:''This is about the privately-owned facility in Portland (1859-1883), not to be confused with Oregon State Hospital in Salem (established 1883).'' OregonHospital1862-1883

Oregon Hospital for the Insane was a facility constructed in the city of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

by medical doctors J. C. Hawthorne and A. M. Loryea. Launched in 1859 as Oregon Hospital, the facility later came to specialize in the treatment of

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

and served as the de facto insane asylum for the state of Oregon under contract with the

Oregon Legislature The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the Ho ...

beginning in 1861. Legislation passed in 1880 led to the launch of the state-owned Oregon State Insane Asylum (today's Oregon State Hospital) in

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...

in 1883.

History

Background

The Oregon Territory became the state of

on February 14, 1859, when President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

signed enabling legislation into law. At the time of admission into the union, the state of Oregon had a population of a mere 50,000 people — fewer than 3,000 of whom lived in

— and sparse medical resources to match.

Launch

Pioneer

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

J. C. Hawthorne, and "

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

" A. M. Loryea determined to pool their talent in 1859 with the August launch of "Oregon Hospital," a facility in which both would reside."Oregon Hospital!"
advertisement in ''The Weekly Oregonian'' ortland vol. 9, no. 41 (Sept. 3, 1859), pg. 3. Per the same ad in the Aug. 13, 1859 issue of the same paper, the illegible line here reads "No contagious diseases received." The hospital was originally located on Portland's Taylor Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues. From the time of launch the hospital was dedicated to the treatment of non-contagious disease. The hospital seems to have quickly gained support of the Oregon legislature as a semi-official facility for the maintenance and treatment of the mentally ill, with the press reporting in September 1861 that Hawthorne and Loryea were coordinating the contribution of "books for the use of the insane," with materials received to be held in trust as property belonging to the state of Oregon. From approximately that date Hawthorne and Loryea's Oregon Hospital became known as Oregon Hospital for the Insane."Oregon Hospital for the Insane, Portland 1861-1883,"
Oregon State Hospital Museum blog, www.oshmuseum.wordpress.com/ Aug. 31, 2010. The 1862 Oregon Legislature instructed

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

A. C. Gibbs Addison Crandall Gibbs (July 9, 1825December 29, 1886) was an American politician. He was the second Governor of Oregon from 1862 until 1866, and previously served in the Oregon Territory's legislative body and later the state legislature. Ear ...

to select a location in

for a permanent state hospital for the insane."Marion's History: Plymouth of the Pacific Coast," ''Weekly Oregon Statesman,'' Jan. 1, 1892, pg. 23. This instruction was set aside, however, with contracting with the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in Portland seen as the more economical option for the state. A contractual relationship was established in which the state of Oregon paid a set per capita fee for the housing of "indigent insane and idiotic persons" committed to the facility by the courts. Buoyed by state financial support, Oregon Hospital for the Insane was moved to a new permanent home in 1862, a building located on "Asylum Avenue" (today's Hawthorne Boulevard) on Portland's East Side, near SE 12th Avenue. In 1872 co-founder of the hospital A.M. Loryea, nearly two decades Hawthorne's junior, sold his half of the enterprise to his partner and entered into the

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

business under the business name "Oregon Medical Laboratory", marketing a nostrum prepared from "Unk weed" said to ameliorate

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

. Thereafter the facility was owned by Hawthorne alone and its fortunes were intractably bound up with his.

Description

A physician visiting the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in 1868 noted that the hospital was divided into wards, each with a toilet and bathroom supplied with hot and cold water.J.S. Giltner, ''Report of the Visiting Physician of the Oregon Hospital for the Insane for 1867-8.'' Salem, OR: W.A. McPherson, State Printer, 1868. Quoted in Oregon State Hospital Museum
"Oregon Hospital for the Insane, Portland 1861-1883,"
Oregon State Hospital Museum blog, www.oshmuseum.wordpress.com/ Aug. 31, 2010. Patients ate in a common dining room, supplied by a single kitchen and the medical staff was supported by a well-stocked dispensary. Each bedroom in the great building contained one or two beds, supplied with linen and blankets. Residents were served a variety of fresh and salted meats, fruit, vegetables, and bread, along with coffee and tea. Water was provided from a nearby spring, stored in a high water tower capable of supplying any part of the building. In 1866 several acres surrounding the hospital had been enclosed with a high board fence, allowing increased opportunities for exercise and recreation for the facility's patients. Women were put to work sewing and knitting and were responsible for the greater part of the clothing used at the hospital. Those men able to work were assigned tasks on the hospital's own farm and gardens. Corporal punishment was forbidden at the facility in favor of what were considered in the day to be "kind but firm treatment," including the use of strait jackets and confinement to quarters. J.C. Hawthorne was particularly singled out for his efficiency in the hospital's operation, including his "uniform kindness to the large number whose maladies will never admit of cure, but whose management has been entrusted to his care."

