Frances Louisa “Fanny” COMPTON (1857-1925) - #33 (52 Ancestors)

Theme: "Defective, Dependent, & Delinquent"     |     Images: Click to enlarge

Today we might use words such as “special needs”, "intellectual disabilities", “mentally ill” or “criminal” to describe people who face challenges of various sorts, and who get singled out for special attention by the authorities.  In the past, other more offensive and politically incorrect terms were used, and treatment focused more on containment and segregation rather than on rehabilitation and medical help.  In the 1880 US census there was even a special schedule to identify “defective, dependent and delinquent” individuals including the blind, deaf, paupers, homeless children, prisoners, insane, and idiotic.  I have not yet found relatives listed there. 

The Canadian census in 1881,1891 and 1901 used the words “deaf and dumb”, “blind” and “unsound mind” relating to “infirmities" worthy of identification.  By 1911 they had replaced “unsound mind” with “crazy or lunatic” and “idiotic or silly”. I would suggest that was a step backwards!  Connotations may have changed over the years, but I think these words are derogatory and hurtful.  Perhaps this sentiment is one reason why people were not always declared as such in the census, even if they "qualified".  Many families also tried to keep such conditions secret, perhaps to avoid ridicule, shame or sensor.

So now I’d like to tell you a sad story about my Great-Great-Aunt Frances Louisa “Fanny” COMPTON who spent the last seven years of her life in an insane asylum. 

A clipping from the death registration for Fanny MCMILLAN - BC Archives document.

Fanny was born on 16 Oct 1857 in St Eleanors, Prince Edward Island in Canada, the sixth child of Albert “Harry” COMPTON and Mary Robinson COATES.  She was baptized as a toddler on 6 Feb 1859 in Richmond Parish PEI, and grew up on their family farm in Lot 17, North St Eleanors, along with ten siblings.  As her older and then younger siblings grew up, left home and married (except one brother who drowned at age 15), Fanny remained at home.  In 1881 five other siblings were still at home.  Fanny’s father died in 1889, and by 1891 Mary’s household contained Fanny and four other children. By 1901 Fanny was listed as age 40, living with her brother Henry’s family and her widowed mother Mary.  

It must have been shortly after the 1901 census that Mary moved to Winnipeg Manitoba to be with or near her youngest son Horace Melville COMPTON (known as Mel).  Mel is said to have moved there when in his early 20s; he turned 20 in 1892, and certainly moved there with his brother Leslie before 1901.  And when Mary moved to Winnipeg she brought along her daughter Fanny.  In 1904 her brother Mel married Flora Larkin.  Sadly Mary died in Winnipeg the following year at the age of 77; her daughter Fanny was then almost 48 and still single. The informant on Mary's death registration was a company (perhaps her lawyer or funeral home) - why not one of her 2 nearby children?  After Mary's will was probated in early 1907, her estate was equally divided between Horace Melville and Fanny Louisa.  But in the meantime, according to the 1906 Canadian “Prairie” census, Fanny was living with Mel and Flora along with several boarders in Winnipeg.

Provincial Lunatic Asylum in New Westminster BC opened in 1878
http://www.nwheritage.org/heritagesite/history/content/timeline/1875-1899.htm

The family has hinted that Fanny “needed taking care of”, implying that she had challenges, although I don’t know how severe any limitations might have been.  Certainly there was no mention of infirmities in any of the census records through the years. The loss of her mother would have been difficult for her in any case, but if she did require special care then it could no longer have been provided in the same way.  What we do know is that, on 2 Oct 1906, before her mother’s estate had even been finalized, “Fannie” COMPTON married a James MACMILLAN in Winnipeg.  By 1911, James and Fannie had moved west to Penticton in the Okanagan fruit-growing region of British Columbia where James was operating his own orchard.  No infirmities were listed.  Fanny was no longer close to any relatives that I know of.

Then once again everything changed.  In the 1921 census I found “Fanny Mac Millan” listed as a 63-year-old inmate in the BC Mental Hospital in New Westminster BC. The municipality of Penticton is also mentioned in the census (implying this is where she was admitted from).  So this entry seems to be for the right person.  Fanny’s death record confirms that “Fanny Mcmillan” died from pneumonia at age 67 on 23 Jan 1925 in the Public Hospital for the Insane, B Street, New Westminster, having been there for the last 7 years, formerly of Penticton.   James is nowhere to be found until his death in Penticton in 1931.

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I have been told by a family researcher that Fanny was "admitted to Riverview Hospital on Dec. 10, 1917 from Penticton BC” but I cannot find proof of this exact date or location for her care.  We know she was in New Westminster in 1921 and 1925 at the BC Mental Hospital (aka Asylum) where she died.  There was a second provincial Mental Hospital (aka Essondale, also called Riverview) that opened in 1913, but it was a separate hospital in Coquitlam.  The New Westminster facility served exclusively as an institution for women between 1913 and 1930. But by 1924 Riverview had become the administrative centre for the province’s mental health services, so perhaps Fanny's records ended up there, even though she was an inmate in New Westminster.

Why did she need hospitalization?  I am assuming that more detailed records would be of a confidential nature, even if I could find them.  Did she always have mental problems that worsened? Or was this a new heath issue for her?  Or was it more a matter of containment of someone who was intellectually challenged?  Without further details I can only hope that she was well and properly cared for.  Yet she was certainly denied her freedom for the last seven years of her life.  How sad is that.

SOURCES and FURTHER READING

History of Madness in Canada - BC
Woodlands School, New Westminster, previously Provincial Lunatic Asylum - wikipedia
Woodlands - Inclusion BC site
Riverview Hospital (Essondale), Coquitlam - wikipedia

I have posted additional  information on my COMPTON families elsewhere on this website.

"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.  
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.  
It is giving me  the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.