Sometimes of Good and Sound Memory and Understanding and Sometimes Not
George Wesley Corp was declared a lunatic and involuntarily committed to the state hospital.
You’ve probably been told that not all records are available online, and because of whatever reasons, you’re not going beyond what you can find at the popular websites. For this story, I needed original records.
First, I needed a copy of George Wesley Corp’s death record from the Town of Ballston Spa, New York. The New York law requires that I prove I’m a relative, but for genealogical death records, most clerks accept my word (plus a copy of my driver’s license). The Ballston Spa clerk was more letter-of-the-law. It took twelve pages (she wanted copies of government-issued documents) to prove that George Wesley Corp Jr. was my 2nd great-granduncle.
But hey, I’m a professional genealogist, so it didn’t take long to put together.
The next thing I needed, I didn’t know existed. Alicia posted images on Ancestry of court documents related to George Wesley Corp Sr.’s estate. She had gotten them from Nancy, who had gone to the County Courthouse in Ballston Spa and photographed them. And those documents helped me understand why Wesley had been a patient at the State Hospital in Utica.
George Wesley Corp Sr. was a farmer in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York, married to Charlotte Dean. His namesake, George Wesley Corp, was born on 2 September 1857. But George’s farm was not prospering. By 1865, George’s family had increased by two daughters, and while George may have been one of the poorer men in Greenfield, he did own his farm.1
In 1870, George Sr. seemed to be doing better. Two more children had been added to the family, and the farm had increased in value. But while George Sr. could read, he could not write. Ten years later, George Sr. had still not learned to write. Wesley (George Wesley Corp Jr.) was now an adult and was helping his father work the farm.2
The family moved to Milton, and Wesley, still a bachelor, worked this farm as late as 1892 but was not there in 1900 helping his 78-year-old father. In his mother’s 1901 obituary, he was listed as living in Utica, Oneida, New York, and in the 1900 census, he was listed as a patient at the State Hospital in Utica. Wesley was suffering from mental illness and had been involuntarily committed. In a court filing, his sister Leila Elizabeth (Corp) Barnes described him as a lunatic. The Surrogate Court agreed he was incompetent and assigned a Special Guardian to take care of Wesley’s interest in his father’s estate.3
The term lunatic was not meant to be insulting. At the time, it meant “sometimes of good and sound memory and understanding and sometimes not.” Wesley had probably been sent there because his parents were not able to care for him during his “fits of madness,” and since it was publicly funded, his stay would not be a financial burden on the family.4
In 1903, George Sr. had been “ailing with the grip” and was staying at the Maple Grove Hotel owned by his daughter, Elizabeth Barnes. With his wife deceased and his son at the hospital, the eighty-year-old George Sr. probably could not take care of himself and his home during his illness and had gone to stay near his daughter. After two weeks, he passed away, and the coroner attributed his death to “exhaustion and old age.”5
Sometime between 1905 and 1910, Wesley left the State Hospital and moved in with his sister Elizabeth and her husband John William Barnes, where he helped out on their farm. Their daughter, Mabel Cyrena (Barnes) Gledhill, and her young family also lived in the house, but James Gledhill worked in the paper mill, not on the farm. After Wesley’s sister and brother-in-law passed away, James and Mabel Gledhill inherited Wesley, and he lived with them in Milton, Saratoga, New York, and then in Ballston Spa, Saratoga, New York, until his death on 9 April 1928.6
1850 U.S.census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Greenfield, 29 & 30, dwelling 244, family 244, Elijah Dean household [the household is continued on p. 30, it appears the enumerator started a new dwelling and family for George Corpe, but then crossed them out]; FamilySearch. Also, Ballston Spa, New York, Registration of Death no. 19 (1928), Saratoga County, Geo. Wesley Corp, 9 April 1928; copy issued 7 August 2024 to the author. And 1860 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Greenfield, 30, dwelling 262, family 260, George Corp household; FamilySearch. And 1865 New York census, Saratoga County, population schedule, Greenfield, West Part of the Town Including the 2nd Election Dist., 29, dwelling 218, family 233, George Corp household; FamilySearch.
