Lincoln Discussion Symposium

Possibly we can get to the bottom of this. When Bill mentioned the topic last summer, he said the information came from an article in the November 1968 Civil War Times Illustrated. The author was Patricia Bell. Bill, do you have that edition of the magazine? If not, does anyone? I am thinking perhaps Patricia Bell footnoted her statement, and we might find the origin of this false information through her footnote.

There is an article on the web here for which I do not see an author or a source. Could that be Patricia Bell's article? In this article it says, "But Mary Lincoln probably cannot be held responsible for her most maddening traits, because they were either directly attributable to or heightened by a mental illness not understood in her own day. An autopsy performed at her death revealed that Mrs. Lincoln had been suffering from a brain tumor; all her life she had been subject to severe headaches."

If that is indeed Patricia Bell's article then we can trace the rumor to at least 1968. And perhaps earlier if that is Bell's article and there was a footnote in the version carried by Civil War Times Illustrated.

As there was no post mortem examination of Mary's remains I have no clue where this stuff comes from.

Some here probably already know this, but here's a synopsis of Bellevue Place and Mary Lincoln's stay there taken from the website of the Batavia Historical Society:

Mary Todd Lincoln and Bellevue Place

Bellevue Place was established in an abandoned private high school known as Batavia Institute by Dr. Richard J. Patterson, a renowned expert in the field of mental health. Patterson was one of the first to believe that peace, quiet, and gentleness were beneficial to the cure of those who were mentally ill.

He purchased the old school and made it into a sanitarium for disturbed ladies. Dr. Patterson's wife was the matron, and there were a dozen attendants and nurses on staff. Patterson furnished the old school rooms with carved beds, huge ornate chests, and other furniture and renamed it Bellevue Place.

In 1871, he added the two-story wings with the mansard roofs. He could then increase his patient load to 25-30 women at one time in the home.

Orchards and a vegetable garden provided a fresh supply of in season food for the institution. Around the grounds were flower beds, hammocks and lawn seats, which spoke of outdoor life and freedom.

In 1875, a Chicago court deemed that Mrs. Lincoln behaved irrationally. It was ordered that she be placed in a mental hospital. Her son Robert brought her to Batavia on the train to Dr. Patterson's sanitarium.

If the legends of Mary's stay are correct, she was not very confined. She is said to have visited in several of the homes around Bellevue, to have eaten her meals with Dr. and Mrs. Patterson, and to have visited friends in St. Charles.

The third floor of the sanitarium housed the most serious cases, and the first floor was the most desirable and thus most expensive. Mrs. Lincoln stayed on the second floor. Her estate was charged $10 a day for her room.

The need for Mrs. Lincoln's continued confinement was debated on the national scene and after three months, and against Dr. Patterson's advise, Mrs. Lincoln was released in the care of her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards in Springfield.

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If you have nothing else to do today, go to this link for a very long discussion on Mrs. Lincoln's health: http://www.bertzpoet.com/essays/pdfs/mar...Final.pdf.

The key point in this article, however, is near the end. It appears that the story of Mrs. Lincoln having an autopsy that revealed a brain tumor may have started with Lincoln biographer, W.E. Barton. "The story that an autopsy was done on Mrs. Lincoln showing cerebral deterioration seems to have originated with an early twentieth-century Lincoln biographer, W.E. Barton, who took Dr. Dresser's clinical opinion for anatomic fact. [see page 420 of Barton's book] Despite diligent searches of the Sangamon County records and Barton's own materials, we have been unable to find any evidence for an autopsy."

There are also some references in this lengthy article to indicate that Gore Vidal may have "helped" spread the autopsy story.

Have fun.

Thanks, Laurie. I just checked Barton's The Women Lincoln Loved. On p. 367 he writes that the attending physician "issued a statement that for years she had been the victim of a cerebral disease."

Dr. Thomas W. Dresser wrote "paralysis" as the cause of death on the death certificate. In 1889 Dr. Dresser wrote Herndon saying, "In the late years of her life certain mental peculiarities were developed which finally culminated in a slight apoplexy, producing paralysis, of which she died."

Jason Emerson has written the cause of death was most likely a stroke. In the article referenced by Laurie, Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn discusses his theory that Mary suffered from tabes dorsalis. Over 80 years ago Dr. William A. Evans suggested the possibility of diabetic coma.

So I suppose Dresser's "cerebral disease" was interpreted as "brain tumor" despite the fact there was no autopsy.

(06-16-2013 07:22 AM)LincolnMan Wrote: [ -> ]I deal with this all the time- families have their loved ones involuntarily psychiatrically hospitalized. Families want their loved ones to be safe and get better. Unfortunately, it often is the reality that the mentally ill loved one remains angry and resentful that their families had them committed. Very complex issues, indeed.

This is probably irrelevant to Mary Lincoln's case, but sometimes families have their loved ones involuntarily committed because they themselves have mental issues and are in denial, and may actually be the leading cause of the committed family member's "mental" problems.

Did Robert feel that his siblings, especially Tad, were favored over him? I can't imagine him not having some resentment over that, conscious or not.

Kate: you are quite right. The term "patient" refers to the identified mentally I'll person in the family-while it is true the the family "system" as a whole is "sick:"

(06-17-2013 12:21 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-17-2013 11:33 AM)Donna McCreary Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-16-2013 08:27 AM)JMadonna Wrote: [ -> ]"Insanity" is a legal term not a medical one. Was she a threat to herself or others? Robert thought she was a threat to herself and the court agreed.
Was this the best course of action for her medically? Probably not, but those were the choices at the time.
Luckily she didn't live in the 1950's when she probably would have undergone electro-shock therapy.

