The Tragedy on the Stump
James McIlveen, a carpenter, was arrested for making a political speech to a row of stumps on Queen Anne Hill after escaping from a hospital window in just a blanket.
Judge Lichtenberg yesterday committed to the asylum at Steilacoom both James McIlveen, a carpenter who has been giving the authorities a great deal of trouble of late by his crazy actions, and Mary Pitner, who last Tuesday wandered into the tide flats. McIlveen was very violent at the time of his hearing and had to be dragged into court by four men with arms pinioned; it required the same amount of force to remove him. He was taken to the asylum at once on the first train. McIlveen was arrested two or three weeks ago on a charge of insanity. As it appeared on the hearing that he was a resident of British Columbia and his friends promised to put him in a hospital, he was discharged. A few days later, he escaped from a room at Providence Hospital by breaking out the iron bar to a window and made off with nothing about him but a blanket. He remained at large until Wednesday night, when he was again arrested while making a political speech to a row of stumps on Queen Anne Hill.
“He remained at large until Wednesday night, when he was again arrested while making a political speech to a row of stumps on Queen Anne Hill.”
While psychiatric care in 1892 was often synonymous with permanent incarceration in facilities like Steilacoom, the story of James McIlveen highlights a recurring Seattle issue: the intersection of untreated mental health crises, homelessness, and the lack of a robust, humane social support system for those in the midst of a breakdown.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.