Finding Lillian: The lost patients of Washington’s abandoned mental hospital 

This amazing man is researching, finding, and marking these graves deserves help and recognition.

Back then the husbands can just put them in these places to get rid of them no questions asked. Deplorable

My grandmother's cousin was a deaf mute child who was violent out of sheer frustration. Her parents died and her grandmother was incapable of caring for her. She was put in a place called a home for idiots. So sad that little girl. I have pictures of her but cannot find any records anywhere of her life or death. It makes my heart ache for her.

We need to start raising compassionate understanding people again instead of hate filled greedy ones.

How many women had postpartum ended up in places like this.

So glad someone is making the effort to remember those lost to history.

I just so happened to pause this where it says that the Seattle Times played an important role in the unsealing of Northern State Hospital's records on it's deceased patients. Also Lauren Frohne (Seattle Times) produced this documentary. Thank you to all those who helped bring light to the forgotten souls who reside, and passed at Northern State Hospital.

My grandmother was admitted to Northern State Hospital in 1933. She was there until 1963 when she was transferred to a nursing home on Whidbey Island. She had been misdiagnosed by Naval doctors and thirty years later a correct diagnosis did not free her bc she had become institutionalized.

My mother was institutionalized when I was six months old. Back then she was diagnosed with manic depression. Later, it was changed to schizophrenic. She was institutionalized up until her death. I wasn't made aware of her passing until about a decade later. Like I, she was lost in the system.

The same thing happened to me (in New Zealand). I found my great grandmother who was put into Seacliff Hospital because she was “cranky” and didn’t like her husband. My mother was never told anything about it. I was able to get information from a main library archive where the hospital records had been sent. The entry notes say she would be there for two days. She never got out. Her sister was nearly able to get her out, but she didn’t have enough power in the end. The patients did free gardening on the superintendent’s estate next door. They even held dances. A man could get thrown in there for being drunk and end up staying if there was no family support. The superintendent ‘s name was Frederick Truby-King he became a famous children’s Doctor later. We found my great grandmother’s grave and erected a headstone. It states after her name “She was lost and is now found”.

Wow what a wonderful man to do this. 😢😢😢 1700 people wow .

Thank You for posting this. Blessings to the Gentleman who is cataloging the grave markers. The folks are now not forgotten. ♥️🙏♥️

With an interest in Genealogy and Mental health, this documentary hit them both. Well done - I enjoyed this.

My dear mother Marie was in Northern State for 9 months where they treated her post pardom psychosis with several things one being shock treatments. So thankful she lived through it and lived a good long life.

Their legacy lives on through their decendants. Youre doing a great job.

Thank you for your heartfelt story I bet it never even crossed her mind that her great grand daughter would come looking for her to honor her memory I have no doubt she would’ve been so proud of you your amazing

Thank you for this.

You guys are making all these patients real again by calling their names and remembring them, good for you ❤

Thank yu for givig Lilian a voice and a shoulder. I have both Olmsteds and Masseys in my family tree.

Excellent Work we need more people like these in the world.

"The belief was you keep people busy." The worst thing about being on disability for my mental illness is having no job. I miss working. Now that I'm getting older and less mobile also makes it harder to do other kinds of work like gardening.

It wasn’t uncommon years ago for a woman to be committed to a mental hospital by her husband or other male family members if unmarried. I’m reading a book - The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore. It’s about a woman who, in the mid 1800s, was committed by her husband simply because she “didn’t know her place”.

What a lovely young man Thank you

Awesome. And even awesomer to be reminded that there are in fact good people in the world who care about people and who care about history, and being humane to ppl both before and after their deaths even many decades after the fact. Thank you!

This was a really wonderful story. Thanks for posting content like this here. Would love to see more like it.

Great job on this story. Thanks seattle times for sharing

This is an amazing story. I have a similar story, my great Xs 2 grandmother Martha Ella Summers Pendley was put in the Anna, Illinois state hospital at about age 28 and she had 2 children. Her husband married a 14 year old right after Ella was put away. I want to find out more about her story. I want to know where she is buried and also if there are possibly any pictures of her. I have her admit date and reason why she was admitted and it says her brother committed her. She died I believe in 1918 there. It’s a sad story.

I am grateful to see the care going into this needed project.

I love family history, no matter how it comes. And what you are doing, locating the grave markers and finding out who they are is amazing to me. That is just wonderful!!!

Im so sad seeing this got tears th8nking about those poor people just fthrown away and forgotten. Thank you for your dedicated work, such a beautiful thing to do

What a beautiful looking hospital...worst part of mental health is psychiatrists. That man is a wonderful human being who cares. That building needs to be repurposed

What beautiful work. Thank you. From a fellow social worker that has had similar experiences and thoughts. Thank you for sharing your dedication and passion for people .

The man uncovering the grave stones is doing good work. Don’t forget, they institutionalized many many disabled and Autistic people as well. 😢 we cannot forget our history or doomed to repeat it, just as stated.

it is very hard to learn this type of stuff i was crying even when i learned my own great grandmother starved herself .

I wish I were a grant writer I’d put my energy into helping this man with this project. It’s so worthy and would be so valuable to the community and the city and state.

❤ When your emotions are so raw like this it's the energy from your past decedent's running through you and those who are reaching out to you.

So glad that Lillian is being remembered and that we got to learn a little bit of her story. I wish all the other nameless and forgotten would get this chance. It is also appalling to think that our mental health system or even support is not much better today as it was back then.

Beautiful story. Lillian, you are loved and have been found.

I know if I’d been born 100 years earlier I would have most likely been in one of these places so I empathize with the plight of those who were inmates here. Bringing honor to their lives is truly admirable. ❤

Back then men, could have their wives and children committed just for misbehaving. My grandfather came from a family with 17 children. His parents were forced to go to a poor farm here in Michigan. The children were basically farmed out. At least one of those were placed in an institution where he died and the records were destroyed. Family history and future family, lost!

My great great grandma was in a state hospital for epilepsy. The hospital burnt down in 1943 so we have no documentation. Family story is she was raped while inpatient and that's how my great gpa came about. He doesn't have a birth certificate and even historians have found that odd. Ive done ancestry dna and cant find a link to that line to figure it out

My GG grandfather died in a mental institution in Arkansas at the State Hospital for the Insane and the cemetery there is just a blank field with no records of anyone. So, so sad. I found a death certificate for him but not place of burial. There is just a plaque saying people are buried there, but nothing is marked.😢

Im a Registered Psychiatric Nurse and I believe institutions should be reopened. They could create communities with supports and jobs. Im sure in 2024 with the right support and technology we could do this better

One of my family members was in St E in DC in 60s. Its appalling how they released patients on street w/ no help..embarrassing

Thank you.

I'm glad Lillian has such a beautifully empathetic great granddaughter. It's hard to think about how many women in the last 100 years suffered a similar fate. My heart breaks for how sad a life she lived, but I hope it gives her closure in the afterlife that she is remembered fondly even after a century.

Documenting the lost or childless or single women in my extended family is one reason I work on genealogy.

May Lillian Rest in Peace always and forever❤

This was an absolutely amazing piece. Enjoyed every minute of it. I'm so glad they found SOMETHING of Lilian. And that the other guy is uncovering the buried graves....

I read a book entitled "The Judge's Wife." Although this was fiction (supposedly), she was "incarcerated" in a mental institution simply because she became pregnant with an Indian doctor. This was set in 1950s Ireland. The judge turned out to be a "closet gay male" with a lot to lose! The doctor was informed that his lover had died in childbirth and returned (heart-broken) to India. The judge raised his wife's offspring as his own who -- remarkably -- was able to pass as Irish! In my own lifetime, a husband was able to keep his wife in a mental institution in Louisiana even when the doctors said nothing was wrong with her! This was as late as 1970! Yes, fortunately, this has changed. However, be aware, even if ROE v. WADE could be turned back, who knows what else could be turned back?

How very sad to read about these people who were mental patients, many who just disappeared into past lost history. I am so glad that this woman at least found her grandmother's name and that she actually existed.

God bless this amazing man for all his hours of work invested in this passion project. Commendable

This story is both heartbreaking and eye-opening. I have started my own search on a distant family member who was abandoned by his family back in the 1950's. He was a disabled child who became a ward to the state of Montana. It has been super difficult to find where he was dropped off and where he spent his life. Is he still alive? Is he deceased? Was he loved? Is he also lying in an unmarked grave somewhere? These are all questions I ask myself everyday since finding out about him. I wish it was easier to find family members from these types of places.

A true labor of love.

This is why I do Find-A-Grave. Everyone has a story.

What a sweet and blessed man to give these people back their name and the dignity of a gravestone , ❤️

Even more likely, her husband had the affair and gave her syphillis., then had her committed. Its a shockingly common story, and why women's/mother's rights are so important ❤

The great-granddaughter is an amazing person

Bless his heart. What a wonderful human

Nice job! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I don’t want to forget any of these people 😭😭

EYYOHHH JOB CORPS!!!! I attended teh Astoria one but my sister went to this one!

You are a good man

I just started the video but the title alone made me think of Nirvanas song titled Francis Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle. Thank you for bringing these people to light

Thank you for sharing very interesting

She was beautiful. My Aunt was thrown away too.

The way the archivist was like "I deal with records not emotional people and cameras... excuse me"

I had family in western state in the 40s sad

I really, really want to get involved in the kind of work that John is doing: Unearthing, documenting & preserving forgotten cemeteries. Does anyone know how I might go about finding places near me (Mpls, MN) to do this work?

God love you. Remember people while they are alive, but this man's work, here, is a next best, a humane effort.

My father and I have a grim saying, “after 3 generations no one cares” and tragically it rings true in most cases. People like you are proof of the opposite and it warms my heart. These people existed and their stories deserve to be told, however brief.

I wonder if it would help to go over the cemetery with a ground penetrating radar like a GSSI Utility Scan device. The problem is they arent cheap, they are about $15,000 to purchase. But many are available to rent for a specific project for much cheaper. I dont know about anyone else, but Id happily pitch into a crowdfunding campaign to rent one and have these grounds surveyed - these poor forgotten souls' names and resting places deserve to be known.

It is so evident here how generations of trauma were passed on, from Lilian's fate to that of her children who were alcoholics and abusive. By searching for her closure and by releasing to the public the fate of her great-grandmother and her fellow patients/inmates, Carrie is changing this fate. The work of these people should be held in great esteem.

Rest easy sweet Lillian

Too Sad 😢

I can relate with John because I'm a Social Worker and I work with individuals who have mental illness. I have seen programs for people with mental illness close. My clients say if all programs for people with mental illness close, where would they go for help or other services that they need. This made me if sad because I love to help people and not seeing them get the help they deserve, is a disservice to the people who have mental illness.

That's the sad thing, isn't it? We will all be forgotten someday. Maybe found again through archaeology? Maybe forgotten entirely? I knew of a farmer who found a cemetery from the 1800s while tilling and just dozed all headstones and such into a pile and refused to let anyone on his land to learn more about the forgotten cemetery all because we wanted to plant and not "lose money". Stuff like that happens all the time (that particular happened when I was still in high school so well over a decade ago and I don't know more about it unfortunately). Though I commend everyone's involvement in preserving history and finding graves because I think it's important to honor our ancestors at least in this, I do think people need to get used to the hard truth that all things will one day be forgotten and that it's ok. It sucks. It hurts. It's not a comfy feeling. But I know one day no one will remember my name, my face, my deeds or hobbies. That's just life. Particularly since I am breaking the cycle of generational abuse in my own family but purposefully not having children myself (despite physically being unable to anyway but that's not really my point here). I guess what I'm saying is remember and tell people's stories for as long as you can, with whatever emotions you need to, but don't let it chain your soul down with a heavy heart. (And please before anybody jumps down my throat for any reason for this comment, I would have been put in an institution and likely lobotomized for being trans, bipolar, and the other mental health issues I unfortunately have. I'm not blind to what happens to people like me, even today. It costs nothing to be kind. We are all human.)

I worked at the Deva in England in the 70s. There I met a woman in her eighties who had been institutionalised for more than 60 years as a result of having an illegitimate baby, a product of rape. I have never forgotten her or her tragic story. 🇦🇺

So awesome. Much love from yakima wa.

So sad 😢

Hero!

In the ( just going to use this word ) old days if your husband was tried of you, he would put you here. No matter how it affected the children. A lot of times they would marry their mistress.

Not much better for the mentally ill these days.Most don't even have anywhere to live.Its a national disgrace.

When we began shutting all these facilities down, these folks with mental health landed on streets with minimal health care. Even when they do get held it's for 1 week, given meds that are quickly stolen on street and no way to follow up with care. It's a shame.

Unfortunately that’s the fate of most of humanity….lost but to God.

God BLESS you for doing God's work!! This is simply AMAZING. 🙏🙏❤❤👍👍😊😊

Godspeed, Lillian.

I wonder if Lillian's kids suffered the effects of syphilis, and that's why they had such sad lives. The whole thing is heartbreaking.

I'm sorry 😢

I worked in Attica Prison for 15 years in NY. Same concept.

Whenever the State is involved in the care of vulnerable human beings, whether it be mentally disabled, elderly or children there is abuse, lies, massive cover ups etc. For the State the bottom line...the only line is $$$$$$$$$

I have really mixed feelings about something like this. I do think it's important to know about human rights' violations in history as a measure for preventing them ever happening again ..... but at the same time, I'm having trouble understanding putting so much effort and empathy into a story that is too late for you to help the person, when there are so many living people suffering and needing help NOW. This great-granddaughter has only 1/8th of Lilian's DNA, and only recently cared enough to learn her name. Hopefully after she has proxy-mourned her enough she will take this energy and use it to be some kind of hero for someone else, like Lilian needed but never got.

Great man. Great person. Great human being. 😎

Humans have always been so cruel

I already know this will be a sad story. Wevtook care of an old gent for 22 years. He was 92 when he passed peacefully here at our home. He spent around 50 years in an old timey institution thru a misdiagnosis. He told me “people disappeared from there” “they were mean down there” He was made to milk cows there for years in their dairy .Despite that horrid time in his life, he was a sweet fun gentle soul . Im soo glad we could give him a safe secure peaceful life in his latter years . We miss him immeasurably.

I wept. I wept for Lillian having contracted syphilis, and being simultaneously institutionalized and thrown away. I wept for both joy and sorrow for her heroic great-grandaughter's wonderful love that resulted in this story and Lillian's rebirth. God bless the sweet souls of this story.

I am the 'historian' for my family and what this man is doing is SO important and meaningful. What an amazing project, and an amazing perspective these folks have.

It wouldnt surprise me to learn that Lillian contracted the std from her husband (whod cheated on her) who indeed DID impregnate her with his baby. Back then we women had no voice, like this lady says! The average woman would absolutely lose her damn mind if shed discovered her husband gave her tthis std and also impregnated her but accused her of running on him. Any of us would lose our damn minds over such a thing today!! ANY of us would! A bit of Lillian is in everyone of us 🎉😅( if what i think happened, happened to her)!!

I didn’t catch the gentleman’s name uncovering the graves, but you Sir should be commended for your contribution to history, and genealogy but more importantly out of respect for those souls and for the love of family that came from them. So few people now understand the importance of this. I do. Thank you ❤

"She was real." My heart is breaking.