WLM WLM Summer 2015 | Page 30

WLM | arts During this period, Alice helped a great deal at the hospital working with the very disturbed residents. It was said that she never showed fear and even invited the patients into her home. Her experience at the State Hospital gave her a life long appreciation for the problems of the mentally ill and she was very progressive in her ideas for their treatment. Without medical training and little schooling, Alice was a leader in giving respect to patients at the hospital and also took an interest in them after they were released. In a period of history when few women had the opportunity of working with the mentally ill, Alice proved herself to have great understanding and compassion for each individual. She died of chronic asthma at the age of 53 in 1908. married and moved to that community and lived in a home at 342 8th Street. She was born in 1853 in Bristol, England, the daughter of Ellen Beaumont and John Rugg. She came to America when she was two years old arriving in New York City. After living there a few years, the family came west by tra [