Criticism emerges

Although privately owned and operated, the Oregon Hospital for the Insane was almost exclusively funded through its state contract, with one official report showing that 162 out of 167 total patients present at that time were there through agency of the state."Insane Asylum," Sept. 28, 1874, pg. 3. Report for the biennium Sept. 1, 1872 to Sept. 1, 1874. Of the nearly 300 people who had been housed in the hospital from September 1872 to 1874, men accounted for just under 70% of the population, women about 30%. According to terms of 1874 legislation contracting with Hawthorne, the state of Oregon was to pay $6 per week for each individual consigned to the hospital. The $6 per week rate was regarded by some as grossly excessive, with the Salem ''Statesman'' opining that such a fee represented an "outrageous extortion," and that Hawthorne was effectively being granted a "life franchise of the Insane Asylum" by his legislative supporters."The Hawthorne Job,"
''Weekly Oregon Statesman'' alem vol. 24, no. 48 (Oct. 17, 1874), pg. 1. With a view to pushing the legislature to found a state-owned hospital for the mentally ill in Salem, hometown of the newspaper, the editorialist berated Dr. Hawthorne as "wholly unknown outside of Oregon" and prominent within the state's boundaries "chiefly through the enormity of his bills and the power and continuity of his suction as an official vampire." Behind the purple prose and local self-interest of the ''Statesman'' editorialist, there appears to have been merit to the basic complaint that Oregon's cost of treatment of the mentally ill was relatively costly, with the Oregon Hospital for the Insane's annual per capita cost topping a list of 49 facilities in one 1878 report — some 40% higher than the average for these institutions. There was merit as well in the related charge that Oregon Hospital for the Insane's contract with the state was enabled by Hawthorne maintaining friends in high places, with the wife of 1870s Governor

LaFayette Grover La Fayette Grover (November 29, 1823May 10, 1911) was a Democratic politician and lawyer from the U.S. state of Oregon. He was the fourth Governor of Oregon, represented Oregon in the United States House of Representatives, and served one ter ...

later testifying in an unrelated trial that her husband had used his influence as governor to forestall building of a state-owned asylum on behalf of his personal friend Hawthorne.

The legislature enacts change

The attack on costliness and cronyism was taken up in the halls of the state capitol, with the Marion County (Salem) delegation leading the charge. Defenders of the status quo managed to defeat a series of proposals for construction of a new state-owned mental hospital until a shifting of the tide at the legislature's September 1880 session, spurred by the Marion County delegation's decision to focus action on passage of their "pet measure."T.T. Geer, ''Fifty Years in Oregon: Experiences, Observations, and Commentaries upon Men, Measures, and Customs in Pioneer Days and Later Times.'' New York: Neale Publishing Co., 1912; pg. 317. The junior member of the six member Marion County delegation and future Governor of Oregon T. T. Geer later recalled the financial imperative for change in the system of Oregon's treatment of the mentally ill, with Dr. Hawthorne and his previous partner said to have amassed fortunes through contracts which had been "let at exorbitant figures." "All efforts to break up this system had been unsuccessful," Geer claimed, thus costing the people of Oregon thousands of dollars each year over expected costs under state ownership and management. A bill was drafted and introduced by Tilmon Ford, head of the Marion County delegation. A heated legislative battle ensued, remembered by Geer as "one of the most bitterly contested struggles in the history of the Oregon Legislatures," complete with organized caucuses and heated back room negotiations. Speaker of the House Z. F. Moody of Wasco County was credited by Geer for having played an instrumental role in ensuring passage of the bill. Unsuccessful opposition to the bill for the new Oregon State Hospital was headed by A. J. Lawrence, an attorney from Baker County. The state-owned

Oregon State Insane Asylum Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem with a smaller satellite campus in Junction City opened in 2014. Founded in 1862 and constructed in the Kirkbride ...

in Salem built as a result of the 1880 legislature's enabling legislation was opened in 1883. With its opening, the state's financial relationship with the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in Portland came to an end.

Termination and legacy

J.C. Hawthorne died in February 1881 leaving ownership of the hospital in the hands of his wife. Dr. Simeon Josephi took over the operation of the hospital from the time of Hawthorne's death until the completion of the Oregon State Insane Asylum in Salem. Control of the patients at the Portland hospital were transferred to state officials in October 1883, with the 268 male and 102 female patients then housed at the facility transported by rail aboard a special O&C train from Portland to Salem on October 23, 1883.R.J. Hendricks, "Bits for Breakfast," ''Oregon Statesman'' alem vol. 84, no. 4 (March 31, 1934), pg. 4. Hawthorne's hospital is remembered as one of the most progressive American mental health facilities of its era.Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation official web site
www.lonefir.org/ The hospital was marked by empathetic medical treatment and concern for the health and well-being of patients by allowing them to work in the fresh air, raising vegetables and livestock, thereby helping them to maintain a sense of purpose. The bodies of destitute patients of Oregon Hospital for the Insane were interred at Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, the final costs of which were borne by J.C. Hawthorne out of pocket.

Footnotes

External links

* J.S. Giltner
"Oregon Hospital for the Insane: Giltner Description (1868),"
Oregon State Hospital Museum, Sept. 6, 2012. —YouTube audio track.
Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation official web site
www.lonefir.org/ {{authority control 1859 establishments in Oregon Hospitals established in 1859 Psychiatric hospitals in Oregon Defunct hospitals in Oregon