In a message dated 10/16/2006 2:20:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, updates@nebraskaruralweb.com writes: > Turns out dear old Grandpa was in the Western > Asylum for the Insane in Christian County, KY. > > [snip] > > I'm still trying to figure out why he was there and who his parents were. > > Pat > I can't help you with the parents, but here's a suggestion for the "why he was there." My gg grandfather, Silas Beeson, was in his last few years in Eastern Indiana Insane Hospital in Wayne County, where he died in 1905. My supposition is that he had developed what we call today dementia, as there is no record otherwise of a history of mental instability. Even today, some Alzheimer's patients are kept in locked wards to prevent them from wandering. In 1905 or 1910 these patients could well have been placed in an asylum if they could not be kept at home. Tom Miller (Thomas Cook Miller)