tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14563832699470621952023-11-16T12:27:51.575-05:00The Ladd School Historical SocietyJason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-50134721493829498452016-03-02T08:38:00.000-05:002016-03-02T08:38:34.267-05:00Charities and Corrections: Life at the State Institutions Exhibit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMjMvOCmcHXPDVaTMVvbCs5Gak6qQZjHTZ9Z_vlEfbBj-PkGcXpCQoDPRXKhyphenhyphenn2sO5hMMpE7z3Og4SgTZ6kaVLscbLK5dXV33i2aqxvmBZHM7bZ2oXLze9r9KAH4p18AF23Nmw3afZmhN/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMjMvOCmcHXPDVaTMVvbCs5Gak6qQZjHTZ9Z_vlEfbBj-PkGcXpCQoDPRXKhyphenhyphenn2sO5hMMpE7z3Og4SgTZ6kaVLscbLK5dXV33i2aqxvmBZHM7bZ2oXLze9r9KAH4p18AF23Nmw3afZmhN/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-1.jpg" /></a>
<p>Historically significant things belong in the public eye. "If you have a [signed] painting of George Washington hanging over your mantle at home, what good is that?" says Ken Carlson, reference archivist at the Rhode Island State Archives in Providence.</p>
<p>Such is the spirit behind Mr. Carlson's latest curated exhibit, “Charities and Corrections: Life at the State Institutions”; a fascinating foray into the history of Rhode Island's public hospitals and institutions: the State Infirmary, the Oaklawn School for Girls, the Sockanosset School for Boys, the State Prison, and the Asylum for the Insane, among others.</p>
<p>On the corner of Westminster Street, behind the brightly decorated facade of the Victorian-era State Archives building - originally an art gallery over a century ago - a menagerie of rarely-glimpsed artifacts lie in state just beyond a plate glass window looking out upon the modern bustle of the busy city sidewalk.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLeRyvvWu8tP7Tihg6hWUtpkkuAKvjRoaVrMzrA1VcuH4ZLo25tPf1V-RQWg-Xf88bJNHOCe9sUN4wan5gdzqEH2XI9TYFg66tcrO4YEPVughFJiETvhEBjK2m3cHqlIW_DoQPJ4jEG3o0/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLeRyvvWu8tP7Tihg6hWUtpkkuAKvjRoaVrMzrA1VcuH4ZLo25tPf1V-RQWg-Xf88bJNHOCe9sUN4wan5gdzqEH2XI9TYFg66tcrO4YEPVughFJiETvhEBjK2m3cHqlIW_DoQPJ4jEG3o0/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-3.jpg" /></a>
<p>In one among several large display cases, colorful maps of the Sockanosset and Oaklawn schools frame a detailed, hand-drawn sketch of the girls' school cemetery; an inmate's admission card and portrait lie atop, aside and slightly askew. In another, a hand-sewn Raggedy Ann doll rests rank-in-file alongside a collection of stitchings, woodwork, and crafts; the handiwork of patients from the tuberculosis sanitorium at Wallum Lake.</p>
<p>“[We were] ‘picture poor’,” said Mr. Carlson, motioning toward a wall of photographs as he told a familiar story of how only years prior they were saved, literally from the scrap heap, by a former state worker who rescued the antique glass plate negatives from a dumpster during the renovation of a state building, before donating them to the Archives.</p>
<p>In fact many of the items on display were collected by donation, including a trove of documents belonging to the State Prison. Deemed a fire hazard by officials in the wake of a blaze caused by an inmate uprising in the 1990s, the correctional institution's leather-bound, 1800s ledger, and the century-old handwritten letters of a murderer describing his escape plan, are among many of the things now on public display because of the circumspection of those who saw value in their conservation.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFtGjuobA8UKJ79Mo0pcNOpDwYXjjZYO2sUeW4XGndVPECO_bvYbYb1As-qnzcew_72hAMFEy2TFLAEw9tPpjs2wSlnDNK2OK_O8ANtLB0Peq3_9LGORIWcsqoeHL4BBiFBm09JmFRmFY/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFtGjuobA8UKJ79Mo0pcNOpDwYXjjZYO2sUeW4XGndVPECO_bvYbYb1As-qnzcew_72hAMFEy2TFLAEw9tPpjs2wSlnDNK2OK_O8ANtLB0Peq3_9LGORIWcsqoeHL4BBiFBm09JmFRmFY/s1600/ri-state-archives-ladd-school-2.jpg" /></a>
<p>Thoughtfully arranged and carefully preserved, the “Charities and Corrections” exhibit is a collection as spellbinding for the scholar as it is for the casual observer; a veritable treasure chest of never-seen-before relics from a history too often left to the shadows of our society’s past. Thanks to people like Mr. Carlson and the donors who made this work possible, it will not be a history soon forgotten.</p>
<p>“Charities and Corrections: Life at the State Institutions” will be on display through March 31, weekdays 8:30 to 4:30, at the Rhode Island State Archives; 337 Westminster Street, Providence. The exhibit is free and open to the public.</p>
<p>Though a visit to the State Archives would be well worth your while, a small selection of photographs from the exhibit may also be viewed online at <a href="http://sos.ri.gov/virtualarchives/collections/show/22" target="_blank">sos.ri.gov</a>.</p>
Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-31310765174308082852016-02-08T11:01:00.002-05:002016-02-08T11:06:01.948-05:00A Chat with Dr. Ladd <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5JZn6FZVz9ic1TkVG_iVUIBFCiwLyzKMRrFwNor478Uy_lMh5t680BGuNJ6abzm9b3NiD7tZUCgdKBckLzQtYyGRvA6nZYdqmbBm4hE2nNmOdUwteEyhyphenhyphenLdYNTVF0ADD3ejcQAQiEg70g/s1600/ladd-school-historical-society-RI.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5JZn6FZVz9ic1TkVG_iVUIBFCiwLyzKMRrFwNor478Uy_lMh5t680BGuNJ6abzm9b3NiD7tZUCgdKBckLzQtYyGRvA6nZYdqmbBm4hE2nNmOdUwteEyhyphenhyphenLdYNTVF0ADD3ejcQAQiEg70g/s1600/ladd-school-historical-society-RI.jpg" /></a>
<p>A quaint tale told from Dr. Ladd's perspective - hardly more than a curiosity, but a fitting one for this week's weather, and a good place to take up again our egregiously delinquent blogging routine.</p>
<p>This comes from the Ladd School's newsletter, "The Exeter News," January, 1956 issue:</p>
<p><b>A Chat With The Superintendent</b></p>
<p>"Looking for news from the administration for this month's issue of the paper, your reporter found Dr. Ladd in a reminiscent mood. 'Well, I had thought of giving you something about snow,' he said, and began telling of the storms which used to beset the School in the early days of its existence.</p>
<p>Once a very dependable patient by the name of Guy, who was sent on an errand in such a storm, stopped at the office (when then was in Dr. Ladd's home) to pick up the mail. Dr. Ladd says that he had an intuition that something might go wrong, so he started after him to see that he didn't lose his way. Evidently it was so bad that it was impossible to look ahead to see where one was going for more than a few seconds at a time. It happened, therefore, that Guy had left the road and circled around to crisscross it several times. The Doctor caught up to him just as he was crossing it again - heading in the wrong direction.</p>
