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Health & Fitness

Country Gal/City Woman: A Woman to Love

A curse leads to unbearable suffering but ultimate triumph for Rhoda Derry.

This story is dedicated to every woman I have ever known who has faced struggles and hardships in her "walk" through life, who has had to draw on backbone and raw courage of "epic" proportions in meeting those challenges face-to-face and SURVIVED!

Rhoda A. Derry, the woman of whom you will soon be reading, is one of those women.  Her story is not a fairy tale, but it is one from which you can draw strength, purpose, and yes, JOY, and know that there are "Four Prince Charming's" alive and well in Peoria, Illinois, willing to capture her existence on film for all to see how the "Human Spirit" endures in an almost-unendurable situation...life in a mental institution and the people who came to know and love someone who could, easily, be described as a woman to be "pitied" but I do not!   By the end of her story, you will know why!

....as someone who has had her nose buried in books of every nature since before Kindergarten days, I know that any writer, worth her salt, should acknowledge those individuals who have contributed, confirmed, verified or ratified information she has purloined in an effort to make her own prose look and read more believably. 

In my case that would be "Doc" Derry (a cousin I inherited through my marriage to his distant cousin, Del) and to Joan Brown Derry, another cousin.  Between the two of them, they have compiled a Derry Family Genealogy Report (yes, I added wherever I could to round out their information) which will become the Legacy that my three kids will inherit with maybe a few dollars, depending! 

It is from "Doc's" latest book...A Letter from Aunt Ethel...that I draw my historically-correct information about his Great Great Aunt Rhoda A. Derry.  "Doc" and Joan, through sheer industry and a great love for family history, have given members of the my extended family a most awesome gift to be cherished by generations to come.

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AND SO IT BEGINS...

The history of Rhoda is, at once, compelling, mystifying, intriguing, smacks of witchcraft and the casting of spells handed down from generation to generation.  It all began with a woman by the name of Mary "Old Moll" Derry who lived in Pennsylvania during the 1700's.  

"Old Moll" was quite famous (a legend)  in her day as she could prophesy events, being  accurate enough that her rustic log cabin located in the hills was skirted around by those who knew only too well of her foretelling.  Her reputation and practices of witchcraft and occultism were enough to drive family members away from that vicinity to locate in Indiana and eventually, Illinois, where Rhoda would appear on the scene in 1834 as the daughter of Jacob and Rachel Derry.

Of course, stories of "Old Moll" were still alive and well in Jacob's household, and one can only imagine the thoughts that must have lingered in the mind of a very young and impressionable Rhoda as she grew into a young teenager, especially with a Mom who also was capable of "shooting at imaginary witches around the house." 

Whether or not she actually "bagged" a witch is up for grabs but it is easy to vision all the kids in the family scurrying  under the beds when Rachel (the Mom) took gun in hand to shoot at  something only she could see!  "Old Moll" must have been right-proud knowing that her daughter-in-law was proving to be a right-good shot!  Aiming counts, too!

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In newspaper accounts of Rhoda, she has been described as having been a "very beautiful" young girl born to a family that was mistakenly described as "wealthy"... honest, trustworthy, hardworking, but never wealthy.  Her beauty attracted the attention of the neighbor boy, Charles Phenix, when they were both 16 years of age in the year 1850, and their romance led to an engagement which did not suit the purposes of Charles' Mom, Nancy, not one bit!

Whatever her reasoning was, and knowing the other family's mindset about witches and casting of spells, Nancy (playfully or with malice) threatened her future daughter-in-law with bewitchment if Rhoda did not release her son from their engagement. 

"The Ruse" worked so well on our young and impressionable Rhoda that she ''exhibited all the signs of one possessed of an evil spirit" and was certain that "Old Scratch" was after her.  (For those not acquainted with "Old Scratch," my cousin, "Doc" states that it is an Old Norse term meaning "hermaphrodite goblin or wizard.")  

 Why Charles did not "man up" to his meddling mother, and what happened to this young and handsome young man after his engagement to Rhoda may well never be known.  I wonder if there may well be Phenix progeny who will read this story of their Grandpa's young love for Rhoda.

And, of course, being the incurably sentimental one of my family, I want to shake Charles Phenix silly and want to know why he felt his love for Rhoda and their future wasn't worth going to battle. It is written in Doc's book that, to her credit, Nancy Phenix was willing to talk to Rhoda and take away the "spell" but Rhoda would have none of that, being more than a little frightened the first time around.

So little was known of mental illness in those early days of medicine, and Dr. Joseph Mehr in his book "History of Illinois Public Mental Health Services 1847-2000" tells us that, "Everyone is capable of becoming schizophrenic, and everyone has that trigger."  As "Doc" says in his book:  "Belief in witches and witchcraft and Nancy's curse must have been an explosive combination for young Rhoda."  

Rhoda's first exposure to a life away from family members came about in 1856 when she was admitted to the Jacksonville Asylum as "unmanageable" -- dreams of marriage to Charles,  babies to nurse, growing old with the man she loved, all shattered beyond belief, little wonder. At Jacksonville, those in charge of Rhoda's care "could not keep the doors of her room locked at night and in the morning, Rhoda could be found walking about in the yard.

