THE FIRST HOSPITAL FOR INSANE. RESIDENT OFFICERS. Cyrus K. Bartlett, M. D., Medical Superintendent. E. N. Flint, M. D., Assistant Physician. C. F. Brown, Steward. First National Bank of St. Peter, Treasurer. The state legislature, at its session in 1866, passed an act establishing the Minnesota Hospital for Insane, and appointed commissioners to locate the same. It was located at St. Peter, the citizens generously presenting the state with a fine farm of two hundred and ten acres, one mile south of the city. An appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars was made for temporary provision and support of the insane. At the session of the legislature in 1867, forty thousand dollars were appropriated for a permanent building on the farm provided. Plans were obtained, and the building commenced. Temporary quarters had been provided and opened for the reception of patients, in October, 1866, to which the patients, previously boarded at the hospital in Iowa, were brought. Dr. Samuel E. Shantz, of Utica, New York, was elected by the trustees, superintendent and physician. Under Dr. Shantz the temporary hospital was organized and directed until his death in August, 1868, when he was succeeded by Dr. C. K. Bartlett, of Northampton, Massachusetts, who is still in office. Appropriations were made from year to year for building purposes, until the plans were completed in 1876. The admission of patients, and gradual increase kept the rooms constantly full; and since 1877 the accommodations have been crowded. The hospital building is of hammered limestone, the walls are lined with brick, and the roof slated. It contains a center building four stories, with offices and the chapel, and two wings three stories each, containing nine separate halls for distinct classification of patients, with comfortable accommodations for five hundred persons and the necessary attendants. The additional buildings are a laundry, boiler and engine house, gas house, carpenter shop, ice house, barn, straw shed and root cellar, granary and carriage house, slaughter house and pump house. On the fifteenth of November, 1880, about seven o'clock in the evening, fire was discovered in the basement of the north wing, occupied by male patients, and appeared to have several points of origin at the same time. The progress of the flames was so rapid, and the halls so quickly filled with a dense smoke, that the patients were removed with great difficulty, and several attendants and citizens nearly lost their lives in their heroic efforts to save the unfortunate inmates. The whole north wing, except the stone and some of the brick walls, was destroyed, with all the bedding and furniture and most of the clothing. The next morning forty-four male patients were missing, but during that and the following day several were returned from the neighborhood, the whole number being finally reduced to twenty-four missing, the remains of whom were believed to have been found in the ruin. Some died after the fire, mostly on account of injuries and exposure at that time. The legislature of 1881 promptly made an appropriation of $90,000 to repair the burned wing, which amount was subsequently increased $15,000 at the extra session, when the outer walls of the building were found to be more damaged than at first supposed, a part of which had to be taken down. The wing, rebuilt in a fire-proof manner, with iron joists and brick arches, has been occupied since 1882, and during the past year the basement floors of the south wing, center building and laundry have been made fire-proof. An appropriation of $1,500 was promptly made by the legislature after the fire of 1880, for waterworks for better protection, and expended for that purpose, giving a steam pump of 450 gallons capacity per minute, and a reservoir containing 135,000 gallons of water, 160 feet above the basement floor of the buildings, and from which water is carried in an eight-inch pipe to all parts of the hospital, having fifteen hydrants at convenient points always ready for immediate use. Two detached wards, each two story and one with an attic, have been built for the quiet class of patients, at a cost of $100,000, each accommodating 230 persons. They are of brick, the basement story with iron beams and brick arches, and the |