<p>He said, "Hi Guy -- having any trouble?"</p>
<p>Guy answered in his very slow, deliberate monotone, "Yes ... I don't where I am ... can't find the road."</p>
<p>Dr. Ladd put him on the right track and started back himself. By glancing up every so often he could see the lights at his house and head himself in the right direction. As he came to a small hill, however, he found that his view of the lights was shut out, but he kept going in what he thought was the right direction. After a while, he stopped to get his bearings and saw the lights way off to his left. He couldn't understand how he had gotten turned around this much but struck out for the lights once more.</p>
<p>When he finally reached the spot where the light was coming from, he discovered that from the bottom of the hill he had started after the wrong set of lights, and had ended up over by the Colony instead of at his home at the other end of the reservation. He remarked that it had been foolish of him to set his course by the lights in the first place, and that he finally made it home safely by taking note of the direction that the wind was coming from, and since he know that this was storm from the North, taking his bearings accordingly."</p>Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-58383549275633427752015-10-26T17:53:00.001-04:002015-11-04T10:00:56.441-05:00Cemetery Tripping in Massachusetts and Rhode Island<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnvT0WObD7F8oGuh3dE-j2pbghZBusvnM9OOhDQ9y0U7x6cSey_lsks8-fKlelgE4rRLsp1o0kKeVVZL1Nu1EUt_SOJqjm10E5uaCInz0qa1tmORmQRIn-dYrDi-ooVJ7QQMAFYlrwkyJ/s1600/tewksbury-state-hospital-cemetery.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnvT0WObD7F8oGuh3dE-j2pbghZBusvnM9OOhDQ9y0U7x6cSey_lsks8-fKlelgE4rRLsp1o0kKeVVZL1Nu1EUt_SOJqjm10E5uaCInz0qa1tmORmQRIn-dYrDi-ooVJ7QQMAFYlrwkyJ/s1600/tewksbury-state-hospital-cemetery.jpg" /></a><p>Situated in the Old Administration Building of the historic Tewksbury Hospital - a 19th century almshouse and sanitarium - the Public Health Museum is a non-profit educational and cultural center featuring a variety of exhibits and programs ranging in topics from disease epidemics to the American eugenics movement.</p>
<p>Earlier this October, the Museum conducted the season's last historical walking tour of the Tewksbury Hospital Campus - an event which, though we endeavored to attend on multiple occasions, slipped by us this year.</p>
<p>But that didn't stop us from visiting the Tewksbury Hospital cemetery on our own accord this week. Consisting of over 10,000 graves of the hospitals' destitute deceased dating as far back as the 1850s, this burial ground is divided into two separate woodland plots a fair distance from one another. With the sun setting fast on the day of our visit, we opted only to see the East Street plot nearest the hospital grounds, called "The Pines."</p>
<p>The Pines Cemetery is as decrepit as it is sprawling, and is perhaps larger than any other potter's field we've seen in Massachusetts. A little off the beaten path, there among a tangled grove of mature trees and just barely visible above the detritus of the forest floor, rusting iron stakes jut out of the earth as far as the eye can see. With each step deeper into the woods, the low-lying, numbered markers seem to endlessly appear underfoot; some sunken so deep they stand barely inches above the ground, others standing nearly knee-high, misplaced from their original foundation and replanted in the ground. Walk deeper still, and you might find a hand-carved wooden crucifix, or a mysterious headstone bearing the only names to appear in the entirety of the graveyard. The somberness and antiquity of the atmosphere is practically palpable.</p>
<p>Visiting cemeteries like The Pines at Tewksbury Hospital never fails to be a fascinating and eye-opening experience; one which can be had even closer to home at Rhode Island's own state cemeteries for the almshouse, the insane asylum, and the Ladd School. But these are not the only "paupers cemeteries" in the state. The Warwick Poor Farm's graveyard remains a fairly prominent feature of the Town Park, and recent research by the Ladd School Historical Society even suggests that some of the Ladd School's earliest residents in Exeter were buried by the state in other cemeteries as far away as the town of Cranston - our next stop this Halloween weekend.</p>
<p>Halloween means different things to different people; and to some people, it's believed to be the day during which the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. This year the holiday falls on a Saturday, providing the perfect opportunity for all adventurous spirits to explore historic cemeteries in their community, for an educational and cultural experience like no other. And if you're one of those adventurous spirits, maybe we'll see you out there.</p>Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-36050246565255269932014-08-01T13:50:00.001-04:002015-09-12T21:25:33.786-04:00The Fall of an Icon, The End of an Era<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sFFcouuHyw2fFBBgTk8k5VGVrl2q4TglujD2Ebf6yZdmHf9zVzFE5yohF9VDPvbBsrGGV11zm1wlQIdTnplwCh49MNRt-Zy3mIq1lwNd0FFvde5d3BK2VksSTlKM7a5OBHjtEjKGmnuL/s1600/ladd-school-fogarty-hospital.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sFFcouuHyw2fFBBgTk8k5VGVrl2q4TglujD2Ebf6yZdmHf9zVzFE5yohF9VDPvbBsrGGV11zm1wlQIdTnplwCh49MNRt-Zy3mIq1lwNd0FFvde5d3BK2VksSTlKM7a5OBHjtEjKGmnuL/s1600/ladd-school-fogarty-hospital.jpg" alt="Ladd School Fogarty Hospital Building in Exeter RI" /></a>
<p>Another historic occasion came to pass nearly unnoticed last week when the John E. Fogarty Hospital in Exeter, Rhode Island, finally met its destiny with the wrecking ball, so bringing an end to an era that is as storied as the building was iconic.</p>
<p>Built in 1962, the hospital was named for the U.S. Congressman from Rhode Island, John Fogarty, whose 27-year tenure has been lauded most for its unprecedented contributions toward the the increased awareness and improvement of services for "mentally retarded" citizens. The first and only facility of its kind, the hospital stood for more than a half century on the grounds of the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center; the state's historic and now defunct institution for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.</p>
<p>Designed by the architects of Donald J. Prout and Associates, the building - made of reinforced concrete slabs and paneled in bright orange and ivory porcelain - was unlike any other, and conspicuously out of place, in the region. Built at a cost of $1.2 million, funded mostly by a bond issue approved by R.I. voters, at a height of five stories - totaling 74 feet - it was said to be the tallest building in Washington County. Described as "the hospital of tomorrow," its circular design was claimed to result in "saving 37 per cent in footsteps for the nurses, doctors, and other attendants," while every room faced a "splendid view of the surrounding countryside."</p>
