Re: NORCAL Digest, Vol 5, Issue 212 Even a century ago medical science understood that there was a difference between the "developmentally disabled" and the "insane" and that the two needed to be separated and treated differently. In consequence, in 1891 the State built the "Home for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Children" at Eldridge (near Glen Ellen) in Sonoma County. All developmentally disabled persons were transferred there from other state institutions, including Agnews. [There may also have been a similar institution located in the State of Southern California but that is beyond my purview.] The 'Home' later was renamed the "Sonoma State Hospital" and now is the "Sonoma Developmental Center." SDC is still a major California center for care of the developmentally disabled. Many are permanently institutionalized "custodial cases" while others are mainstreamed, in whole or in part. Not all "clients" of SDC are indigent; some receive financial support from their families. The famous Sonoma County author Jack London wrote a short story obviously based upon SDC (his Beauty Ranch was literally next door) called Told In The Drooling Ward (first published in The Bookman, Vol. 39, June, 1914). It is at once both funny and sad. SDC has grown over the years and today has a huge and quite attractive campus. It also has its own cemetery, in which hundreds of patients were buried. In the 1960s all of the tombstones were removed by the State in a fit of political correctness. They were afraid that someone would see from a tombstone that someone's family member had been a patient there. SDC still has a map of the cemetery, it is said, and those who can prove a family relationship are allowed to visit the grave, it is said. Previous to the establishment of SDC, the developmentally disabled were kept at home, locked up with the insane, or sent to local establishments. One such girl, Nora Spurr (1855-1928) was sent to the Sonoma County Hospital in 1878 by her father, a successful Healdsburg lawyer. Nora spent her entire adult life at the county hospital, died there, and was buried by the county in their pauper's cemetery. Nora holds the sad distinction of being the person who spent the most time, 50 years, at the Sonoma County Hospital. Jeremy Nichols Santa Rosa [1]norcal-request@rootsweb.com wrote: Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 05:47:06 -0700 (PDT) From: "Nancy W." [2]<wright4766@bellsouth.net> Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Agnews History Museum My sister was a special education teacher in San Jose. She taught the older tee ns. In the 1980s she had a student that lived at Agnew. I am not sure I underst and what Agnew was. This girl was not insane, she was simple. At that time did Agnew house some of the indigent who were not mentally capable of caring for th emselves? Nancy in Louisiana References 1. mailto:norcal-request@rootsweb.com 2. mailto:wright4766@bellsouth.net