FISHER, Abel

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Abel testifies re insane woman 1911

In clear who pressed this case. A hearing was held in the Duffield home "as to the sanity of Mrs. John Duffield....Abe Fisher told of violent language he had heard her use and of the cruelty he had seen her exercise toward the children of Mr. Duffield who were her step-children. Marion Bond testified to similar facts and told of having seen her knock the smaller girl down with a club and drag her into the house. Instances of her misbehavior in church were also cited. Lucien English and Charles Sweasy corroborated the evidence of these witnesses and added other instances of the use of improper language and inhuman treatment of the children. All of these facts were stoutly denied by all members of the Duffield family. The little girls when questioned maintained that they had always been kindly used and never mistreated. Doctor Dillon was called as a medical expert and gave as his opinion that she was of unsound mind. The commission found her to be insane and she was taken to the depot in a carriage left on the 3:20 train for the sanitarium at Bartonville, accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Simmons and Miss Josie Westfall of Macomb representing the McDonough County Charity Board." Merely aberrant behavior was often ruled insane until the the late 1900s.

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