<p>The Fogarty Hospital may be well remembered today by former Ladd Center staff members and residents as the state's premiere medical facility dedicated specifically to treating people with developmental disabilities. Since being abandoned more than two decades ago, younger generations of locals will likely remember it better as a destination for ghost hunters, photographers and "urban explorers."</p>
<p>But perhaps it is best recognized as the epicenter of a social revolution that continues on to this day. </p>
<p>While under inspection by authorities in September, 1977, a confidential report revealing unsanitary and life-threatening conditions at the hospital's dental clinic was leaked to the press by social activists. In its wake, the clinic was immediately shut down, and the details were published - almost as quickly - on the front page of the Providence Evening Bulletin in a exposé by staff writer Peter Perl.</p>
<p>A series of investigative reports by Perl, and fellow journalists Bruce DeSilva and Thomas Walsh, ensued over the next several months, blowing the doors open on what increasingly appeared to be a long history of medical malpractice and human rights violations perpetrated at the Ladd Center. By the year's end, Dr. Ladd's successor, Superintendent John Smith, was fired from his post by R.I. Governor J. Joseph Garrahy, and a class action lawsuit was filed against the state on behalf of all the institution's residents. The suit was resolved in the early 1980s with two subsequent Federal court orders for the institution to diminish its role as a custodial care facility and reduce its population by significant numbers. In 1986, R.I. Governor Edward DiPrete announced a plan to close the Ladd Center; and in 1993, after years of gradual downsizing, the last of its residents were finally moved to alternative facilities and group homes in the community, where many still reside.</p>
<p>The property itself, and its derelict buildings - including Fogarty Hospital - had remained abandoned until recently.</p>
<p>Last summer, four of the Ladd Center's original buildings - some of them close to a century old - were razed. Unlike on that occasion, however, the demolition of the John E. Fogarty Hospital should not come as a surprise, nor should it be met with with a great sense of loss. For every person who will lament the wrecking of these historic buildings, there is surely another who will be glad to see the Ladd Center vanish at last. And while future generations will unfortunately be without such monumental reminders of our state's history, and the origin of our system of care for people with disabilities, we may nevertheless rest assured that its legacy will thrive in spirit, through the memories, legends and literature born from its prolific, if troubling, past.</p>
<p>History is not made of brick and mortar, after all, and will not be so easily forgotten.</p>
Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-4253187616363580042014-07-03T19:53:00.000-04:002015-10-26T16:41:08.403-04:00Ancients and Horribles on the Fourth of July<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvcagh9tw4vepD_kv7nQDKTNWncsv-NfnuTGRjhEVBj28COUevSpfhg3ubJPsGIbGjusLRku_nPUZYJAy6zMQEtwbGkVEhyphenhyphen9IQd1VHvNvRktkFYv35fyB4_O4Wsk66v9cfV7MCkfOE4HU/s1600/ladd-school-4th-of-july-exeter-ri.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvcagh9tw4vepD_kv7nQDKTNWncsv-NfnuTGRjhEVBj28COUevSpfhg3ubJPsGIbGjusLRku_nPUZYJAy6zMQEtwbGkVEhyphenhyphen9IQd1VHvNvRktkFYv35fyB4_O4Wsk66v9cfV7MCkfOE4HU/s1600/ladd-school-4th-of-july-exeter-ri.png" /></a>
<p>Since at least as early as the 1930s, Independence Day parades were traditionally held at The Ladd School.</p>
<p>Little evidence of the earliest of these events exists, however; or at least few examples haves been found, to date. But what rare specimens have survived history, whether by way of the written word or the odd, antiquated Polaroid, seem to suggest that such parades were held in the custom of the "Ancients and Horribles."</p>
<p>In fact, it should be considered hardly a coincidence that the first Ancients and Horribles parade on record in Rhode Island - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_and_Horribles_Parade" target="_blank">according to Wikipedia</a> - was held in 1926, in Glocester, while the earliest known photograph of such a parade at the Exeter School can be dated to 1930.</p>
<p>In those early days, on July 4th, costumed Ladd School residents could be observed marching down the institution's rural streets dressed in Indian attire and macabre masks reminiscent of Halloween, led by nurses, horse drawn wagons and the occasional Ford Model A. </p>
<p>Having become fondly anticipated throughout the years, by the 1950s the celebration had grown significantly more elaborate. The revelries spanned two days, incorporating events such as band concerts, a bonfire, field day games, and drum and bugle corps demonstrations. Town residents were as well invited to attend the parade on July 4th, while each year the ever more complex floats - by then drawn by farm tractors and other modern conveyances - were decorated to conform with an annual theme. To commemorate the Ladd School's founding, in 1958 the theme was "The Past 50 Years," for which the floats were designed to depict scenes from the institution's past, and residents were dressed in jumpsuits and aprons; traditional state institution uniforms.</p>
<p>Though no official record exists with which to compare it, the Ladd School's Independence Day celebration may well have reached its pinnacle in 1973. Set atop flat bed trucks on loan from the National Guard, and decorated with paper mache flowers, balloons and banners, a total of 46 floats were displayed, half of which were made by residents of the institution, who rode upon them in elaborate costumes as astronauts, clowns and other characters fashioned to represent various themes. </p>
<p>Community groups from all over Kent and Washington Counties joined the festivities, too, from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, to Shiners, local fire departments and military troops, who, together, marched and rode from one end of the campus to the other. All told, the parade covered a mile and a half in the span of an hour. And when the precession ended, a customary rifle demonstration by the Quonset Seabees kicked off a night of square dancing and, of course, fireworks.</p>
<p>That year, an estimated 2,500 people from across Rhode Island came out to see the parade; more than any year before.
