Hansford: Menial Defectives in County Indiana 109 
refuses to eat like a human but stuffs in the food with both 
hands, often snatching from the other inmates. His family 
history will be found in the Jones-Smith-Brown-Williams 
group of Township 7. 
James Knight, 56 years old, has been in the Almshouse 
continually since May 9, 1903. He had previously lived with 
his sister but had become so troublesome that she could no 
longer care for him. His epileptic seizures had become more 
frequent, and he often had to be carried in off the street. 
During these attacks, as well as directly before and after 
them, he was very quarrelsome. Each day he was becoming 
more helpless in both mind and body. He had been a cripple 
since an illness when he was about 6 years old. He did not 
become unable to walk, however, until after a bad fall at the 
Poor Asylum. He attended school until he was 14 years old 
but has deteriorated until none of his training remains. He 
has never worked, for he began having convulsions when he 
was only 14 years old. He has spent a total of 15 years and 
10 months in the County Asylum. His mother spent 2 months 
there in 1904. He is now confined to his chair and has to 
be helped by the other inmates when it is necessary to move. 
It is not possible for him to receive the proper care at the 
county institution or to be anything but a drag on the man 
in charge. 
Henry Morgan, born in 1840, was sent to the County Poor 
Asylum on May 17, 1916, from Township 8. He had owned 
a little farm but had deeded it to relatives. After he had 
used up the money derived, they permitted him to continue 
to live in an abandoned house on the place. Instead of being 
grateful, he was all the time stirring up trouble with his 
benefactors and finally became so much of a nuisance that 
they had to remove him from the place. He had nowhere to 
go and was committed to the Almshouse. He is a belligerent 
old gentleman who wants to tell everyone his troubles. His 
version is that a certain stone company coveted his land and 
bought it of his relatives, who had no right to sell it as he 
had never signed the deed. This latter idea has developed 
since his admission to the Asylum. Neighbors say that he 
has always been ^^a little cracked”. 
Herbert Lucas was born in an adjoining county in 1838. 
He has never learned to read or write, and so far as can be 
