Here are 380 death certificates and mortuary records from Portland’s Morningside Hospital, Portland’s psychiatric hospital after the closure of James Hawthorne’s Asylum for the Insane.

From the terrific web site MorningsideHospital.com. We’ve just created the initial Wikipedia entry for this essential chapter in the history of mental illness in Oregon @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morningside_Hospital

“Prior to statehood, there were no services available in the Territory of Alaska for individuals who experienced mental illness or developmental disabilities. At the time, mental illness was considered a crime. Alaskan adults and children were arrested, convicted of being insane, and sent by the federal government to live at Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon. They were taken from their families and communities by dog sled, train and boat. In the end, at least 3,500 Alaskans were sent to Morningside between 1904 and the 1960s, when Morningside was finally closed. Many were never heard from by their families again. These are the Lost Alaskans.”

Morningside Sanitarium