Maria Jane Darragh's Illness: Researching Acute Mania in 19th Century Ontario

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Back in January, I focused on discovering more about my great-great-grandmother Maria Jane Darragh's identity. In the next few weeks, my focus will be on discovering more about her cause of death: acute mania.

Jane—as she was known—was not my only ancestress to be diagnosed with a mental illness. Another great-great-grandmother, Catherine Ryan Gilbride, suffered from puerperal mania and was institutionalized in 1881 in Danville, Pennsylvania.¹ Both Jane and Catherine are in my paternal lineage: Jane was my grandmother's grandmother, while Catherine was my grandfather's grandmother.

Let's start with an objective and what we already know.


Objective

The objective of this project is to learn more about Maria Jane Darragh’s cause of death: acute mania. Jane was born about 1852 in Grey County, Canada West. She married Charles Cassidy on 20 June 1883 in St. Catharines, Lincoln County, Ontario. She died on 23 October 1903 in St. Catharines, Ontario, and is buried at Victoria Lawn Cemetery.

This is a question of activity.


Summary of Known Facts

Very little was known of Maria Jane Darragh’s life until recent research revealed her family group. These discoveries showed young Jane’s somewhat tumultuous life which included the death of several siblings when Jane was likely a very young child, her mother’s death when Jane was about four years old, her father’s remarriage, her half-brother’s death, and the addition of three half-sisters to her family.*

Jane’s household was sometimes in flux. In 1861, she and her brother were living with the Arthur White family in Sullivan, Grey Co., while her father, John, lived in Owen Sound and her stepmother’s whereabouts are unknown. The Whites were possibly Jane’s kin. As the census is a snapshot in time, it’s unclear how long this arrangement lasted—a few days, a few months, or a few years—between Jane’s birth and 1871.

By 1871, Jane, Daniel, their father John, and stepmother Johanna, along with the three young half-sisters, were all in the same Owen Sound household. In 1874, Jane’s half-brother, Edward Bristol—son of her mother Dorah Darragh—died of smallpox. From then until her 1883 marriage to Charles Cassidy, Jane’s record goes silent.

Charles, a successful blacksmith, and Jane settled in St. Catharines, Lincoln, Ontario, and Jane bore four children between 1886-1900. When their youngest son James was still a toddler, Jane died on 23 October 1903 in her early 50s. Local physician Dr. John Sheahan listed Jane's cause of death as “acute mania,” and that she had been ill for five weeks.

It’s possible that Jane had suffered from this condition in the past. A newspaper notice in 1900, about six months after the birth of her son James, notes that she was “quite seriously ill,” but does not specify the nature of her illness.² Could it be that she was experiencing some manner of post-partum affliction? Jane’s cause of death was not passed down in our family. Perhaps only her closest relations knew her cause of death and did not share it. Or it could have been shared and simply faded over time and memory in subsequent generations.

If mental illnesses are still stigmatized today, what might Jane have faced with such a condition in 1903? What exactly was acute mania? What were the symptoms and how was it diagnosed? What were the possible causes and what were the treatments that Jane may have received? How was it perceived socially? Finally, how does one die from acute mania? These questions are the focus of my posts in the coming weeks.

Jane's Timeline

Understanding Jane's life begins with knowing about her life events. Below is Jane's timeline at the conclusion of my earlier research project.

 

Next week, I'll discuss how I plan to research Jane's condition and resources that I might use.

Until next time...

 

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.

NOTES

 

* All citations for events mentioned in the text are included in the timeline document unless otherwise noted.

 

¹ Catharine Gilbride patient record, 1887-1881, Record Group 23, Records of the Department of Public Welfare, Danville State Hospital, Female Case Books, Book A, pages 81-82; photocopies supplied by Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA to Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, Texas. Also, City of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Board of Health, Return of a Death, certificate for Catharine Gilbride, 17 Jan 1881; imaged in "Record of deaths, 1878-1905, in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania," FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YG-R95K-X : accessed 8 July 2024); citing Bureau of Health, Scranton; FHL film 007700813, image 1411.

 

² "News of the City and Vicinity," The Daily Standard (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada), p. 3, col. 3, Mrs. Charles Cassidy is ill; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1017920608/ : accessed 30 July 2025).