Other Iowa Poor Farms and Asylums
"The first mental health program in Iowa began in 1854 when Hames Grimes, then governor of Iowa, called on the general assemblyto take immediate steps to establish state charitable institutions in order to provide for 'the care and treatment of the unfortunate class of out fellow citizens.'"
"According to Governor Grimes, there were more than one hundred insane persons in the state with half of them 'confined in the common jails', and the other half 'roaming at large, a terror to their friends and neighbors'. The legislature set $100,000 aside for Iowa's first state hospital and the first mental health institution was dedicated in Mount Pleasant on March 6, 1861. Construction of similar hospitals at Independence, Clarinda, and Cherokee soon followed." - Taken from Rohland, Organization of Mental Health Services in Iowa for Persons with Serious Mental Illness.
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Mount Pleasant, IA
Cherokee, IA
Historic Asylums
Clarinda, IA
Iowa Poor House History