The history of Eloise (part 3)

Tyler Moll

This is part three of a multi-part complete history of the Wayne County Poorhouse and Asylum, commonly known as Eloise. By 1880 the population at the County house was 307 people, with 224 being considered “Permanent” for one reason or another. In 1881 the county hired the first permanent on-site doctor, Dr. E. O. Bennett. Bennett was part of a new generation of doctors using science and new understandings of human anatomy to actually try to understand and treat mental illness. The good doctor removed the shackles and dim cells, improved conditions, did all the medical and surgical work himself and had much success treating people so they could be released. Remember that up until this point doctors would only stop in if they happened to travel by, and there was really no attempt at curing patients.
The later 1800s in general saw a worldwide boom in science and technology, and doctors were applying these new tools. Things like Germ theory, ideas of cleanliness to prevent the spread of disease, and better treatment and surroundings of mental patients began to take hold. The 1880s also saw a lot of new construction, with a new administration building being built in 1887 that housed a chapel, fire department, offices, store and post office.

Eloise Dickerson and her St. Bernard

In 1886 a gas lighting plant was built to provide light inside buildings, intended to end the use of Kerosine lamps for lighting.
In 1894 a state-of-the-art electric plant was built, and the buildings were wired for electricity. For reference, Wayne didn’t even get electricity until 1908. The electric plant was so advanced, only the second built in the county, that the University of Michigan came out to study it. Up until 1887 the buildings were heated in winter by 59 wood stoves that the inmates had to maintain and stoke. They also had to go cut the wood and haul it back to the county house. In 1887 a steam plant was built and radiators installed to make it safer and more efficient. A schoolhouse was also built to educate the population of children and orphans at the county house in 1880, though by 1887 most of the children had been adopted out to local farm families and the school closed.
In 1894 the county house wanted to get its own Post Office, and to do so you had to pick a name that is not used anywhere else in the US. They submitted numerous names, all rejected. The board then submitted the name of the chairman of the board, Freeman Dickerson’s, four-year-old daughter, Eloise. The name was accepted, and the Eloise Post Office at the county house opened July 20, 1894. Slowly the name Eloise began to spread in the local lingo to refer to the place, with the railroad stop eventually changing its name, and the streetcar stop. Eventually the name became so synonymous with the place that Eloise became the official name until 1945. The real Eloise Dickerson lived until 1982 and died at the age of 93. Follow along next month for more.