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Many of them never saw family again, and after their deaths, Oregon State Hospital became the custodian of their remains. That’s now changed.  

On Sept. 23, OSH celebrated the reunification of those whose remains have been claimed by family over the past year at its annual cremains ceremony. 

“We don’t know why no one came forward – lack of money, incorrect or no contact information – or stigma,” said OSH Interim Superintendent Jim Diegel during the ceremony, pictured above at lectern. “We do know that stigma persists today but so does hope. So does support, care and recovery. So does the dedication of caregivers at OSH to support people in their recovery journey and to recognize their capacity to live healthy and rewarding lives.”   

It’s easy to forget the challenges others face – and only see “strangeness,” said a patient at OSH who shared his experiences during the ceremony.   

“How many people have lived and died within these walls and felt the same as I feel? How many have died with the hope that their cry would not go unheard? We are not numbers. We are human beings who have a disease of the mind, and we feel just as much as you,” said the patient who asked that his name not be shared. “Too often, the world outside sees only strangeness. But we know inside every delusion is a search for meaning. Inside every hallucination a story waits to be told. Inside every voice there is a longing to be heard.”  

OSH operated a crematorium until 1973 and became the custodian of the unclaimed cremains of nearly 3,500 people who died while living or working at OSH, Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital, Mid-Columbia Hospital, Dammasch State Hospital, Deaconess Hospital, Oregon State Penitentiary and Fairview Training Center.    

Since 2014, the cremains of 1,300, from the total of nearly 3,500, people have been identified and returned to families through the work of staff and volunteers. Efforts continue to identify the closest living relatives of those whose cremains remain unclaimed through sites like findagrave.com.  

Some who come forward over the years may not have direct familial ties to the person they claim, but were driven by their value of family, connection and the opportunity to provide closure for someone else.    

A work email about the cremains directory led Becky Fisher, an OSH employee, to see if her great aunt’s brother-in-law, Richard Bullivant happened to be listed. He was. In doing her own family research, she had come across Bullivant and the fact that he died in Salem had stuck with her.   

After efforts to find Bullivant’s living relatives were unsuccessful, she and her brother agreed to request Bullivant’s remains. They plan to bury him in northern Idaho near his siblings.   

“Nobody wanted him, and after working at OSH and understanding people who have alienated their family through mental illness, which they have no control over, it just seemed sad to have him just remain at OSH as unclaimed,” she said. “If I can do a little bit to connect one set of cremains to their family – it’s worthwhile.”    

Rachel Sundberg-Matheny attended the ceremony and claimed the remains of two distant relatives – Belle Covell, who died at 40 at a residential facility for people with developmental disabilities (that later became Fairview) and Belle’s brother, Arthur, who was found guilty of murder and hanged in 1925.  

Arthur was believed to be responsible for convincing his nephew to kill his stepmother and Arthur’s sister-in-law, Ebba Covell – who was Sundberg-Matheny’s great grandmother.   

“It’s so hard to read these old newspapers,” Sundberg-Matheny said. “I know he was a farmer and became paralyzed. I imagine he was angry about that. He and Ebba didn’t get along well. I have no idea what really happened. It must have escalated. My family is divided on whether it was murder. Sometimes, I wonder what today’s psychologists would think and what would they have diagnosed Arthur with. What help could he have received?”   

After Ebba Covell died, her three children, which included Sundberg-Matheny’s grandmother, Gladys, were sent to live with relatives in different parts of the country. Her grandmother grieved the loss of connection to her siblings and when she started her own family, held them tight.  

Claiming the remains of Belle and the man responsible for separating her family is what her grandmother would have wanted, Sundberg-Matheny said.   

“Because of what my grandmother experienced, it was important for her to keep her children, her family close. She’d want this – to bring them back together for closure,” she said.  “Regardless of how or why they’re there, no one deserves to be unclaimed. They need to go home to their families.”