U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statementon the following page: ----------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XXV. THE WESTON STATE HOSPITAL Almost immediately after the report of the com- mittee that Weston was the most available site for the proposed Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum, the state authorities at Richmond began preparations for the pur- chase of land and the erection of buildings. In accord- ance with the terms of the act of the General Assembly creating the institution Governor Wise appointed nine directors "living as near the location as possible," as fol- lows: Minter Bailey, Johnson N. Camden, John Bran- non, R. J. McCandlish, George J. Arnold, James T. Jack- son, William E. Arnold, Caleb Boggess and Joseph C. Spalding. The board organized immediately with Min- ter Bailey as president and Johnson N. Camden as clerk. Arrangements were made at once for the purchase of the site selected by the board. A tract of seventy acres lying partly in the town of Weston was purchased from Minter Bailey for $1,500, a rate per acre cheaper than the less desirable hilly land west of the buildings was obtained from the other owners. In all 269 acres of land was purchased for $9,809.12, leaving from the ap- propriation a balance of $15,000 to be applied on the buildings. It was provided in the act of 1858 that the plan of the building should be chosen by the board of directors, but that any plan adopted must be approved by two physicians who had been connected with similar insti- tutions. The directors appointed William E. Arnold and John Brannon a committee to draw up plans for the buildings. The two men, accompanied by Dr. William J. Bland, visited the best institutions of a similar kind in the United States, including those of some of the New- England states which were regarded as models by nearly every people in the world. They investigated the plans submitted by the leading architects of the United States and finally selected those of K. S. Andrews of Baltimore. The board then designated the site where the foundations for the new building should be placed. In 1860, the General Assembly appropriated $50,000 with which to begin the work of construction, and a similar sum the following year. Work was begun at once on the main building and prosecuted diligently until in June 1861, when the Virginia authorities ordered that all work should stop, and that the funds not expend- ed should be returned to the treasury for the defense of the state in the war. The funds were seized by Colonel Tyler two days after the passage of the resolution, and were removed to Wheeling, where in strict accordance with the resolution they were used for the defense of the state, but against a different enemy from that which the Richmond government had contemplated. In June, 1861, the hospital buildings were far from being completed, despite the fact that $98,000 had been expended. Much of the amount had been used in pre- liminary work and in hauling fine stone from a quarry at Mount Clare. The main building was not completed for ten years. The Restored government of Virginia appropriated $40,000 for the completion of the buildings in addition to placing at the disposal of the directors the $27,000 which had been appropriated by Virginia in 1861, and the work of construction was resumed the next year. When the new state was formed, the Restored government transferred to it all the property of Virginia lying within its boundaries, including of course the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum. The new state had then no statehouse, no peniten- tiary, no university, no state institutions except the half- completed lunatic asylum. The Legislature, in order to secure precise information concerning the needs of the institution, sent a committee of inspection consisting of Senator D. D. Farnsworth and Delegates Lewis Ballard and L. E. Davidson to report progress. The committee came to Weston about the first of September, 1863, and reported that the plan of the buildings had rarely been excelled, and that for quality of materials and execution, the work already done was entirely satisfactory. They recommended that an appropriation of $100,000 to com- plete the work should be made without delay. Governor Boreman appointed as directors for the hospital Minter Bailey, Elias Fisher, H. Daugherty, John P. Peterson and E. M. Tunstill. One of the first acts of the state legislature of West Virginia was to change the name of the institution to the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane. On account of the military needs of the state it was impossible at once to appropriate the amount recommended, but a sufficient sum was set aside to make the building fit for occupancy. Dr. James A. Hall was appointed superin- tendent in October 1863. His duties were principally in connection with supervising the construction of the buildings. It was impossible to make much progress on account of the disturbed conditions then existing, and Dr. Hall was not ready to admit patients to the insti- tution. He was superseded in October, 1864, by Dr. R. Hills, formerly of the hospital at Columbus, Ohio. The new superintendent immediately opened the institu- tion for the reception of patients, nine being admitted from the jails of nearby counties on the day designated. The capacity of the institution was not more than twenty until after the close of the war; and the needs of the state for the creation of other institutions and for the extraordinary expenses of reconstruction were so great that the capacity could not be increased much be- yond forty until 1868. The insane people of the state were meanwhile confined in jails at state expense until the main building could be finished. Even in Lewis County the court directed in 1866 that the the jailer fit up a comfortable room in the jail for the retention of a lunatic until a place could be found in the hospital. The unfortunates from the western counties who had been committed to the asylums at Williamsburg and Staunton before the war were retained there until 1866, when, in response to appeals from the officials of Virginia, Gov- ernor Boreman sent an agent to investigate the number and condition of the patients, and to superintend their removal to Weston. The state paid Virginia $23,700 for maintenance of these patients from June 20, 1863, to January 1, 1866. They of course had the preference in being admitted to the institution over those confined in jails. Besides the appropriations for maintenance, the Leg- islature of West Virginia appropriated for the comple- tion of the buildings $228,000 before the close of 1868. In that year 162 patients were admitted bringing the population to nearly 200 as compared with forty-five the year before. In September, 1869, it was reported that there were still seventy-five insane persons in jails of different counties and there was loud complaint that the money appropriated for the buildings was being used for walks and fish ponds and that no progress was being made toward the completion of the structures. The Legislature in 1870 appropriated $110,000 for buildings, and a new board appointed by Governor Stevenson began work with great energy in the spring of that year. Over fifty men were employed in the con- struction of the central building. Instead of hauling stone at great expense from quarries ranging in distance from one-half mile to a mile from the buildings, a new quarry was opened in the river