cupid, insanity

Years ago when researching the deed to our new home, it was curious to note that the only heir of Charles and Caroline Korb, the initial homesteaders of the farm, was a daughter named Cornelia Korb. The deed stated that the she was a ward at the Warren State Hospital for the Insane. I have oft times wondered just how it was that Caroline was mentally ill.

When we first purchased the farm, there wasn’t much of anything here by way of landscaping. There were a handful of old apple trees, a few very old pears, an old lilac and in the front of the house there was a spice bush,  a barely surviving rose and some pale pink flowers that we were not familiar with. We found out that the plant was called “Bouncing Betty” also known as (Soapwort) Saponaria officinalis. One has to wonder if this plant had a practical use for the Korbs because of its sudsing properties.

Sometime later when perusing the old graveyard in Troutville I happened to see a patch of Bouncing Bets. As I drew closer, it was surprising to see that they were growing at the grave marker of Charles Korb!  Had Cornelia planted them? When did Cornelia go insane and why?

The Bouncing Betty still survives today by the steps in front, over a hundred years later, despite the tansy and peony newcomers who keep trying to nudge it out. We still have not tried its soaping properties, but we have tried to lovingly restore the old farmhouse that Charles and Caroline built. This year we went back to the Troutville cemetery and I checked to see if the Bouncing Bettys were still surviving there. There was no sign of them but Charles’ head stone had been replaced and I noticed a grave mistake. The birth date for Caroline just didn't jive with Charles’.

As inquiring minds want to know, I did some research and lo and behold by the virtues and miraculous nature of the internet I found a gem. Who could have ever thought that after 100 years I could come to find this tantalizing piece to the Cornelia puzzle?

As cool as it was to find out how Cornelia ended up in the asylum, it didn’t provide the satisfying closure I had hoped for. Now there are many, many more questions and speculations. Cornelia, the poor woman, is listed as single and living at the farm in the 1900 census. Her mother died in 1901 and her father died in 1902, she was 36. For seven years, she was sole proprietor of the farm.

Who was taking care of the 300 acre farm with one of the largest barns in the county? Was she selling off the livestock for her upkeep, perhaps she was leasing the cropland? Was perhaps the beau a farmhand hoping to take over ownership of the farm? Who sent her to the asylum? Why wouldn't they let her out? What caused her to be violent and who was her anger directed at? It was July 22, 1909, was it very warm and humid and the couple were doing hay together and they argued and tempers flared and she went after him with a pitchfork? Maybe there wasn’t even a boyfriend, only unrequited love.

The most unfortunate and very tragic part of whatever scenario it was that caused her admission to the asylum, was that Cornelia not only had lost control of her temper, she lost control over everything. As strange coincidences go, the very week that I came upon the online news clipping this fascinating article came to me.  It has photos of the contents of the suitcases of asylum patients that expected to be only staying for a few days and from the same time period as Cornelia’s stay in Warren. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/abandoned-suitcases-reveal-private-lives-of-insane-asylum-patients/

At the time it was easy to get yourself admitted to an asylum - drug use, alcoholism, mourning a little too long over a lost child, a fit of anger - all could have you admitted. It was easy to get in but impossible to get out. Cornelia, from Warren State Hospital records, was in there for years and each year her estate was charged for her keep. In 1917 her debit was 129.00 for the year and that’s the last entry that I can find, she would have been 51. Sadly, for now and perhaps forever, that’s as far as the story goes. 

Side note: some clues as to what life in the asylum was like http://www.pagenweb.org/~warren/misc/warren-state-hospital.html