The normal routine when someone at Milledgeville died, who was to be buried in a hospital cemetery, is they were given a burial number. Then a small metal stake with the number on it was placed in the location of the grave. When you look at the pictures of some of the burial locations, it appears that the metal stakes are less than one foot apart. There are fields and fields of markers. Here is a small picture of some of them.
An organization named Friends of Baldwin County Cemeteries has a web site on which many Baldwin County Cemeteries burials are listed. They show 5 cemeteries related to Central State Hospital. After looking at the listings of each one I found that one of them lists a grave marked number 43. That cemetery is Cedar Lane Cemetery. This grave 43 may not be Marjamin's, but its the only 43 I saw. Most of the listings reflected the presence of many graves with no markers of any kind.
There are estimates regarding how many former patients are buried at Milledgeville. One estimate I read reported 30,000. Another one in the Psychiatric News Vol. 42, #21, pg.3, by Aaron Levin said perhaps 25,000. It seems somewhat immoral that so many people would be buried and identified only as a number.
In his book, But For the Grace of God: The Inside Story of the Worlds Largest Insane Asylum, Peter G. Cranford said there were deaths resulting from maniacal exhaustion, the poor condition of the patient when they came in, disease, dysnetry and typhoid of 1854.
Milledgeville Insane Asylum opened in 1842. The Georgia state legislature approved the construction for in in 1837. Initially, there was one building that was four stories tall. Two floors were for men and two floors were for women. In 1859, there were approximately 300 patients there. The facility grew over the next 120 years to become the largest state asylum in the country. In 1960, there were approximately 12,000 patients living there. In 1859, Dr. Thomas Green, the Supertindent at Milledgeville in his Report By the Trustees of the State Lunatic Asylum at Milldgeville for the Year 1859, reported there were 308 patients and that it costs the Asylum 11 1/2 cents per day to care for them.
At the time of its opening, the treatment for mental illness was basically confinement. There were few treatments. Many of the first patients would arrived in shakels or tied up. They may have been in jails or family members may have chained them in order to control them. Upon their arrival, the chains and shakels would be removed and the patients allowed to walk freely. The groups of patients initially admitted were lunatics, idiots and epileptics. The epileptics were persons who had seizures while the idiots were persons born with disability such as retardation. The lunatics were the ones who did not fit the social norms because they could not control their behavior. I also have read that later the facility became a home for people with communicable diseases like tuberculosis. I wonder in which group Marjamin was placed. I will soon find out because I expect to hear from the Central State Hospital regarding Marjamin's medical information.
