Winfield State Hospital Cemetery, Winfield, Kansas

This article discusses graphic abuse, mentions sexual assault, and uses antiquated medical terms that readers may find offensive.

The Winfield State Hospital Cemetery was established in 1887 when the Kansas State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth in Lawrence was moved to Winfield.

The institution went by several names over its 116 year lifespan, including the State School for Feeble-Minded Youth, the State Training School, and the Winfield State Hospital and Training Center.

The cemetery is also known as Winfield State Home Cemetery.

One goal of the institution was for individuals to “leave the school able to care for themselves and to engage in some kind of useful employment,” but the institution did very little actual rehabilitation. Hundreds of people died at Winfield State Hospital between 1887-1997 and were buried here.

Winfield State Hospital became known nationwide for the cruel treatment of its inmates, mostly thanks to superintendent Dr. Frank Hoyt Pilcher, a proponent of forced sterilization (eugenics) as treatment for the “feeble-minded.” Dr. Pilcher was an early adopter of eugenics, and his actions at Winfield State Hospital gained him “a national and favorable reputation among the entire medical profession.”

Eugenics at Winfield State Hospital

Between 1913 and 1961, forced sterilization of individuals with disabilities was legal in Kansas. But two decades before forced sterilization was written into law, inmates at Winfield State Hospital were unwillingly subjected to the practice by Dr. F. Hoyt Pilcher.

Dr. Pilcher was a medical doctor in nearby New Salem and a recent graduate of Ellsworth Medical College in St. Joseph, MO when he was appointed superintendent of Winfield State Hospital. He was active in Populist political circles, and his friend and Kansas Populist governor Lorenzo Lewelling appointed him to the position.

Dr. Pilcher was described as a man of “very large physique” with “sluggish brain power.” Undated image from The Winfield Courier Supplemental Edition March 14, 1901, copies available for free at the Cowley County Historical Society Museum.

The Populist party made a splash in the 1892 election, and some thought Pilcher’s appointment in 1893 was purely political, and just another way the Populist revolt was advocating for and spreading one of their ideas: better genetics through eugenics.

Right before Pilcher’s appointment, Dr. Isaac Kerwin addressed the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Persons about “surgery for the relief of idiotic conditions,” and stated “Whose state shall be the first to legitimize oophorectomy (ovary removal) and orchitomia (testical removal) for the relief and cure of radical depravity?” He was a vocal advocate for eugenics and his literature was widely distributed.

Dr. Kerwin is believed to be the first to perform a castration on a developmentally disabled person in America. He died the year Pilcher began medically abusing children at Winfield State Hospital.

Dr. Pilcher answered Kerwin’s question by performing scores of castrations and sterilizations on children in Kansas, trailblazing the way for Kansas’s participation in the American eugenics movement. The operating rooms at Winfield State Hospital where forced castration and sterilization occurred were once considered “the hospital’s pride.”

Dr. Pilcher served two scandal-filled terms, first from 1893-1895 and then again from 1897-1899. He personally castrated or sterilized any patient that he deemed a confirmed masturbater.

The Burden Eagle, Sep 1, 1894

His predecessor had controlled the “nameless habit” of masturbation with strait jackets and constant observation, but Dr. Pilcher believed that the “self-abuse” caused insanity, and he used medical methods to treat it. He castrated so many boys and men that other doctors began to call the procedure “Pilcherizing.”

Dr. Uhls, Proceedings of the Kansas Medical Society, 1899

The number of Pilcherizations personally performed by Dr. Pilcher at Winfield State Hospital varies by source. Some say he castrated at least 58 boys and sterilized as many as 150 girls during his short time at Winfield State Hospital. Others say he was biased toward boys and “amputated the testicles of forty-four males” and performed hysterectomies on just fourteen girls. These procedures were often performed without parental consent.

Sometimes children would escape from the institution and tell others what happened to them, and Pilcher would pre-emptively warn the public of the ridiculous stories they might tell. The stories told were of abuse, torture, and neglect of care, and they were true.

In addition to reports of abuse and neglect, the number of children that died during Pilcher’s tenure at Winfield State Hospital skyrocketed from previous years.

The Topeka Journal, Aug 30, 1894

Pilcher was also very publicly accused of sexual assault by different inmates and at least one employee. He said the employee was just angry and the inmates were insane, and a state investigation determined there was no evidence to support the allegations. The editors who printed the story were arrested for publishing a libelous article. The charges were later dropped.

Winfield Courier, Oct 12, 1893

At least 656 inmates at Winfield State Hospital endured forced medical castration or sterilization from 1893-1960 for the purpose of making “fitter families.” Others later became heavily involved in the Kansas eugenics movement, but Dr. Pilcher paved their way.