1870 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Greenfield, 34, dwelling 284, family 295, George Corp household; FamilySearch. Also, 1880 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Greenfield, ED 72, 6 & 7, dwelling 72, family 77, George W. Corp household; FamilySearch.
1892 New York census, vol. Ballston to Northumberland, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, Seventh Election District, 1 [not in numerical order], col. 1, George Wesley Corp; FamilySearch. Also, 1900 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, ED 119, Sheet 8A, dwelling 168, family 173, Geo. W. Corp household; FamilySearch. Note: Geo. W. Corp and his wife appear to share a dwelling with another family, and they may have been working the farm together. The two heads of household were listed on the 1900 farm schedule. The 1900 agricultural schedule was destroyed by Congressional order. See Kimberly Powell, “Agricultural Schedules of the United States Census,” 2 September 2021; thoughtco.com. And Obituary for Charlotte Cyrena Corp, undated clipping, ca. 18 March 1901, from unidentified newspaper; privately held by the author, inherited in 2022 from her father, the great-great-grandson of Charlotte Corp. And 1900 U.S. census, Oneida County, New York, population schedule, Utica, Utica State Hospital, Ward 14, ED 85, Sheets 1A–13A, dwelling 1, family 1, Harold L. Palmer, superintendant, Sheet 12A, line 41, Wesley Corp; FamilySearch. And Elizabeth L. Barnes’s petition for letters of administration for the estate of George W. Corp of Milton, Saratoga, New York, 1 & 2, dated 13 August 1903; Ancestry, “Losing Sleep-1” family tree by alicia zacek, profile for George Wesley Corp (1822-1903), image of petition uploaded 23 May 2024; original document at Saratoga County Courthouse, Surrogate Court, Box 207, no. 6, Ballston Spa, New York, photographed in 2017 by Nancy Paulsen. And Court appoints Special Guardian to protect George W. Corp Jr.’s interest in his father’s estate & Order, Surrogate’s Court, Saratoga, held at Saratoga Spring on 13 October 1903; Ancestry, “Losing Sleep-1” family tree by alicia zacek, profile for George Wesley Corp (1822-1903), image of order uploaded 23 May 2024; original document at Saratoga County Courthouse, Surrogate Court, Box 207, no. 6, Ballston Spa, New York, photographed in 2017 by Nancy Paulsen.
“How to Look for Records of Asylums, Psychiatric Hospitals and Mental Health,” The National Archives [London]. Also, “Diseases of the Mind: Timeline of Early Psychiatric Hospitals & Asylums,” National Library of Medicine. And “Lunacy and Idiocy: The Old Law and Its Incubus,” University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 18, no. 2 (winter, 1951), 361-362; ChicagoUnbound.
“Geo. W. Corp of West Milton Found Dead in Bed,” undated clipping, ca. 5 July 1903, from unidentified newspaper; privately held by privately held by the author, inherited in 2022 from her father, the great-great-grandson of George Wesley Corp Sr.
1910 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, ED 6, Sheet 7B, dwelling 147, family 154, John W. Barnes household; FamilySearch. Also, 1905 New York census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, ED 6, 6, John W. Barnes household; FamilySearch. And 1910 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, ED 6, Sheet 7B, dwelling 147, family 154, John W. Barnes household. And, 1920 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Milton, ED 126, Sheet 9B, dwelling 206, family 211, James W Gledhill household; FamilySearch. And Ballston Spa, New York, Registration of Death no. 19 (1928), Saratoga County, Geo. Wesley Corp, 9 April 1928. And 1930 U.S. census, Saratoga County, New York, population schedule, Ballston Spa, ED 2, Sheet 16 A, dwelling 212, family 369, James W. Gledhill household; FamilySearch. Note the address on Wesley’s death record is 11 Hannum Street, and the address for the Gledhill family in the 1930 census is 12 Hannum Street.
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Thanks for sharing this story with us Deborah. Sometimes the words that we encounter when researching our family tree can seem harsh and brutal even, but they have to be taken in the context of the time that the records were created. My 2x Great-grandmother similarly was in a lunatic asylum, which from the records was most likely post-natal depression.