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2

first interview, second version; Packard ancestors

Elizabeth and Theophilus Packard

Rev. Theophilus Packard Jr. kept a neat, hand-written diary all of his adult life. It still exists in good condition (in the Bancroft Library, UC, Berkeley). Theophilus was a fundamentalist, masochistic Christian who worried constantly about his, his wife's and his children's immortal soul. On the birth of his first son he writes: "Oh, what painful anxiety I felt for the soul of this dear son. From early childhood he has been prayed for day by day and has been interested in the matter of personal piety and has been taught to pray himself, but all this will not save his soul. Oh God, make him a Christian!" His third son, Samuel Ware Packard, was born in 1847 and was my grandfather. Theophilus writes: "My heart's desire and prayer to God is that this son Samuel may become a Bible-Christian and serve God faithfully."

But Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard was of a very different temperament. Her background was Unitarian, and her disposition was positive and logical. She taught in her husband's Sunday-school and argued theological questions with his church elders. This bothered Theophilus, and he accused her of undermining the faith of his church elders. At that time (the 1850's) husbands who found their wives annoying could report that the wife was acting crazy, sign commitment papers and have her sent to an insane asylum. This is exactly what my great grandfather Theophilus Jr did to my great grandmother Elizabeth. Her case has become famous in psychiatric history, and several recent books have included her in their case studies. He committed her in 1860. While in the institution she organized the patients and cleaned up the highly unsanitary conditions, managed to slip a letter out of the asylum (the US mail did not deliver or pick up mail from inmates then) exposing conditions inside. The papers picked up the story and she was released from the asylum for causing so much trouble. She then wrote a book exposing conditions inside the asylum, organized a publishing house and went on a lecture tour selling her book on the way. She published some eight books, one of which is still in the "books in print" list that all bookstores carry. Through an appeal to