Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1875 — A Family of Maniacs. [ARTICLE]

A Family of Maniacs.

A peculiar case of insanity is reported from Newark, Del., where two brothers have just been sent to an asylum as raving maniacs. The Wilmington papers furnish the following particulars of the affair: “Last week a jury was impaneled at Newark, Del., at the instance of William and Thomas McConaughy, to determine upon the sanity of their brother, David McConaughy, a wealthy citizen of the State. David retired from business some time ago, and, his nervous system becoming shattered from excessive drinking, he was confined in Kirkbride Asylum for nearly four years. Two years ago he returned very much reduced in health, but under the treatment of a physician he gradually recovered. He then began to ask his brothers about the settlement of his accounts (he claiming that they owed him some SIB,OOO or $19,000), but they committed him to the county almshouse, asserting that he was still afflicted. He left the almshouse and went to Philadelphia, where he consulted an old family physician, and from him obtained a certincate of the sanity of his mind. Since then he has been residing in Newark, and, having ordered his lawyers to push for a settlement with his brothers, they made application to have him declared insane. The jury, however, rendered a verdict declaring that David was in his right mind and competent to transact his own business, notwithstanding the sworn judgment of another brother (Jonathan) and his two sisters to the contrary. But the strangest part of the affair now follows. Since the trial the two brothers have been apparently much affected, and showed signs of mental aberration. On Sunday decided symptoms of insanity were observed in both, and by night they became so bad that it was decided to send them to Kirkbride’s, where they consigned their brother several years before. On Monday morning they were placed on the train at Wilmington for Philadelphia, but soon became so violent that the Chief of Police was obliged to handcuff them. Both were wild and uncontrollable. One of

them rolled his eyes in frenzy and kept shouting, ‘ I want to confess,’ in a piercing tone of voice. The other, who was kept in a forward car, acted in an equally maddened manner. Their actions created a great excitement during the stay at the depot. The Wilmington papers state that by some people this affliction of the brothers is regarded as a judgment for their treatment of David McConaughy, but ex■press the opinion that it is more probably the breaking out with them of an insanity Which is hereditary in the family. It was also rumored in Wilmington yesterday that David McConaughy, whom the jury pronounced sane, is now-also insane.”