The Man Who Thought He Was Being Hunted: A Walla Walla Tragedy
A prosperous farmer’s descent into religious mania ends with his confinement at Medical Lake, revealing the era's fragile understanding of mental health.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
YEEND SENT TO MEDICAL LAKE.
Demented Walla Walla County Rancher Found Near Dayton in Deplorable Condition.
Dayton Courier-Press: Tuesday last Mr. Elmer Simerman brought in a demented man to the authorities for safe keeping, who had come to his place three miles east of Alto. The man was in tatters and his legs, back, arms, etc., were badly torn by barbed wire. The man appeared to have the hallucination that the officers were pursuing him for some imaginary crime, and as soon as he was locked up in the county jail he seemed to feel more secure and quieted down some.
His name is William S. Yeend, a prosperous farmer on Drycreek in Walla Walla county, aged 47 years. He has been subject to spells of more or less frequency, all of mild form, until this one, and are apparently caused by religious mania, as he imagines that there is an uprising of the Catholics. He has also given the socialist belief some study, but the story that he was on his way to Tekoa to kill President Roosevelt is without any foundation in fact.
He left his home last Friday evening on horseback without saying anything to his wife and the next heard of him was at Prescott, though, on Sunday morning at 6 o'clock he appeared at Mark Kenny's place on Pettyjohn mountain. He tried to dispose of his horse at Prescott, but did not do so, and he said he left it in a pasture near Huntsville.
His brother ex-State Senator John Yeend, was telephoned for and he arrived yesterday morning. Nothing could be done for the unfortunate man, however, so he was ordered to be examined as to his sanity by Drs. Day and Preucel, who declared him insane. He was taken to Medical Lake this morning by Sheriff Stine.
This 1902 account of William Yeend’s breakdown highlights the stark contrast between historical and modern approaches to mental health crises. Where today we might see a medical emergency requiring intervention and care, the early 20th-century press framed his suffering through the lens of political paranoia (fear of Catholics or socialists) and sent him to an asylum, reflecting a time when institutionalization was the primary response to severe psychological distress.
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