The banner above is a depiction of the Philadelphia State Hospital, otherwise known as Byberry, as it would have looked in the early-mid 1940s. As described in The Faithful Ones and observed by the character Walter Sinclair: “He adjusted his gold-rimmed spectacles and surveyed his home for the foreseeable future, noting . . . the buildings that seemed to multiply and expand with nearness, like a fleet of ships through a telescope.” (from chapter 15, “The Quaker”)     

The Faithful Ones is a true family story that originated with Mary Hohlfeld Joyce, and my aunt by marriage. It was supplemented by the documents and artifacts she collected over the years, as well as by my own extensive research. The history of Byberry was of particular interest, and Peace Collection of the Swarthmore College Library in Philadelphia offers a cache of vital information, especially related to the conscientious objectors who performed their alternative military service at Byberry. The character of Walter Sinclair in the novel is an amalgamation of Quakers, Warren Sawyer and Charles Lord, two of the conscientious objector attendants who schemed to expose Byberry atrocities by publishing secretly taken photographs. I was fortunate to be able to track down the ninety-something years old Warren Sawyer and do a phone interview with him. His memory showed no signs of age, and he corroborated much of what I learned about Byberry through my research, especially the fact that the military used it as a dumping ground for problematic soldiers. He did not remember Edward Hohlfeld, but he did remember soldiers like him. This book is based on over 2000 reports of conditions and mistreatment of patients in state hospitals around the country. 

Below is a fairly comprehensive list of sources consulted in the writing of this book.

Photos, such as those below, depicting Byberry’s atrocious conditions, are widely available on the internet. Original artifacts may be found in the Harold Barton and Warren D. Sawyer Collected Papers that are housed in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection in Philadelphia.

“Three times a day they were steered into the dayroom like cattle into a barn. The inmates numbered in the hundreds. Two? Three-hundred? Ed couldn’t tell. Today he had pushed through the horde of lost, aimless souls and found his way to a prized spot beneath one of the windows, where bars of sunlight softened the rotting floor planks.” (Chapter 20, “Corralled Crazies”)

Sources Consulted for The Faithful Ones:

American Catholic Pacifism: The Influence of the Dorothy Day Movement. Ed. Anne Klejment and Nancy L. Roberts. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996.

Harold Barton Collected Papers (CDG-A), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

“Catherine Yasinchuk, 86, dies; wrongly committed for 48 years.” The Ukranian Weekly. Vol. LI, No. 10: Sunday, March 6, 1983. 1-2.

Deutsch, Albert. The Shame of the States. NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948.

Grady, Sandy. “The Man the World Forgot.” Ebony Magazine. 6 May 1946.

Greeley, Andrew M. The Cardinal Sins. NY: Warner Books, 1981.

Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. “Not Just Japanese Americans: The Untold Story of U.S. Repression During ‘The Good War’.” The Institute for Historical Review. Sept. 1986: 285-318.

Illingworth, Shawn. Interview with Warren Sawyer. 18 July 2008. Oral History Archives at Rutgers University. Accessed 10 June 2013.

Jarrett, Bede. “Infallibility of Conscience.” The Catholic Worker. Vol. 9, No. 1 (November, 1941): 4. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Jones, Hannah Karena. Images of America: Byberry State Hospital. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. 2013.

Keim, Albert N. The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of the Civilian Public Service. New York: Good Books, 1969.

Maisel, Albert Q. “BEDLAM 1946: Most of U.S. Mental Hospitals Are a Shame and A Disgrace.” Life Magazine. 6 May 1946. 102-18.

Pamphlet: “Why They Cannot Go to War: A Saga of C.O. Joe.”

“Philadelphia State Mental Hospital: Patient Necrology. http://www.philadelphiastatehospital.com/id23.html

“Records of Center on Conscience and War, 1940. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

“Retrospectives and Historical Analysis of World War II Conscientious Objectors.” Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Visited May 2013.

Sareyan, Alex. The Turning Point: How Men of Conscience Brought about Major Change in the Care of America’s Mentally Ill. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1994.

Series I, Personal Papers. Subject File: Conscientious Objection/Objectors. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Series II, CPS Camps and Projects. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Taylor, Steven J. Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions and Religious Objectors. NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009.

The Good War and those who Refused To Fight It. Dir. Judith Erlich and Rick Tejada-Flores. Paradigm Productions, 2000.

Waites, Kate J. Interview with Warren Sawyer. 6 June 2013.

Webster, J.P. The Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry: A History of Misery and Medicine. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013. 

Wright, Frank. Out of Sight, Out of Mind. National Mental Health Foundation, 1947.