Poems from the Asylum, Book Tour Recap

June 6, 2023

Quick Introduction by Author Janelle Molony

Jodi Nasch Decker, Ed. D. is the granddaughter of Martha Nasch: “The Woman Who Never Ate, Drank or Slept for Seven Years.” She is also (you guessed it) my mother. In this guest post, Jodi shares on some of the experiences we shared during the book tour through Minnesota. Some of my thoughts are interjected in italics. Enjoy the recap!

Visiting Historical Sites Offers Enrichment and Expertise

Guest Blogger: Jodi Nasch Decker, June 2023

Local city and county historical societies are a rich resource for exploring your family’s history in a specific location. While genealogy societies help with researching family trees (and there can certainly be overlap), historical societies provide authoritative information on the time periods, events, and places your relatives resided in. This can include providing residential records, family or local artifacts, photos, maps, and books, newspaper clippings, and resources that provide context to their life stories.  

(And, I’ll throw in – they have access to photos and connections to other locals who can offer anecdotal and visual aids to supercharge your family tale. – J)

In May of 2023, the Poems From the Asylum co-biographers took a lively road trip through Minnesota to walk in the footsteps of their ancestor Martha Nasch. They set aside time to visit with and enjoy getting to know the experts who contributed to the book. This included several historical societies in places that are significant in Martha’s life.    

The first stop on the tour was the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. There, we thoroughly enjoyed several immersive exhibits, including one on “World War II “The Greatest Generation” (Depression Era living). The Great Depression was one of the most significant events in Martha’s life, as she saw her one and only son Ralph off to war.

(I highly recommend a visit here… but allow 3 hours. We tried to cram it all in at 60 minutes to closing. Lesson learned: that’s impossible. Also, we did an entire tour of the Westside neighborhood and visited Martha Nasch’s former home on Hall Ave. That hill… is no joke. – J)

Janelle Molony at the former home of the Nasches.
Jodi Dacker looking out the front room of the former family home.
Jodi recreates one of Martha Nasch’s poses at the local pool.

The next stop was to the Bell Plaine Historical Society in Sibley County. Martha Nasch was born in this immigrant borough in 1890.  There, the authors toured a historic home with docent and councilman Gary Coop. He explained the customs and lifestyle of families who originally settled in that town. 

(One of my personal favorite moments was seeing the two-story, high-capacity outhouse. “High capacity” = 3 holes, haha. – J)

A later stop at the Sibley County Historical Society in Henderson was a particular delight for Martha’s descendants. Docent Arlene Busse displayed items from the family collection that were donated by Mary Gruening Deterling’s daughter Delores Schmidt (Martha Nasch’s niece). Delores donated the tiny, but lengthy wedding dress of Mary, Hugo’s Gruening’s six-foot-long duck hunting “mud shoes,” and a portrait of Mrs. Augusta Gruening (Martha’s mother).

(I loved that Arlene handed us a pair of white gloves and let us touch almost everything. That made us feel quite special. Oddly, there was no matching portrait of Mr. August Gruening, but Arlene did find a funeral card for him, all in German. Awww… And on another strange side quest, we asked around for any pictures of Richard Gruening – Martha’s oldest brother who died in 1922 – there are none. Nothing online, nothing in the archives, nothing in papers, nothing in family/cousin collections… just nothing.-J)

Seeing relatives’ artifacts in a museum is a unique experience, but it’s reassuring to see them carefully preserved for others to appreciate.  Arlene also escorted us to the nearby cemetery to see Martha buried near her second husband, Bill Lehman.   

Janelle “tries on” Mary’s very long wedding dress.
Hugo Gruening’s “Mud Shoes”.
Example of duck hunting in Minnesota terrain.
Touring the town with Arlene Busse.
Visitng Martha Gruening Nasch Lehman’s grave
Jodi checks for any resemblence to her great-grandmother Augusta.

Next, we visited the Nicollet County Historical Society, located in St. Peter, which partners with the Historic Treaty Center to provide exhibits and resource materials regarding the local town history. 

The primary tour of the St. Peter State Hospital Museum provided visitors with an insider’s experience into the life of an insane asylum patient, much as Martha herself would have lived. Docent Beth Zabel narrated a detailed tour with stories that enhanced the exhibits. After that, we shared our experiences with the St. Peter Lion’s Club at the local college.

