The Lady in the Asylum: Catherine Gilbride at Danville, Conclusion

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

Catch up on the first four installments in The Lady in the Asylum: Part I , Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

Catherine’s Treatment

How the staff at Danville Asylum attempted to treat Catherine Gilbride is frustratingly difficult to determine. Catherine’s patient record is sparse—just 24 entries in the 45 months between her admission and her death.

Why was so little written about her? Institutional record keeping of the time prescribed a set schedule of casebook entries at state facilities:

During the first month after admission, entries to be made at least once in every
week, and oftener when the nature of the case requires it. Afterwards, in recent
or curable cases, entries to be made at least once in every month; and in chronic
cases, subject to little variation, once in every three months.¹

However brief the entries in Catherine’s record, their timing is instructive—with notes recorded every 2-3 months, her condition was considered chronic, and very likely incurable. Institutions like Danville reported on the “prospect of restoration” with treatment each year; sadly, up to 92% of resident Danville patients in 1879 were considered incurable.²

Catherine’s activities in the early days of her committal align with the manic form of puerperal insanity, with its highs and lows:

1877

April 15th           Did not sleep well, is noisy during the day—singing and crying. No definite
                           delusions manifest. Appetite good.
April 22nd          Is noisy and troublesome, but not violent.
May 9th             Has gone back somewhat. Is not noisy, but sits around the floor moping.

She was described as having…“Some loss of flesh evident owing to recent accouchement” (childbirth). Given that she was poor, her diet was likely neither plentiful nor especially nutritious, particularly considering the demands of a pregnancy. At Danville, her appetite is frequently mentioned as good, so it appears she ate the more abundant and healthful food being offered.

In addition, Catherine was prescribed several medications:

"Ordered Rx Quin. Sul. gr ½. Tn. Iron gtt. XV. Tr. Calcium. 3 1 tsp. Dia. Also chloral gr

XX at night.”

This translates to:

● Quinine sulfate gr 1/2 (30 milligrams)

● Tincture of Iron 15 drops

● Tincture of Calcium 1 teaspoonful 3 times a day

● Chloral 20 gr (1200 milligrams) at night.

Iron and calcium were likely offered to bolster Catherine’s constitution after a trying pregnancy and poor diet. Quinine was usually prescribed for fevers and malaria at the time. Chloral hydrate, known also as chloral, was commonly used in the late 19th century to calm anxiety, especially when it caused insomnia. It was likely given to quiet Catherine, who was often deemed “noisy.” She may have grown tolerant of the medication as, over time, it seemed to lose efficacy: a May 1878 entry notes that she… “Is noisy at night notwithstanding chloral.”³

These mainstream “moral” treatments, however, were at odds with other methods used to manage Catherine’s moods and behaviors. In spite of several reports to the state that Danville kept few or no records on the use of restraints, several mentions were made in her record of the more drastic measures of control—including cuffs, canvas jackets, and seclusion.

1877

April 22            Has required temporary seclusion on several occasions.

                         Treatment continued.

September 15   Quite a change for the worse. Very noisy. Requires canvas

                         jacket habitually to prevent destruction of clothing.

1878

May 1              Patient can get along at times without jacket but seldom for a

                        week at a time.

Dec. 16th        No improvement-Is very destructive, violent, filthy, requires

                       constant seclusion.

1879

April 9th         Being allowed in the ward with restraint (cuffs) there seems signs of 

                       improvement

At her worst times, Catherine could be violent, tearing her own clothing, lashing out at others. On one occasion, she “threw a medicine cup at the supervisoress & inflicted a scalp wound.” Understandably, steps needed to be taken to protect her and others.

The use of such restraints made it doubtful, however, that Catherine had the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures which Danville’s more tractable patients at might have enjoyed, such as:

Riding, walking out, games in wards and outside, music in chapel, lectures, reading, and stereopticon views. There is a thirty minutes' entertainment in the chapel, during six months of the year, three evenings in the week.⁴

Other than a few mentions of attending chapel and assisting in portions of the ward work, it is impossible to know how else Catherine spent her time: whether she had visitors, spent time with other patients, received letters or news from her husband or son, went outside, had hobbies, or had anything to occupy her time when she was quieter and more in control.

There were signs of hope, however, from time to time.

In Fall 1880, her health was good, and while she had periods of excitability, she was “...tractable & reasonably quiet, needing no restraint & aiding in some portions of the ward work.” In December 1880, she was “...quiet & orderly, attending chapel & aiding in ward work.”

In other instances, particularly in late 1879 and early 1880, Catherine’s notes simply state, “Stationary.”

