Sweeping the Mountains: Part One

Note from the Editors: The Cadet is happy to consider submissions from studnets inside and outside VMI on topics of interest to the VMI Family and for their voices to be heard. This piece was submitted by one of our neighbors to the north attending Mary Baldwin University and relates to the abuses of families in the Shenandoah Valley at the hands of the Government and the Eugenics movement. This series of articles looks into the history of the eugenics movement in Staunton, Virginia, the state as a whole, and how the movement was used against local mountain communities in order for people in power to benefit, particularly with the foundation of the Shenandoah National Park. Using books on the subject, oral testimonies from victims, documentaries, photographs taken of the former residents of the park, online articles, academic journals, and biographies, the history of what happened to thousands of Appalachian Virginians in the years 1905 to 1940. Bringing to light the atrocities local people from the Blue Ridge mountains suffered from displacement to forced sterilization, this essay can be used to make this information more widespread. It also provides a foundation for more research looking into certain topics such as the Melungeon ethnic group in the region and whether this promoted the eugenics movement to target these people for having a mixed race background. The city of Staunton, located in the Shenandoah Valley at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was described as a "thriving and prosperous town with agriculture, mercantilism, and an increasing tourism interest." Because of this, Staunton was chosen in the early 1800s as the location for a new asylum in Virginia to serve the farthest reaches of the state's population. This included places in what is now West Virginia since the state did not secede until 1863. The institution would become Western State Hospital, where around 1,205 sterilizations were performed on those declared to be unfit to reproduce. The director of Western State from 1905 to 1943, Dr. Joseph S. DeJarnette, was at the forefront of the eugenics movement in Staunton and Virginia as a whole. Staunton's role within the movement affected thousands, specifically those living within local mountain communities. The people of Appalachia, living in isolation and poverty, were targeted largely due to their socioeconomic status and perceived mental deficiency. Those in positions of power would use this eugenics movement against residents of the Blue Ridge for their own personal gain. Hundreds of families were deemed to be genetically inferior and then sent to institutions such as Western State and Lynchburg Colony to be forcibly sterilized in order to promote a pure, master race as well as ensure the foundation of Shenandoah National Park by having these hill folk removed from their homes. The hospital in Staunton was established in 1825 as the Western Lunatic Asylum. The chosen location was deemed to be "amidst good roads and [its] fertile lands also insured an abundant supply of provisions able to be purchased inexpensively to help support the hospital." The specific spot for the institution "was selected on a hilltop where the hospital could receive ample cooling breezes, be supplied with fresh springs, and be provided with distant views to Virginia's rolling mountains." The list of reasons one could be admitted into Western State was long and extensive, but in the late 19th century, there was a notable increase in insanity cases amongst one particular class of people. A report that came out of England was cited in the hospital's 1903 Annual Report, which claimed that an average of nearly five hundred people per week "lost their minds." This uptick of cases was found to be largely amongst the lower class, and they believed poverty contributed to the causes of insanity. The superintendent of Western State during the time, Dr. Benjamin Blackford, agreed that "the poor classes in rural Virginia were also more susceptible to insanity." After Blackford died in 1905, the hospital began looking for another person to fill the role of superintendent. Dr. Joseph Spencer DeJarnette, a physician who had been at Western State for 16 years, was chosen to be Blackford's successor and remained in the position until 1945. DeJarnette was born on September 29, 1866, in nearby Spotsylvania County. His father, Elliot Hawes DeJarnette, was a former captain in the Confederate States Army, and his mother, Evelyn May Magruder DeJarnette, was known to write stories, "many in the then-popular Negro dialect genre, for national periodicals." Evelyn was the one to educate Joseph and prepare him for the Medical College of Virginia. DeJarnette "considered himself to be the genetically gifted descendant from colonial Virginians," and before he joined the staff at Western State, he practiced at Richmond's R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers' Home. After becoming superintendent at the asylum in Staunton, he implemented new experimental treatments. While also being actively engaged in the eugenics movement in Virginia, Dr. DeJarnette used electric shock treatments, hydrotherapy, lobotomies, and blood transfusions. It is important to note that "the mental health profession was largely in support of the actions occurring at Western State." These treatments were largely common practice around the country during the time and were not unique to Virginia. One such practice, eugenics, was practiced more widely in the commonwealth than in other parts of the country. Eugenics is the practice of selecting and removing certain traits through methods such as sterilization with the intent of improving the human race. DeJarnette's first introduction to eugenics was revealed in his 1908 Annual Report. He stated in the report, "In the treatment of all diseases, it is an established act that prevention is far better than cure," and "Some writers actually recommend sterilization of this class. This sounds extreme to the unthinking and appears harsh, but in the course of time, probably many years, some plan of this nature will almost certainly be resorted to." Around the year 1911, DeJarnette became more adamant that sterilization was the solution to preventing insanity. In 1924, Virginia passed the Eugenical Sterilization Act, which legalized sterilizations. In his final Annual Report in 1946, Dr. DeJarnette boasted about "the 1,205 sterilizations performed" at the hospital "and the 649 he personally performed." Joseph DeJarnette "called on Virginians to 'bend our greatest efforts towards perpetuating the best and highest type of man from the best,' in spite of individual rights." He also claimed that "segregation during the reproductive age is a very expensive method," and sterilization was the cheap, effective, and more humane way to prevent undesirable births. It was deemed more humane than segregation because it "would not interfere with the individual's liberty, sexual gratiﬁcation or pursuit of happiness but only with his power of reproduction." Sterilization was more widely supported because it also allowed patients to be released back into society and the workforce, increasing the state's economy. There is more to follow. Look for part two of "Sweeping the Mountains" in the next issue of The Cadet. The next installment will delve further into the abuses committed by the government in the era of the eugenics movement. Cloey Mazingo is a senior at Mary Baldwin majoring in History. Her family has been in the Shenandoah Valley for generations and she feels strongly connected to its history. She will be commissioned into the Army in May and hopes to branch into Military intelligence. She can be contacted by email at mazingoca7375@marybaldwin.edu References for this article include: Ashley A. Allis, Old Western State Hospital: Staunton, Virginia (Richmond, VA: The Garden Club of Virginia, 2011) Gregory Michael Dorr, "Joseph S. DeJarnette (1866–1957)," Encyclopedia Virginia, September 29, 1866