What’s left is a story of the broadest strokes, a “queer uncle” who had little to say.
According to Hieronymus family stories told to me by my grandmother, a direct descendant of Francis, Balter had periods where he was lucid and able to work, although he remained silent. A suit brought posthumously on Balter’s behalf by Francis suggests that the family story might be true. In October 1781, Francis sought the intervention of the county court for unpaid wages owed to Balter, suggesting that he had labored on neighboring farms when he was well.
until the 1780s, when Otis was permanently placed in the care of a man named Osgood who housed a large number of mentally ill people on his farm. Otis’ care by a private citizen who housed the mentally ill, likely paid for by both public and private funds, wasn’t a particularly unusual arrangement. Colonial America largely operated under English Poor Laws, leaving care for the mentally ill to local governments, namely counties or towns, if families were unable to provide.
As with Balter, the narratives that gathered around Otis, Angelica, and Sarah all told of a single traumatic event that produced sudden madness. Otis’ madness was brought on after he was beaten by a British official for publishing an inflammatory newspaper article, Angelica was rendered “dumb” after her brother was killed in a duel, and Sarah turned violent after the birth of her sixth child.On even the most cursory inspection, none of these stories are entirely true.
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