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Osawatomie State Hospital and
Rainbow Mental Health Facility
History
Osawatomie State hospital
The State of Kansas was founded on a cause. The cause was anti-slavery and free soil. In the 1850’s Osawatomie, John Brown’s Town, became a symbol of active and militant opposition to the establishment of slavery in Kansas. This decisive record of opposition to slavery was the deciding factor when the Kansas legislators in 1863 voted to establish the state’s first state hospital in Osawatomie, Kansas called the “State Insane Asylum.”
“THE LODGE”…the treatment and rehabilitation of the mentally ill in Kansas began as simply as this…in a farmhouse near Osawatomie, Kansas on November 5, 1866, when the first patient was admitted to the first state mental hospital in Kansas. During its first year of operation the average patient population was 13. Soon the two wards accommodating twelve patients each and the employees who cared for them were filled. In 1868, construction of Main Building was begun. At one time, “The Lodge” was used as an isolation building for patients with smallpox, later as a farm building and then torn down.
The first superintendent of the first state mental hospital in Kansas was a Quaker physician, familiar with “moral treatment”. This kindly and benevolent man and his wife, who as appointed matron, commenced serving in 1866. The couple continued to serve until 1872. Entries in hospital journals indicate Dr. Gause’s sympathy and humanitarianism outlooks. He objected in the manner in which patients were brought to the hospital. They were brought in wagons tied hand and foot for over 100 miles in cold weather.
On November 5, 1866, when Kansas’ first state hospital admitted its first patient, two decades of Indian raids remained for Kansas. The first Kansas “treatment asylum” was established at a time when the state’s economic level was excruciatingly low, thirty thousand. Would-be settlers had abandoned the state and moved east…personal indebtedness was wide spread and heavy…there was drought and depression… for its population, Kansas had suffered the highest number of Civil War casualties of any union state. In May 1897, Mary, a young woman of sixteen, living in a Western Kansas county, entered the “State Insane Asylum” at Osawatomie. She left 61 years later to go to a nursing home.
The Hospital is located one mile north of the town of Osawatomie. It is designed as a college campus atmosphere. It was in its prime a city of its own. It had its own power plant, laundry, bakery, and living quarters for employees. Generations of families have been employed. The number of beds have been as many as 1500 to currently 176.
The history of Osawatomie State Hospital has had many famous guests and noted persons of history. Dorothea Dix, in July of 1869, one of America’s greatest women and outstanding humanitarian, visited the institution and conferred with the leader. Another leading figure in the mental hospital movement of the 19th century was a Quaker physician and hospital superintendent, Thomas Story Kirkbridge. The long time administrator 
of the Pennsylvania
State Hospital developed a system of institutional management and a complete plan of architectural arrangement. His system for hospital construction became standard for several decades. The first permanent buildings at the Osawatomie Hospital were designed according to the “Kirkbridge Plan”.
In late 1854, Samuel Lyle Adair and his family arrived in Kansas. He was an ordained minister and became the first chaplain at Osawatomie State Hospital. He was also the brother–in-law of the infamous John Brown. Samuel Adair became secretary of the board of trustees. A section of patient units is still named the Adair Section. The choice of Osawatomie as the site of the 1859 convention for the establishment of the Republican Party in Kansas was an indication of the esteem the consistorial leaders held for the town. A national figure demonstrated his admiration for the spirit of the community. Horace Greeley was present and spoke to those who assembled at the convention.
In early January of 1863, the Kansas governor delivered his message to the legislative, who worked to establish insane asylum challenged the legislators stating, “This appeals directly to you, and, as you are able, you will respond to the appeal. The state which cares best for these unfortunates is always the truest in council and the noblest in action.” The House voted for the Osawatomie location 56 to 6 and the Senate finalized the decision with a vote of 20 to 1 on February 29, 1865. The first book of minutes of the board contains entries indicating the determination to establish a treatment hospital, rather than a mere institution for custodial care.
“OLD MAIN” was Kansas’s oldest and largest mental hospital building (1868). The rambling red brick structure ranging from tow to five stories in height was completed in 1886. The two wings of the huge structure housed patients and the center section contained administration offices, pharmacy, dental clinic, canteen, and patients’ library. At one time the laundry and power plant were housed in Main building but these have been razed and rebuilt as separate facilities.
In 1913, a dynamic leader built upon the previous gains. Dr. Francis A. Carmichael was devoted and talented and had to battle the eroding effects of war, apathy, depression and misunderstanding. He was among the more successful leaders and a treatment peak was reached during his administration. In one of the annual reports, he wrote, “The mentally ill in our state hospitals will not suffer so long as the mentally sound espouse their cause and exert themselves in behalf of these less fortunate.”
Throughout the years of the hospital’s history the interest or apathy of the community is reflected in the good or bad cycles of hospital care. One of the low points occurred in 1948. Kansas citizens became aroused over reports in Kansas newspapers which pictured the widespread neglect, brutality, and deplorable hospital facilities. The Governor and the legislative acted and the Kansas reform program was begun. With the help of Topeka’s famed Menninger Foundation, training programs were established and Kansas hospitals began their slow climb upward.
June 17, 1962 was a significant day in the history of the hospital. Dr. Karl Menninger led those assembled for the occasion in dedicating the new, modern and attractive Adair Treatment Center, a collection of building equipped to provide patients with modern treatment. A “rehabilitation center” which includes a swimming pool, well-equipped auditorium, and a modern gymnasium was completed in 1963. The center greatly facilitated involvement and social participation.
Deinstitutionalization and expansion of community based services continued to increase throughout the nineties.
The Mental Health Reform Act of 1990 helped the state draw upon more resources for the community mental health system and gave Community Mental Health Centers the power to determine an individual’s appropriate.