Now, more than a generation since the last Independence Day parade at the Ladd School came to a close, the abandoned, overgrown lots and what few derelict buildings remain along Main Street in Exeter bear nary a whisper of those celebrations long ago. And while there are surely those among us who will still remember the sights and sounds of the old days, the rest of us should be forgiven for feeling as though a part of history has passed us by.</p>
<p>Fortunately, however, we need not rely on our imagination alone to live, or re-live, what may very well have been the grandest of public spectacles in the history of this historic institution: For the first time in over 40 years, a collection of films has surfaced, of the 1971 and 1972 Fourth of July parades at the Ladd School in Exeter, Rhode Island.</p>Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-18991845416639656722014-05-12T16:57:00.000-04:002014-06-09T20:29:25.792-04:00On The Death of Dr. Joseph H. Ladd, 40 Years Ago Today<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-3eesOqVTXwSxApqUboG4pqqpTUyZss-7ay6kNfmq0CuLwAPa3xyt_irIdJOuMD-m_KQIed50xGzyXm6DPLd0yAf3TpYCz50Fgeqs5Kx5tlAZUXA92WiUka1aP6NQ4dqJshs7t3qAgVoB/s1600/dr-ladd-grave-rhode-island.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-3eesOqVTXwSxApqUboG4pqqpTUyZss-7ay6kNfmq0CuLwAPa3xyt_irIdJOuMD-m_KQIed50xGzyXm6DPLd0yAf3TpYCz50Fgeqs5Kx5tlAZUXA92WiUka1aP6NQ4dqJshs7t3qAgVoB/s1600/dr-ladd-grave-rhode-island.jpg" /></a><b>The following was originally published in the Providence Evening Bulletin on Monday, May 13, 1974:</b>
<br/><br/>
Dr. Joseph H. Ladd, who pioneered efforts in Rhode Island to rehabilitate the mentally retarded, died yesterday at the age of 98.
<br/><br/>
He was the husband of Pauline (Falco) Ladd.
<br/><br/>
He was the first superintendent of the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School in Exeter, which opened in 1907 with seven mentally retarded boys under his care.
<br/><a name='more'></a><br/>
At that time the institution was known as the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded and the residents were called "inmates." Dr. Ladd's half century career was spent seeking a bette approach to the problem.
<br/><br/>
Dr. Ladd guided the institution through its growth from a single farmhouse to a sprawling complex housing nearly 1,000 residents at the time of his retirement in 1956.
Despite the growth, the school was perennially overcrowded and understaffed. Much of Dr. Ladd's career was devoted to pressing the state for more funds and personnel.
In the early days, the school was so isolated that it often was snowbound during the winter.
<br/><br/>
Dr. Ladd and his first wife, the former Margaret A. MacInnes lived in close contact with the inmates, and shared their meals with them.
<br/><br/>
In its early days, the institution was a "school" in name only, lacking facilities for education or even adequate shelter.
<br/><br/>
Years later, in 1948, Dr. Ladd was to recall,
<br/><br/>
<i>"The feeble-minded were regarded as a tremendous menace to the community and as totally beyond help. The ideas was that all of them were potential criminals.
<br/><br/>
"In a way, of course, everyone is a potential criminal. But we've since discovered that the feeble-minded are no more so than anybody else and that if given a chance they can adjust themselves and lead useful lives within the limits of their intelligence.
<br/><br/>
"In the old days, people believed that the mentally deficient should be kept out of circulation and incarcerated as cheaply as possible."</i>
<br/></br>
At the same time, Dr. Ladd admitted that the school, which was later to bear his name, had, unfortunately, remained largely custodial because funds for training, education and recreation were not readily appropriated.
<br/><br/>
As the school expanded, Dr. Ladd gained fame as one of the nation's leading authorities on the care and treatment of the mentally deficient.
<br/><br/>
In 1946 he reached mandatory retirement age but was granted a special extension which allowed him to continue his work at the school.
<br/><br/>
He remained there another 10 years, retiring in 1956, a year marked by scandals over alleged abuse of the students by some staff members.
<br/><br/>
Since his retirement, Dr. Ladd and his wife had lived at 132 Division St., East Greenwich.
<br/><br/>
In 1969 he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
<br/><br/>
Dr. Ladd was born in 1876 in High Forest, Minn., a son of the late George W. and Emma (Cory) Ladd.
