Sally P. Town

Sally Town was born August 13, 1863 in Rupert, Bennington County, Vermont, to parents William Town and Julia Ann (Moore) Town. Sally was one of five surviving children (six total) born to the couple before William left to fight in the Civil War, and one of eight (nine) total. Her name on her birth index card is spelled "Sallie P. Town."

Sally was noted on Census reports from childhood as being "deaf and dumb." She could neither read nor write. At some point after the 1890 opening of the Vermont State Hospital (then known as the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane and/or the Waterbury Asylum), she was sent there as a patient.

At the age of 30 (c. 1893), it was discovered that Sally, still a patient at the hospital, was pregnant. How she became pregnant or who by is unknown. Two weeks after the discovery of her pregnancy, Sally died in childbirth; her unnamed child also died at that time. According to an NPR story, "[h]er death certificate said she died after her brain was destroyed by syphilis." Whether she actually had syphilis is unclear; there is controversy over the practices of the Vermont State Hospital during this time period. Sally and her baby were buried in the hospital's cemetery.

In 2013, Vermont State Rep. Anne Donahue brought Sally and her child's death to light while pushing for more humane treatment of mental health patients and those who die in care. Sally and her child were mentioned nationally on NPR and in newspapers through the Associated Press.

It is unlikely that any records of Sally or her child's lives in the Vermont State Hospital or even her death will ever be found, as most hospital records were lost during the flooding of Hurricane Irene, and privacy restrictions prevent patient records from being released to the public. Likewise, markers for the hospital cemetery have been lost, though Sally and her child may not have originally had any markers at all.

Notes from another researcher:

Sally Town, listed as 30, died in childbirth on November 6, and the newborn was buried with her in the asylum cemetery. She was admitted as a transfer from the Brattleboro Retreat in 1891. The hospital record listed no admission diagnosis, but said she was "deaf and dumb" and it was "discovered she was pregnant October 20, 1893." Her death certificate lists paresis, a psychosis caused by destruction of brain tissue occurring in some cases of late syphilis. Sally was born in 1863 in Pawlet to William, a farm laborer, and Jillian/Juliann Town. They had five more children after Sally. [Note: The timeline here appears to be off.] The last of her brother William’s descendants was traced to Richard James Bruce (1954-1975).
Unnamed Town newborn, 11/6/93-11/6/93, buried in asylum cemetery with mother.
There are some discrepancies among records, as the VSH record lists her as born in 1865, which would have made her 28 when she died. (It is her death certificate that says she was born in 1863.) According to the 1870 census, at age 7 her family still lived in Pawlet. Although the state hospital records are all lost to the flood, since Sally was apparently one of those transferred from the Retreat when the new hospital opened in Waterbury [her admission date is the same as a set of others, on an official date of one of the first group of women who arrived there (Sept. 4, 1891)], so it is possible that she would still be listed in old files that the Retreat has – the date of her original admission, for example.

• AP Story: "In Vt., Long-Dead Mental Patients Inspire Crusade"