Milwaukee's dark history not forgotten...

It was a chilly day in November a few years ago and the ground was covered in a fresh blanket of light snow here in Milwaukee. A friend of mine and I were on another one of my “Ghost Hunting Adventures” and this time the destination was and abandoned Insane Asylum known as the first medical institute in Milwaukee called, Almshouse and a forgotten pauper cemetery known as “Potters Field.”

In 1878, the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum was built, consisting of a facility for the chronically ill called South Division and a North Division which cared for patients with acute illnesses. Many patients, children to adults, would die while staying at the Asylum due to its disgusting lack of care for the facility and the lack of attention bestowed on the patients:

“Utter absence of proper ventilation, overcrowding to an extent which would horrify any sanitarian, no facilities for bathing, deficiency in water closets, no provision for cleansing persons and clothing inmates and tramps, and to crown all a ‘foreign population’ in addition to the native, far outnumbering it and hanging on with a persistency which defies all attempts to reduce its numbers or exterminate it altogether - a veritable colony and hotbed of vermin in addition to the above is the present Almshouse.” -County Board in 1888

The Register of Burial at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm documented burials beginning in 1882, with the last entry listed in 1974. A review of the record lists approximately 8,2000 burials total. Most were from the Almshouse, County Hospital, or transported from area hospitals and the downtown morgue. Four hundred and thirty-one persons were entered as “unknown”, with a surprising number of infants and children documented. The individual age was not recorded until 1898, and cause of death was registered only beginning in 1908.

Causes of death are a reflection of 19th Century medical nomenclature including marasmus (infant lack of calories), apoplexy (stroke, inanition (adult malnutrition), typhoid, tuberculosis, morphinism (addiction to morphine), and delirium tremens (severe alcohol withdrawal). Other causes were the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918, and periodic outbreaks of smallpox and cholera. The economic depressions of the 1890’s and the 1930’s were evident in the high number of suicides, homicides, and deaths due to alcoholism. Drowning deaths and railroad accidents were the most frequent trauma related deaths reported.

During the excavation in 1980 diggers found most of the pine coffins were decayed, preventing a complete preservation of the bodies. The poor were buried naked without any personal items enclosed. Many coffins contained two bodies, and a surprising number of skeletons have been found with severed legs or missing lower limbs. The explanation for this fact could lie in the decision to purchase coffins less than four feet long, necessitating amputation at time of burial. Autopsies were performed on many. Only a handful of metallic tags, inscribed with numbers, indicate identity.

It has been reported, that the Superintendent of the Poor was often delinquent in the care of the cemeteries. A Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper story in 1878 was titled, "A Disgraceful Potter's Field". The article went on to complain of coffins popping out of the ground and insufficient dirt covering the coffins.

Mark Kass, manager of communications for the sewerage district: "We've had reports that there have been a number of bones that have come up through the ground."

The building still stands abandoned, and most of its dark history and those who died there forgotten. Potters Field is a short walk from the Asylum and fenced in. There was a small stone in the center of the cemetery I could see and i went to check it out. Walking through the cemetery I could feel under my feet many dips and holes in the uneven ground and decided to turn back. We did not make it inside the Asylum, but walked around the outside of the building. I can honestly say that though nothing really happened I did feel a very strong sense of uneasiness. There was an unmistakable heaviness in the air. I have gone back a few times and each time I have felt that way.

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Photos I took of the Insane Asylum from November 2008:





A recent photo I took of the Asylum in August:

Photo's I took of Potters Field in November 2008:




*For more information on this story please visit the links on the sidebar under "Local Haunts."

~Crystal