<br/><br/>
His family came east when he was a youngster and he received his early education in Vermont public schools. He spent two years at Norwich University, Northfield, Vt., before studying medicine at Dartmouth Medical College, where he received his degree in 1900.
<br/><br/>
That year he joined the staff of the Walter E. Fernald School for the mentally handicapped in Waltham, Mass. He remained there until 1907, when Rhode Island opened its school in Exeter and named him as superintendent.
<br/><br/>
After the death of his first wife in 1927, he married the former Pauline Falco of North Providence.
<br/><br/>
Dr. Ladd was the state chairman for the 1965 Easter Seal campaign of the Meeting Street School. He was a past president of the American Medical Association, the Washington County Medical Society, the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society and the New England Psychiatric Society.
<br/><br/>
He is survived by a son, Joseph H. Ladd, Jr. of Monterey, Calif., two daughters, Mrs. Theodora M. Kendrick of Providence and Mrs. Valorie Ladd Scott of Westfield, Mass. ; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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Funeral arrangements by Marino & Sons Funeral Home, 265 Admiral St., Providence, are incomplete.
Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-45808334136518503542014-05-09T21:25:00.001-04:002014-05-09T21:34:37.731-04:00Mother, Don't Let the Sun Set on You Here<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdihIlZVf7x4ml01fm_OvomM7puR36vIzcnEohy_qJu1w-7GcAObnPDzf36RL1AFZwHLQsLVfTCs1dLFjtB8oqKrhWW5py4CICDcsCDoj12PuFbqSAOM8-49CeN-dqvaLvNw0g3Id-3_KO/s1600/ladd-school-letters-ri.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdihIlZVf7x4ml01fm_OvomM7puR36vIzcnEohy_qJu1w-7GcAObnPDzf36RL1AFZwHLQsLVfTCs1dLFjtB8oqKrhWW5py4CICDcsCDoj12PuFbqSAOM8-49CeN-dqvaLvNw0g3Id-3_KO/s1600/ladd-school-letters-ri.jpg" /></a>On Mother's Day, May 11, 2014, after more than two years in production, the fifth book in my Ladd School anthology will make its debut.
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The stars, it seems, are especially aligned for this occasion; not only does it occur on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Ladd's passing, but I cannot think of a more appropriate day to launch this particular title.
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I should say that Exeter Girls is very much a book about mothers, and motherhood, among other things. The three women about whom it is written were young mothers, each of them unwed, and unfortunate enough to birth their children in state custody as a result of disadvantaged circumstances.
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Given our understanding of contemporary mores, it is likely to be little known, but the fact of the matter is that in the early 1900s, pregnancy outside of wedlock - especially among the impoverished classes - was not only frowned upon, but punishable by law. It was called <i>bastardy</i>, and, in conjunction with socio-economical and certain diagnostic factors, was cause for countless women to be institutionalized on the basis of sexual promiscuity.
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I mean that, in no uncertain terms, they were quite literally arrested and incarcerated as a method of state-sanctioned birth control; and, indeed, as a means of eliminating entire family bloodlines from the population. Such was the purpose of the American mental hygiene and eugenics movements.
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The tragedy of this remains as yet untold. It is practically impossible to know how many of these women died in state custody, from communicable, but curable, diseases born from the overcrowded, sub-standard living conditions at the institution to which they were indefinitely remanded. Neither can we know just how many more remained in custody until old age or to the end of their natural lives. Or how many others were coerced, surreptitiously, to undergo an operation for the removal of their reproductive organs in order that they be permitted to return to their families on the outside.
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And still yet we must ask, how many families were victimized by these practices; how many children were stolen away from their so-called feeble-minded mothers, and placed in orphanages, only to be later committed to the same institution when they became of age? How many more of their descendants, who now live among us, hardly know their original name?
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Not only why, but how did this happen?
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Surely these are much deeper questions, and it is a much larger story, than can be answered for in any one volume. But though at a modest 264 pages in length, Exeter Girls is a powerful book, the first and only one of its kind; a rare collection of personal letters exposing the shocking reality of a dark age in social services through the first-hand accounts and true life stories of three women - Evelyn, Cora, and Dorothy - committed to Rhode Island's School for the Feeble-Minded nearly a century ago.
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And so it is now my great privilege to bring their fates finally to rest, quite literally in the palm of your hand, by making known not only their names, but their lives. I hope you will join me this Mother's Day in finally delivering them to the light.
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<i>Exeter Girls (officially) goes on sale May 11, 2014, at Amazon.com. Free shipping is available to Prime members, and to non-Prime members for some orders. See Amazon.com for details.</i>
Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-43765026369249077142014-03-19T15:21:00.002-04:002014-03-19T15:31:35.395-04:00The Ladd School, By Any Other Name<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8HTehdsI1dy6Rr6oSzfqYvztAkXXzTCsAOwucNAiRRWGFngoHAmMmVpKtSXgi3xUW305XlL0RR3JIbsk6dRHZhe2pKkQFcDFbseSK2p7Es7BfTYszd6xtAZwaSVC_9OY8V3ckbREKcBM/s1600/ladd-school-center-feeble-minded-ri.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8HTehdsI1dy6Rr6oSzfqYvztAkXXzTCsAOwucNAiRRWGFngoHAmMmVpKtSXgi3xUW305XlL0RR3JIbsk6dRHZhe2pKkQFcDFbseSK2p7Es7BfTYszd6xtAZwaSVC_9OY8V3ckbREKcBM/s1600/ladd-school-center-feeble-minded-ri.jpg" /></a>On March 14, 1958, Rhode Island <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_J._Roberts" target="_blank">Governor Dennis J. Roberts</a> signed the bill officially naming the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School in honor of its founder, and then recently retired superintendent, Dr. Joseph Ladd.
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Fifty-six years later, and some two decades since the institution was abandoned, Rhode Islanders still call it The Ladd School, even though it was renamed, in 1978, the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center.
Little is it known, however, that even before it was called The Ladd School, Rhode Island's only public residential institution for people with developmental disabilities was called The Exeter School, with reference to its location in the rural farming town of Exeter, Rhode Island.
