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From: "Regina Pipes" <>
Subject: [LCT] DIGNITY IN DEATH
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 12:34:17 -0600
In-Reply-To: <20030303041706.87421.qmail@web80204.mail.yahoo.com>


Since there is a place on this site where you can send this article to
someone I am guessing they are giving permission to send it on to someone so
I am posting it here since someone had mentioned it earlier.
Regina

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Dignity restored in death

Overgrown cemeteries at Bryce get help

03/24/03

PATRICIA DEDRICK
News staff writer


TUSCALOOSA Hidden deep beneath throngs of bramble bush, briars and weeds are
the unmarked graves of sons, daughters, mothers and friends who were once
locked away at the Alabama Insane Hospital.

The hospital, which was later renamed Bryce Hospital, was a self-sustaining
farm that doubled as a home to thousands of patients after opening in 1861.
Many of its patients were simply dropped off by family or the local sheriff
and never left the hospital grounds again - not even in death.






Volunteers have been working for a year to clear away the brush, locate the
graves and identify those who became invisible in death, just as they were
in life. Truckloads of debris have been hauled away.

"We want to make it not only a historical project but one that gives back
dignity and humanity to people who were not given that in life," said Ann
Marshall, coordinator of the Bryce Cemetery Restoration Project.

Bryce has three cemeteries. One is still in use.

Small, iron crosses with the letters AIH, for Alabama Insane Hospital, and
numbers etched on them once identified the graves. Most crosses are now
gone, stolen for their beauty and uniqueness, Marshall said.

Some concrete markers remain, mostly on the portion of the cemetery reserved
for black patients.

Once the brush has been removed, radar will be used to penetrate the ground
and map the location and number of graves. The hospital's aging records are
being used to try to match the number on the grave with patient numbers.

It's been a slow process, said Stephen Jones, a cultural archaeologist with
the University of Alabama.

"The area for blacks is more intact," said Jones. "Hopefully it will open a
lot of doors for us."

In addition to numbers, the letters "col," thought to mean "colored," were
placed on markers where blacks are believed to be buried, he said.

The construction of River Road, harsh weather and vandals caused many graves
to become unsettled and damaged. Some graves date back 100 years.

Volunteers are working first in the largest cemetery, just off Jack Warner
Parkway near the McFarland Boulevard overpass. It sits on a sloping hill,
overlooking a murky Warrior River. Graves are likely up and down the hills
leading to the river, Jones said.

Ruby Nell Nicholson of Scottsboro applauds the volunteers' efforts. Her
great-grandmother, Julia Francis Weatherly, is buried in the cemetery. But
she doesn't know where.

Weatherly was admitted by her brother in 1885 and died at Bryce 10 years
later at age 47, according to hospital records. She was taken there because
she saw witches, records show.

Nicholson said she, two sisters and their children attempted to visit their
greatgrandmother's grave in the summer of 1988, but it was so overgrown, it
was impossible to get to.

"It was very discouraging," she said. "There were so many briars and things.
Snakes, too, I suppose. There was no place to walk."

After her admittance, Weatherly's family kept information about her
whereabouts, but many families did not.

It only required two signatures to have a person admitted, Jones said, and
the reasons most often given for admittance were "political excitability and
religious fervor."

The state could not afford to send patients' bodies back home, but the
hospital often sent a notice announcing the death to the county probate
judge.

Society placed such a stigma on mental disorders during the 19th century and
portions of the 20th that many families didn't want others to know they had
a "crazy person" in the family, said Gene Ford, architectural historian at
UA.

"The hospital didn't have the funds from the state to properly maintain the
cemetery and the interred didn't have many people visiting them or caring
about their gravesites," he said.

That lack of attention led to the area slowly falling into disrepair. Ford
wrote the grant that awarded $10,000 to the restoration group from the
Alabama Historical Commission. That grant was matched last year with $10,000
in cash and inkind services. The University of Alabama and Bryce Hospital
are major contributors.

A grant for cemetery restoration is unique, said Ford. But so is this
project, volunteers said.

"We've gotten calls from people all over who are interested in the project,"
said David Gay, Bryce director. "It's amazing how much interest it has
generated."

For more information or to make donations, call 205-752-2689.





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