In a message dated 10/3/00 5:02:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << Hi everyone, about this question: Would anyone out there know where or anything about the Illinois Central Hospital for the insane? It would have been in the year of 1887 that this person was sentenced to go there. I would like to find out more information about this hospital, etc. Thanks, Leslie >> iltrails.org has the following, published 1900 about insane asylums in Illinois. Asylums for the Insane << No class of unfortunates appeals to us more strongly than the insane. Miss Dorothea Dix early applied herself to the bettering of their pitiable condition. When the State legislature met, she addressed to them an eloquent and convincing argument favoring the establishment of an asylum for the care of the insane. Accordingly, such a hospital was located on a beautiful stretch of prairie-land a mile south of Jacksonville. From 1851, the year in which the first patient was received, the institution has grown and prospered. In 1869, the legislature provided for the erection of two other hospitals: One known as the Northern Home for the Insane, located on the banks of the Fox River, near Elgin [Kane County] the other established at Anna. Although these hospitals are very large, in a few years, the State was compelled to build another, which was located near Kankakee. Illinois now has nine hospitals (or asylums), for the insane. They are located in Elgin, Kankakee, Jacksonville, Anna, Watertown, Peoria (South Bartonville), Chicago (Dunning), Chester (for insane criminals). One of the nine hospitals provided for by law is not yet fully established. >> There is also an 1880 census of the hospital in Elgin, which appears to have people from all over the state. I hope that helps. The website has a search engine.