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Miniature of Letter Regarding the Death of U.S. Representative Jonathan Cilley
Letter Regarding the Death of U.S. Representative Jonathan Cilley
An undated letter discussing the death of United States Representative Jonathan Cilley from Thomaston. The author is unknown, but they may have been J.A. Chandler, the clerk of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Before his election to Congress, Cilley served as the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. He was the son-in-law of Hezekiah Prince, a merchant from Thomaston. Jonathan Cilley, an abolitionist, was challenged to a duel by James Watson Webb, a newspaper editor from New York, after Cilley accused him of corruption. William Graves, a legislator from Kentucky, served as Webb's stand-in and killed Cilley on February 24, 1838.
Miniature of Pineland Center
Pineland Center
The Pineland Center opened in the early 1900s as the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded. It was renamed several times through the years as the Maine Home for the Feeble-Minded, Pownal State School, Pineland Hospital and Training Center, and finally Pineland Center. Although the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the 1970s alleging abuse of patients, the Pineland Center did not close until 1996. These records reflect the treatment practices and terminology of the time. Some of the language and treatments are not considered acceptable today and may be uncomfortable for some readers. Recognizing that historical medical terms do not always completely or directly map to contemporary terms, that historical terms can be offensive or inaccurately characterize a condition, and that the presence of both historical and contemporary terms may be useful for researcher discovery, MSA employs contemporary terms as they appear in the context of the collection in the description where possible.
Miniature of Pauper Accounts
Pauper Accounts
These records were returned to the Secretary of State from town selectmen and other municipal officers documenting the care and costs associated with providing for indigent town residents.
Miniature of Commissioner's Records (DHHS)
Commissioner's Records (DHHS)
Correspondence and other records from the Commissioner of Human Services.
Miniature of State Census 1837
State Census 1837
The Special Maine State Census, which enumerated the inhabitants on March 1, 1837, was conducted in accordance with an Act passed by the Maine Legislature on March 8, 1837. The law mandated that all inhabitants be counted, with the exceptions of non-naturalized foreigners who had not resided in any city, town, or plantation in the state for four years prior to the census, as well as unassessed indigenous communities.
Miniature of Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI)
Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI)
The Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI) was founded in 1840 as the Maine Insane Hospital. Mental health advocate Dorothea Dix consulted on the project, and believed fresh air and removal from the stresses of society were important for patient care. Tragically, 27 patients died when the hospital caught fire on December 4, 1850. The hospital’s campus expanded over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and it was known under a variety of names: the Augusta Insane Asylum, Augusta State Hospital (1913), and finally the Augusta Mental Health Institute (1973). AMHI’s aging infrastructure was closed as a medical facility in 2004, replaced by Riverview Psychiatric Center on the same campus. The AMHI campus has undergone several renovation campaigns and now houses multiple state agencies.