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Anna’s Last Goodbye
by Jim Potter
Anna Maria Friederike Sophie König Bochart (or Borchert) had a life full of troubles. After her husband, Richard Karl August Borchart (or Borchert), died of an accidental gunshot in 1899, she was sent to the poor farm in McPherson county with her three boys, Arthur, Robert, and Willie. Within three months, in 1900, she was adjudged insane and sent to the Topeka Insane Asylum while her children were in the care of the Mennonite orphanage near Hillsboro, Kansas. The orphanage was also called the Home of the Friendless.
Anna had a chance for a new start in the free world when she was released in November 1901, and married Robert Borchert the next month. Unfortunately, over a year later, in January 1903, her husband was convicted of incest (other newspaper articles said the conviction was for rape) and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary.1
After Anna was separated from her second husband, she was in an unhealthy mental state, and confined to bed a good portion of the time. Since there was a belief that her mind was unbalanced, Dr. W. J. Duvall and Dr. Blasdel formed a “commission of physicians” to examine into her condition.2
When Anna was found insane on April 2, 1903, Sheriff John W. Hooper took charge of her. She stayed with the family of the sheriff at the county jail until an order arrived to take her to the state hospital.3
However, on April 8, it was reported that “the sheriff says that in all his conversations with her he can find no symptoms of insanity, and is loth to take her to the asylum, although it seems to be his official duty to do so. He says if he does, his conscience will trouble him, and he is going to delay the matter a little any way [sic]. Mr. Hooper is certainly more conscientious than the average officer. A good many sheriffs would be willing to take almost any sane man or woman to an asylum for the fee he would get.”4
Not everyone in the community agreed with the sheriff. “She has appeared to be out of her mind since returning there and the Haven people think she had better be taken care of.”5
This was Anna’s second trip to Topeka’s asylum. Her commitment lasted about five months. When released, she resettled in Inman, not Haven.
On October 3, 1903, a Hutchinson newspaper announced that “Mrs. Anna Borchert of Haven, who was adjudged insane last fall, has been restored to her right mind, and this fact was found to be true by the probate court. Frank Hettinger, her administrator, was discharged and the property restored to the care and custody of Mrs. Borchert.”6
In April 1904, Anna was granted a decree of absolute divorce from Robert Borchert.7
Anna may have had a few years of relative stability from October 1904 to the Fall of 1907.
The 1905 Kansas census reveals Anna, twenty-nine years old, and two of her boys, Robert, eight, and William, six, were living in McPherson county on the farm of Jochim Bornholdt (sixty-nine years old), a mile north of Inman. Jochim was living with his son, Gus, twenty-two, and two Barnow boys, Willie, fifteen, and Arthur, eleven.8 Since Jochim Bornholdt and Anna Borchart were each born in Germany, and had immigrated as adults, there’s a good chance they could have conversed in German, their native tongue.
On August 4, 1905, Bristol Jackson Borchart was born out of wedlock to Anna Borchert, in McPherson, Kansas.9
In November 1907, the county attorney was investigating Anna’s school age children for avoiding school in Inman.10 Prior to that, in February 1907, Anna’s oldest boy, Arthur, shot a neighbor’s mare. He said he had been shooting pigeons.11
In December 1907, Anna, for the third time, was declared insane, but remained temporarily in the Inman community.12
After officials at the Topeka asylum advised McPherson County Probate Judge Swan August Sward to keep all harmless patients at home due to overcrowding, Sward began looking for a guardian to take charge of the affairs of Mrs. Borchart.13
Judge S. A. Sward wanted, if possible, to keep Mrs. Borchart in the Inman community. His “feelings still revolted against separating the family, and he still was inclined to think that she was safe and sane enough for Inman in spite of her official insanity.”14
In March 1908, Judge Sward appointed attorney Cornelius Martens Enns to the guardianship position of Borchart.15 Being known for helping German immigrants keep their land and not be swindled by land speculators, Enns was well qualified to assist Anna. Plus, Enns knew how mental illness could affect a family. He had a brother, Herman, who was a patient at Osawatomie’s insane asylum. Herman had been committed at age twenty-two, in 1892.16
Cornelius Enns may have underestimated the time required of him to devote to Anna. Neighbors complained to him whenever they were upset with Anna’s behavior. Also, Enns could have expected Anna to be sent to the insane asylum sooner, rather than later.
Anna was credited with working to help support her family. “Mrs. Anna Borchart, while declared insane by our Probate Court last Spring, has been living in her house in Inman, keeping house with her four boys three to thirteen years old and washing for the neighbors.”17
We’ll never know the full story, but Anna’s neighbors feared her, and they wanted something done. Even though Anna had been declared insane, the judge asked the community to help her out. The last straw may have been when Anna made threats to her neighbors when her eldest son, Arthur, didn’t arrive home when expected. After Anna learned that he’d been taken to see the judge, she threatened people, and was taken to jail. Anna had stepped over the line from being considered harmless to being a threat.
Sometimes people need to choose the lesser of two evils. Judge Sward wanted the people of Inman to step up, but they were fed up. From the article that Editor C. M. Enns wrote, it’s possible that after his nine months of guardianship, he had a range of emotions. Besides his belief that the asylum was the best place for her, he may have lost patience with Anna and the legal system.
