The Mysterious Deaths At Colorado Mental Asylum Pueblo​, January 24, 1899 The Graphic Story of Burrows The male department supervisor, Thomas J. Burrows, was put on the stand. Despite his heavy voice and recent recovery from a hospital bed, the witness answered questions without hesitation. Regarding a baby delivered in the asylum who lived for a few weeks before passing away, the witness stated that, as far as he was aware, neither a death certificate nor any documentation of the incident had been prepared; it was none of his concern. Before the Pueblo undertakers were awarded the contracts for funerals, some 200 deceased were interred in the asylum graveyard.
Read Also: History Facts: Fun History Facts For Adults
The Dark Legacy of Colorado's Pueblo Mental Health Facility
A CSU researcher is solving the mystery of 19th-century bones discovered at a mental health facility.
Fort Collins, Colorado State University News Release, October 23, 2006
Insane institution: Last winter, the state insane institution was established in Pueblo thanks to the efforts of the politicians from the South. Patients from various places of confinement were moved to their new home, which is under the supervision of Dr. P. R. Thombs, one of the best men who could have been assigned to oversee it, after the commissioners bought the Chilcott property west of the city and made the necessary additions and modifications. Three male and one female nurses, as well as steward Dr. J. J. Chinn, aid him. The institution is home to thirty-four patients. In this edition, we provide a great clip of the Mysterious Deaths At Colorado Mental Asylum Pueblo.
Must Know: Star Trek: Discovery’s Biggest Future
Transcript of Golden Colorado, 5-10-1882
We were shown a beautiful new structure in Pueblo the other day that was finished from the outside. It was built for the State Insane Asylum and may have cost $20,000 to construct. The facility should be completed and furnished for occupation with an additional $10,000. Rumor has it that the building's completion has been delayed since the appropriation has ran out. If our memory serves us correctly, the previous legislature appropriated $75,000 to address the severe lack of a suitable asylum for the state's insane. After almost two years, almost every jail in the state houses one or more of these unfortunates for whom there is no space at the state asylum, in addition to a considerable number that friends have been forced to send to institutions in the east at their own expense. Sheriff Johnson tells us that two of his violently crazy patients have been housed in the Jefferson County jail for the past six months, and he has been unable to have them admitted to the asylum during that period. Naturally, everyone is aware that they cannot receive the right care here, not to mention the unfairness and frustration experienced by the sheriff and the inmates housed there. Due to their inability to provide the necessary bail, many of these individuals are simply detained there until trial. It should have been finished long ago, according to well-informed persons, and the appropriation was sufficient to get the Pueblo facility in good condition for receiving prisoners. We sincerely need an explanation.
Weekly Times of Aspen, 12-9-1882
The fourth legislature ought to appropriate a sum of money that is sufficiently large to finish and equip the new institution for the insane. Permitting the facility to remain in its current state is a huge waste of money, and in addition to that, further accommodations for the poor people imprisoned inside are desperately needed. – Thus. Pueblo News. It's absolutely true that something has to be done. The news reports on the situation because of the sad impoverished people that are imprisoned there. One of the main reasons why something has to be done is that, in the last year, two people who were declared crazy by Pitkin County's County Court had to be transported to Jacksonville, Illinois, since the Pueblo asylum was unable to accommodate them. Due to the low value of our county warrants, the cost of transporting these individuals to Jacksonville was four times the real cash rate. Without a doubt, the State bears some of this cost.
Journal of Castle Rock, 3-5-1884
(excerpt) Governor Eaton named Jose Romeros of Conejos County as Commissioner and Pembroke R. Thombs as Superintendent of the State Insane Asylum.
Journal of Alamosa 1-15-1885
The Governor's statement indicates that there was a $25,718.00 budgetary shortfall at the Insane Asylum.
Read Also: 10 Objects Carried by World
Weekly Times of Aspen, January 17, 1885
The Governor's Message to All Departments: A Thorough Assessment of State Affairs – Governor Grant's message to the state legislature is summarized as follows. It's a lengthy and meticulously composed paper. The Insane Asylum Since November 20, 1883, the male patients have been housed at the new facility. The main structure is three floors high, 320 feet long by 100 feet deep, and has two dorms that are 64 by 28 feet. When the building is finished, it will house over two hundred patients, which will undoubtedly satisfy the state's needs for the insane for many years to come. The east wing is intended for male patients, and the west wing is for female patients. Each wing is separated into three wards, each of which can house thirty-five patients. Seventy male patients are being housed in two furnished wards on the east wing. Although the third ward is finished, it is not equipped. The west wing is still unfinished; the walls are up, the roof is up, and the rooms and hallways have been divided but not plastered. The construction has been halted due to a lack of funding. There were 49 patients in the asylum on November 30, 1882; 125 more have subsequently been admitted, bringing the total number of patients treated in the two years ending November 30, 1884, to 177. There are currently 97 people at the asylum, up 48 since 1882, of which 77 have been released, 53 have recovered, 1 has improved, 3 have escaped, and 20 have passed away. $6,000 was provided by the last legislature to finish the institution building's third storey. Other modifications, including a stable, gas works, laundry, shop room, etc., have been created, and this work has been Mysterious Deaths At Colorado Mental Asylum Pueblo.
