In October 1886, a neighbor of a St. Paul woman named Lydia B. Angier filed a form with the Ramsey County Probate Court swearing to her insanity and need for commitment to a hospital for the insane. When medical doctors examined Angier, however, they found “her to be sane and not a fit subject for hospital treatment.”
Approximately a decade later, on November 13, 1896, an Associated Charities of St. Paul employee named James F. (J. F.) Jackson filed a petition alleging that Angier was insane. Newspaper coverage of her subsequent hearing in the St. Paul Globe depicted Angier as a pathetic figure selling newspapers on the street corner. It also described her as “evidently something of an intellectual genius” who believed in the US constitution rather than religion. The writer failed to mention that the Globe had covered Angier’s win in court against the City of St. Paul for property damage a year and a half earlier.
Medical doctors examined Angier again in 1896, declared her insane, and committed her to Rochester State Hospital. Drs. Sarah Linton Phelps and R. M. Phelps, a married couple, continued the medical examination at Rochester. They noted that Angier had no insane relatives, that she was not a church member, and that she did not drink alcohol. Their report described the death of her adult son, multiple circumstances regarding her son, and several lawsuits Angier had brought. They stated that one suit had been recent; after it was filed, the doctors noted, “they sent her here.” It is unclear to whom “they” refers.
In January 1897, J. F. Jackson petitioned for John S. Grode to become Angier’s guardian, claiming her estate to be worth $100. Grode was a prominent citizen and estate executor whose name had been floated as a potential governor and member of the St. Paul Board of Public Works. Grode received letters granting him guardianship of Angier in February 1897. The available probate files do not describe anything further in Angier’s case, including actions Grode performed as guardian. Angier, meanwhile, remained at Rochester. “I prefer the Ramsey Co. Poor House to this place,” she wrote in a letter on May 25, 1897. “Here we are just dogs.”
In 1898, Angier wrote an inventory of her “things left in St. Paul” that estimated their value to be at least $290, showing that she disagreed with Jackson as to her net worth. On June 19, she wrote to W. A. Gates, an employee of the Board of Corrections and Charities, describing the death of a fellow patient (Anna Salzer) due to staff abuse. A case-book entry for a patient who matches Salzer’s description describes her death after a forced feeding. Angier claimed to have reported the death to a doctor herself, months earlier. In the same letter, she observed, “I have not seen enough insanity to call this an insane asylum, nor sickness, to call it a hospital.”
Hospital staff recommended Angier’s discharge from Rochester in early 1899. A doctor, however, blocked her from leaving, and she was transferred to Fergus Falls State Hospital. Angier wrote,
Trustee Titus told me that they had investigated my case[,] Doctors and Trustees had recommended my discharge[,] & I would go home in a few days[.] But Dr. Kilbourne would not let me go, and I raised a row with his lovely servants & they compelled him to send me here. I left Rochester feeling that Hell would be better than staying under the hypnotic influences of the priest-ridden panderer [name of nurse]. I do not take back one word that I have said about either of the asylums.
Fergus Falls records describe various searches for Angier’s assets, including her St. Paul valuables and bank accounts she claimed to have but did not provide detail about. Angier continued to advocate for her release, writing to William Watts Folwell (a member of the Board of Corrections and Charities) and Minnesota Governor John Lind for help. “I am still a prisoner,” she told Folwell.
Angier remained at Fergus Falls State Hospital for eight years. She died there of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 21, 1907, and was buried the next day in a numbered grave.
For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia
