Monday, December 28, 2015

A good look at the State Hospital where my Aunt Lena Margheim died

In the beautiful photo at left is Elsa "Lena" Margheim, an older sister of my paternal grandfather John Ludwig Margheim. Lena was born 1883 in Russell, Russell, Kansas and died 3 Jan 1928 at the Topeka State Hospital, Topeka, Kansas from Pulmonary Tuberculosis. 
I've written about Aunt Lena previously in my blog. You can read the post here. I won't repeat the information provided in that post, but I will again share a copy of her death certificate.
The death certificate indicates that she was attended by the doctor from 19 Sep 1926 until her death. Today as a result of a post on Facebook I found this resource online. 

This is quite an interesting report and will tell us more than we ever wanted to know about the business at the State Hospital from July 1, 1926 to June 30, 1928. Lena's death certificate was signed by Dr. Florence Chapman, who, as we can see from this clip below, had been on staff since 1 Oct 1925. 
If you've had ancestors who resided here, you'll find this resource very interesting. It gives quite a detailed look at the conditions and operations of the hospital from 1900-1958, excepting the period of 1946-1948. 

3 comments:

Michelle Ganus Taggart said...

I wrote about an ancestor who died of pulmonary tuberculosis on my blog just today! I just keep finding more of my ancestors who died of it. I am amazed to learn how many were really relatively young people, like your Aunt Lena.

Jana Iverson Last said...

Becky,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/01/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-january-8.html

Have a great weekend!

Bonnie said...

Just a comment about TB. Until it was determined that it was caused by a bacilli, it was thought that people with TB were people of a certain disposition who would succumb to "consumption" as it was called. So while he may have heard she was "crazy" she may have been labelled that way because she had TB. My source is the book "Infectious Madness" by Harriet A Washington. (pg.100)