You can view these lists here: 1920 US Census

When we posted the 1955 Department of the Interior Report, we pointed out some names that appeared on both that list and the Wickersham Papers. With the addition of the 1920 US Census list there are even more names that appear on multiple lists, helping to fill out the profile of some Morningside patients.

For example:

• Emile Johnson appears in both the Wickersham Papers and the 1920 US Census. The Census tells us he’s a 31-year-old, single, white male from Sweden who speaks English but cannot read or write. The Wickersham Papers tells us he was committed from Valdez on 11/11/1912 as patient #439. Using information from the two different sources we can compilate some additional data too: if he was 31 in 1920 (from the Census), that would make him ~23 when he was committed in 1912.
• Charles Benson appears in all three of the current lists. He was committed 2/16/1915 from Ketchikan with patient # 553. The US Census reports that he was 44 years old and single in 1920, and lists him as a literate, white male from Sweden.
• G. Osawa is on both the Wickersham Papers and the US Census. The Census tells us that G. Osawa was a 43-year-old single Japanese man who could read and write, and spoke English. Wickersham Papers tell us he was committed 5/10/1911 from Wrangel with patient # 355

There are many, many more entries like these.

Deborah is currently working on typing the hand-written 1930 US Census, and it will be posted as soon as it’s complete.

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.

One of the things we’d really like to do is collect and make available the names of as many Morningside patients as possible, with the hope that families can find long-lost relatives and fill in the empty spaces on family trees.

The first installment is a list of all patients admitted to Morningside from 1904 to 1916. This information came from the papers of Judge James Wickersham, who was the Alaska delegate to Congress in the early 1900s. The spreadsheet includes the information as it was originally organized, and then a series of spreadsheets organized by admission date, disposition and the community the person came from in Alaska.

We also have patient lists from the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census records. We’ll post them as soon as we get them into spreadsheets.

In August 1910, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner noted that Sam Bonnifield arrived in town after walking the Valdez Trail. He spent a year recovering on the family farm in Kansas. The newspaper celebrated his return by saying, “No man ever lived in the North who has more real friends than has Sam Bonnifield, and the entire community will be glad to have him here once again.”

In October 1911, the Alaska Citizen ran the headline “Sam Bonnifield is Insane Once More.”

“Sam Bonnifield was taken into custody by the Marshall’s office on Wednesday last on the charge of insanity, and placed in the federal jail. He has been unbalanced for some time, but his condition only became very noticeable the day of his arrest.

Bonnifield has never entirely recovered from the mental breakdown occasioned three or four years ago when the First National Bank, of which he was president, went on a script basis. He was taken Outside for treatment at the time of his breakdown and later walked into Fairbanks over the trail.

A few days before his arrest he drew quite a sum of money from the bank and distributed a part of it among the laborers around town; the balance he carried across the river and played with it in the sand.

When arrested he violently talked about President Taft, Cardinal Gibbon and other of prominence, saying that money is their god.”

Sam Bonnifield was found to be “insane” by a jury of six men and taken to Portland. He was admitted to Morningside Hospital on December 23, 1911, where he stayed until June 26, 1914. A few months after his discharge, he received a letter from Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, the head of Morningside Hospital, verifying that he was “recovered”. Dr. Coe went on to give him the following advice:

“All that I can ask of you is that you do not take life too earnestly or strenuously. As I understand it, you are not compelled to do two men’s work. You have worked hard and are entitled to an easier time. Take an easy time.”

Not much is known about Sam’s life after his stay at Morningside. He died at the age of seventy-seven in Seattle.