Hansford: Mental Defectives in County Indiana 29 
marriage with others of their kind, alcoholism, and vice have 
done much to accelerate the degeneration of this group in the 
past. It has come into conflict with society very little because 
of its isolated position, but, in the future, now that the coun- 
try is becoming more thickly settled and living conditions 
are becoming more complex, we can expect the members of 
this community to become a source of annoyance and danger 
to the welfare of the county and state. 
3. The Burns Family Group, Showing an Inheritance of 
Huntington’s Chorea, Other Forms of Chorea, Insanity, 
and Uncontrolled Temper 
Over 100 years ago there lived in County H. near the 
line between Townships 2 and 5 a prostitute whose children 
were: (1) Mary, whose father was supposed to be a Holsen; 
(2) Harmon, whose father was James Brown; (3) Mrs. 
Donald Bruce, whose father was a Gibson; (4) an idiot boy, 
whose father was supposedly a Botkins; (5), (6), and (7), 
boys who died of tuberculosis; and (8) Emma, who married 
Glen Kelley. After all these children were born, the mother 
married a Burns and her offspring took that name. Nothing 
more is known of her except that she drank, fought, and 
was considered the meanest white woman in the community. 
Once she cut the throat of a horse belonging to a neighbor, 
and on the following night the citizens tarred and feathered 
her and rode her on a rail. This happened about the time 
the White-Cappers were organized and meting out justice 
in cases where the courts were slow to act. The last years 
of Mrs. Burns were miserable because of an affliction which, 
according to the reports of her grandchildren, was the same 
as some of the present generation are suffering — chorea. It 
is said that she jerked and twitched so constantly that it 
was impossible for her to care for herself during the last 
few years of her life. She died insane, blind, and penniless. 
Her first child, Mary, married Samuel Morris, by whom 
she had 5 children: Ralph, Paul, Mose, Samuel, and John. 
Very little is known of Mary until Samuel decided to get 
rid of her so that he could marry her nic e, Annie Burns. 
Annie lived in their home and had already borne him 1 son, 
Wilbur, and was threatening him with arrest on a second 
paternity charge. He then made Mary leave, and when he 
