Today, we’ll profile a few instances of people who found themselves struggling with insanity caused by heat, shipwreck, religion, fairgrounds, and electricity.

I wonder what the causes would be if someone did a study of what drives people insane today? At the turn of the century, the most common cause appears to be heat. In the days before air conditioner and electric fans, I imagine the heat was particularly galling. That brings us to our first case:

HEAT

A heat wave in Chicago in August of 1909 was responsible for a particularly tragic situation. Interestingly, there are a large number of cases of people driven insane by the heat in Chicago and they are the cases where I notice violence toward others playing a major role, as in this tragic case.

Driven Insane by the Heat. From The Tennessean.

John Busby, of Bloomington, III., Murders His Wife and Then Commits Suicide.

Believed to have been driven insane by the intense heat, John Busby, a well-to-do farmer of northeastern McLean County, killed his wife tonight, cutting her throat and slashing her body with a razor.  Three of their children who witnessed the crime fled In time to save their lives. Busby took refuge in a barn, where he was fouhd dead, having cut his throat.

 

SHIPWRECK

In November 1935, the British freighter Silverhazel wrecked in the San Bernadino Straits, in the Philippines. There were 54 people aboard the ship, and four died, including Captain H.A. Lennard. Two more were badly injured. The rest were marooned for four days on the rocks of the Straits. The British destroyer Peary came to the rescue and picked up most of the survivors. The others were delivered on a second ship.  Even the rescue was traumatic. The ships could not get within 1,000 feet of the treacherous rocks, so the marooned passengers were forced to use the Silverhazel wreckage to build makeshift rafts and float out toward the rescue ships.

You’ll see the person officially driven insane only gets a mention. But read the survivor’s account and you’ll wonder how everyone wasn’t driven insane.

Almost Washed off the Rocks Several Times. From the Berkshire Eagle. (Berkshire, MA)

Mrs. Neil Williams of Los Angeles drowned. The ship’s doctor, E.L. Nefflin-Elkins, said she was driven insane by the ordeal. Mrs. Jeanne Zerfing, one of the passengers and wife of a navy enlisted man, said, “This was my first sea trip and it was a nightmare.”

“We were on the rocks two nights,” she related. “The entire party joined in singing to keep up our spirits. The waves were very high and we were almost washed off the rocks several times. The rafts were made aboard the Silverhazel. Then we jumped off and swam to the rafts.

When it came my turn, I jumped and started for the raft. Captain Lennard, who had his dog tied to his neck by no life jacket, was swimming near me. He seized me and I tried to help him but he went down.

I was in the water ten minutes before I reached the raft. Ten people on our raft had a hard time to keep from being washed overboard. Finally when we got near the Peary, sailors dropped ropes and hauled us aboard.”

RELIGION

In May of 1914, Frank Norton died after being driven insane by religion.

Driven Insane by Religion. From The Oskaloosa Herald (Oskaloosa, IO)

The remains of Frank Norton who died at the Mt. Pleasant asylum after having been driven insane at revival meetings held by Evangelist Oliver last fall, are being brought back here for burial.

The picture of hell fire and brimstone as drawn by Oliver was too much for Norton and he became so violent urging his friends to reform that he had to be taken to the. asylum.

He leaves a wife and two children.

 

Fairgrounds

In October 1906, a strange story unfolded in the Iowa newspapers about an Iowa minister who was driven insane by a deal related to the World’s Fair in Chicago.

In 1856, Reverend Dr. Edward Eaton used his life savings to buy 20 acres of land at the corner of 63rd street and Jackson Park. In 1870, the park commissioners decided they needed Dr. Eaton’s plot for Jackson Park, which became the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition, or the Chicago World’s Fair.  They paid the minister $4000 for 10 acres.

Later the board decided to buy the other 10 acres for $20,000, which is worth approximately $463,150 today. Owing to an error in the deed description,  the board paid the sum to another man, who split the money with his attorney and disappeared. 

Dr. Eaton raced to Chicago and found his fence torn down and workmen busy transforming his land into the fairgrounds, which was expected to draw millions of people. But the board refused to recognize the Eaton’s title or his claim on the land.

Dr. Eaton filed a lawsuit. But in 1871, Chicago’s Great Fire raged through the city and burned up everything… including the land records.

Tragedy Over Amusement Park. From Muscatine News-Tribune (Muscatine, IO)

The flames raged through the old county court house and ate up the shelves full of musty documents and the papers on which the poor minister’s claim was set forth, though crisp and new, were devoured with the rest.

The thought that the papers on which he had based his demand for justice were in ashes preyed on Dr. Eaton’s mind until he lost his reason. He died in 1872, raging against those whom he denounced as his betrayers.

He was driven insane by the loss of documents, with which he was fighting for his property, in the Chicago fire. His wife, too, became insane and was in that condition during the progress of the world’s fair in 1893.  His heirs are now suing for the amount.

ELECTRICITY

In May of 1892, 34-year-old James Grant, a lineman for the Chicago Telephone Company, was driven insane by an electric shock while talking on a telephone.

A Raving Maniac. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

He is a large, robust man and has been in the employ of the company for some time in the capacity of lineman and was a thoroughly competent workman. No mistakes have ever occurred with his work. and the remarkable accident which has befallen him cannot be accounted for.

Monday afternoon there was a severe electrical storm and many of the wires were cut out. Grant and a few other men were sent to repair them and later he stepped into the branch office to communicate with headquarters.

He was waiting for an answer at the telephone when a bolt of lightning flashed near by, and Grant fell unconscious to the floor. Several of the spectators ran to his assistance and he was picked up unconscious and taken to his home across the street.

Several physicians were called, but they could do nothing for him. In a few hours he regained his consciousness but when he did he was a raving maniac. His strength was superhuman, and none of the attendants in the house control him.

He bit and snapped and kept crying, “‘Hello, hello, ring off,” until help arrived and quieted him. He grew steadily worse until yesterday. It was thought best to remove him to the Detention Hospital.

Five strong men carried him into the ward, and it required five more to hold and strap him down. Insanity through an electric shock is something that has never before occurred in this city, and the physicians are unable to account for it. The shock was no doubt communicated to the head by means of the hearing tube coming in direct contact through the ear with the brain.