Andrew Sheffield also wrote to Dr. J Searcy the same day as the letter to Governor Johnston. She wrote that this would be the last attempt she would make to get out of the Hospital and “for heaven’s sake tell the truth that I was sent here a sane woman, and to keep me out…

In a letter to Gov Joseph F. Johnston on July 17, 1897, Andrew Sheffield tried to make her case that she should be released from the Alabama Insane Hospital.  She writes, “I have heretofore appealed to Ex.  Gov’s Jones and Oates, and of no avail.  I will now try you:  from what I can gather…

Alabama Insane Hospital is governed by a series of rules and regulations established in 1861 by the Alabama legislature on admitting patients like Andrew Sheffield, how staff should treat patients, how Alabama Insane Hospital receives revenue and other necessary administration rules. To start the process, a patient like Andrew needed a certificate from a physician…

On January 1, 1896, Superintendent Searcy wrote to Gov William Oates his response to the letter he received from Oates over the Andrew Sheffield case dated December 26, 1895.  He probably included Andrew Sheffield’s letter as well. Searcy wrote to Oates that he was glad he showed an interest in this case.  Oates was not…

On December 30, 1895, Andrew Sheffield wrote a letter to Governor William Oates to explain in her own words what had happened and how she had gotten to the Alabama Insane Hospital.  She mentioned that she only heard of him from his father, James L. Sheffield.  James Sheffield would mention Oates’ name often due to…

In a December 26, 1895 letter, Gov William C. Oates wrote to Superintendent Searcy inquiring about this case.  Initially unsatisfied with Searcy’s response, Oates asked whether Andrew Sheffield was insane.  He wonders if she is genuinely insane since “the character of her letters if she is insane a good many people outside of the Hospital…

In a letter to J. T. Searcy, the superintendent at Bryce Hospital, Probate Judge T. A. Street wrote that he was satisfied with Andrew Sheffield’s care.  Street wrote that he fully agreed with Searcy that Sheffield should not be allowed to write to anyone.  Street believed that she would “denounce and abuse any one with…

On June 15, 1893, Andrew Sheffield wrote a letter to Governor Thomas G. Jones.  This letter is one of many letters she has written to governors defending her claim that she was sane.  In this letter, Andrew mentioned that she found out by Dr. Bondurant that her letter to the governor reached his desk.   Dr.…