Mary Ann Mulholland: Always Cared For

To refer to a person as "idiotic" in modern times is often a slang term for acting stupid. But in the 19^th and early 20^th century, the term was used to refer to an individual with a severe intellectual disability. Such was the case of Mary Ann Mulholland, youngest daughter of Samuel Mulholland sr. and Jane Bullock.

Like her siblings, Mary Ann Mulholland was born in Ireland, coming to the United States as a toddler in 1833 with her parents. She stands out among Sam's children as the only one who never married and always lived with relatives. While many families have spinster sisters in their records, Mary Ann's case becomes more sad when she appears listed in the "1880 U.S Census Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes Schedule: Idiotic."

Page from 1880 "Defective Schedule"
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What we learn of Mary Ann who was about 50 in 1880 is that her situation is more than just the case of a spinster sister. According the "Defective Schedule" as it is often called, Mary Ann, of Superior Township, was:

• only partly self supporting,
• age at which idiocy occurred: birth 
• size of head: natural

The record also indicates she was never institutionalized and did not have other disabilities such as blindness, deafness, or epilepsy.

While there was a space for cause, in her case this was blank, implying she just was this way from her early life. Whether she may have had Down's syndrome, being a late-in-life child for her mother Jane, had a genetic disorder, or whether something occurred at birth to cause her condition remains unknown, as few records from the time gave more detailed information other than the very broad classification of "idiocy."

The census enumerators collecting information for the "defective" schedule were given very specific instructions about what the term "idiotic" meant. From the census schedule page:

The word “idiot” has a special meaning which it is essential for every enumerator to know. An idiot is a person the development of whose mental facilities was arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the stupidity which results from idiocy and that which is due to the loss or deterioration of mental power in consequence of insanity. The latter is not true idiocy, but dementia or imbecility. The enumeration desired for the Census is of true idiots only. Demented persons should be classed with the insane. (1880 U.S. Census Supplemental Schedule 3, Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes: Idiots)

Although there are hints of her disability when she was younger, she was not listed as "idiotic" in earlier census records. A column for this could be found in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses. What does show up is that she was cared for consistently by her family who did not share with the outside world that she had special needs. In the 1834 Michigan and 1840 U.S. census, she is likely one of the female children listed with Sam sr (except for the head of household, none of the household were identified except by age and gender).

By 1850 after the death of her parents, she was living in a household next to brother William Mulholland with a 16-year-old who may have been a caretaker. Mary at 22 is shown as unable to read and write English, the only one of the children of Sam and Jane for whom this was the case.

In 1860 she appears as Mary Mulholend, a "domestic servant" living with her sister, Eliza Mulholland Larabee, in Clinton County Michigan. No record has been found for Mary for 1870 after the death of Eliza, but presumably she continued in the household of one of her siblings. 

In 1880, she is living with her brother William's family in Superior Township, listed as a sister and boarder, with a check in the column for "idiotic," thus indicating she is included on the "Defective Schedule." The census indicates she cannot read or write, and on a deed record from 1846 signed by her sister Eliza and husband William Larabee, Mary Ann has "her mark," an X.

After William's death, Mary Ann is found living with his son John J. Mulholland, and his younger siblings Elceba and Lewis in the 1884 Michigan census still on the farm that had been William's. Once again, the family reports to the census taker that their 57-year-old aunt is neither sick nor disabled.

While many classified as idiotic died young, Mary Ann lived to be over 60. She died of pneumonia in April 1892 and is buried in the Dixboro Cemetery still surrounded by the family that supported her throughout her life. Her story is a reminder of how differently mental disabilities were dealt with in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the family took care of their own, but it wasn't something to be discussed in public.