In the 1870s, Lily Westbrooke was an unassuming, ordinary resident of the New York State Asylum for Idiots. An “industrious and faithful worker,” she spent her days laboring in the institution’s laundry, where she had “assume[d] the responsibility of looking after a great deal of the children’s clothing.” An affectionate woman who loved taking charge of younger pupils, Westbrooke had come far since arriving at the asylum from a “pauper” family in 1858 as a bashful nine-year-old who understood only simple language and was unaware that “printed words stood for objects of any kinds.” Now a “great talker” and an avid reader, she showed no signs of the obstinacy, violent temper, and reputed “moral deficiency” that Madison County Poorhouse officials claimed had led them to send her to the Asylum for Idiots in the first place....
Embody's 'Birds of Madison County, New York' Birds of Madison County, New York George Charles Embody