- Tenure:
- 1 Mar 1891 – 31 Jan 1895
- Education:
- Attended Albany Medical College, New York. Graduated 1864.
- Challenges:
-
- Improvements:
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1893-94
Main Building
- Painted, calcimined throughout
- Stairways and dining rooms provided with wainscoting
- Dining rooms – new pine floors
- Kitchen – new brick and cement floors, wooden sink replaced with galvanized iron one
- Pantries – wooden sinks replaced with galvanized iron
- Attendant's dining room – lower floor covered with linoleum, old board table replaced with extension table, sideboard provided, pewter table ware replaced with plated ware, galvanized iron heater connected to steam register, new curtains and dining room chairs
- Kitchen store room – two large air-tight Russian iron cans for tea and coffee, good supply of tin ware, new Fairbanks platform scales
- Laundry – new furnace, floor, and wainscoting
- New Rivers & Rail 48-cell storage electric battery purchased for incandescent lighting
- Suite of rooms set apart and furnished as sleeping room for visitors
- Attendant's rooms – few new pieces of furniture and carpeting where needed
- Matron's and clerk's rooms – papered and curtained
- Violent patient's rooms – wainscoted
- Filthy patient's rooms – lead floors experiment a success, three new ones added
- Amusement and recreation hall – new shades and curtains, carpet for rostrum
- Public reception room – new leather couch, chairs, and pictures
- Main entrance – door glass size increased, removed folding doors and put in an archway, added an oak leather-seated sofa, rugs added for stair landings
- Halls and public landings – four additional patent reels with hose for fire protection
- Connected to Reno by telephone
- Roof and gutters painted each year
- Matron's sewing and storage room – enlarged, linoleum laid, cutting table provided, wood-work painted, shelves added
Outside Improvements
- Trees, shrubs, flowers and lawns in excellent condition
- Large plat of land in the yard now cultivated
- Privet hedge planted, surrounding the grounds
- Stone root house and brick smoke house erected
- Posts replaced in the fence around the men's recreation yard
- Grafts of choice fruit varieties added to the orchard trees
- New floor in horse barn
- New autumn and summer use boiler added to boiler house and all steam pipes covered with "a heavy coating of asbestos"
- Superintendent's residence – two-inch pipe laid from main building, cement floor added to the cellar
- Six iron hitching posts added in front of Superintendent's residence and the Asylum
- Old entrance gates replaced by two large double hanging gates
- Women's recreation grounds enlarged
- Picket fences painted
- Accumulating manure used to enhance the fertility of the cultivated areas
- Recommendations:
-
1893-94
- Asylum Cemetery – add a suitably inscribed monument, placed in the center of the plot and small granite or marble tablets incribed with the name and age of the deceased
- Change the name of the institution to Nevada State Hospital for the Insane
- Resolve the dispute over the water from the Sullivan Ditch
- Complete a new ditch to replace the flume used for bringing water to the electric dynamo and pumping works
- Improve the heating system
- Add a fireproof vault for records storage
- Replace the wooden water tower and tank with a new iron and steel one
- Add a carpenter shop and tool room and a morgue
- Add a library
- Controversies:
-
- Additional Info:
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Vital Statistics
- Birth:
- 14 Oct 1843, Montgomery County, New York
- Death:
- 31 Jan 1907, Reno
- Burial:
- 2 Feb 1907, Masonic Cemetery, Reno
Family
- Spouse:
- Alice Wilsey, b. Jun 1860, d. 8 May 1929
- Children:
- Bonnie Kate, b. Aug 1889
Roxy Bigelow, b. May 1892 - Father:
- Alpin Thoma, b. abt 1807
- Mother:
- Maria Thoma, b. abt 1818
- Siblings:
- Alferd Thoma, Jane Ann Thoma, William Thoma, James Thoma
