Mrs. Lincoln Insane The Courant June 2, 1875

[Roma Jean Turner]

This article must have been shocking to the people of the time.

The Courant...Longton, Kansas, June 2, 1875  A. B. Steinbarger-Editor

     It may be surprising news to hear that the widow of President Lincoln is insane, and a fit subject for the asylum-at least she has been pronounced so by the court of Cook county, Illinois, upon the application of her only son Robert Lincoln .  Although her conducts has only recently been such as would cause a thought of insanity, it is highly probable--taking into consideration her disposition and temperament, for some time back-that she has been lingering and suffering for years from the melancyoly effects of an impaired mind.  And it is only since she was thought to be insane and so pronounced by a court that her future behavior attracted any attention as being that of an insane person.  But now that there is no doubt of her insanity, the thoughts of acquaintances revert back and collect many actions of hers that would give ground for belief of impaired mind.  She was known to posess an ungovernable temper from which her nearest and dearest were made to suffer most.  She dearly loved her husband and children, but when overtaken with a fit of frenzy she has often driven her husband and son from their home when they would be compelled to take a scanty meal in an office, or dine at a neighbors.  This peculiarity was so noticeable that it caused general gossip, and Mr. Lincoln was the recipient of many a sympathy, which doubtless should hav e been bestowed upon his wife, who was then laboring under the prime stages of insanity.  No thought was then ever entertained of her unsound mind;  but she was blamed with being the unhappy possessor of an uncontrollable temper and of a disposition not adapted to trying to quell ill humor.  It is sad to learn of this mental unsoundness in a woman who once occupied the highest position ever held by woman in America, and to thking the rest of her days may be passed in the seclusion of an asylum.

[Wilma]

I wonder if her insanity might have been Alzheimer's.