Dorothea l. Dix

Born:  April 4, 1802, Hampden, Maine

Died:  July 17, 1887, Trenton, New Jersey

Resting Place:  Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Brief History:  Her father was an itinerant bookseller and Methodist preacher. At the age of twelve, she and her two brothers were sent to their wealthy grandmother, Dorothea Lynde in Boston to get away from her alcoholic parents and abusive father. She began to teach in a school all for girls in Worcester, Massachusetts at fourteen years old and had developed her own curriculum for her class, in which she emphasized ethical living and the natural sciences. After Dix's health forced her to relinquish her school, she began working as a governess on Beacon Hill for the family of William Ellery Channing, a leading Unitarian intellectual. Dix urgently appealed to the legislature to act and appropriate funds to construct a facility for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. She cited a number of cases to emphasize the importance of the state taking responsibility for this class of unfortunates. Dix's plea was to provide moral treatment for the mentally ill, which consisted of three values: modesty, chastity, and delicacy.

After the war, Dix raised funds for the building of a national monument to honor deceased soldiers, which stands at Fort Monroe, Virginia today. She continued fighting for social reform throughout her life. Her work in support of better care for the mentally ill culminated in the restructuring of many hospitals both in the United States and abroad. After suffering from illness, Dix returned to New Jersey where she spent the remainder of her life in a specially designed suite in the New Jersey State Hospital. She died on July 17, 1887 and is buried in Cambridge Massachusetts. She was well respected for her work throughout the war because of her dedication. She was awarded with two national flags, these flags being for "the Care, Succor, and Relief of the Sick and wounded Soldiers of the United States on the Battle-Field, in Camps and Hospitals during the recent war.