Mrs. Brown

"On Monday, September 18, Mrs. Brown, the wife of John Brown, who has been a patient at Canton Asylum since March 9, 1909, visited the institution. Dr. Hummer spoke to Mr. Moen on the telephone, and told him he was sending Mrs. Brown down to his offices that she was the wife of a patient who would give him the information which he requested. About an hour or so later this woman returned to the hospital from Canton city, and stated that she wished to talk to me. She had apparently been coached by somebody, and she proceeded to act as a lawyer in behalf of the other Indians, putting a lot of questions to me, such as, why the patients were being moved, saying that the Indians were well satisfied with their treatment, that Dr. Hummer was a very good doctor, that when the patients were moved their relatives would be unable to visit them. When told that this decision was made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and not by me, she wanted to know why I could not write to the commissioner, telling him that this was a nice place. I told her that I could not discuss with her the medical defects of the institution, but that as far as she herself was concerned I was quite sure her husband could be discharged into her care; and I frankly told her that in my opinion this man was not insane and had not been so for many years. However, she said she did not want her husband discharged, saying that although
he might be getting along all right in the hospital, he might give her some trouble at home."
Source: Samuel A Silk; Silk, Samuel A, “Letter from Samuel A Silk to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, October 3, l933,” Honoring the Dead: A Digital Archive of the Insane Indian Asylum, accessed October 15, 2024, https://honoringthedead.omeka.net/items/show/1.