Yelm History Project

Insanity Charge Against Manfredi Dismissed

The charge of insanity against one Frank Manfredi, of  Yelm, was dismissed by Judge C. M. Easterday after a hearing of that case. The insanity charge was formally filed against the advice at Prosecuting Attorney Wilson who was of the opinion that the circumstances would not support the charge.  Relatives and the neighbors of the man  however, insisted on the hearing.

While it seems established that the man is unbalanced mentally It is not to, the extent warranting commitment to a state institution.

It is stated that one phase of the  man’s irregular mentality is that he seems to be bent on marriage, which  he proposed as soon as he can earn fifty cents in money. Who the woman of choice shall be appears to be a mere detail.  (Olympia Daily Recorder August 14, 1912)

Man Returns to Yelm After Visit to U.S.

The police were called upon yesterday to return John Gunston to the Steilacoom asylum. Gunston was picked up in Yelm and it was learned that he had escaped from the hospital for the insane. He told the residents in Yelm that he had just returned to his home In Norway after taking an extended trip to the United States.  (Morning Olympian June 27, 1917)

 

Committed to Asylum

Mike Pleschuk, the Austrian who was picked up by the side of the road between here and Yelm a few days ago by Sheriff Fred McCorkle, was committed to the Steilacoom asylum by Judge Mitchell’s court this afternoon. Dr. K. W. Partlow and Dr. F. A. Longaker were the examining physicians.

Naturalization papers and a deed to a lot in Hagnsville, Canada, were found in his pockets. (Olympia Daily Recorder  May 19, 1916)

Leavitt is Taken Away To Asylum At Steilacoom

M. Leavitt, who has been committed to the state asylum for the insane at Steilacoom, was taken away yesterday by a traveling guard from that place. Lcavitt threatened to destroy the buildings bt a rancher near Yelm and as he talked in an incoherent manner, it was decided to have him locked op tor safe keeping. (Morning Olympian December 31, 1912)

Polander Becomes Unbalanced at Yelm The sheriff’s office made an unsuccessful effort yesterday to locate a Polander who could talk to a man arrested near Yelm as the prisoner is supposed to be insane. Word was sent to the sheriff’s office by Homer Raymond that the man was causing considerable uneasiness in the neighborhood of his home, about fourteen miles east of the city and Deputy Sheriff McCorkle made a trip in an auto and arrested the wanderer. Not -withstanding the excessive heat the unfortunate who was arrested yesterday insisted upon wearing an overcoat He could not speak English and nothing could be learned as to his name or as to from where he came. (Morning Olympian June 20, 1912)

Logger Sees Bugs in Air and Goes To Asylum

Frank Lemoine was brought In from Yelm yesterday and after a hearing  before  Court Commissioner Fry was committed to the insane asylum at Steilacoom.   LeMoine. who

has been working at a tie camp near Yelm, imagined he saw bugs in the air, and was laboring under several other hallucinations. He says he has had no sound sleep for weeks.  (Morning Olympian  March 8, 1910)

 

Lunatic Thinks Yelm is Cincinnati, Ohio

Chas. B. Spurlock yesterday morning mistook Yelm, Wash., for Cincinnati, O., and last evening was adjudged insane and today was taken to the Western Washington hospital for the insane.  He was first seen at Roy, Pierce county, Thursday and was thought to be of unsound mind, but it la said that at Roy he was told to go over the river to find Cincinnati and when he reached Yelm yesterday morning: he asked if he had reached the fair Ohio city and said he wanted to find Flint street, where his father and mother lived.

When told that his mother did not reside in Yelm he broke down and cried like a child. Word was sent to the authorities here and Sheriff Gaston ordered him brought in. When questioned he said that he was 35 years of age, had been married and divorced

and that his wife lives In Kentucky.  His parents, he says, live in Cincinnati on Flint street but he cannot remember their house number. He was in the San Francisco earthquake.

The examining physicians say that they think that he will recover when given the proper care.  (Olympia Daily Recorder  February 20, 1909)

 

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Chief Savidge this morning received from Yelm stating that a man answering the description of  M. Campbell, the patient who escaped from the asylum at Steilacoom Tuesday night, was seen in that town this morning.  He is said to have had a handkerchief wrapped around his hand and was hastening east, probably to Tacoma.  The three attendants from the asylum who were sent here to search for the man left this morning, two returning to the asylum and the other going to Yelm.” (Washington Daily Record  May 22, 1902)

 Campbell Quickly Captured

Insane Man Never Came to Olympia But Turned Off at Woodland—Offered No Resistance.

