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Note: The following information was received from Roger Nason of NB, November 2001:
As promised, here is the summary on Fanny's stay at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum where she was admitted on 30 August 1859. ( Reference Centracare RS 140, Casebook)
The entry for admission states:
" Fanny E. Brown, brought in by Alfred Brown, Campobello; care of Capt. Robinson.
First supposed to be affected months ago by religious excitement, since then has been confined about 4 months ago, baby living, mother of two children, took a little [cold}, but got over it. She was always pretty hearty till when the last year she was always nervous, never had much to say, close minded, has not to husband's knowledge had any thing to disturb her, lived very comfortably, no friends been so afflicted, quiet & very well behaved, tears her clothing, no rings or valuables."
Today, I discovered an additional Record Book( # 3, 1849-60) which was apparently acquired later by the Archives but placed at the end of the series. It records her admittance stats i.e.
Age-24
Religion-Baptist
Married
Date of Admission- 30 Aug.1859
Died-16 Nov.1859- diarrhea
My guess is she suffered some time with a major physical illness, possibly arising from her pregnancy with newly born William O. I would venture to say she might have even had a form of cancer.
Possibly she may never have recovered from the loss of her first child and suffered through the second.
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Information on the Lunatic Asylum as taken from a web page on the facility... (July 2008)
New Brunswick was the first place in British North America to have a mental institute. Before it opened up the duties of taking care of insane citizens were placed on their family members. Each country dealt with the extreme and obviously ill ones under the Poor Laws system, so many were sent to jails or poorhouses with the other outcasts of society. Sometimes they were chained up in dark and dismal surroundings where they were able to catch diseases of all kinds.
During the rapid increase in the population in the early 1800's, a facility was requested to house the insane. Thus New Brunswick established Canada's first Provincial Lunatic Asylum. A wooden building at the corner of Wentworth and Leinster streets was built in 1835.
The ground was broken on the 50-acre site near the Reversing Falls in 1846. By December 12 of 1848, the building was so far advanced that the 90 patients at the temporary asylum were moved to the new one.
During the 1880's the first of five additions to the main building were made because of the ever growing population. The building contained 15 wards, where men and women were separated and non-paying and paying patients were separated.
Residents were made to work in the laundry, clean the building and work on the farm, which provided them with most of their food.
The food consisted of bread and tea for breakfast. Noontime meals consisted from rice and molasses to beef soup and beans and the patients received pudding and molasses for supper.
The treatment of the mental health disorders were quite different than they are today. Many of the mental health disorders were known as "overstudy," "diseased brain," "disappointed affection," "sudden freight," "alcoholism," and "poverty and hardship."
When the institution was 50 years old, there was no reading room, no gym, the wards were poorly lit, and the restraints, isolation and hot and cold hydrotherapy were used as treatment. There were no nurses as the patients were cared for by attendants.
During the 1900's many complaints were made about the deplorable conditions and how crowded the wards were with beds. In 1985, many changes were made concerning the mentally ill in the psychiatric units of the general hospitals. A few years later, the New Brunswick Mental Health Commission was set up, which establishes after-care clinics throughout the province.
Special care housing facilities were set up for former patients and non-profit agencies building and administering housing such as "New Directions".
Through these changes, the patient population had declined dramatically. The place was so big it was considered an architectural monster.
In 1996, there were 125 patients in Centracare. They were divided into three groups: those who were mentally handicapped and mentally ill; those who were chronic, the serious psychiatric difficulties; and those in rehabilitation, who were being taught life skills, which aimed them towards a life in the community. By this time Centracare contained craft rooms, recreation areas equipped with musical instruments, record players, Televisions and video machines. For every patient there is an attendant. In all, there were more that 200 staff, which included security, social work and maintenance personnel. There was also a library, an auditorium and a woodworking shop.
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Although there was a time for relaxing at The Lunatic Asylum for patients, a lot of their time was spent doing moral treatment therapy. This consisted of a structured program of work, recreating, and worship.
