Mary Lincoln's "Personal Prison" Along the Lincoln Highway in Illinois-- Part 2

Mary Todd Lincoln's son Robert, by this time was a prominent lawyer in Chicago, initiated court proceedings to have his mother involuntarily committed. After a three hour hearing, a Cook County jury found Mary to be insane and the next day she was taken to Bellevue Place.

This was not one of those horrible public insane asylums you so often hear about from the late 1800s. Bellevue catered to wealthy women and took more of a modern approach to the insane, advising plenty of bed rest and fresh air as well as activities such as piano and croquet. A period advertisement referred to it as a place "For the insane of the Private Class." Definitely not your pc-speak of today.


LIVING IN A PRISON

Even so, Mary Lincoln considered this place akin to prison.

An August 1875 letter said "It does not appear that God is good, to have placed me here." She said prayers three times a day to let her out, but to no avail. "I have worshipped my son and no unpleasant word ever passed between us, yet I can not understand why I should have been brought out here."

Historians report that she constantly lobbied for her release and that as time went on, she became more incensed that he would have placed her there.

No Place for a First Lady. --RoadDog