On Sept. 15, 1915, Alice M. Boov married William N. Kemp in Spring Valley, Rockland Co., NY. Alice used her mother’s maiden name for the records, and her parents are listed as Ada Hedberg and Alfred F. Boov. William is a ‘laborer’, and Alice’s is ‘doing housework’. They live in Thiells, NY.  It’s a first marriage for both of them.

A volume of ‘Documents of the Senate of the State of New York’ published in early 1916 includes The Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Managers of Letchworth Village. In it, Alice’s name appears:

At least during 1915, maybe longer, Alice Boov has worked as Matron of Cottage C, at Letchworth Village in Thiells, NY.

Created by William Pryor Letchworth, Letchworth Village was, according to an article in Hudson Valley Magazine, “a self-contained and self-sustaining village of small cottages on a working farm, which would allow residents a more humane and productive lifestyle under the care of the leading researchers and physicians of the day.”

The patients “were grouped into three then medically accepted but now cringeworthy types of “feeble-mindedness” – “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron” – based on IQ. According to their abilities, they helped farm, plow, care for animals, cook, sew, and clean, and were provided vocational training in carpentry, shoe repair, welding, and other useful skills.”

There are horror stories about this place. The patients were used as guinea pigs for the polio vaccine and in other clinical trials. The facility was closed in 1996, and the photos of the buildings are haunting. Online you will find information about tours of the abandoned asylum, as well as of a nearby cemetery with “graves about the size of a child.”

Alice Maria Bååv, my grandfather’s first cousin (their mothers were sisters), left Göteborg for Hull on the s/s Runo on March 17, 1913. From Hull she took the train to Liverpool, and then she left for New York from there.

Alice arrived in Ellis Island on March 30, 1913 onboard the Celtic of Liverpool. She was 5 feet and 7 inches tall, had a fair complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. She gave the address of a friend, Ingeborg Olsson: 33, W. 12th St., NYC. The old notes are hard to read, but she seems to have had $75 with her. She was of good mental and physical health. She was 25 years old.

From where Alice’s family were living in Bangatan, Göteborg, they could have taken a short walk to the quay, and seen Runo sail away. They lived so close they would have heard and smelled the ocean everyday, before and after Alice left.