Editing Trenton State Hospital

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The various appropriations of money up to the time the building was opened for the reception of patients amounted to $153,861.90, which included the original cost of the farm, the erection and furnishing of the building, grading and improving of grounds, stock for farm and all necessary expenditures.
 
The various appropriations of money up to the time the building was opened for the reception of patients amounted to $153,861.90, which included the original cost of the farm, the erection and furnishing of the building, grading and improving of grounds, stock for farm and all necessary expenditures.
  
An act to provide for the organization of the State Lunatic Asylum and for the care and maintenance of the insane was passed by the Legislature and approved by the Governor February 28, 1847. This act provided for the appointment of ten managers, and invested the power of filling vacancies in the Supreme Court of the state. This board was authorized to elect a medical superintendent, a treasurer, steward and matron. The salaries of the officers were to be approved by the Governor and paid from the State Treasury. Patients were to be admitted to the asylum in due proportion from each county, by the court or any judge of the Common Pleas; it was made the duty of the overseers of the poor to make application to any judge, in case of an insane pauper, for authority to commit such pauper to the asylum; it was also made a duty of said judge to summon at least two respectable physicians and to investigate the case; and if the person examined was found to be a suitable patient for the asylum he was to be removed to and retained there at the expense of the county to which he belonged. No patient was to be admitted for a shorter period than six months. The managers were to receive no compensation, their traveling expenses only being allowed them. All purchases for the asylum were to be made for cash, and the managers were bound to make all needful rules to enforce this provision. At a meeting of the Board of Managers held in the spring of 1847 they appointed Dr. [[Horace A. Buttolph]] medical superintendent. He had for some years been an assistant of Dr. Brigham at the State Insane Asylum at Utica, N. Y., and had visited some of the institutions for the insane in England and other countries. They appointed Caleb Sager, a business man from Mount Holly, steward. Subsequent events proved that the managers made no mistakes in these appointments. Dr. Buttolph was a master of details, a great organizer, a good disciplinarian, well posted in his specialty and was highly respected by the medical profession, being an honorary member of the State Society. Mr. Sager was an exceptionally good business manager, as was evidenced by his being one of the organizers and the first president of the First National Bank of Trenton. Under the management of Dr. Buttolph the buildings were improved and enlarged from time to time and new ones were erected to meet the requirements of the increasing population according to the finances of the institution or the appropriations from the legislature. The grounds in front of the main building were laid out, graded and planted with trees, shrubbery, evergreens and flowering plants under the direction of A. J. Downing, a landscape gardener.
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An act to provide for the organization of the State Lunatic Asylum and for the care and maintenance of the insane was passed by the Legislature and approved by the Governor February 28, 1847. This act provided for the appointment of ten managers, and invested the power of filling vacancies in the Supreme Court of the state. This board was authorized to elect a medical superintendent, a treasurer, steward and matron. The salaries of the officers were to be approved by the Governor and paid from the State Treasury. Patients were to be admitted to the asylum in due proportion from each county, by the court or any judge of the Common Pleas; it was made the duty of the overseers of the poor to make application to any judge, in case of an insane pauper, for authority to commit such pauper to the asylum; it was also made a duty of said judge to summon at least two respectable physicians and to investigate the case; and if the person examined was found to be a suitable patient for the asylum he was to be removed to and retained there at the expense of the county to which he belonged. No patient was to be admitted for a shorter period than six months. The managers were to receive no compensation, their traveling expenses only being allowed them. All purchases for the asylum were to be made for cash, and the managers were bound to make all needful rules to enforce this provision. At a meeting of the Board of Managers held in the spring of 1847 they appointed Dr. Horace A. Buttolph medical superintendent. He had for some years been an assistant of Dr. Brigham at the State Insane Asylum at Utica, N. Y., and had visited some of the institutions for the insane in England and other countries. They appointed Caleb Sager, a business man from Mount Holly, steward. Subsequent events proved that the managers made no mistakes in these appointments. Dr. Buttolph was a master of details, a great organizer, a good disciplinarian, well posted in his specialty and was highly respected by the medical profession, being an honorary member of the State Society. Mr. Sager was an exceptionally good business manager, as was evidenced by his being one of the organizers and the first president of the First National Bank of Trenton. Under the management of Dr. Buttolph the buildings were improved and enlarged from time to time and new ones were erected to meet the requirements of the increasing population according to the finances of the institution or the appropriations from the legislature. The grounds in front of the main building were laid out, graded and planted with trees, shrubbery, evergreens and flowering plants under the direction of A. J. Downing, a landscape gardener.
  
 
Two wings were added to the main building in 1855. New additions were estimated to afford easy accommodation for 250 additional patients and their attendants. The Randolph museum and reading room was erected the same year. This structure, built of brown stone in the octagon form, was 32 feet in diameter, surrounded by a wide portico and lighted from the top. The interior was in one room with octagon sides and ceiling, fitted with cases for containing curios and interesting objects, furnished with tables for books, pamphlets, papers, games, etc. Stewart F. Randolph, of New York, made the liberal donation of $3300 for the erection of the Randolph museum and he and his brother contributed more than $300 in money and engravings for the furnishing of the museum; other friends of the institution also contributed liberally. Morris, Tasker & Morris, of Philadelphia, gave a "self-regulating hot water furnace" for warming the museum and reading room, the listed price of which was $675.
 
Two wings were added to the main building in 1855. New additions were estimated to afford easy accommodation for 250 additional patients and their attendants. The Randolph museum and reading room was erected the same year. This structure, built of brown stone in the octagon form, was 32 feet in diameter, surrounded by a wide portico and lighted from the top. The interior was in one room with octagon sides and ceiling, fitted with cases for containing curios and interesting objects, furnished with tables for books, pamphlets, papers, games, etc. Stewart F. Randolph, of New York, made the liberal donation of $3300 for the erection of the Randolph museum and he and his brother contributed more than $300 in money and engravings for the furnishing of the museum; other friends of the institution also contributed liberally. Morris, Tasker & Morris, of Philadelphia, gave a "self-regulating hot water furnace" for warming the museum and reading room, the listed price of which was $675.

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