Chronicle of Leadville Daily and Evening, December 15, 1888
Colorado is a shame. Dr. P. R. Thombs, superintendent of the state insane asylum in Pueblo, wrote to Acting Sheriff Loomis on Saturday morning, stating that he was unsure of when he would be able to accept Whitney, who was declared insane in the Lake County county court on Wednesday of last week. Dr. Thombs also mentioned that five mad people were already in the Pueblo County jail and were waiting to be admitted to the institution. Colorado is ashamed of this state of things! We must treat this terrible group of people with the utmost care in accordance with all the laws of common humanity. Naturally, keeping them in one of the many county jails tends to worsen their condition and reduce their prospects of ever recovering. Naturally, those prisons lack the necessary infrastructure to house mentally ill inmates. In violent situations, it has often been necessary to put them in noisy and unhygienic dungeons since they make life difficult for both the jail staff and their fellow inmates. This is blatantly inhuman! Additionally, it comes at a far higher cost to the state. Special guards are required to keep an eye on the most aggressive patients; this expenditure would not be required if they were admitted to the institution. This complaint is not unique to the examples we have mentioned. The situation is essentially the same in practically every county in the state. Naturally, the issue stems from the previous legislature's foolish parsimony. This authority was unwilling to provide adequate funding to expand the asylum's facilities. Prominent and very reliable legal authorities have advised us that state officials might have rectified this shameful situation by borrowing sufficient funds to finish the asylum accommodations. We believe that their failure to take such a step amounts to egregious negligence. The abuse is condemned by every human instinct and kindness, and it is hoped that the new legislature would take up the issue as soon as possible.
Chronicle of Carbonate, 1-14-1889
Insane Asylum: Dr. Thombs, the superintendent, is highly commended for the professional and business management of this facility. In the history of mad asylums, the number of people who were released healed is unprecedented. Our environment undoubtedly contributes significantly to this outcome, but Dr. Thombs' expertise, experience, and talent play a significant role in these treatments as well. For the construction of an irrigation canal, $3,000 for insurance, and $93,436.27 for new buildings and furnishings, the commissioners request allocation. In order to insure the property and have the ditch constructed in time for spring usage, the two last elements had to be approved simultaneously. Since the current capacity is full and patients are being kept in prisons and other inappropriate locations while they wait for lodgings, the $14,599.01 needed to complete the west wing of the male facility should also be appropriated. The biggest and most costly issue facing contemporary law is the treatment of the crazy and criminal. Out of $6,62,081,74 collected for all purposes since the beginning of our state's existence, over $2,000,000 has been spent on the penitentiary, insane asylum, deaf mute institute, and industrial schools. Since the establishment of our state, the upkeep of these unfortunate and vicious elements of society has consumed 30% of our total revenue. Even while the tax payer bears an ever-increasing cost, all governmental and human considerations force prudent and generous spending in these areas.
Sun of Rocky Mountain, May 11, 1889
Using a very dull case knife, a female inmate at the state mental institute in Pueblo slit her throat and committed suicide the other day. One of the prisoners was murdered only moments earlier after being struck by an engine. The victims in both situations were thought to be well on their way to recovery and so far along that they didn't require any treatment. To take care of these unfortunates, someone gets paid, and their pay should be enough to keep them alert. Compared to the 200 or 300 criminals in the penitentiary who ought to have been executed years ago, the asylum's inmates are entitled to far more attention and respect.
You May Also Like: 8 Of The Biggest Mysteries
1992 saw the discovery of patient remains.
When the state began constructing a high security hospital for the criminally ill in 1992, the gravesite and the patients' bodies were found, according to Magennis. Following the discovery of the graveyard during construction, 135 people's bones were unearthed under the supervision of the state archeologist and sent to a Colorado College anthropologist. The Colorado History Museum received other items, including buttons and clothing remnants, that were discovered alongside the bones. In the planning stages of another facility expansion in 2000, the remains of about 20 additional people were discovered and excavated. Magennis took ownership of the skeletal remains of 155 people through a contract between Colorado State, Colorado's Department of Corrections, the State Archaeologist, and Mysterious Deaths At Colorado Mental Asylum Pueblo.
At first, the institution was only a basic farm home.
There were probably a lot of reasons why these people were buried on the institution's property, according to Magennis. The facility was a modest farm home when it originally opened. Patients maintained the hospital by caring for the gardens and orchards under the leadership of Dr. Pembroke Thombs, the first superintendent. According to Magennis, financing did not increase with the population. The Board of Charities and Corrections, which governed the facility, and Colorado's legislature rejected Thombs' repeated demands for additional funding. According to Magennis, Thombs and the board reportedly had a falling out over the graves in 1898. She is requesting meeting minutes in order to ascertain, if feasible, the subjects of discussion between Thombs and the board.
The majority of those that were dedicated to the institution were from the Denver region.
According to Magennis, the identity of the people involved are and probably always will be a mystery. Only 155 of the more than 500 patients who passed away there between 1879 and 1899 have been identified. Magennis believes the unmarked cemetery stretches to a location beneath a road at the moment.
"The majority of people committed to the institution came from the Denver area," Magennis stated. "There are two or three young children, and I may be able to figure out who those children were."
According to Magennis, there are still hints in the skeletal remains. Some had intricate gold fillings that would have cost a lot of money. Others have bone lesions that, if left untreated, might be a sign of advanced syphilis, which can lead to delusional behavior. Up to 20% of patients in mental asylums throughout the 19th century are thought to have had late-stage syphilis before antibiotics were developed in the 1940s.
"It will be very interesting to see if this is true for the Colorado insane asylum," Magennis remarked.
[Ann L. Magennis - Human skeletal biology, bioarchaeology, global health, and human adaptability to illness and nutrition are among Dr. Magennis' areas of interest in both teaching and research. Her current study focuses on the skeletal remains and pertinent historical papers from the Colorado Insane Asylum in the late 19th century. She has also conducted fieldwork in Tanzania, Morocco, Belize, and North America. She is the co-author of Black Mesa Anasazi Health: Reconstructing Life from Patterns of Death and Disease, the author of the monograph The Indian Neck Ossuary, and the author of chapters in books as well as articles in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development, Northeast Anthropology, and the Mysterious Deaths At Colorado Mental Asylum Pueblo.
