The records document the administrative and financial history of the La Crosse County Insane Asylum, later known as the La Crosse County Mental Hospital, and contains information about individuals treated at the facility. The records are divided into three series: ADMINISTRATION, FINANCIAL, INMATE AND PATIENT INFORMATION. The series are arranged in alphabetical order, as are subseries, and thereunder chronological. The information in this collection is solely for the Insane Asylum/Mental Hospital and its associated farm. The La Crosse County Poor Farm was a separate entity, unlike the arrangement in some other counties.
The series of ADMINISTRATION records deal with the establishment and financial management of the institution, and contains an agriculture record book (labeled ‘Eggs'), Board of Trustees minute books, correspondence, and a visitor book. The agriculture records detail garden production and processing, as well as consumption of various foodstuffs from 1957-1964. There is very little information on livestock production. Although the Board of Trustees minutes span virtually the entire lifetime of the institution, the information chiefly concerns auditing invoices for expenses incurred. Meeting frequency and amount of detail in the minutes changes over time, perhaps reflecting the make-up of the Board. Supporting documents, such as Supervisors reports, are not a part of the collection, though many can be found in the SHSW Library's Government Publications collection. Correspondence is present only through 1907 with a few surviving papers from 1931-1935. The correspondence covers a wide range of issues, such as commitment, communication with inmates' families, trades people, and governing bodies. The correspondence consists of three letterpress books that were microfilmed. Some pages of the original letterpress book were faded and the microfilm is the best possible copy. Each book includes an index listing the recipient. The Visitor Book, 1888-1903, lists visitors' names and their city of residence.
The FINANCIAL series contains Journals and Ledgers, 1888-1960. The Journals detail the daily cash outlay of the institution and are indexed. They provide information on the daily operations of the facility. The Ledgers provide a monthly accounting of expenses by category. The volumes were intended to also record income, but the pages have been altered to include only expense information. Any information on income, such as payments from the counties and for surplus farm goods, is found in the Board of Trustees minute books or the Correspondence, though the information is somewhat limited.
The INMATE AND PATIENT INFORMATION series contains the Board and Clothing Record books, Record of Inmates books, and medical information in the Doctor's Call Book and Physicians Report. Board and Clothing books provide a monthly summary of costs for each patient, broken out by county and state-at-large, for the years 1900-1969. The patients from La Crosse County are in alphabetical order. These books do not record payments. The Record of Inmates books cover 1888-1927, and 1888-1912 and patients admitted from 1888-1912 may appear in both books. There are separate indexes to each volume. The books provide biographical information on patients including names, ages, admission date, persons responsible for commitment, support information, nationality, previous treatment, sometimes occupation, marital status, and religion, and guardianship/discharge/transfer/death information. If the inmate was buried in the Asylum cemetery, the lot number is included.