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Rarer yet is the knowledge that before it was known as The Exeter School, the institution was originally called the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded.
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That was in the year 1908, more than a hundred years ago, now. And as the term Feeble-Minded might suggest, times were much different then. In fact, so was the institution.
In my book, <a href="http://theladdschool.com/books/idiots-imbeciles-and-morons.asp" target="_blank">Idiots, Imbecile and Morons</a>, I go to some length to describe the meaning of the word feeble-minded. The discussion is much deeper than can be satisfied by a cursory explanation so here it must suffice to say that it roughly translates to what some people might still refer to as "mentally retarded," or, in modern parlance, "developmentally disabled." It's a bit more complicated than that, as the definition of disability has continued to evolve since then, but for all intents and purposes it is a fair comparison.
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The naming, and renaming, of the institution, however, is actually grounded in more than just the evolution of our language. For instance, when an act of state congress changed the facilities name to The Exeter School in 1917, feeble-mindedness was still the de-facto diagnosis of its resident; its resident, in fact, were still then referred to as "inmates;" and, if anything, the definition of feeble-mindedness was broadened. The institution's moniker was changed, at Dr. Ladd's urging, purely for the purpose of lessening the stigma already associated with his School.
This theme of assuaging stigma would be repeated twice more in the institution's history.
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In 1958, when its name was changed to the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School, the institution's reputation was only beginning to recover from a scandal that, in today's political climate, would have made national headlines. A young child with severe developmental disabilities had died from an act of abject negligence, after which a murder trial ensued, and Dr. Ladd's resignation resulted. A new superintendent, Dr. John G. Smith, had been named to take his place, and Rhode Island legislators were only then eager to appropriate enough funding to modernize the institution.
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Scandal, again, was culprit when, in 1978, the institution was renamed the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center after a litany of investigative reports in the Providence Journal uncovered a legacy of human rights violations resulting from medical malpractice and the deaths of several Ladd School residents. That same year, Dr. Smith was fired from his position by RI <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Joseph_Garrahy" target=="blank">Governor J. Joseph Garrahy</a>, and a class action lawsuit was filed against the state, ultimately resulting in the Ladd Center's closure in 1994.
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Today, the Ladd School, as it may forever be known, is a boogeyman. The last of its buildings left standing, now slated for demolition, have for decades been the subject of urban legend. Its former residents now live in our communities. Its name is spoken softly in certain circles.
But its legacy lives on.
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How the landscape of services for people with developmental disabilities might evolve as we, as a society, move further into the future, is difficult to predict. Certainly, our cultural attitude toward people with developmental disabilities has improved quite a bit since the days when they were called feeble-minded. And anyone with their finger on the pulse of the nation should be familiar with the <a href="http://www.r-word.org/" target="_blank">"Spread the Word to End the Word"</a> movement, to abolish the usage of "retardation" from our language.
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But this crisis - if there is a crisis - of how to treat our citizens with developmental disabilities, is, as we have seen, one that concerns more than just the language we use. It is a crisis of action, inasmuch as it is one of inaction. It will not be resolved by erasing the past, by razing a building, or changing a name. To do so will only serve to blind us of the path behind us, and deprive us of the knowledge to change the one before us.
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Therefore, let it be known what The Ladd School is, and what it was, forever more. And let us liberate its history so that its name lives on; so that we may understand it, and use this understanding to emerge from the shadows of our past, to illuminate the destiny of our future, and to become a better and more compassionate society now.Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-34986140237007461812014-02-10T12:31:00.001-05:002014-02-12T12:41:27.826-05:00Book Review: My Lobotomy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8o7tVUzhoCNyfDqfJmqgTqwDgani4tbsunAq-sL8RImA2koeNdSzEFEqx7ES5eAE00rs_HPK_7hqKxH4-mr9Mugb5-6xYe-gcliA8LZKTjOVRCH-EU2YCa09uHgpdbW2M8154u9OOz_p/s1600/my-lobotomy-howard-dully.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8o7tVUzhoCNyfDqfJmqgTqwDgani4tbsunAq-sL8RImA2koeNdSzEFEqx7ES5eAE00rs_HPK_7hqKxH4-mr9Mugb5-6xYe-gcliA8LZKTjOVRCH-EU2YCa09uHgpdbW2M8154u9OOz_p/s1600/my-lobotomy-howard-dully.jpg" /></a>
As an author I'm practically obligated to read books. Not only does reading books influence me as a writer, especially where the literary works of prolific authors are concerned, but it also helps me to expand my knowledge base so that I may write with more authority.
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Probably the most limiting factor, however, in my voracity for reading is that I am by nature very particular about the books I read. I'm easily bored, and so critical of language that it's oftentimes difficult for me to find a book, by any author, that I enjoy to the point that I feel compelled to finish reading it, word for word. Therefore, there are relatively few books for which I am willing to give my recommendation.
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My Lobotomy is one of those books.
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Written by Howard Dully in collaboration with Charles Fleming, and published by Three Rivers Press in New York, My Lobotomy is the personal memoir of a man who, as a child, was lobotomized by the famed Dr. Walter Freeman, who popularized the "ice pick" lobotomy at the middle of the 20th century.
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Written from the perspective, and in the "down-home" voice, of Mr. Dully, My Lobotomy is, on the one hand, easy to read; and on the other, intensely compelling. Over the course of three days I could hardly put it down; always the hallmark of a good book.
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The book itself follows the life story of Howard Dully; from the tragic death of his mother during his childhood, through the precarious circumstances of his early life growing up in a small California town, to his adulthood, disadvantaged by the events following the operation that inevitably steered the course of his destiny.
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Recounting his institutionalization at the historic Agnews Insane Asylum, his stay at a now defunct California "Developmental Center," and his time as a homeless man on the streets, Mr. Dully's story is fascinating to read. Predicated on the unfortunate turn of events in his home life, particularly as concerns his apparently abusive step-mother, Mr. Dully's story is less a cautionary tale than it is a narrative of the kind of social injustice that can only be born of an uninformed and misguided society; the likes of which has only come to pass before us in recent generations.
