This hospital housed TB and other contagious diseases patients. It had it's own post office, train station, raised livestock and crops. They kept their own death records and buried patients in their own cemetery. They did not notify the city or county of St Louis. It closed in the 80's and the records are difficult to trace at best. It has been said that many bodies were thrown in a sink hole on the property. Does anybody know of a site that may provide info on death certificates?

Hi Carol
Interesting story?

How come this hospital was excluded from government intervention?

So do you know where the records went?

Who are you looking for? do you have names, dates of birth, towns, countries etc?

Janice

Ancestry Admin

I don't know why they were excluded. I just know they kept their own records. The records are house at Jefferson Barracks a few miles down the road from where it was. I've called been transferred 100 times left messages and no return. I am looking for My gr aunt Mildred Tomasek, 18 Jan 1913 St Louis, MO/ 23 Nov 1931. I have a letter she sent my grandmother stating that she had been there 4 weeks, 16 Sep arrival, and died a month later. She's not in the family plot.

There are a few family trees on Ancestry, are any of them yours?

Is this the family?

Janice

Name Age
Frank Tomasek 55
Mildred Tomasek 16
Frank Tomasek 7
Ella Wheelock 30

I don't know about your specific situation, but I've seen civil registers for patients that were hospitalized and died. The family registered her with the municipal records. I have also seen staff and patients listed in a census form.
I can also tell you that any patient diagnosed with TB has to be reported to the appropriate health facility, that's by law. There is also the civil register law. Everyone had to be registered at birth or stillbirth,marriages and deaths. From where I'm from, Puerto Rico, the law became active in 1885, so the books start there. But if you are looking for a medical record, I'm sorry, but by law a hospital is not required to keep them (if you don't go back) for more than 7-10yrs. They get destroyed.
I apologize, just realized that this is a new board with a new administrator, and administration is not interested in these type of answers. I apologize if I was out of place, but I was interested in the subject.
Marimer Melendez

Marimer
"I apologize, just realized that this is a new board with a new administrator, and administration is not interested in these type of answers.".

How did you come to this conclusion? your information may only pertinent to Puert Rico, not the rest of the world.

Janice

Ancestry Admin

I don't about the rest of the world, but know about USA. These laws are federal laws and apply to all the states, including PR. I am a doctor that works in a state hospital in New York. Have been a doctor for 35 years, but again, I apologize for trying to help.6

Thanks Maria. Do you know the laws of 1931? This was a time when TB was incurable. I have checked the hospital on line and there are many horror stories about this place. I've seen pictures of the sink hole. Also, they had their own cemetery but only a handful of headstones are on the property. Headstones thrown in the creek. It was it's own city. There has to be a way to get information about this place. Just looking for a clue.

You know I've heard a lot of similar stories in different hospital and prisons I've worked. In every state it could have been the same or not, but in 1898 United States, Surgeon General called for identifying anyone with contagious diseases. I just read his 1900 report and they knew every person in almost every country.In PR they were segregated to a small island. When you over the Federal Census of 1910, 1920 and 1930, you will find out that they were listed in the census, so they even knew how many they were all around. In 1923 they had the Third International Leprosy Congress requesting the isolation to be as humane as possible and in PR they were moved in 1926 to a new Institution and closed for good in 1977. It just happens that I was reading about it because I'm looking for the death certificate of the father of my grandfather and thought that maybe he was sick and went to a hospital to die. I don't have any information that he was sick, but I found death certificates of other family members who died of TB in early 1900's. An at the time the doctors had to report it. The hospital are not responsible for keeping birth or death records for the county, in fact if by any chance you get one is not valid. The patients are only identified as there the day the census was done. So you might need to go back to the county either where the hospital was located or the county from where the patient was from.
I worked at a prison built by inmates in 1850 in Upstate New York and they had all kind of stories, but let me tell you, whatever happened there the town knew, as almost every body worked there. And towns also do census. I don't know if this helps. You already have your family member in the census?

What city, county, state is that?