"In keeping with the principles of non-restaint championed by the British asylum reformer, Dr. John Conolly, the asylum staff aimed at eliminating the use of mechanical restraints, a practice claimed to be limited to only one or two percent of inmates in the 1860s."
The asylum administrators valued physical labour as the most critical of treatment therapy, both for its therapeutic value and for helping to defray the institution's operating expenses. This form of therapy encouraged patients to divert their attention from "morbid preoccupations" and to focus on other activities such as sewing and carpentry. This helped them to instill moral values of independence, industry and self-respect. Also, as mentioned furthur on in this site, the medical superintendent developed a farming operation to raise crops and livestock for use by the institution.
Throughout the century, inmates from the province's countryside made up the largest proportion of the asylum's caseload, especially farmers, farm labourers, fisherman, tradesmen, and their wives. The upper class inmates were usually exempt from physical work, as it was assumed they did not require the lessons associated with physical labour. All of the classes at the Lunatic Asylum participated in regular recreational activities and religious services, again to distract patients, and to provide opportunities to practise etiquette and restraint.
The "inmates" at The Lunatic Asylum had to follow a certain diet table each week. The following tables show what each "inmate" was allowed:
Breakfast
Sunday Bread tea milk sugar
Monday " " " "
Tuesday " " " "
Wednesday " " " "
Thursday " " " "
Friday " " " "
Saturday " " " "
Dinner
Sunday Beef Soup Potatoes
Monday Fish Potatoes
Tuesday Beef Soup Potatoes
Wednesday Rice Molasses
Thursday Beef Soup Potatoes
Friday Fish Potatoes
Saturday Rice Molasses
Supper
Sunday Bread Tea milk sugar
Monday Oatmeal Pudding and molasses
Tuesday " " " "
Wednesday " " " "
Thursday " " " "
Friday " " " "
Saturday " " " "
Patients were allowed extras, such as butter, eggs, wine, etc. when absolutely required and ordered by the doctor.
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Fanny Bassett Brown and her son William O. Brown were both patients at this hospital. Sadly, both died there.
Saint John is a city steeped in history. Commonly referred to as ‘the Loyalist City’ as well as ‘Canada’s Most Irish City,’ Saint John is Canada's oldest incorporated city (1785) and is home to many firsts for Canada. Saint John is home to this country's oldest museum and Canada's first farmers market. Saint John also established Canada's first police force.
In 1998 the hospital was bought by J.D. Irving Limited and destroyed. It was turned into a public park and green space area. The park was once the home of a long standing fixture in the city...a fixture that stood here from 1846 until 1999! A fixture that went by the very un-Politically-Correct moniker of 'The Provincial Lunatic Asylum'.
The story of this establishment actually began in the city center. On November 14 1835, the very first such institution in Canada opened it's doors at the corner of Wentworth and Leinster streets in "uptown" Saint John. This original location was in fact the first mental health facility constructed in British North America with Dr. George Peters as its first director, serving from 1835-1848. Dr. Peters actually led the move to segregate the insane from the criminals.
Unfortunately, within a few short years, this wooden structure begin deteriorating and so a decision was made to construct a new stone facility here in the neighbouring city of Lancaster.
Ground was broken in 1846, the doors opened in 1848 with the first 90 patients moving in on December 12, 1848 with Dr. John Waddell serving as director from 1849-1875, living the entire time with his family in an apartment on the third floor. Several more buildings for the site were proposed by the commission, and by 1862 all additional buildings were built and occupied.
