Charles Victory Faust

[Runscott]

We visited a new dogpark today which turned out to share a boundary with the Western State cemetery. I visited this grave.

On the drive home, along a busy road, I noticed something in my rearview window - a baseball was bouncing down the road, alongside my car. Weird.

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[clydepepper]

Had to look him up...Amazin' Story!.

[daves_resale_shop]

Very Cool Scott!

Thanks for sharing

[Runscott]

From talking with 71buc, I already knew Faust was buried at the Western State Cemetery, but was surprised that we accidentally parked next to it. The cemetery itself is really a pleasant enough place, and they are restoring it - adding nice markers with full names and removing the numbers - but dying at Western State in 1915 was no way to go.

Even today, it's reputation scares people being held at other places - they think that if they get sent there it is because there is no hope, and it's a one-way ticket. That's not true, but it's the belief that somehow gets perpetrated at other facilities where people with mental illnesses are being held. In Pierce County, they are taken there for long-term commitment hearings, and even that experience is horrifying for them. I can only imagine what it must have been like in Charlie Faust's day.

Edited to add - there are over 3,000 people buried in a relatively small area. Originally, all had small stones like the one below the readable one in the picture, that simply have the grave number. Quite a few have been replaced with what looks like marble markers, that are about four times the size of the old stones. Maybe 1/5 or fewer have been replaced. Charlie Faust's marker is a unique type, so I'm guessing it was done privately. Also, his was the only grave with flowers.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Runscott

From talking with 71buc, I already knew Faust was buried at the Western State Cemetery, but was surprised that we accidentally parked next to it. The cemetery itself is really a pleasant enough place, and they are restoring it - adding nice markers with full names and removing the numbers - but dying at Western State in 1915 was no way to go.

Even today, it's reputation scares people being held at other places - they think that if they get sent there it is because there is no hope, and it's a one-way ticket.

So Western State was a looney bin, er, secured facility? Because the occupants of a cemetery pretty much already had their tickets punched, except in the movies.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

So Western State was a looney bin, er, secured facility? Because the occupants of a cemetery pretty much already had their tickets punched, except in the movies.

Neither. It was, and is, a psychiatric facility. At one point the mentally ill were sent there simply so everyone else could pretend they didn't exist. They lived and died there. Now they live there and get some care - it's primarily for longer term 'treatment' than the other facilities in the state. It's also where the judge will send mentally-ill criminals where they can 'recover' so that they can be sent to a regular prison or be executed.

[Runscott]

Odd, but I didn't think about the baseball until I was creating the post.

Thanks for providing that link.

[blackandgold]

Fred Snodgrass tells his story on the Glory Of Their Times cd.

[autograf]

Fantastic recollection on the Glory CD.......recommend it highly........