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From the perspective of an historian, the book's passages which concern Mr. Dully's free access to the clinical documentation of his lobotomy were especially of interest to me. The casual language with which Dr. Freeman documents Mr. Dully's circumstances and operation might shock the average reader; but as someone who is familiar with clinical literature, to me it served as a stark reminder of the cold calculation typically attributable to figureheads of the mental health profession in the previous century.
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Moreover, My Lobotomy is a story of inspiration; of overcoming adversity and prevailing in the face of a tragedy unavoidable by the forces imposed upon the vulnerable. Particularly in the final chapter and the Afterward does the reader achieve a sense of triumph in its conclusion. And so here does the book tug hardest at the heart-strings, invoking a sense of enlightenment even in the face of darkness.
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From childhood, to adolescence and adulthood Howard Dully's life's story, as it is documented in My Lobotomy, was a pleasure to read. From the trouble of his early life to his position as an ostensibly celebrated figure in Dr. Freeman's dubious legacy, Mr. Dully's account should be heralded for generations to come as an indispensible part of this history, and ought to be a distinguished inclusion to anyone's book shelf.
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My Lobotomy is available at bookstores nationwide as well as on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Lobotomy-Howard-Dully/dp/0307381277/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392053024&sr=8-1&keywords=my+lobotomy" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-77163839084819678772013-11-03T11:41:00.000-05:002014-02-08T18:40:19.027-05:00The Cemeteries of our Abandoned Asylums<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN1keZPvLzenMCkGn3Pwq8Y5Zr6zSguuhlnZkhdHOQbkBu_x1kuI_edFzOxALAeYFYuZ0FNL0oRjcRAn1vcmk9EPsLIufTydwoXIKGYMNS-yCw9Jh6rZpAk3NsNyUeD4NHERA2tCd38jeX/s1600/danvers-state-cemetery.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN1keZPvLzenMCkGn3Pwq8Y5Zr6zSguuhlnZkhdHOQbkBu_x1kuI_edFzOxALAeYFYuZ0FNL0oRjcRAn1vcmk9EPsLIufTydwoXIKGYMNS-yCw9Jh6rZpAk3NsNyUeD4NHERA2tCd38jeX/s1600/danvers-state-cemetery.jpg" title="Danvers State Hospital Cemetery, 2013" /></a>
From Victorian times through the industrial age pestilence and disease were common in the crowded wards of State institutions for the indigent, insane and disabled. But the limits of medical science and inadequate support for these asylums in those dark days were especially detrimental to the institutionalized poor who, even in death, could not be cared for.
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Oftentimes their remains were unclaimed by friends or relatives, unable to have supported their loved ones in life and too sick or indigent themselves to bury them in death; and so they were buried by the State instead, in pauper's cemeteries located on or near the grounds of those asylums in which the deceased lived their final days.
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The graves of those laid to rest in this way usually were marked by a small numbered pillar or headstone made of wood, metal or concrete, and the identities of the buried were recorded in ledgers at the institutions. Sometimes when the families of the dead were no longer in dire straits they would attempt to locate their passed on loved ones to have their bodies disinterred and removed to a private cemetery or family plot. Unfortunately, over time the records which had given each of the dead a name were lost; and so as the cemeteries fell into disuse, and the memories of those buried in their anonymous graves slowly vanished.
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Today many of these paupers' cemeteries - the potter's fields - continue to fade into obscurity. Crumbling from neglect and sinking into the ground a little more every year, they are slowly disappearing beneath the weight of time, always growing closer to encroaching development and industry, always becoming more obscure.
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Now more than ever there is a wind of change in the air. The once immense and prolific asylums of the 19th and early 20th centuries have, in recent years, fallen by the score beneath the wrecking ball. It is all but inevitable, then, that in time their burial grounds will disappear as well, abandoned and forsaken as the lives of those whose bodies there rest eternally below.
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Or perhaps they will find, by the allure of their mystery and the plight of their indignity, some curious traveler to honor them; a benefactor to help preserve their past and uncover their secrets.
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Already the State of Massachusetts has made efforts to preserve their State cemeteries at Danvers, Medfield, Belchertown and other municipalities; but other States, like Rhode Island, remain far behind. The cemeteries of historic asylums in Warwick, Cranston and Exeter continue to suffer from neglect and remain in danger of deteriorating beyond repair.
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As recently as 2006, heavy spring rains unearthed 69 boxes of skeletal remains from an unmarked cemetery along the northern embankment of Route 37 in Sockanosset; the bodies of former residents of the State's poor farm. Unfortunately, not all of the remains could be identified; but to the town's credit, they were reinterred in the potter's field at the juncture of Pontiac Avenue and Knight Street in Warwick. Yet the dead there remain nameless; their tombstones are concrete posts. Their epitaphs are but numbers carved in the stone.
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How many more of these long-forgotten dead rest beneath our feet? How much longer will they remain at rest? Will their names be forever unknown, their stories untold? Will their graves be monuments or just memories?
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Only time will tell.
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For an excellent photo essay on potter's fields, visit <a href="http://www.mikecollingtonphoto.com/potters-fields" target="_blank">Mike Collington Photography</a>.Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-62784990676087079852013-09-23T09:36:00.002-04:002016-02-16T15:40:57.747-05:00The Bones of Gary Hayman<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTvtN7GTaGdNBNtcHEkYnAwg9yQHh1iM7-m2ajIEA-abLjbw30E_uyctwjKy4aWo70BslVwxUBJUhhQf4rXgqBD5iodanNzads4OyOP0ZobA5KGpH4fpG0WuCPdGn2kpFQhoLi-zHy76o/s1600/gary-hayman-ri.jpg" />Sixty-one years ago today, on September 23, 1952, Gary Hayman, a nine-year-old boy with autism, vanished from the Ladd School without a trace, never to be found ... almost.