(While at the hospital museum, I felt a certain degree of sadness, but not in a “tragic, torturous state of affairs” way. Rather, I felt pity for everyone involved in the mental health field. Employees were doing the best they could with such little resources. Physicians were taxed with trying to invent new cures and treatments that did not exist either in form or concept. Reformists had to battle budgets and societal apathy for increasing the much-needed financial resources. Now, with very little joking, it is clear to see that in the early 1930s, everyone had their hands tied – literally or figuratively. – J)

Wa had a wonderful tour group – AND guide!
Numbered headstones at the detached cemetery.
Janelle “tries on” the strong dress for patients.
A nurse’s outfit at St. Peter’s Hospital
Rulebook for employees of the “Hospital for Insane.”
Jodi checks out the electroschock machine.
Janelle soaks in everything in the museum galleries.

The final stop was to the Otter Tail County Historical Society in Fergus Falls. Martha’s brother, mother, and sister lived here for a time, and the rest of the Gruening family spent their summers up there. We enjoyed touring the Museum’s lifelike displays of historic locations and activities. There were “rooms” where we could see inside an old medical office, a farmhouse, and even see a mannequin hunkered down in the reeds to get himself a duck for dinner – just like Hugo often did.

They also had an exhibit with a collection of men’s and women’s hats from various decades in time. That made us reminiscent of how Martha lived while in St. Paul as an independent and fashionable woman of her era. While in town, we took advantage of an outside tour of the preserved Fergus Falls State Hospital grounds was compelling to see.  

(Unfortunately, the city of Fergus Falls has decided not to preserve or restore this hospital for any other purpose and while we were there, there was no entry allowed and construction crews were sealing up the windows and doors. In my opinion, I would have paid a $20+ admission fee just to go inside … even if that meant walking through empty corridors, or sitting in a rickety rocking chair and peering out a tall window considering the people of the hospital’s past. That is certainly a missed opportunity for tourists and researchers alike. -J)

Grand enterance to the Fergus Falls Hospital.
Touring the grounds of the now closed hospital.
Rules for working at Fergus Falls (Courtesy of OTCHS)

Bonus Experiences

Janelle Molony, June 2023

Jodi and I had the incredible honor of presenting Martha Nasch’s incredible tale to several supportive groups, primarily, the Minnesota Genealogical Society in Mendota Heights, the St. Peter Lion’s Club at Gustavus Adolphus Univeristy, and the Otter Tail academics and fans at the Minnesota State Technical College. We also presented for the local historical societies, senior center members, hospital employees, and the general at the public library community rooms in Henderson, St. Peter, and Fergus Falls. I was especially honored to have one of the former CEOs of the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center attend one of the events.

Speaking at Gustavus.
Speaking at the Community Center.
Visiting Minnehaha Falls.
Family tour of the Wabasha Street Caves.
Janelle loved the “Redheaded Ale” at Mabel Murphy’s.

Beyond these work experiences, we also enjoyed a private family reunion with our favorite Minnesota cousins. With them, we visited the Wabasha Street Caves and Minnehaha Falls. We took backroads and explored the outskirts of towns and reveled in the green and soggy lands that are foreign to us as Arizona gals. We visited monuments and tributes for critical moments in Minnesota’s history related to indigenous peoples. We paid our respects to those who both lived.. and died in the mental health treatment centers. We also scarfed down local fare that was too good to take photos of, but we’ll throw out now… MINNESOTA MUST EAT HERE: Cecil’s Delicatessen in St. Paul (the Reuben… the potato salad… omg). Toast in Fergus Falls (avocado toast, but extreme). Mable Murphy’s in Fergus Falls (beer cheese and pretzel knots, anyone??).

My favorite memories out of all these already mentioned, however, were giving away precious family secrets and discussing taboo topics with our event guests that have never appeared in our social media or book content. (Oh, those Q&As could get a bit wild!) And, to top it all off, was spending time with my mother doing something we love, together, and gifting her the “Passenger Princess” experience through memory lane. Though all the family factoids may fade into forgetfulness, the memories made with my family will undoubtedly last a lifetime.

Co-biographers filming for Facebook Live.
Speaking at the St. Peter Community Center.
Signing ooks at the local museum.
Janelle Molony and Jodi Nasch Decker, Nasch family historians.

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