John B. (#792, 1927)

John B. (1863-1927)

John was born in Indiana to German immigrants in about 1863. He worked as a grocery clerk for most of his life in Wabash, Indiana. Both his father and his brother died by suicide. John never married and lived with his mother until her death in 1915. Soon after, people in John’s life began observing “signs of insanity,” including wandering away, sleeping in a ditch, loss of memory, not recognizing friends, having suicidal tendencies, and having delusions that “lewd women” were trying to rob him. 

A physician also noted that John had been having seizures every few months. John was committed to Central State Hospital and admitted in November of 1926 with a diagnosis of epilepsy.

He spent just under a year at the hospital, passing away in September of 1927, after suffering a stroke or seizure which partially paralyzed him. This portion of John’s brain was preserved to show cerebral arteriosclerosis, which the pathologist Dr. Walter Breutsch found during the autopsy.

 




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