Small town newspapers in places like Caldwell functioned like pre-technology Facebook pages and reported on the residents’ most mundane and everyday activities. I was surprised how much detail one can learn by scanning these papers. Several stories reported on visits to town by Lee’s in-laws and their activities. At some point, the couple moved to a nearby town and there were news reports of my grandmother occasionally visiting them. Again, there was no privacy.
Most of the time, it seemed, the intrusive small-town press created a sense of community. You could practically find out what someone had eaten for breakfast. But like social media today, there was a dark side to the nosy news.
By 1916, Jessie had filed for divorce, and it made it into the newspaper. A judge granted the petition “on the grounds of extreme cruelty.” Subsequently, she petitioned to return to her maiden name. Of course, the documentary evidence is thin, but divorce was not common in that period. What was the nature of Lee’s “extreme cruelty?” What was going on?
What happened next to Lee offers a possible answer. Like his brother Joseph, Lee was required to register for the draft in 1917. Through Ancestry.com, I quickly found his draft card. The document is a basic piece of bureaucratic paperwork. Lee’s draft card, however, held a surprise.
His address listed was simply “Caldwell KS, Sumner County.” His “place of business or employment” was the Topeka State Hospital. But he was not an employee at this famous psychiatric hospital but a patient. Under medical conditions was listed, in brutal simplicity, “Insane.” The nearest relative listed was John Pattie, another older brother. All the men at Topeka State Hospital registered at the same time. I found hundreds of cards for male patients from that year.
My father had never heard about an uncle being confined to the hospital. Naturally, I had a lot of questions about Lee.
Taking a stab in the dark, I decided to look in the U.S. Census.
In the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census, Lee Pattie was a patient at the hospital. Like the draft cards, the census data for the hospital listed hundreds of wards of the state in page after page of lists. Given that he happened to be at the hospital for two successive censuses, I guess that he never left the hospital. He likely remained at the Topeka State Hospital until his death in 1932.