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1844: Governor Marmaduke's Proposal
1847: The Legislature Acts
1861-1865: Civil War Years
1890-1907: Struggle for Control
1945: The End of Patronage
1970 To The Present: De-institutionalization
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Buoyed by legislative funding that allowed expansion to accommodate 350 patients and confident that sympathetic legislators would soon address other pressing needs, the hospital's success seemed assured in 1860. Within a year, however, it was forced to close its doors, forced to do so when the legislature diverted support of state institutions to the State Guard.
"[There is] a considerable force of rebels encamped 8 miles north of Fulton. ... There are not 200 Union men in the county of Callaway. That whole region is disloyal."
Brigadier General Chester Harding Jr., October 1861
"On Thursday night of last week a body of armed men visited the Lunatic Asylum, located at this place, and took by force a large lot of blankets and clothing belonging to the Asylum. This institution was again visited by about fifty armed men on Monday night, who took the remainder of the blankets, comforts, clothing, &c.
They compelled Mr. Swon, the Steward, and Dr. Smith, the Superintendent, to remain in their rooms - a guard being placed at the door - until they had taken what property they desired."
Missouri Telegraph, 4 October 1861
 Boone County Historical Society
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Civil War battle scene, believed to be the battle of Moore's Mill, in Callaway County, from the sketchbook of Joseph Cooper Babb, 1862. |
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