When asked who let her out, Rhoda would reply:  'Mrs. Phenix.'" Understanding, helping, controlling Rhoda and her "mysterious" behavior eventually proved to be too much for staff members....What to do?   Lack of expertise and knowledge about the human existence at facilities in those days offered up just one solution. "Go tell Aunt Rhody...she's going home....."

What is a loving family to do when a beloved daughter is returned home by the Asylum with a note saying she is not insane?  Jacob and Rachel turned to relatives for comfort, help and understanding. 

For instance:  "One night when it was very cold, Rhoda's brother-in-law slept close to her bed that he might keep her covered.  He dreamed that a black cat came into the house and ran around the house on the ceiling three times,when it jumped and scratched him on the face.  When he awoke the next morning, he was told Rhoda had the same dream.  The man's face was burned as from the wound of the cat's claws, and the side nearest the girl was nearly paralyzed." 

And in another almost unbelievable instance, "Rhoda ran and turned a somersault and lit on the bed on her head...and whirled about like a top...with her feet up!  She was told by her brother, Jerry, to get down but she said, 'I can't.  They are holding me up!'"  

Another letter states that Rhoda's penchant to use multi-syllable words was of delight to her family and friends in conversations, this in spite of never having the opportunity to be properly educated, perplexing to say the least....

Equally perplexing to her family, she often foretold the visits of relatives to her home.  And... "if a strange man came to their house, she would ask him for a chew of tobacco and upon receiving it, she would tell the man his name and the object of his mission." Strange stuff, indeed!  

Always, the family was confronted by the troubling question:  "What to do about Rhoda?"

Rhoda's Mom passed away in 1860, her father was aged and here was Rhoda, a handful to say the least.  The only reasonable answer and the next stop....the inevitable poorhouse for our young, beautiful and very insane cousin.  And there she remained for approximately ten years where it is said she "beat out her own eyes, pulled out her own hair and otherwise injured herself.  After each of these spells, she would sing a beautiful song and offer up a solemn prayer, asking God to forgive her."  The years passed and Rhoda, along with other inmates of the poorhouses of that time, endured her deplorable existence.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Record keeping was not the most accurate at the "almshouses, poor houses" and complete records are sparse.  Here is what Joan Brown Derry says about Rhoda's admittance to another new "home away from home".  

"In 1874, the law required poorhouse keepers to keep books of accounts. If Rhoda was finally admitted on 3 September 1860, then she had already been at the poorhouse for almost ten years at the time of this (1874) census.  She was already listed as being blind, indicating that she has "beat her eyes out" during that ten-year period.  A young lady, only 25 years old, still retaining some lucid moments, must have felt total despair and hopelessness at what she saw around her."

For forty-three years, Rhoda lay abed (actually a large clothes basket)  amid unspeakable squalor, subject to the unwanted company of rodents, her fragile body fast becoming misshapen, "a hideous object"  in the eyes of an unsympathetic beholder. It was said that when Rhoda was placed on the floor, "she hopped along on her hands, so doubled up that she looked more like a toad than a human being."

"From these surroundings, in 1904, Rhoda was brought to the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane, later to be known as the Peoria State Hospital.  She was taken to the hospital for women, bathed regularly and lived for the first time in forty-three years, in a bed between clean white sheets."  

Rhoda was brought to the Asylum in a common clothes basket in the dead of night and left in the hands of nurturing men and women for the first time in all her troubled years.  Dr. George A. Zeller entered Rhoda's  life for reasons known only to God.

For the two years that Rhoda was under the care of Dr. Zeller and his staff, Rhoda was given "even better attention, and her appreciation of special delicacies was only equal to her delight at being given a chew of tobacco."  (Some habits are hard to give up!)

"We never allowed her to become the object of curiosity, but when real students of social problems came along, we took them to the bedside of Rhody and her case alone called down more blessings upon the State than all the eighteen hundred others we are now caring for."  So stated a letter received by Honorable C.B. McCorry, Judge of the Adams County Court about Rhoda's unique case. 

The letter continues:  "(At the time of her death in 1906) Rhoda had reached her allotted three score years and ten and is buried in grave number 217, Asylum Cemetery.  The nurses who cared for her in life were at the side of the grave when the last honors were paid her and, when they returned to their duties instead of feeling relieved that a great burden had been lifted from their hands, all were crying.  ...the State is better for the knowledge that justice was finally done this long neglected woman."

Dr. Zeller's role in Rhoda's tormented life proved to be one that forever changed the way mental patients have been cared for the world over.  Dr. Zeller's autobiography states "she had a history which is probably without a parallel in the world.  As a striking example of the evils of almshouse treatment of the insane, she did more for suffering humanity than almost any woman in the country."

Dr. Zeller caught the eye (the still discerning heart!) of our once very young, very beautiful, very sane cousin in a way that brings a not-so-silent chuckle from within my heart and soul when I think of her actions as he would pass by her bed on his rounds of the hospital.  It is recorded that upon occasion, she would reach out and tug on his pants leg, bestowing upon her hero a flirty little smile...

It is also recorded that some, who have stood by her grave site, have felt a slight tug on a pants leg....

This is not the end of Rhoda's story, not by a long shot.  Rhoda's four Prince Charmings (and now they are mine) are in the process of raising funds to put Rhoda's story in documentary form on film in the hopes that all who see will understand better the condition of those who suffer from forms of mental illness today. You will meet these four young filmmakers soon.

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