Boston, 1877-06-30 - 1896-09-21

File — Box: 156, Folder: 15

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Scope and Contents

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This folder contains a diary for the "asylum islands" in Boston Harbor -- Deer Island, Rainsford Island, and Long Island -- maintained by chaplains Albert Peters (1877-1879), Daniel Haugh (1879), Frederick Holland (1880), Andrew Keating (1881), Jacob/James Bric (1882-1884), Anthony Mandalari (1884-1888), Maurice/Morris Cavanagh (1888-1890), Patrick J. O'Connell (1890-1891), John Broderick (1891-1892), Patrick Forhan (1892-1893), Arthur McAvoy (1893-1895), William Hamilton (1895-1896), and Patrick Brennan (1896). The priests who ministered these areas were stationed at St. Mary's (Boston).

Serving the predominantly white and Irish residents of these islands, these priests catechized, heard confessions, made sick calls, administered sacraments, and said Mass at these islands. They were sites of reformatories for adults and truants, asylums, nurseries for children, hospitals, and quarantine facilities. The priests worked primarily among the poor men and women committed to the asylums on Rainsford Island and men and women convicted of petty crimes and sentenced to hard labor at the House of Industry on Deer Island. After the city of Boston addressed the overcrowding of Rainsford Island by establishing a reformatory and asylum at Long Island for men in 1887, the priests visited all three islands.

Their observations include comments on the receptiveness of the residents of these islands to their teachings, the Protestantism of the superintendents, and proposed reforms of the "asylum islands."

Dates

Creation: 1877-06-30 - 1896-09-21

Creator

From the Collection: Jesuits. Maryland Province (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

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The Maryland Province Archives is on deposit at Georgetown University and is the property of the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. As stewards of the Archives, the Georgetown University Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections is responsible for managing access to the material based on policies set forth by the USA East Province. Researchers may view these materials in the Reading Room of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. General policies for using Special Collections can be found here.

Access to the Archives is governed by the USA East Province and is subject to all Library and Special Collections policies and procedures in addition to the specific guidelines below. These guidelines are a summary of access policies; the Archives may include materials that fall outside the scope of these general guidelines. For information on access to specific materials, please contact the Special Collections staff.

Guidelines:

1. All Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring before January 1, 1940, shall be open for review unless otherwise restricted, subject to Library policies and procedures.

2. All unpublished Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring on or after January 1, 1940, shall be open for review upon request subject to a decision by the Provincial or someone designated by the Provincial.

3. Researchers may quote from the materials.

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Historical Note

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The city of Boston administered the hospitals, asylums, and reform institutions on the "asylum islands" to address widespread poverty. In 1847, Deer Island housed a quarantine hospital; by 1853, the city of Boston used the site for an asylum to house the poor, the House of Industry for those convicted of petty crime, and reform institutions for truant youth. The state of Massachusetts used Rainsford Island as a quarantine island through the Civil War. In 1871 the city of Boston purchased Rainsford Island to establish a hospital and augment the asylum facilities at Deer Island. That purchase enabled the city to establish Deer Island as a site of correctional facilities: in 1877, the city closed its asylums for the poor on that island and, in 1882, established the House of Correction and maintained the House of Industry. The attention of reformers led the city of Boston to purchase property on Long Island to establish a hospital and asylum for men; in 1887, those facilities opened. Both Deer Island and Rainsford Island are the sites of cemeteries with a large number of unmarked graves.

James J. Bric, S.J. shared his recollections of the the fight to gain equal standing with Protestant missionaries at Deer Island: "Recollections of the Chaplain of Deer Island from 1882," Woodstock Letters, 48: 96-101. For a historical study of Rainsford Island and its cemetery, see William A. McEvoy and Robin Hazard Ray, Rainsford Island: A Boston Harbor Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism, 2019, rev. 2021. Both historical narratives indicate that there were a small number of Black individuals housed and buried at Deer Island and Rainsford Island.