Cemetery Reclamation
Many who died at the hospital(s) were claimed by friends and family and buried privately…those who stayed and died at the hospital were interred in cemeteries on hospital grounds. Their graves are marked only by rows of depressions in the ground and small, brick-sized stones carved with numbers, many of which have sunken into the ground and are no longer visible. The cemeteries themselves are not marked. While it is fitting that these individuals remain at rest on former state hospital ground, the fact that their graves are not marked and their burial places are not memorialized is also a commentary on the lives that society forgot.--“From Institutions to Independence: A History of People with Disabilities in Northwest Ohio” (2009)
In decades past, many people who died while residing in state psychiatric hospitals were buried in cemeteries on grounds and given grave markers with numbers instead of names inscribed on them. In some instances, burial records have been lost and the final resting places of all past residents in state hospitals are not known. These hospital cemeteries fell into disrepair and their neglect perpetuated the stigmatization of mental illness. In Ohio and nationwide, projects have been initiated to reverse these indignities by rehabilitating the cemeteries into places that provide inviting environments where families and other visitors can pay their respects.
ODMH currently owns and maintains cemeteries in Athens, Cincinnati, and Columbus. Previously, state hospital cemeteries in Dayton, Lima, Tiffin, and Toledo were owned by ODMH but were transferred to new owners during land sales.
The Cemetery Reclamation Project is a volunteer effort by the Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) -- Ohio chapters, community organizations, consumers and family members to improve state hospital cemetery conditions.
There are active cemetery reclamation groups in Athens, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo. In celebration of Mental Health Month 2009, ODMH provided NAMI groups in Athens, Franklin, Hamilton, and Lucas Counties with $5,000 each to repair and restore the cemeteries.
How Far We’ve Come
Formerly focused on long-term institutionalization, today’s psychiatric hospitals support short-term and intensive treatment that can lead to recovery and a return to community life for people with brain diseases. As the system has improved to treat the citizens in its care as people with rights and dignity who deserve support and quality care, we can look back at how far we’ve come.
- Behavioral changes from brain injuries, encephalitis, and neurological conditions such as Huntington’s chorea and epilepsy were among the reasons for admission to a state hospital.
- A large number of people were admitted due to age or physical illness related dementia. Worry, overwork, religious study, menopause, shell shock, domestic troubles, sunstroke, disappointment in love, financial trouble and a broken heart were also listed reasons for admission.
- Commonly, drug and alcohol addiction and developmental disabilities resulted in stays at the state hospital.
- It wasn’t uncommon for people to die within weeks, days or even hours after admission from advanced physical illnesses existing at the time of admission such as meningitis, syphilis, TB and diphtheria.
- People from all walks of life with diverse backgrounds were patients at the state hospitals. The patients who died while hospitalized and were buried in hospital cemeteries had no relatives available to contact or their families could not afford private burial expenses.
Ring Out Hope
During the early days of mental health treatment, asylums often restrained people with mental illnesses by iron chains and shackles around their ankles and wrists. With better understanding and treatments, this cruel practice eventually stopped.
In the early 1950s, the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) issued a call to asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles. On April 13, 1953, at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, MD, NMHA melted down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope: the Mental Health Bell.
Over the years, national mental health leaders and other prominent individuals have rung the Bell to mark the continued progress in the fight for victory over mental illnesses. Listen to the song “Ring Out Hope.”
To Learn More
- To learn more about today’s hospitals, visit our Hospital Services and Regional Psychiatric Hospitals pages.
- Paulson, G.W. & Sherman, M.E. (2008). Hilltop: A hospital and a sanctuary for healing, its past and its future. Freemont, Ohio: Lesher Printers, Inc.
- Floyd, B., Brownlee, K., Jones, T., Free, J., Chelminski, D. (2009). From institutions to independence: A history of people with disabilities in northwest ohio. Toledo, Ohio: University of Toledo.
- The Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections serves as a repository for some records formerly held by the Athens Asylum on behalf of
the Ohio Historical Society. Please contact:
Douglas E. McCabe
Curator of Manuscripts
Mahn Center
Alden Library
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: (740) 593-2715 - National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)