Excellent point! We forget that "insanity" is a legal term - thus she had to have a legal trial.

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(06-16-2013 08:32 PM)L Verge Wrote: [ -> ]This is an excellent overview of the situation, Donna. Any chance I can get you to contribute a full article to the Surratt Courier on this? Of, may I publish this narrative?

Let's talk about this. I can rewrite and clean it up - but this version was written in the 'heat of the moment' and needs editing.

Would love to have it in whatever form. E-mail me at laurie.verge@pgparks.com if needed.

An updated, edited version is one its way.

Thank you so much!

(06-18-2013 05:19 AM)RJNorton Wrote: [ -> ]Possibly we can get to the bottom of this. When Bill mentioned the topic last summer, he said the information came from an article in the November 1968 Civil War Times Illustrated. The author was Patricia Bell. Bill, do you have that edition of the magazine? If not, does anyone? I am thinking perhaps Patricia Bell footnoted her statement, and we might find the origin of this false information through her footnote.

There is an article on the web here for which I do not see an author or a source. Could that be Patricia Bell's article? In this article it says, "But Mary Lincoln probably cannot be held responsible for her most maddening traits, because they were either directly attributable to or heightened by a mental illness not understood in her own day. An autopsy performed at her death revealed that Mrs. Lincoln had been suffering from a brain tumor; all her life she had been subject to severe headaches."

If that is indeed Patricia Bell's article then we can trace the rumor to at least 1968. And perhaps earlier if that is Bell's article and there was a footnote in the version carried by Civil War Times Illustrated.

As there was no post mortem examination of Mary's remains I have no clue where this stuff comes from.

It was the November 1968 issue.

(06-18-2013 05:19 AM)RJNorton Wrote: [ -> ]Possibly we can get to the bottom of this. When Bill mentioned the topic last summer, he said the information came from an article in the November 1968 Civil War Times Illustrated. The author was Patricia Bell. Bill, do you have that edition of the magazine? If not, does anyone? I am thinking perhaps Patricia Bell footnoted her statement, and we might find the origin of this false information through her footnote.

There is an article on the web here for which I do not see an author or a source. Could that be Patricia Bell's article? In this article it says, "But Mary Lincoln probably cannot be held responsible for her most maddening traits, because they were either directly attributable to or heightened by a mental illness not understood in her own day. An autopsy performed at her death revealed that Mrs. Lincoln had been suffering from a brain tumor; all her life she had been subject to severe headaches."

If that is indeed Patricia Bell's article then we can trace the rumor to at least 1968. And perhaps earlier if that is Bell's article and there was a footnote in the version carried by Civil War Times Illustrated.

As there was no post mortem examination of Mary's remains I have no clue where this stuff comes from.

Roger: I reviewed the issue this morning. The article is not footnoted. She recommends further reading on the topic of "Mary Lincoln"- listing a few books at that time that would have been current. So the mystery of Mary having a brain tumor remains unsolved.

Thanks, Bill. It looks to me like someone may have plagiarized that article and posted it here without giving credit either to the magazine or the author. Unless there is another explanation I think someone long ago took Dr. Dresser's "cerebral disease" and translated it to mean "brain tumor." Others picked it up from there. That's all I can think of at the moment. On this forum, in other threads, we have discussed how an early author stated something without knowing the facts, and later authors just assumed the original writer was right and went with it.

Oh my goodness Roger- that is the article word for word- even the pictures!

Blaine Houmes (hello Blaine!) touched upon an important point in considering Mary Lincoln's illness. We have to avoid presentism. In the late 1800s there were few psychological or psychiatric options available to Robert Lincoln. Either a person was "insane" and committed to an institution, or they were not and left to their own devices. To condem Robert because he was forced to the extreme option he took, using 21st century standards, seems a bit unfair.

Perhaps Mary does not fit today's standard of insanity, but she certainly would be a candidate for the modern interventions of psychiatric care, psychological counseling, or medicinal therapy. But Robert was faced with the back or white choice of committing his mother to someone's care or letting her continue with behavior that might be harmful at best, and destructive at worst.

I always avoid attaching modern illness to historic figures since we do not have access to modern medical testing for them. However, I am about to do just that . . . . I have always been surprised that so many modern readers are quick to attach illnesses to Mary such as depression, mental breakdown, brain tumor, so forth, but very few discuss the possibility that she suffered from post traumatic shock disorder. If you look at the list of events in her life posted earlier, any one of them could have created PTSD. The combination of all of them presents a good case for the disorder.
I have always been inclinded to think she suffered from PTSD and it escalated until she had a nervous breakdown. But this, like so many things involving Mary, is purely speculation.

It may be speculation, but I think it's very good and probably spot on. Remember later in life Mary said every slamming door or other sharp noise reminded her of Booth's shot.

Since William Barton was mentioned in this thread earlier, I would like to share Mary Harlan Lincoln's thoughts about him and his work. In a letter to Kate Helm (dated Oct. 27th, but no year -- it had to be prior to 1928), Mary H. Lincoln wrote: ". . . we shall soon see that evil has no real power, and that all of these infamous lies will be blotted from consciousness. Truth must prevail! That devil (underlined twice) Barton, and his lies will be forgotten!!"