In medical terms this meant that she would likely not improve either with additional treatment or with the passage of time; she was “immobile,” “fixed in a station, course or mode,” “unchanging in condition.”⁵

She had become one of Danville’s incurables. In spite of their moral treatment, the world-class facility, and the best of intentions, Catherine had little to no chance of restoration—either of her mind, or to her family.

Perhaps in time, she felt this lack of hope. In early January 1881, her health failed. Twelve days later, on 17 January 1881, Catherine died from pneumonia.⁶ Her struggles were over. 

Diary of Supervisor Dr. S.S. Schultz, noting Catharine's death, 17 January 1881.7

She left behind her husband Michael and their son John, not quite 5 years old at the time. In 1885, Michael remarried, and went on to have eight more children with his second wife Mary, enlarging John’s family with many half-siblings.⁸ John’s 1937 obituary mentions, among his survivors, “his mother Mrs. Mary Gilbride.”⁹ To the world at large, Mary was John’s mother—and in fairness, she was the only mother he likely knew.

However, John owed his life to Catherine, as I owe her a debt for bringing him into the world, and giving rise to his dozens of descendants.

More importantly, I owe Catherine the dignity of telling her story—unflinchingly—to peer beyond the tattered curtain of history, and restore her to her place in the Gilbride family portrait.

✴✴✴

"The Lady in the Asylum: Catherine Gilbride at Danville," was written as part of The Ancestor Project, sponsored by the Denton County Genealogical Society, 8 September 2022.

Images:

Top: Mary Cassat, Peasant Mother and Child (1895); original portrait from The National Gallery of Art, digitally enhanced by rawpixel. In the public domain.

Tincture of Iron: Brayley & Sons, “tincture of iron,” circa 1885-1915; image, From the Museum of Health Care at Kingston (Ontario, Canada), Research Collection Catalogue,(https://mhc.andornot.com/en/permalink/artifact14259 : accessed 24 July 2022). Used with permission.

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NOTES

1 Pennsylvania, Board of Public Charities, Committee on Lunacy, Compendium of the Laws of Pennsylvania, Relating to the Supervision, Care and Treatment, Maintenance and Custody of the Insane in State Hospitals, Private Institutions, Homes, Almshouses, Jails, Penitentiaries and Elsewhere in the State of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg : Edwin K. Meyers, State Printer, 1889), 173 ; digital image, Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=YlAtAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PP4&hl=en : accessed 14 July 2022); citing Pennsylvania State University, State College.

² Pennsylvania Board of Public Charities, Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Public Charities, Vol. 10 (Harrisburg : Lane S. Hart, State Printer, 1880), 267; digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Board_of_Commission/e0_wAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 : accessed 20 July 2022); citing Pennsylvania State University, State College.

³ Nancy Gilbride Casey, “The Genealogy Squad,” Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/genealogysquad : accessed 15 July 2022), posting “Interpretation help needed. This is a portion of a patient record…” 15 July 2022. Also: Catharine Gilbride patient record, 1887-1881, Record Group 23, Records of the Department of Public Welfare, Danville State Hospital, Female Case Books, Book A, 81; photocopies supplied by Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA to Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, Texas.

⁴ Pennsylvania Board of Public Charities, Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Public Charities, Vol. 10 (Harrisburg : Lane S. Hart, State Printer, 1880), 273.

⁵ Merriam-Webster, (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stationary : accessed 18 July 2022), “stationary.”

⁶ Pennsylvania. Lackawanna County, City of Scranton, City of Scranton Department of Public Health, death certificate for “Catharine Gilbride,” 27 Jan 1881; “Record of deaths, 1878-1905, in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania,” digital image, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YG-R95K-X? : accessed 27 Jan 2019); FHL film 007700813, image 1411.

⁷ Dr. S.S. Schultz, Supervisor's Diary entry, Danville State Hospital, 17 January 1881, death of Mrs. Kate Gilbride; citing "Superintendant's Diaries of Danville State Hospital, 1872-1947, Vol. 1," Record Group 23, Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg.

⁸ Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, (Scranton, Luzerne, Pennsylvania), Baptisms and Marriages, Combined Register, 1860-1887, 235, marriage of Michael Gilbride & Mary Gallagher; digital image, “Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection,” Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, supplied to Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, TX. Also: United State Federal Census, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, population schedule, E.D. 46, sheet 1A (penned), Scranton Ward 1, lines 28-36, family of Michael Gilbride; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4115106_00005 : accessed 21 August 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 1420, Washington, D.C., and “William Gilbride, Endwell, Dies,” The Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), 5, col. 3; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107921706/william-f-gilbride-obit/ : accessed 21 August 2022).

⁹ John Gilbride obituary, The Scranton (Pennsylvania) Times, 24 July 1937, page/column unknown; citing Albright Memorial Library microfilm.