I've been posting some interesting, though quite sad, articles about a fellow from Howard, Kansas. His name was John E. Stroud, and his father owned the Stroud Hotel in Howard.
There first one is here:
Man Under Spell Visits Mayor
http://vintagekansascity.com/go/239 (http://vintagekansascity.com/go/239)
Then,
Mayor Couldn't Remove "Spell"
http://vintagekansascity.com/go/240 (http://vintagekansascity.com/go/240)
Then
Demented Man Wrecks Cell
http://vintagekansascity.com/go/241 (http://vintagekansascity.com/go/241)
and finally,
Demented Boy Taken Home
http://vintagekansascity.com/go/243 (http://vintagekansascity.com/go/243)
Just wondering if there are still Strouds in Howard, maybe somebody can help me find out whatever happened to this poor guy?
Take care!
Wow... from the sounds of this, he probably ended up over in Winfield at the State Hospital.
According to the Elk County History under the hotel section, old man Stroud had two sons.
One of them was named Earl and taught in the Howard schools.
The other is not named.
The Stroud Hotel was on the west side of Wabash south of the present
Howard State Bank and the family lived on the premises.
It opened sometime in the 1890s and burned down sometime after 1903.
There is nothing about the Stroud family in the family history section.
It is interesting to note the father said his son's problems resulted from studying too much at the university.
The book does not say why the hotel burned...........
>:( >:( oldstuff, durn you, I started reading your post about 10:00 this morning, here it is almost noon and I just now quit reading. Not only the "stroud" but all the others. I found all this interesting. Their language, their diagnosis's, the fact that the "Humane Society" was called for one patient. How times have changed. Laughed to myself about the gentlemen who started chewing polk root.
Thanks Oldstuff for this interesting post.
I'll bet there was something about this in the Howard paper. Does anyone have the time to look this up?