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In the afternoon while the children were lined up at the end of class on that fateful day, Gary must have bolted from the school unseen, or so reports suggest. When his teacher realized he was missing, the school's administrators took swiftly to action, rounding up small search parties of attendants and inmates, and blasting three short, sharp blows of the whistle from the smokestack at the power plant on the other side of the campus - a measure taken for all runaways from the institution.
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Little did anyone know that this time, however, it would be different. When their search turned up empty-handed that night, so began a long, strange and harrowing story that remains to this day - all but forgotten - one of the most mysterious and tragic events in local history.
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The search for Gary Hayman was - in the words of Dr. Ladd, the institution's superintendent - <i>'perhaps the largest manhunt in Rhode Island history.'</i> It was certainly one of the most publicized for its time, and maybe the first notable account of a missing child in the State's modern history. For fourteen days rescuers looked high and low for the missing child, from the buildings and grounds of the institution to the woods, the roads, farms and abandoned fairgrounds surrounding the reservation and as far as the Connecticut border. Hundreds of local residents, police, firefighters and forest rangers led the hunt, day and night, while Gary's mother took to the hilltops and, with a megaphone in hand, called to the wilderness for her son. The bloodhounds were run, the sewer beds drained, and motorists were interrogated. Suspicions ran high, lies were told, and clues were found by the edge of the river. By the end of the second week, a fresh grave was exhumed amid dark rumors that the wrong body had been buried in the potter's field.
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At last, Gary's mother, desperate for closure, consulted the famed psychic horse, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Wonder" target="_blank">Lady Wonder</a>, as to the whereabouts of her lost son. <i>"Is Gary Hayman alive?"</i> The horse, manipulating a large, makeshift typewriter with her nose, spelled H-U-R-T. <i>“Where can the little boy be found?”</i> T-R-U-C-K. <i>“Where is the truck?”</i> Lady Wonder touched the machine again; K-A-N-S-A-S. <i>"Can Gary Hayman be found?"</i> Y-E-S.
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But it was all to no avail. Fall turned to Winter, and months passed by. The case, though it remained open, was hopeless. The search parties stopped, and as time went by, the rumors faded. Gary Hayman was gone.
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Then, in a strange twist of events, on a cold December morning that same year, a police officer showed up at the office of Dr. Ladd. Word of a grisly discovery had surfaced in the neighborhood behind the School in Exeter; a local farm boy, it was learned, was in possession of two human teeth which he claimed he had plucked, "for good luck," from remains he claimed to have found while hunting in the forest.
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With the boy in tow, that very day Exeter police recovered the head of Gary Hayman, found hanging on the limb of a fir tree in a dry clearing by the edge of a bog deep in the woods north of the Ladd School.
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His body, however, has never been found; and to this day, his skeleton remains somewhere in those woods.
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<b style="font-weight:bold !important;">From the book, The Bones of Gary Hayman and The Search for Samuel Finn:</b>
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<blockquote><i>... To reach this location, travel south on the South County Trail and at the entrance to
the Exeter School, travel north on Slocumville Road. On reaching Purgatory Road or
the William Reynolds Road, turn left onto the dirt road and travel west. After crossing
the Queens River, turn left at the first turn over the bridge (dead end at a sand bank).
Trooper then proceed south west into the woods. After about one hour of crossing
two cranberry bogs and brush, the skull was located on the side of a tree where it had
been hung.</i></blockquote>
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Gary Hayman's case was closed December 1, 1952.
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For more about this historic case, see our our book, <a href="http://theladdschool.com/books/the-bones-of-gary-hayman.asp" class="standardLink">The Bones of Gary Hayman and The Search for Samuel Finn</a>, on sale now through December 1, 2013.Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1456383269947062195.post-1330978339063130642013-06-06T13:27:00.002-04:002015-10-26T16:23:28.757-04:00An Historic Occasion<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1eVHRxVG2ivIwvGVnwfF1ipbfPH2s506odiJaE3k8u6vi1-3S2_Bfd-bjEvsIVV7hdKsbFmmpBAqG6A4aSijBjtwSIrtJK0qGYFGllkuLwH9viQhYyYKnpS50trnSSGTOrbyZFC2lkJz/s320/the-ladd-school-memorial-park.jpg" />
Nineteen years ago this week, Rhode Island formally commemorated the closing of the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center at one of the State's least known parks; the Ladd School Memorial Park.
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Situated at the corner of Main Street and School Land Woods Road in Exeter, the park, designed by Karen Hillman, was established in tribute to the thousands of people who lived and worked at the facility from 1907 to 1994. It stands upon the place where the original Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded was founded; the site of the Hoxsie farmhouse where Dr. Ladd and the first eight inmates of the institution settled more than a century ago.
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Surrounded by a replica of the stone wall that once surrounded the farmhouse, an engraved plaque is affixed atop a stone podium, which reads:
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<div class="blockquote">
<b>The Ladd Center</b><br/>
1907-1993
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Dr Joseph H. Ladd established the Exeter School for the Feebleminded on this site in 1907. He guided its development with dedication for 48 years. During its86 year history Ladd Center was home for 4,533 disabled men, women, and children who were cared for by skillful and compassionate employees. Ladd Center was closed in 1993 after alternative programs were established throughout Rhode Island. This alternative system of facilities was developed over a 15 year period with funds overwhelmingly approved by Rhode Island voters. Leadership in this major effort was provided by govenors J. Joseph Garrahy, Edward D. Diprete, and Bruce Sundlun; by the directors of the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals, Joseph J. Bevilacqua, Thomas D. Romeo, and A. Kathryn Power, By the department's executive director Robert L. Carl, Jr.; and by The Arc, the Ladd Parents' Association, and MHRH staff.
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Superintendents: 1907 - 1956 Dr. Joseph H. Ladd, 1956 - 1978 Dr. John G. Smith, 1979 - 1993 George W. Gunther Jr.
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Last person moved to a community based facility on March 25, 1994
</div>Jason Carpenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01968840827639757897noreply@blogger.com0