This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2AC.2ACI/1621.1 Message Board Post: Hi Walt, The Vermont Asylum was built for the insane, The money came from a donation from a women by the name of Anna Marsh who died October 14,1834. The first patient to be admitted was on December 12,1836 and it took only nine months to fill the asylum up with 48 patients, with a new addition built in 1841 it would now accommodate 150 patients, in 1886 after fifty years of operation there were as many as 450 patients at a time. As of 1998 the Vermont Asylum is still a vital part of the mental health system. The name officially changed to The Brattleboro Retreat in 1893 as that was a more suitable and dignified name rather than using asylum. there is a book out on the story of Anna Marsh and her intent and the development of the facility, it is called Brattleboro Retreat 1834 - 1984. 150 yearts of caring, it was written by Esther Munroe Swift and Mona Beach. I myself have got a book called A Record of Burials at The Vermont Asylum from 1837 - 1900, the old cemetery still e! xists with only a handful of people still buried there, the rest of them was moved to the cemetery on South Main Street Brattleboro,Vt. I hope that this gives you a little info as to what you wanted to know. Howard Minch Keene,NH email cadillac@cheshire.net

You might also want to check out the following website: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/vt/county/windham/asylumwebpage.htm ************************************************* Rachel Duffalo <rduffalo@adelphia.net> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Westminster, Windham Co., Vermont Website: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/vt/town/westminster/Westminster.html Windham County Vermont Website http://www.usgennet.org/usa/vt/county/windham/index.html