Norman v. Kelly
Te story of Bartonville
State Hospital
The Bartonville Hospital really started in 1885 it was a big
ugly Castle Like Building and they built it on top of an old coal mine….They
never really utilized it and in 1897 they tore it down.
In 1902 they built the first big building there that
would house nurses and have Dr. George Zeller’s office in it and
administration…He was a genius innovator and he had constructed 33 different
building so-called Cottage System I mean this was a city within itself…No Bars
on the windows really anew system Of
course he scared the hell out of the local folks having all those mentally ill
patients there and no apparent security.
That is not true…I went there at least a dozen times in the 60’s because
my boss who was an attorney was an assistant to the Attorney General and there
were places that were really secure….In the 50’s they had as many as 2,800
patients.
2 members of my family were there for alcohol
treatment and we visited quite a bit but only in the summer. They had like an open house and we all got to
walk around look at all the arts and crafts and it was well attended.
I never really wrote anything historical about the
Hospital it has been done and done and done over and over and there are a lot
of stories and books available. Also you
had to write about the ghosts and all though I wrote 3 Ghost stories I never
really believed one word of what I wrote…
The Ghost began out there because of Dr. George Zeller
himself. He was a highly respected
doctor and he told this story over and
over and as I mentioned it most certainly is not my story. Of course every story ever told repeated this
story and perhaps your listeners have all heard of it…but I would be willing to
tell it if you think it would be entertaining or interesting
OLD BOOK
Now remember patients were dumped out there at
Bartonville and I mean dumped. When I
worked at Saint Francis that word was used in connection with our emergency
room because people would drive up to the old rear emergency entrance and
literally ‘dump’ a patient out of the
car and drive off….It had to do with
our WET room which I once talked about but don’t choose to talk about it
any more…
The point is that many of these patients out at
Bartonville did not have a name…they were given numbers and many of them
died. In fact the hospital ended up having
4 hospitals on the property and the early burials did not have a name just a NUMBER…they were located behind the
main building and there were hundreds upon hundreds buried there.
For those that died that had relatives the hospital
actually shipped the body back to the relative by sending them to a funeral
home near the dead person’s home.
So…it is from these cemetery’s came the original ghost
story Told by Dr. Zeller….He formed a Burial Corp…inmates some staff and they buried all of the dead that
did not have relatives…as I said many of them did not have names so they were numbered…the
later cemeteries used names and had a tracking system if they had any available
information..
There was one volunteer who most certainly had a
mental illness he never communicated
with anyone but he was well like
responded to people and was the number ONE volunteer…He was known as OLD
BOOK he dug the holes with a few other men and
usually a few staff members would come to the burying ground and mutter a few
words…of course they never knew the person
and sometimes they even had volunteer singers that would sing a song
before the person was buried….The grave
opened was then ready for the
wooden coffin Pine Box 3-4 heavy logs were place over the open
grave and the casket was put on them and four men held ropes to lower the
casket into the grave…after the people left the four men covered up the
casket this was the routine for
years and
DURING MOST OF THOSE YEARS OLD BOOK
WOULD TAKE OFF HIS HAT LOWER his head and cry routinely he would walk over to the Old Tree
in the cemetery and lean against it an sob and moan during the brief
services…he did this repeatedly the
tree became the GREAVE YARD ELM AND THE MAN WAS LISTED ONLY AS A Book Binder
became known as OLD BOOK….Known by everyone at the hospital
OLD BOOK
DIED 1910 A crowd of maybe a hundred people gathered
at his open grave…Nurses staff some
doctors and Dr. Zeller and spectators Four volunteers dug the grave and with
ropes in hand casket on the logs they
waited for the services…The services began
they even sang an old Hymn….
The logs were about to be removed and the four men held the casket up for a brief second before
lowering it….As they did so it POPPED up into the air as if it were according to Dr. Zeller
AN EMPTY
EGGSHELL The men expecting some serious
weight topped over backwards stunned and
terrified as the casket came back down upon the logs…
Some of the staff and nurses ran away others stood mouths opened in shock.\
Over at the Elm Tree
Old Book stood moaning and sobbing
WEEPING and WAILING
Dr. Zeller ordered the casket opened immediately and
there lay Old Book Dead in his coffin…Immediately the crying and wailing
stopped as the lid was put back on and the casket lowered into the grave. A lot of people stood by and watched as the 4
men shoveled in the dirt….Usually everyone was gone before the first shovel was
thrown onto the coffin.
Dr. Zeller swears by what he saw:
“It was Awful…Zeller said….But it was real….
I saw it a
hundred nurses saw it and 300 spectators saw it.”
Old Book is still there presumably in his Unmarked
Grave…. All of us in the know…when asked where Old Book is buried…Point to the
Old Grave Yard Elm…..\\
The institution closed in 1972 and by then all of the
truly dangerous mental cases were shipped to
Galesburg and other State Mental hospitals
Interested in what Old Book’s Name was some people claim they know:
He was born
in 1878 and died in 1910
His
grave Number is 713 and his name was
MANUAL BOOKBINDER
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