The Horror at Fort Steilacoom
A former minister exposes systemic abuse and torture at the territorial hospital for the insane.
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.
Public institutions are public property. An asylum is a humane institution and should be administered humanely. The patients are not guilty of crime, but are often overworked. This institution—Fort Steilacoom Hospital for the Insane—is conducted by brute force. Under the superintendency of Dr. O. W. Waughop, profane and obscene language was used by the wardens. I complained, and they took me to the jail, third ward, where I was trapped and cruelly treated. For variety I played Hamlet, and for that offense I was cruelly beaten by order of Dr. Waughop. Alden, with the wardens, repeated the 'Fort Pillow Massacre.' I was taken up for dead and carried to the jail, strapped down, and the bed fastened to the wall by a staple and ring. At another time, I, in sport, undertook to box with Peterson, the warden, and he called Webster, and they pounded and kicked me as badly as before—kicking me in the right side and on the spine and ribs until I despaired of recovery. I informed the Governor (Newell) of the brutal treatment and malpractice. Alden, Peterson, Webster, and Sheldon were removed. The tax payers of Washington Territory have a right to know of the dark and dreadful scenes that I have witnessed.
“The tax payers of Washington Territory have a right to know of the dark and dreadful scenes that I have witnessed—the beating of patients, for no just cause.”
Public mental health facilities have long struggled with the tension between custodial control and humane care. This 1883 account prefigures over a century of scrutiny regarding the treatment of institutionalized Washingtonians and the accountability of state-run medical facilities.
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