Great project! Most of us have had our lives touched by mental illness and understand the need for respect and dignity for all persons, alive and deceased. I do not have relatives from that hospital but have sympathy for those who do. I am going to make a contribution to the Cincinnati Mental Health Association to help this restoration. Thanks for the information. Lynda L. Hamilton Speidel ----- Original Message ----- From: <Clark452@aol.com> To: <OHCLERMO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 3:37 PM Subject: Re: Longview Hospital > Longview Hospital, City of Roselawn, (a northern Cincinnati suburb) in > Hamilton County, Ohio. This article is from the Cincinnati Post; published > 11-06-98; written by Laurie Petrie, Post staff reporter. If you would rather > read the article onlinet, below is the URL and link to the Post newspaper > article: > <A HREF="http://www.cincypost.com/news/1998/cem110698.html"> > Click here: cem110698</A> > www.cincypost.com/news/1998/cem110698.html > > A new diginity for old cemetery, forgotten lives? > By Laurie Petrie, Post staff reporter > > Tucked between an apartment complex and an industrial park in Roselawn, a > neglected cemetery - a remnant of the old Longview State Mental Hospital - > lies hidden by brush and weeds. > > Few people - other than neighborhood vandals - know how to get in because the > main entry is all but grown over. There is little to see now, except for a > cement obelisk with a granite marker at its base. A poem carved in the marker > says God has not forgotten those buried there. > > Nearly everyone else has, though. Though no one necessarily intended for the > cemetery to be neglected, its near-abandonment has seemed a further insult to > mental patients who were shut away in life and forgotten in death. > > Recently, the cemetery has been rediscovered and an effort is underway to > resore it. On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, several officials and consumers of > mental health services will rededicate the cemetery. Speakers will include > John Gilligan, who visited all the mental hospitals in Ohio when he was > governor in the 1970s. Arrangements also are being made for a Disabled > American Veterans color guard. > > The project to restore the old Longview cemetery started earlier this year > when Mike Fontana, president of the Mental Health Association of the > Cincinnati Area, heard about cemetery restoration projects on the grounds of > mental hospitals in Georgia and Massachusetts. > > The projects have been initiated and led by former and current mental health > patients who today call themselves ''consumers'' and ''survivors.'' > > ''In another era, I and the many consumers I work with . . . may have wound > up in such a grave,'' said Fontana, who was a patient in the former Central > Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in Columbus in the early 1980s. > > Fontana researched the history of the old Longview cemetery, tried to find > the names of those buried there and organized the dedication ceremony. He's > been working with officials of the Pauline Warfield Lewis Center, the state > mental hospital that took over when Longview closed after 1981. > > ''This isn't a project just about the dead. It's about the present, about > ex-patients reclaiming our dignity,'' said Pat Deegan, a founder of the > National Empowerment Center, an advocacy group, and leader of the > Massachusetts restoration ef forts at several state mental hospitals. > > For Cincinnatian Jim Birch, the old Longview cemetery is even more than a > cause and a symbol - it's part of his family history. Birch discovered that > his great-grandmother died as a Longview patient on May 18, 1922, and, > according to her death certificate, was buried in the hospital cemetery. > > A German immigrant to Cincinnati, Eva Rinner led a tragic life. She was > admitted to Longview in 1911 and died of inflammation of the kidneys. A > record from the Children's Home of Cincinnati, where one of her sons was > placed, said Eva Rinner ''was made insane by fright. Two Hungarian women > started to beat her.'' > > This week, Birch visited the old cemetery for the first time. It was more > overgrown and secluded than he had expected. > > ''I think a person who is buried at Longview Cemetery would deserve the same > respect as a person buried at Spring Grove,'' he said. > > Birch does not know which grave is his great-grandmother's. He may never > know. All but a few of the markers have sunk into the ground and are not > visible. > > But even if the markers are found, they are nothing more than small square > cement blocks bearing numbers. There are no names or dates. Ohio's mental > hospitals kept lists of grave numbers with names, but in the case of > Longview, the record is missing. > > The map shows 1,160 grave plots, but it is unclear how many people are buried > there. The final grave marker is number 870. The last burial was Aug. 4, > 1967. Those buried in state mental hospital cemeteries were indigent or had > no one to claim their bodies. > > Most of Ohio's state mental hospitals did not have cemeteries. Of the five > that did, all have been closed, but only Longview is in poor condition. The > neglect began after Longview closed and most of the land was sold to the > Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, Inc. for development as an > industrial park. The cemetery, which is still owned by the state of Ohio, > became landlocked and all-but-forgotten. > > Over the years, however, the Rev. Ray Menchhofer, chaplain at the Lewis > Center, kept his eye on the place and struggled to protect it from vandals. > > ''If this is something people can feel good about, getting involved restoring > something, I wholeheartedly support it,'' Menchhofer said. > > The Ohio Department of Mental Health favors the restoration project and will > give some money, said spokesman Sam Hibbs. The Mental Health Association of > the Cincinnati Area plans to accept donations to help restore the cemetery. > > > Publication date: 11-06-98 >