This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Howland Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gFC.2ACI/1248.1 Message Board Post: Not all persons going to these "institutions" were mentally deranged. My great grandfather, Hiram Howland, much to our surprise, died in the WI State Hospital at Mendota. From all that I can gather Hiram was ill for several years. A paper from the Dunn County Courthouse states "duration of illness: long standing". Hiram was a number of years older than his wife, Mary Alice Chase Howland, and there were 5 children at home. We believe the farm, in Chippewa County, WI, had to be sold (he was a Civil War veteran and had come to WI for the land promised to veterans) and the family had to move into Menomonie (Dunn Co.), WI. From Hiram's obit it says his health had been failing for 2-3 years "and it was found necessary to take him to the Mendota asylum". We think they just had awful money problems. One daughter, in the 1950's, applied for a visa to travel to Europe. Since she had no legal birth certificate one of the pieces of evidence used for her visa was an "aid to depe! ndent children" form from 1898 the year her father died. My family is out of Dunn and Chippewa Counties which are on the western part of WI near MN. I guess grab a map and check out all the county genweb sites and then hone in using a search engine for poorhouses and asylums. I'll bet every county had one or more and they eventually became "old folks home" for county residents. Good luck.