Josephine Buck (1875-1902) - Sent to the Asylum

Arizona Insane Asylum, Arizona Memory Project

Josephine Buck was born around 1875, probably in Neosho County, Kansas.  She was one of at least nine children of Asahel Buck and his wife Mary Ann Hutchings.  The Buck family had been in New York state since Colonial times.  Asahel himself was a lawyer, educated in Albany, New York.

By 1880, the Buck family was living in Sedan, Chautauqua, Kansas.

Christmas Eve, 1890, found them in Phoenix, where 15-year-old Josephine and her older sister Irene entertained friends with music and dancing at the Buck home on East Van Buren Street.

In 1892, Asahel Buck, now known as Andrew, was practicing law from his office in the Cotton Building.  Son William Hamilton Buck was a pressman for the Daily Herald newspaper, and daughter Irene Buck was a music teacher.  Daughter Evaluna was married to Charles M. Rupp, carpenter.

Josephine seems to have had a normal childhood.  She was a member of the IOOF’s Rebekah Lodge, and her family certainly enjoyed a certain social standing in the city.  However, it appears that around 1892, she began to manifest mental problems, possibly schizophrenia which tends to become apparent during a patient’s late adolescence.   Initially, she was cared for at home but, in April 1894, shortly after her sister Irene’s marriage to George Simms, Josephine became a patient at the insane asylum in Phoenix.

Released from the asylum in early August, 1897, Josephine was scheduled to be conveyed to a private sanitarium in California.  However, she got hold of a revolver and threatened to kill her mother with it.  When the sheriff arrived to remove her from the family residence, she became violent and had to be physically restrained.  She was recommitted to the asylum by order of a judge on August 31st.   She was still a patient in the Arizona Insane Asylum in 1900, where she probably contracted the tuberculosis that caused her demise.            

Josephine Buck succumbed on June 23, 1902, at her family’s home on 4th Street and Polk.   She was buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Block 21, Lot 2, northeast corner of the southwest quadrant.

-by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Dr. Joshua A. Miller Jr. (1846-1901) - Superintendent of the Insane Asylum

 

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Joshua Abston Miller, Jr., was born in Macon County, Missouri, on May 5, 1846.  His parents were Joshua A. Miller, Sr., and Nancy Jane Turner. 

Joshua attended high school on the other side of the Missouri River in Brownville, Nebraska, with the intention of becoming a physician.  Under the tutelage of Dr. William Arnold, he applied for and was admitted to the University of Michigan medical school in 1868. 

While a medical student in Michigan, Miller met and married Mary Crampton on September 21, 1869.  Upon graduation in 1872, Miller opened a practice in Michigan.

In 1879, Miller traveled to New York to gain additional experience at Belleview Hospital.  He then moved his family to Kansas City in 1882, where he helped establish a medical school at the University of Kansas City.   He was for six years the head of orthopedic surgery there.

Perhaps the deaths of two of their young children had strained Joshua’s and Mary’s marriage to the breaking point.  At any rate, she does not appear to have accompanied Miller when he moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 1888.  On December 16, 1890, Miller married his second wife, Minnie Hume, in Prescott.

In 1892, Gov. N. O. Murphy appointed Miller superintendent of the territorial insane asylum in Phoenix.  When Miller assumed his position, there were 87 inmates, some of whom had originally been sent to asylums in California.  Having them back in Phoenix made it possible for family members to visit and see that they were properly cared for. It appears that Miller took his responsibilities seriously.  He had the asylum grounds landscaped with trees and walkways.  His wife Minnie, who was a nurse, served as matron.

In 1898, Gov. Murphy again appointed Dr. Miller to take over management of the insane asylum from outgoing superintendent Dr. Hamblin.  This time, there were 177 patients. 

 One of Miller’s accomplishments was to help found the Maricopa County Medical Society so that the 12 to 14 medical practitioners in the Salt River Valley could meet regularly to discuss new developments in their profession.

Scientific curiosity led to Miller’s interest in prehistoric societies of the American Southwest.  In 1895, he was elected president of the Arizona Antiquarian Society and in 1901 he conducted the first excavation of Pueblo Grande, a prehistoric site east of Phoenix. 

Dr. Miller was on his way to New Mexico on Saturday, July 19, 1901, to observe the annual Hopi snake dance at Walpi when he fell ill and had to get off the train at Flagstaff.   Taken to a hospital there, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  He died on the evening of July 22nd.  His body was returned to Phoenix for burial in Rosedale Cemetery.

by Donna L. Carr