Thursday, October 2, 1919

Overcast. Rain all A.M. Cleared up in P.M. Father, Mother, Nellie, H.H., Uncle John and Aunt Gertie to Utica with Hudson Car to see Jasper Hedden. To college. Took nap in P.M. To K.S.P. meeting at Church. To Proctors. To bed 11:15 P.M.

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Jasper Hedden lived with the Clossons (Stillman and Family, including father Charles) in June of 1900 as an employee (farm laborer), according to the 1900 federal census record. But he was actually Stillman's cousin, the son of Fanny, Charles Closson's sister. Fanny had two children, Jasper and Robert. There is no further information about either of them in the Closson genealogy. Fanny herself died young in 1892 at the age of 49 and her husband died later that year. So poor Jasper had been orphaned at age 14.

Jasper was born December 7, 1878, so he was 21 at the time of the 1900 census. In the 1910 census he is listed as living in Charlton, NY with his Aunt and Uncle (brother and sister) Hooper and Georgiana Hedden.  New York's 1915 census shows him still living there. But by 1920, he is living in the Utica State Hospital in Utica, NY, where Stillman and company went to see him, no doubt.  This was a hospital for the insane, but the definition of insane may have been a bit fluid back in those days, perhaps including "inebriates," as they called them, and elderly people suffering from dementia. It's hard to say what Jasper Hedden's illness was, but he probably died at the hospital, since I can find no further record of him after 1920.

The Utica State Hospital was a huge structure. Here are two pictures:

Utica State Hospital 

Postcard sent in 1912 depicting Utica State Hospital

Utica State Hospital was opened in 1843. It was famous for being the place where the Utica Crib was invented. The "crib" became quite popular as a device for confining inmates; versions of it were used in various institutions around the country throughout the 19th century. Here's a picture of the device, taken from the Western Illinois Museum website: