John F. Beaderstadt, shell shock and veteran care

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I came across the story of John Beaderstadt a couple of years ago while researching the history of the former Veterans Administration Medical Center at Knoxville, now a ghost campus filled with big  empty buildings and a major headache for both federal and local governments.

Until 1920, the state Asylum for Inebriates had been located there. But in June of that year, the federal government leased then later purchased existing buildings with room for some 150 patients and the grounds surrounding for use as a psychiatric hospital to house and treat World War I veterans suffering primarily from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Then, it was called shell shock.

During the next few years the campus was hugely expanded, giving it space to house and treat more than 1,500 patients. But the truth of the matter was, physicians really had no idea how to effectively deal with PTSD and could provide little more than custodial care to many --- offering among other therapies submersion in cold baths for up to eight hours at a time to "calm" patients.

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John Beaderstadt was native to Searsboro in Poweshiek County, but by 1917, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, was farming near Wall in western South Dakota. He married Ella Grachow there on Oct. 27, 1927, but they had very little time together before he was sent to Camp Dodge in Iowa for training, then dispatched overseas.

Severely damaged during the war, he finally made it back to the United States among the sick and wounded aboard the U.S. Army Transport Ship Mercury on Jan 8, 1920, and was sent to General Hospital, Hampton Roads, Virginia, for treatment. Bounced from place to place by the military, his family lost track of him. 

The following article, published in the Marshalltown Evening Time-Republican on Oct. 7, 1920, picks up the story:

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Cedar Rapids, Oct. 7 --- In the home of William Sleight, 1511 Washington avenue, there is a youth of 29 years, a former service man, who went thru all the horrors of battle and who now is speechless, mentally impaired thru shell shock and just recovering the use of his limbs, all from wounds and illness suffered during his army service.

His name is John F. Beaderstadt, Jr., and his home is in Searsboro, Iowa

Discharged from Camp Dodge June 11 of this year, his parents in Searsboro could find no trace of him until a month ago, when he was located in the government hospital for the insane at Knoxville, Iowa. He had been taken there without the knowledge or consent of his relatives after his discharge.

Chiefly thru the efforts of Congressman C.W. Ramseyer he was released from that institution three weeks ago and brought to the home of Mr. Sleight, who is a relative. Medical treatment given him here has regained for him partial control of his limbs, but he still is unable to speak and is suffering severely from shell shock.

Beaderstadt entered the service shortly after the United States declared war with Germany. He went thru all the major engagements in France, including those of the Aisne and Marne sectors. One stretch of continuous duty in the front lines for him was from April 25 to July 7, 1918. Another was from July 18 to July 25.

His hospital record shows him under treatment from July 25 to Aug. 6, 1918, for gun shot wounds --- shrapnel entering his legs and thighs and from April 2 to April 19 for acute bronchitis. The record also shows that he was sent to the hospital July 5, 1919, for psychosis with typhoid fever and no report was received on him again until April 30, 1920, when he was still under treatment.

He was shifted from one hospital to another after being returned to the United States and it is said his parents and his wife, who is now working in one of the Dakotas, lost all track of him.

They were not notified of any changes in his location and received no word from the government that he had been discharged and committed to the hospital at Knoxville. His mental condition at his time of discharge was such that he could not sign his name and his discharge paper shows the familiar "His Mark" following a pen scratch, the method used by the military in cases where men could not write.

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John's condition improved after his family located him and removed him from the veteran healthcare system. Much of his treatment occurred at University Hospitals in Iowa City and he was on his way to catch a train from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City during July of 1921 when his speech spontaneously returned, as reported in the following brief story, widely published:

Cedar Rapids, Ia., July 16 --- The sharp question of a taxicab driver was the means of restoring the voice of John Beaderstadt, age 29, World War veteran, who for more than a year has been unable to speak owing to the effects of shrapnel injury and typhoid fever suffered while in France. The man's speech was restored several days ago, but the news was not made public until yesterday, his family fearing that it was only temporary. When the taxi driver asked a question, Beaderstadt reached for his pad of paper and pencil to write the answer, but he says the sharpness of the question and the confusion around him caused him to blurt out the answer before he actually knew what he was doing.

When the taxi driver asked John where he wanted to go, John blurted out "Rock Island Depot."

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After that, Beaderstadt recovered sufficiently to work again and at some point before 1925 relocated to Goodland in Sherman County, Kansas, the home of one of his brothers, where he was working as a farm hand when the Kansas state census of 1925 was taken. There's no indication that he and his wife ever were reunited.

John died at Goodland on Dec. 13, 1928, at the age of 37, and was buried in the Goodland Cemetery. I was unable to determine the circumstances of his death, but would imagine they were service-related. Some years later, a goverment-issue tombstone was acquired to mark his grave.