Enns even challenged Judge S. A. Sward in court. Editor Enns reported: “When the Probate Judge still insisted that the citizens of Inman ought to be able to get along with Mrs. Borchart, the guardian said. [sic] Allright [sic], you declare Mrs. Borchart sane, and I will resign as guardian. If she is good and bright, she does not need supervision. Then the probate judge wrote out an application to the State Asylum at Topeka . . .” There was the assumption that Mrs. Borchart would go to the asylum at Topeka, and the children would be sent to the States Orphans Home in Atchison, where it finds homes for children in good families.18
Strengthening his public case of Anna being insane, Enns’ article also reported: “It seems that Mrs. Borchart now suspects nearly everybody either of being desperately in love with her or of laying dark schemes for her destruction. There is hardly a man of prominence that has not been making love to her, according to her notion. The German Emperor is my sweetheart, she has told us, and some great personage was to marry her next week.”19
I haven’t learned if Anna’s odd behavior in Haven and in Inman was ever officially identified. Today, her disease might be part of a schizophrenia diagnosis. Enns explained in print. Referring to Anna, he said: “But it is doubtful whether any real pain or wrongs could be greater than the imaginary wrongs and evils which the little hysterical woman suffered every day in her home at Inman. And the boys will be infinitely better off if they are put into good homes.”20
The boys may have had a few relatively good years with their mother to help them remember her. Anna had her boys most, if not all of the time in or near Inman, until she was sent to Osawatomie State Hospital in December 1908.
Since I’ve found no record of Anna ever being released a third time, it may have been her last opportunity to say goodbye to Arthur, Robert, Willie, and Bristol. She died at the State Hospital at Osawatomie in 1921 at age forty-six. Since the institution was unable to locate her children or other relatives, she was buried in the hospital cemetery.
I keep thinking about what Judge Sward said in court regarding Anna Borchart. “If she is not insane, this separation from her children will doubtless make her so.”21
*
Gregory Enns has a story to tell. He’s a descendent of the Enns family from Inman, Kansas, and a veteran magazine editor. His exceptionally well researched and written article about the Enns family is free for your viewing. To read his Indian River Magazine article, and see extraordinary photographs, click the following link. https://indianrivermagazine.com/my-familys-journey-to-america/
NOTES
1. Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, KS), March 3, 1903, 5. Note: While the Hutchinson News reported that Robert Borchert “was convicted of incest on the person of his 15-year-old daughter,” the Daily Independent (Hutchinson, KS), March 4, 1903, 1, announced that Borchert was sentended to serve ten years in the state penitentiary at Lansing for committing rape on the person of his daughter.” Neither newspaper clarified that Edith Bochert was fourteen years old at the time of the criminal offence, or that incest and rape were two separate offenses.
2. The Daily Independent (Hutchinson, KS), April 3, 1903, 1.
3. The Saturday Bee (Hutchinson, KS), April 11, 1903, 7.
4. Semi-Weekly Gazette (Hutchinson, KS), April 8, 1903, 5.
5. The Saturday Bee (Hutchinson, KS), April 18, 1903, 2.
6. The Independent (Hutchinson, KS), Oct. 3, 1903, 1.
7. The Saturday Bee (Hutchinson, KS), April 30, 1904, 4.
8. Kansas Census of 1905. Note: Getting out of Inman would have been a great opportunity for Anna to escape the negative interaction between her and her upset neighbors, but she would need to get along with Jochim Bornholdt, and his son, Gus. Willie and Arthur Barnow were the sons of Max Barnow, a widower. I haven’t been able to locate ten-year-old Arthur Borchart, the oldest son of Anna, in the 1905 census or in local newspaper articles during that year.
9. US World War II draft card, Ancestry.com. Note: When researching a child born out of wedlock over a hundred and twenty years ago, identifying the biological father and learning the circumstances of conception, even with investigative genetic genealogy available, is extremely difficult. In my research, I’m not willing to automatically assume that Anna gave sexual consent to the man who fathered Bristol out of wedlock. Being a widow and with a history of mental illness, she could have been more vulnerable to unwanted advances. If Anna was legally insane, could she give sexual consent? If Anna’s pregnancy lasted a full nine months, she would have conceived in early November 1904, when she was legally sane. In October 1904, Anna had been restored to her right mind by the probate court.
10. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), Nov. 1, 1907, 3.
11. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), Feb. 15, 1907, 1.
12. The Lindsborg News-Record (Lindsborg, KS), Dec. 20, 1907, 1.
13. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), Feb. 7, 1908, 3.
14. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), Dec. 25, 1908, 2.
15. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), March 27, 1908, 1.
16. Gregory Enns, “My Family’s Journey to America,” Indian River Magazine, https://indianrivermagazine.com/my-familys-journey-to-america. Note: Hermann Enns remained there until his death in 1931 at age sixty-three.
17. The Inman Review (Inman, KS), Dec. 25, 1908, 2.
18. Inman Review, 2.
19. Inman Reiew, 2.
20. Inman Reiew, 2.
21. Inman Reiew, 2.
Oh Anna, such a hard life.
Yes, a third of her life was in insane asylums.
I’m thinking if I experienced the hardships Anna did, alongside crushing poverty and little or no hope of life ever getting better, I might just be a little prone to some swings in my mental state.
Can’t wait to use the word prepossessing in a sentence.
Phil, thanks for your comment! Even though I kinda’ had an idea of the meaning of the word prepossessing, I looked it up. Agreed, my mental health would have been shot!
Jim, Great job. You brought yet another dimension to the multi-dimensional Cornelius. I admire your narrative ability and the integrity of your research. Also, thanks for the shoutout.
Gregory, I appreciate your comment. It would be great for the McPherson County schools, especially Inman, to incorporate your article into their history curriculum. All history is connected.