The escaped insane man, R. D. Campbell, who was thought to have made a visit to Olympia, was captured by the wardens of the asylum on the Northern’ Pacific main line between Yelm and Tacoma. Campbell never came to this city at all. After reaching Woodland he left the line of the railway and followed the wagon road to Yelm, He paused tliat place during the evening and turned back towards Tacoma. Supt. Parks, at Steilacoom, was notified of the direction the demented man had taken and the wardens easily found him yesterday morning. The wardens who were here were notified by telephone of the capture and left immediately for Steilacoom.

The Olympian was in error yesterday in giving tae unfortunate man’s name as M. E. Campbell. A gentleman by that name is secretary of-the John D. Campbell & Co. spice mills in Tacoma, with which concern the demented man has been associated. Evening paper please copy again.  (Morning Olympian  May 23, 1902)

 

‘Wild Man” Captured and Sent to Asylum

Captured in the woods near Yelm, where he has been acting the part of a traditional wild man, Harvey Dusenbery was today committed to the Western Washington hospital at Fort Steilacoom by Judge Linn. Dusenbery gave his home as Provo City, Utah.  He has been in the vicinity of Yelm for about a week but defied capture until yesterday when J. F. Rice ran him down and after a struggle succeeded in overpowering him.  The insane man threw Rice completely over his head during the struggle.  He was brought to the city by Rice and Walter Longmire, The demented man was but scantily clothed and had been sleeping out of door without covering.  (Olympia Daily Recorder  December 6, 1906)

Echoes From Yelm:  An Ambitious Little Burgh

(Tacoma Daily Ledger September 5, 1889 p. 3)

On Mount Tacoma

When the Ledger is publishing items about Mount Tacoma possibly the following may be deemed worthy of mention, owing to the extreme youth of the climber:  on the 21^st of August little Christine V. T., 9 years old, ascended Mount Tacoma to an altitude of 10,000 feet, climbing steadily four and a half hours from camp in Paradise valley to the height reached. During the ascent the youthful mountaineer passed through a finely arched ice tunnel 105 feet long by 30 feet in width, the arch 10 feet high. The solid ice of the sides and ceiling of the tunnel were beautifully tinted with green and sky blue, the rocky floor forming in the center the channel of a tumbly ice-cold stream.

At 10,000 feet elevation oh that bright summer afternoon little feet grew very cold and little hands were benumbed by the sharp blasts that swept down from the ice dome above. Several crevices two feet wide and of great depth were leaped by the little climber. From this elevation two mountain climbers Messrs. Gove and Nichol, it afterwards proved, could be seen slowly and laboriously toiling up the last steep stretch of the summit their bodies, even from the high point (10,000 feet) on the mountain itself, looking like mere black spots moving over the pure snow. Some persons have erroneously supposed that a flag planted on the summit of the mountain, as a tangible evidence of a successful ascent, might be seen from the Sound with a field glass.

At 9,000 feet the cairn built by Miss Fay Fuller and her companion in 1887 was visited. The tin box was examine and the writing it contained, though in pencil, was found to be as legible as the day it was written, notwithstanding the storms and snows of nearly three winters had swept over the spot.

A little further on is Camp Plummer, still as the professor left it in 1887, the wire flag staff from which his colors floated still in the rock crevice in which he placed it. Christine built a new cairn on the rocky ultima thule of her climb and deposited a tin box containing the date of her ascent. In 1870 General Stevens and his companion deposited in the crater a copper plate with their names engraved on it. In 1883 the Bailey party left an inscribed leaden plate, and the Ingraham-Muir party of 1888 deposited records of their ascent on the rim of the crater, as did the successful ascending parties of this year. These various points and depositories, all in the line of ascent, will form interesting features in the ascent of future climbers. Parties desirous, of a delightful and health-giving summer outing should visit the Southern parks of the mountain in late July or early August. They will enjoy mountain scenery that in sublimity and beauty beggars description.