After leaving Winfield State Hospital, Dr. Pilcher opened his own practice at the corner of 10th and Manning with his young second wife, Dr. Belle Page Pilcher. The Helen Lucile Pilcher Home Hospital, named for his late first wife, was an “absolutely private” sanitarium that performed electric shock therapy and operations for “abdominal troubles and diseases of the rectum and genital organs … so often repugnant to sensitive persons.” He also served as Cowley county’s appointed physician and health officer for a period, allowing him to advocate for eugenics throughout the county.

Dr. Pilcher performing a surgical operation on a child, from The Winfield Courier Supplemental Edition March 14, 1901, image date unknown.

Dr. Pilcher got really sick in 1907 and for about a year, he sought relief from various natural springs. Then in January 1908, he had what resembled a paralytic stroke that effectively ended his career. He sold the hospital later that year and spent the next seven years slowly dying in Eureka Springs.

One month before Dr. Pilcher died in 1913, the Kansas Legislature passed “an act to prevent the procreation of habitual criminals, idiots, epileptics, imbeciles, and insane,” legalizing eugenics for anyone declared to fall into those categories.

Today Dr. Pilcher is memorialized by some as one of the best surgeons in southwestern Kansas who “had phenomenal success in his treatment of all nervous, sexual and private diseases.” Others remember him for the brutal and abusive medical practices he forced on a vulnerable community, making Kansas an early adopter of the American eugenics movement.

Greenleaf Sentinel, May 8, 1913

Dr. Pilcher was buried at Union-Graham Cemetery in Winfield with his mother and wives in a family plot. There is no big Pilcher family stone, just crooked footstones with first names only in an overgrown and unkempt plot.

Forced sterilization was just one of the abuses that inmates at Winfield State Hospital endured, and Dr. Pilcher is only one part of the institution’s dark history. Some try to paint a pretty picture of the hospital and its service to the community, but the stories of neglect and torture in different medical and non-medical forms that leaked to the public until the institution was closed for good in the 1990’s tell a different story.

The Parsons Sun, Apr 9, 1987

Grave Markers at Winfield State Hospital

Most individuals with grave markers at the Winfield State Hospital Cemetery lived here during the 67 years that forced sterilizations were performed, and many endured the abuses that were reported (and unreported). Kansas didn’t start keeping death records until 1911, so individuals who died here prior to that date, including those who died under Dr. Pilcher’s watch, do not have a grave marker.

Doctors say he is idiotic; but if a boy who was born deaf and blind can locate soap on a shelf above his head (he smelled it), manages somehow to get it down, gets a pan, takes soap, pan and water to the hydrant, and indicates by twirling his hands that he wants water let on, stirs the soap in the water (using his teacher’s hand!) and proceeds to blow soap bubbles, is “idiotic,” what are the rest of us?

The Blind-Deaf, William Wade (1904), about Edgar Korte

Maude lived at home with her family until at least 1920, until everyone was gone but her old, widowed mother. Then she was sent to the Winfield State Hospital.

Hyrcanus was rejected from Winfield State Hospital in 1897 even though he was adjudged insane. When his mother died in 1920, there was no choice but to send him to die here.

Henry‘s WWI registration card said the blue-eyed, brown-haired inmate had no relatives.

Ruth, age 28, daughter of May Klusmier and John Taylor, sister to Lloyd and LaVern.

From Find a Grave: “I hope you have a string with you wherever you are.”

A few graves are only marked with a number.

The grave markers here probably don’t indicate the actual burial locations of the individuals named and numbered. Most of the grave markers are the same and appear to have been added at the same time.

There are several babies and young children honored here.

Paul, age 7.

Alice, age 3-4.

Baby Boy.

Ernest, age 4.

Bobby, age 8.

Melissa, age 1.

The Winfield Correctional Facility absorbed the buildings and infrastructure used by Winfield State Hospital. The cemetery is no longer active, but some former residents transferred to another institution were buried here when they died. The most recent known burial here was in 2012.

Caroline loved playing with her babies, talking with and spending time with her friends, dressing up, and singing and dancing. She also enjoyed going to park but didn’t like the ducks. Luella enjoyed van rides, visiting friends and eating out.

Donald was institutionalized his whole life and was a good friend to someone who made sure his grave was marked with more than a number or plain marker.

Cory, age 20, son of Judy, brother of Clint. (The photo shared on Find A Grave by Jon was taken from my Instagram post in 2022.)

Cory has a plain marker inside the cemetery, and this marker just outside of the cemetery, leaning against a tree. (The photo shared on Find A Grave by Jon was taken from my Instagram post in 2022.)

From Find a Grave: Marvin was a very tall quiet man. He loved to remove lightbulbs and break them by flushing them down the toilets. He didn’t talk much but when he did he would make you feel totally stupid with his take on any situation.

From Find a Grave: Once when his hand was cut removing lightbulbs he was getting sutures and the nurse asked what if he had a room full of lightbulbs and no where to put them. His answer to her was “I’d stick them up your ass.” She said to Marvin, “I’ll keep that in mind.” We all got a good laugh