The late 1870s saw tremendous growth in the number of patients being admitted, leading to overcrowding and turning away of patients. It was at this time that Dr. James T. Steeves took over the position as director and served from 1875-1895. 1877 saw The Great Fire break out and would have been easily viewed from the institution's location high on the hill. Surprisingly, it seems this disaster did not have a significant effect upon the patients. During the late 1870s, the building was modernized and living conditions improved that saw rooms painted and decorated, as well as the installation of dumbwaiters, elevators, and running hot water. A central laundry service was added with steam-heated washers and dryers. An 1878 addition (the first of five) was constructed to the building for housing male patients and a workshop was opened for them in 1880. In 1881 an addition was constructed for female patients which helped to relieve overcrowding concerns. The asylum continued to fill quickly and the crowding was relieved only in 1885 when a farm annex (capable of handling an additional 150 long-term patients) was added. In order to pay for their stay, able-bodied patients were expected to work in the building's laundry, or clean various parts of the facility or possibly work on the Annex Farm, located on the Sand Cove Road in southern Lancaster.
Dr. George A Hetherington served as director from 1896-1903 and oversaw improvements to the property's exterior, including various walkways, pathways and gardens of the Asylum as part of a project to encourage patients to do more outdoor activities. He was also an advocate of hydrotherapy and led the Asylum through various implementations of this form of treatment.
Dr. James Vickers Anglin was the longest serving director of the Asylum from 1904-1934 and lived in the director's third floor apartment with his wife and five children. In his first year as director, the institution changed its name to the Provincial Hospital of Nervous Diseases. He oversaw numerous capital improvements including repainting of rooms, a new heating system, hardwood floors throughout the building's living and common areas, as well as the installation of electricity and lighting. Patient overcrowding during the 1920s, possibly as a result of New Brunswick veterans returning from World War I, led to another addition constructed in 1927-1929 which saw two new wards, a kitchen and storeroom built.
Dr. E.C. Menzies served as director from 1934-1956 and oversaw ongoing capital improvements to the wards and treatment facilities, including the construction and installation of an operating room, X-ray department and sterilizing equipment in 1936; prior to this, patients had to be transferred to the General Hospital. The hospital experienced another wave of overcrowding during the late 1940s and early 1950s as the number of patients increased dramatically following the war when soldiers were repatriated to New Brunswick. Consequently, the provincial government decided to fund the province's second psychiatric hospital, the Restigouche Hospital which opened its doors in 1954 in Campbellton.
In 1955, the provincial government looked into replacing the Saint John facility with a new building on the Annex Farm property but the proposed plan was cancelled in 1958 with a change in government. In December 1956, the hospital recorded the highest number of patients in its history with 1,697 having been admitted.
Dr. Allan Robertson was the director of the institution from 1973-1977 and led efforts to convince the provincial government to replace the aging facility with more modern infrastructure. This period also saw considerable debate in the government led by Premier Richard Hatfield over what to do about modernizing community care for the mentally ill.
In 1978 the Provincial Hospital was renamed and incorporated as Centracare Saint John Inc. In 1985 the New Brunswick Mental Health Commission was established as the first of several steps in modernizing and de-centralizing institutional care in the province.
In 1992, Centracare came under the administration of the Region 2 Hospital Corporation, later renamed the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation which was the health authority charged with administering hospitals and health care facilities across southwestern New Brunswick.
In January 1996, it was decided by AHSC to change the focus of Centracare from a facility-oriented view to a program-oriented view. Linda Nice was appointed director and funding was secured from the provincial government for a replacement residential care facility while plans were made to demolish the original institution in Lancaster (now part of the city of Saint John). In April 1997 a $4.4 million (CAD) tender was issued to construct the new 50-bed psychiatric hospital in suburban South Bay. The new facility opened in the spring of 1998 and provides tertiary level psychogeriatric and psychosocial rehabilitation services and is the focal point of AHSC's mental health care that also includes psychiatric services at the Saint John Regional Hospital and through various Community Mental Health Clinics.
This massive, now 150-year old, building in Lancaster was purchased from the provincial government by J.D. Irving Limited for $1 million (CAD) in 1998. After the last 48 patients were moved to the new building. J.D. Irving began the demolition of the vacant psychiatric hospital on March 9, 1999 and the entire structure was levelled within days. The site was landscaped and the property has been turned into a privately owned but publicly accessed urban park administered by J.D. Irving Ltd. The park offers spectacular views of the Reversing Falls and the Saint John skyline.
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