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If you look at the photo above closely you will be able to see a portion of the graves. Some of those graves have been there for over a hundred years. Why should we try to preserve the cemetery or mark the graves now? We try because at one point in time each one of those buried there was the whole world to someone else. They were someone’s child, someone’s husband or wife, someone’s mom or dad, someone’s brother or sister. Today there are grandchildren and great-grandchildren who never had what most of us take for granted. They don’t know where their grandparent died or where they were buried. Some don’t even know their name.
The people buried here did not lead an easy life. They did not have someone to hold their hand as they died. There was no one there to cry as they were lowered into the ground. All those people, over 2469 of them, rest in graves with the one and only thing to mark their lives being a concrete square with a number on it. A marker now buried beneath the ground. They deserve better than that. They deserve to have their lives recognized, even if it is only a marker with their name on it.
What would it take to make that happen? Not very much at all if enough people care. For some it would mean putting off buying the new X-Box game or the latest app. For others it is a matter of getting angry. Angry that there is a cemetery in our small town with over 2469 graves marked with numbers. You can help by joining the committee, giving a donation or by simply sharing our story with others.
The first time I went to CLSH was about 12 years ago when my older children were young. I met Paul Benoit and was shown around the grounds. But nothing prepared me for the tears that would come from reading my great grandmother’s medical records.I sat in my car and cried. You see, I was the first and only person to ever visit her in over 75 years. Then I learn that she not only had no one who came to her funeral{ if you can call it that, she was wheel barreled to he hole }, but she had been placed in a wooden coffin, made by male patients and her gown by female patients. She had waited many years before, for someone, anyone to give her news of her 6 children. The nurses notes said she walked to hall every night crying for her “babies”. This was a strong woman, who had been abandoned and left to fade away. She has no grave stone, the hospital had seemed to of lost her patient number, the only way to identify her, so now she is just a spoken word. I feel the thickness of the air when I go there, to CLSH….so many souls there, never given the proper burial. I went back to CLSH this past weekend and I could have stayed for many more hours than I did. I hope the state realizes the importance and necessity of saving this place. It will be a shame if all is forgotten.
I have just found that my 4th great aunt was a patient and probably died at the hospital. I do not know how to get her records. I want to find out about her and her life.
Kim, use the contact page to send us your aunt’s name. We can tell you if she is buried there. That is all the information we can give out or have access to. For more you will have to contact Medical Records.
This is the address and phone number you need. Hope you find the answers you are looking for..
Central Louisiana State Hospital
Medical Records Dept.
P. O. Box 5031
Pineville, LA 71361-5031
318-484-6200
(this is the Switchboard Operator # – just ask for Medical Records Dept.)
Kim, could you let us know how this goes? My great grandfather is buried there. I’d love to be able to see his medical records. I just don’t know how easy it would be to get them. Best of luck in your research.
I will let you know. I was told you have to prove that you are related so I am hoping that my old family record book will be acceptable. Fingers crossed. Good luck to you as well.
I understand that Jackson State Hospital has the same situation in a cemetery full of unmarked graves. My great grandmother is buried there. She died in 1930 in that hospital after being sent there from New Orleans. She had epilepsy and tragically at that time doctors treated it as a mental illness. I do have her medical records from the hospital and I can tell you that anyone that died in any of these hopitals suffered greatly from the conditions. I wish CLSH Cemetery Preservation would take on this hospital as a cause. I would surely donate to it. I live in Michigan so I can’t take it on myself.
Linda, I wish we could take it on. It is a huge job. Most people don’t put a cemetery on their list of charities. It is sad that there are so many state hospitals with these cemeteries.