Indiana Village for Epileptics and Andrew Lantz

As I researched a very distant line of the Lantz family, I came across Andrew who died in 1943 at the Indiana Village for Epileptics.¹ I found it interesting such a place existed. Rounding up people with a neurological disorder to live in the same place with other sufferers seemed a little strange. Apparently it was created in 1905 by Indiana's legislature and was considered "progressive" at the time.² Dr. Walter C. Van Nuys served as the village's superintendent until his retirement in 1952.³ It was not Dr. Van Nuys, but Dr. J. H. McNeill, who signed my relative's certificate.⁴

Indiana Village for Epileptics, Colony No. 2, New Castle, Indiana, 1919; uploaded by Historic Bremen to Sauer-Schurr Family Album, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/historicbremen/27917654397 : accessed 17 July 2018), CC BY-NC 2.0 license) 

An Indiana marriage law, passed 15 April 1905, the same year the legislature created the village, specified "no license to marry shall be issued where either party is an imbecile, epileptic, of unsound mind, nor to any person who is or has been within five years an inmate of any county asylum or home for indigent persons, unless it satisfactorily appears that the cause of such condition has been removed and that such male applicant is able to support a family and likely to so continue, nor shall any license issue when either of the contracting parties is affected with a transmissible disease, or at the time of making application is under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug."⁵ Andrew married Nannie King and fathered two sons and three daughters before the law was enacted.⁶ The children were Mary, Pearl, Elmer, Dora, and Henry.⁷ Andrew's institutionalization broke up the family before 1920.⁸  How lonely Nancy must have felt, forced to provide for her children without her husband's assistance! She survived him, dying 16 September 1956.⁹ Both are buried at Mast Cemetery near Kokomo, Indiana.¹⁰

Because treatments differed from those when the community was established, the Indiana Village for Epileptics expanded its mission to treat other neurological disabilities, becoming first the New Castle State Hospital and eventually the New Castle State Developmental Center.¹¹ It closed 15 August 1998, and its buildings were demolished in 2002.¹²

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1 "Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/60716/45232_355688-01219?pid=2827854 : accessed 17 July 2018), Andrew Lantz (1867-1930), 1930, Howard County, reg. no. 15212.^↩
2 Rebecca L. Loufburrow, The Indiana Village for Epileptics, 1907-1952: The Van Nuys Years (M.A. thesis, Indiana University, 2008), page 1; PDF, ScholarWorks (https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/1868 : accessed 17 July 2018)..^↩
3 Ibid.^↩
4 "Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011," Andrew Lantz (1867-1930).^↩
5 "State Laws Regulating Marriage of the Unfit," Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 4, no. 3 (September 1913), page 424; digital image, JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1133362 : accessed 17 July 2018).^↩
6 Andrew Lantz, obituary, Gospel Herald 36, no. 12 (17 June 1943), pages 246-247; online, Mennobits (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mennobit>, accessed 11 Jan 2003). While the obituary states they married in Spring 1896, Edward A. Mast performed the marriage 22 December 1895 in Howard County. See: "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MR-59CM : accessed 17 July 2018), Andrew Lantz Or Lautz and Nancy King, 22 Dec 1895; citing Howard, Indiana, United States, various county clerk offices, Indiana; FHL microfilm 7,032,686.
7 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Howard County, Indiana, population schedule, Liberty Township, SD 9, ED 146, page 135B (stamped), dwelling/family 150, Andrew Lantz family; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/60716/45232_355688-01219?pid=2827854 : accessed 17 July 2018); citing National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 355.^↩
8 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Henry County, Indiana, population schedule, Prairie, Indiana Village for Epileptics, SD 6, ED 77, page 37B, line 76, Andrew Lantz; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6061/4300613_00079?pid=83305327 : accessed 17 July 2018); citing National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 438. He was also enumerated with Nancy, but it says he is "working out." Since he was working on the farm in the village, we can assume this was where he was working out. See: 1820 Census, Howard County, Indiana, pop. sch., Liberty Twp., SD 9, ED 153, p. 247A (stamped), dwelling/family 82, Andrew Lantz household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6061/4300613_01061?pid=83350089 :  accessed 17 July 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 438. He resided in the village during the 1930 and 1940 censuses, with the 1935 residence marked as same place. See: 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Henry County, Indiana, population schedule, Henry Township, Epileptic Village, SD 9, ED 33-25, page 167B (stamped), line 95, Andrew Lantz; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6224/4584688_00340 : accessed 17 July 2018); citing National Archives microfilm publication T626, roll 593. Also: 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Henry County, Indiana, population schedule, Henry Twp., SD 10, ED 33-40, page 408A, line 16, Andrew Lantz; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2442/M-T0627-01052-00853?pid=55481658 : accessed 17 July 2018); citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, roll 1052.^↩
9 Nancy Barbara Lantz, death record, 16 September 1956; Indiana History and Genealogy Database, Marion Public Library, Marion, Indiana (http://gen.marion.lib.in.us/Default.asp : accessed 17 July 2018); citing book 14, page 151, reel 9.^↩
10 Find A Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30731178 : accessed 17 July 2018), Andrew Lantz (1867-1943), memorial no. 30731178, Mast Hensler Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana; (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30731179 : accessed 17 July 2018), Nancy B. Lantz, memorial no. 30731179, Mast Hensler Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana. Although Find A Grave calls this "Mast Hensler Cemetery," most death certificates, including Andrew's, include only "Mast Cemetery" for burials. See "Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011," Andrew Lantz (1867-1930). ^↩
11 "Other Indiana Hospitals for the Mentally Ill and Developmentally Disabled," Indiana Archives and Records Administration (https://www.in.gov/iara/2671.htm : accessed 17 July 2018), New Castle State Developmental Center (1907-present; formerly New Castle State Hospital and the Indiana Village for Epileptics.^↩
12 "New Castle State Developmental Center," Asylum Projects (http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/New_Castle_State_Developmental_Center : accessed 17 July 2018).^↩