Tracing a Life Gone Awry: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Timeline”

From Independence to Asylum Inmate

Anna Stroy: 1877-1961

 

While researching my second-great-granduncle Johann Streu/John Stroy, I discovered that his youngest daughter, Anna, ended up in the Norfolk State Hospital for the Insane, spending over half her life as an inmate. I knew that in early part of the twentieth century, people with problems like severe intellectual and developmental disability and severe autism were often institutionalized with the mentally ill. Was Anna’s condition lifelong, or did it develop later in life? I decided to track the data points in the records creating a timeline to see what I could learn.

1877:  

Anna was born April 1, 1877 in Elmwood Nebraska to parents Johann and Johannah Kupke Streu. She was the youngest of their 6 children.  

1880:

Anna appears on the census with her family.

1900:

Anna appears on the census, age 23, living with her parents. She is not employed.

1901:

A news item in the January 4, 1901 issue of the Elmwood Nebraska Leader-Echo states “Miss Anna Stroy returned to her work in Lincoln, Tuesday evening.” So at 24, she was holding down a job and presumably living on her own in Lincoln, Nebraska.

1905:

Anna’s mother dies.

1906:

News item from the Ashland Journal on March 2, 1906 reads: “Anna Stroy and sister Emma Gakemeier are visiting relatives at Glenwood, Iowa for an indefinite period.”

1908:

News item from the Ashland Gazette on January 31, 1908: “Miss Anna Stroy was an Omaha visitor Thursday of last week.        

1909:

News item from the Ashland Gazette on September 3, 1909: “John Stroy and family and Miss Anna Stroy returned Tuesday from a three weeks outing in Colorado.” Note: it is unclear if the John Stroy mentioned is Anna’s father or, more likely, her older brother, who was married and the father of three children in 1909.

News item from the December 3, 1909 Ashland Gazette describing the removal of 700 apple trees from Anna Stroy’s farm, so they must have been running an orchard, but were now returning the land to farming use. Was this Anna’s father’s old land?

1910:

Anna and her father are living together in Elmwood, Nebraska in a house on Kansas Street. She is 33. Her father is 75. She is not employed.

1918:

Anna’s father Johann died on March 27, 1918.

1920:

The 1920 census finds Anna living at the Norfolk Hospital for the Insane in Norfolk, Nebraska. She is 41 years old.

1924:

The Elmwood Leader-Echo published an article on May 23, 1924 detailing a lawsuit brought by Anna’s brother John as her guardian. She owned farmland, and the school district had condemned five acres to use as a school site, but paid less for the land than Anna’s brother thought was fair. She is described as “incompetent.” The jurors awarded an additional $460 in compensation.

1930:

The census finds her still an inmate in the Norfolk Hospital.

1934:

Legal notice in the Plattsmouth Journal of Plattsmouth, Nebraska providing public notice that John Stroy has filed for paperwork requesting approval of his guardianship expenses and report for Anna, an incompetent.

1939:

Anna is listed as a surviving relative in her sister Emma’s obituary. Ashland Gazette October 18, 1939.

1940:

The census finds Anna still a resident at the Norfolk Hospital for the Insane. She is 62.

1961:

Anna Stroy died on July 11, 1961 at age 84. Her obituary stated that “She lived in the Murdock community until 1917 when she became a paitient at the state hospital in Norfolk. She remained there until about five years ago when she was transferred to a nursing home in Plattsmouth.” Obituary published in the Ashland Gazette on July 20, 1961.

1962:

Springfield Monitor, Papillion Nebraska published a Notice of Sale for Anna’s farm on January 11, 1962.

 

So what did I learn from this timeline? First, Anna had been independent early in her life. She was able to hold a job and live on her own. However, at some point she moved back home, and lived with her parents until she was committed to the Norfolk Hospital. Did her mental illness manifest in her early twenties when she moved back home? Schizophrenia can manifest in early adulthood. She could have been bipolar or severely depressed. Did her condition worsen as the years went by? Whatever mental illness she suffered, it apparently wasn’t apparent from birth.  

Anna’s mother died in 1905. Anna continued to live with her father and travel with family for the next decade. However, we see that her father was preparing for her support once he was no longer alive to care for her: he placed 160 acres of farmland in her name by 1909.

As her father’s health failed, the family must have decided that Anna needed more care than they could provide, for according to her obituary, she was committed in 1917, a year before her father’s death. The timeline shows that her siblings took responsibility for her—her sister traveled with her one year, and her brother another year. Her brother became her guardian after her father’s death, and managed her affairs until his death in 1954.

Dining hall at the Norfolk State Hospital around 1915

The Norfolk State Hospital for the Insane appears to have been a decent institution. The photographs I was able to find show attractive buildings and a clean interior with plenty of staff to care for the patients. I hope the hospital was able to provide good care for Anna, as she spent half of her life there, from age 39 to approximately 79, when she was transferred to a nursing home.

The use of a timeline helped me track Anna Stroy’s life more effectively. While I may never know the details, I can at least see the framework and milestones of her life,