bank immediately in front of the main building. A tramway was constructed from the quarry past the cutting shop and the brick kiln to the main building, which reduced the labor of hauling to the minimum. The power house was so connected that the saw mill, the brick machine, the planing mill and the lath mill were all run from the same source. O. H. P. Washburn was in charge of the stone quarry; W. J. Kitson supervised the stone cutting; Thomas Brad- bury, the brick laying, and Weeden Smith, the carpen- ter work. The result of the reorganization was that the central building and the east wing were finished in the fall of 1871. The formal opening of the main building was celebrated by a visit from the governor of West Vir- ginia and the directors of the institution. There was a banquet and later a grand ball in the spacious ballroom. The main building was constructed for two hundred and fifty persons besides the chapel and the offices of ad- ministration. At the time of its completion it was re- garded as one of the best buildings of its kind in the United States. It was now possible, for the first time in the history of the state, for the jails to be cleared of in- sane persons. In consequence of the election of Governor Jacob in 1872, Dr. Hills was forced to tender his resignation after serving as superintendent from the opening of the in- stitution in 1864. His time had been occupied for prac- tically the whole of his term in attending to the details of administration and in supervising the construction of new buildings. His assistant, at first Dr. N. B. Barnes and later Dr. A. H. Kunst, cared for the inmates of the institution, visiting every ward every day and adminis- tering medical attention. In addition to these duties, the first assistant physician was also his own druggist. A second assistant physician was not added to the staff until 1880. The work of making additions and improvements to the plant was continued under Dr. T. B. Camden, who succeeded Dr. Hills. In 1872 the waterworks were completed, and the hospital cemetery laid off. The con- struction of new buildings by convict labor was urged by Governor Jacob in his first message to the Legisla- ture, but the suggestion was not acted upon. Work continued with paid labor. In 1873 a new brick building was constructed, and room was soon thereafter provided for colored patients. The new buildings were sufficient for the needs of the state for only a few years. By 1879, it was seen that the jails would soon again have to be used as a place of detention for insane persons. In that year a contract was let for the construction of the west wing, which was completed two years later. In 1887, another new building was completed, and messengers were sent out from the hospital to bring to the institution all insane persons who were then confined in jails. When all the unfortunates had been admitted the capacity of the build- ing was taxed. In 1890 work of construction was begun on the Spencer hospital. At that time the capacity of the Weston institution was about seven hundred. It has been increased by later additions to about twelve hundred. The effects of the hospital at Weston upon the later development of Weston and Lewis County have been tremendous — too great to be estimated more than ap- proximately. The great boom in building on the west side of the river just before the Civil war was due largely to the demand for houses by the workmen engaged in constructing the insane asylum. A great deal of the prosperity of the town in the same period came from the fact that there were thousands of dollars in cash being distributed among the people every month. After the war Lewis County recovered more quickly from the de- pression caused by the war than surrounding counties. The re-establishment of normal business conditions in the county was almost a matter of weeks, instead of months and years. The construction of the buildings furnished work for a great number of persons for several years. Young men who would otherwise have gone West found jobs at Weston. A large number of new citizens, most of whom were skilled artisans — the best possible addition to the population — were attracted to the town, and prac- tically all of them have chosen to stay. The infant in- dustry of manufacturing lumber, which had just begun before the war, received a tremendous stimulus from the ready market afforded by the construction of the build- ings. Thousands of feet of oak and poplar boards were sold to the state. Farmers were no longer dependent upon ginseng for cash with which to pay their taxes. In- stead it was only necessary to cut logs which would have been burned otherwise, hitch an ox team to them and haul them to Weston to be sold to the state. Thousands of feet of lumber were sawed by the mill on the hospital grounds. The large payroll of the hospital and the payments to business men for supplies caused a large amount of money to be placed in circulation. The National Ex- change bank benefited from the growth of trade. Busi- ness men followed the laborers to Weston and set up stores in order to share in the prosperity. Lawyers came in order to represent the business men when they brought suit for non-payment of debt. New doctors came to help treat the laborers and the merchants and the lawyers when they were ill; and every one was prosperous. The institution furnished employment for many persons as administrative officers, attendants and others after it was opened. New inhabitants — and again a most desirable class of people — were attracted to Weston The large payroll has made it possible to bring other in- dustries to Weston and thus to increase the volume of business. The added prosperity had caused better churches and better schools to be built in the town. The results for the country districts have not been less important than those for the town. The hospital farm, sometimes under the care of a competent farmer, has been somewhat a source from which farmers of the county secured pure bred stock, and better agricultural methods have been introduced as a result. But the farm has never produced all the grain, vegetables and dairy products necessary for the inmates of the institution. A home market has been furnished for the cattle raised in Lewis County. Before the railroad came to Weston, when the hauling of flour from Clarksburg by wagon was unprofitable, the raising of wheat on the hillside farms of Lewis County was stimulated. Corn and vegetables were also required as well as dairy and poultry products, and farmers and farmers' wives who had never thought of any sources of income other than the live stock and grain raised in their fields, the timber cut from the for- ests, the wild herbs found in the woods, or the skins of wild beasts, now found a profitable side line in making butter, in picking berries, and in growing garden truck. Many farmers of the better sort have been attracted from other counties by the opportunities presented by the hos- pital market, and their methods have been copied by the native farmers of the neighborhood. One of the old set- tlers in the early seventies remarked to a new comer: "So-and-so said that you are selling ten pounds of but- ter a week to the asylum, but I said if you are, you don't eat much yourself." The new comer replied, "You were misinformed. I'm selling twenty-five pounds a week and have plenty to eat besides." The native was selling a large amount of butter soon afterwards. -----------------------------------------------------------