Benjamin T. (#721, 1925)

Benjamin T. (1863-1925)

Benjamin was born into a farming family in Madison County, Indiana. He lived and worked on his family’s farm until he was in his 30s. According to his brothers, by the 1890s Benjamin had attempted suicide and believed his family was against him. He was sullen, belligerent, and incoherent.

Benjamin was admitted to Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane (later Central State Hospital) in 1898. He was diagnosed with acute mania and later manic depression and chronic dementia. In 1899 Benjamin was transferred to Eastern Hospital for the Insane in Richmond, Indiana, but in 1911 he was transferred back to Central State. As a patient, he was said to be highly excitable.

In 1925, Benjamin was found dead in his bed from heart failure. He had spent 27 years in State mental hospitals, 15 of those years at Central State Hospital. Two specimens of Benjamin’s brain tissue are preserved here, showing a large hemorrhage into the cerebellum.



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