.  I did not have my camera with me.  Mr. Sliscovich’s court record is #450 in volume 3.

Niesje and I will try to persuade the Nome folks to send us the records here in Fairbanks on our promise to return them. Failing that, we will try to get the rest of the information reviewed next time one of us is in Nome.”

Record Group 126, Records of the Office of the Territories, National Archives II, College Park, MD

Occasionally there are glimpses of who was at Morningside. Included in the Department of the Interior files from the National Archives was a tabulation of admissions between 1912 and 1942. There was a total of 1,601 admissions over the 30 years, an average of 53 admissions per year. The percentage of admissions who were female increased from 10.1% during the first 5 years (1912-1917) to 26.4% for the years 1938 to 1942. The report noted:

“Out of the 81 females now in the hospital, there are 13 who have been in the hospital more than 15 years. There are 20 of them who are epileptics or mentally deficient and there are 20 who are over the age of sixty at the time. The epileptics, mentally deficient and older women, that is 40 out of the 81 require more or less special attention and many are infirmary cases.”

You can view these lists here: 1955 Department of the Interior Report

The Wall of Names is sorted alphabetically by last name, and then by first name, rather than by source. The intended reason for this was to organize the names in a way that makes it easier for someone researching their family history or looking for a specific name to find the name they’re looking for. The other effect of sorting the names like this is that names that appears on more than one list group together. In adding the names from the Department of the Interior Report from March 1955, I stumbled upon a few patients who’s names appear in Judge Wickersham’s list from Morningside in 1916 and in the 1955 DotI Report.

• Robert Belling is listed in the Wickersham Papers as admitted 6/23/1911 from Nome with admission # 359. The 1955 DotI Report includes a Robert Belling, 44 years later. Unfortunately the 1955 report does not include any further information about Robert Belling.
• Charles Benson appears in the Wickersham Papers as having been admitted from Ketchikan on February 16, 1915 with admission # 553. According to the Department of the Interior Report from 1955, 40 years later, there was still a patient named Charles Benson. Again the 1955 report does not include any other information about Charles Benson.
• David Hull is in the Wickersham Papers, admitted from Nome 6/29/1908 with patient # 201, and present in 1916. DotI report lists a David Hull in 1955, 47 years later.
• W.T.C. Jensen is shown in the Wickersham Papers, admitted from Juneau 8/30/1914 with patient # 534, and present in 1916. DotI lists W.T.C Jensen in 1955, 41 years later.
• G. McLain appears in the Wickersham Papers, admitted from Ft. Gibbon with patient # 476 in August, 1913, and Present in 1916. DotI has a Granville McLain in 1955, 42 years after G. McLain’s admission.
• Carl Miller is listed in the Wickersham Papers as admitted from Ketchikan in October 1909, but “Eloped” 10/22/1910. However, a Carl Miller does also show up in the 1955 DotI report.
• Richard Harris is shown in the Wickersham Papers as admitted 8/19/1905 from Juneau, and deceased 10/10/1907. The DotI report also includes a Richard Harris.
• J. Hubbard is listed in the Wickersham Papers as admitted 4/13/1913 from Juneau, and deceased 10/2/1914. The DotI report includes a John Hubbard
• There are potentially more, as both patient lists are missing first or last names from patients, or have names off by one or two characters which could be misspellings. There are probably others that I overlooked. As we add lists, more duplicate names will appear, adding to the ability to cross-reference names.

It is probably reasonable to assume that some of these patients were sent home and later re-admitted to Morningside, but there is currently not enough information to expand on. There is also the possibility that some these records are not referencing the same patients; the DotI report doesn’t give much information to work with, and there is no way to know if these are the same persons or if they just share names. Given the population of Alaska at the time, duplicate names may have been somewhat rare, but as the final two in that list show, there are records indicating that over the course of Morningside Hospital’s operations there were patients who shared the same names.

Even if some of the names that appear on both lists are duplicate names, and some of the rest are patients who were sent home and later re-admitted, it seems possible that at least a few patients spent upwards of 40 years at Morningside Hospital. Hopefully we’ll be able to make things more clear as we collect additional patient lists and get them into spreadsheets.

“James Ebana was sent to Morningside Hospital when he was about 17 years of age.   It appears he had epilepsy and that was the reason he was sent away, a decision probably by the missionaries at the Church Christ Mission.  His death certificate indicates he passed away on March 21, 1942 at the age of 27 years.  The death certificate shows his immediate cause of death is as “Tuberculosis of the Lungs” which he had for 5 months and “Psychosis due to Epileptic Deterioration” for 11 years.  Holman and Lutz was the funeral home and he is buried at the Multnomah Cemetery which is now the Multnomah Park Pioneer Cemetery located at S. E. 82nd and Holgate Blvd in Portland, Oregon.

Kate was unsure where her brother was sent.  She knew the name Morningside Hospital, but thought it was in Washington.  Searches for Morningside Hospital were non-existent.  In 2005 through Ancestry we located his death certificate.

The following is what little we know about James Ebana…

James Ebana was born around 1915 in the Lower Yukon region of Interior Alaska.  He was the fourth child of Cecelia and Jim Ebana.  Cecelia was an Alaska Native from the Bonzila area, born around 1885 and died of tuberculosis in October 1917 at her home in Iditarod.  Jim came to Alaska when he was young and worked as miner. He died in 1955.

The family was living in Discover Creek, Iditarod when Cecelia Ebana passed away in 1917 leaving behind 5 young children:  Florence age 4, Emily age 3, Kate age 2, Jim age 1, and an infant child named Will.  Emily, Kate and Jim were sent to live at the Church Christ Mission at Anvik, Alaska.  Florence was also sent to the Anvik Mission, however she moved to the Holy Cross Mission.  There is no information on the infant child Will and it is presumed he passed away after Cecelia’s death.

Emily, Kate and Jim Ebana are listed at the Christ Church Mission in Anvik in 1930 US Census.  Emily died shortly after the census.  She was 16 or 17 years old. James was sent to the Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon.  His sister Kate Ebana Chase never saw or heard from her brother once he left.  Kate often spoke of James and wanted to know what happened to her brother and longed to bring him home to Anvik.  Kate passed away in October 2005 without ever knowing his whereabouts.”