Oregon Historical County Records Guide
Sherman County Records Inventory
Insane Commitment Records
1889-[ongoing]
Series documents the examination, commitment, and release of mentally ill persons to and from the state's mental institutions. Series contains statements of complaint and commitment recorded by the county clerk or recorder and includes petitions to have an individual committed; physicians certification that an individual is insane; delivery warrants authorizing a county official (usually the sheriff) to take the individual to the state hospital; patient discharges; paroles or transfers; indexes; and correspondence. Information includes patient and family names, date committed, reason, physical description, and a brief family history. This series may also be known as the Insane Record, Mental Illness Record, and Mentally Ill and Feeble Minded Record. By 1968, in most counties, the commitment of the mentally ill or deficient had become the responsibility of the circuit court. Access to these records may be restricted for 75 years by Oregon Revised Statute 192.496.
Records at the Sherman County Courthouse, Clerk's Vault:
Insanity Files, no. 1-161, 1891-1987 (1.50 cu.ft.).
Records at the Sherman County Courthouse, Circuit Court Office:
[Mental Commitment Case Files-interfiled with juvenile and adoption
case files],
1988-present (2.25 cu.ft.).
Records at the Sherman County Courthouse, Basement Vault:
County Court Probate Jourual [sic-Journal-includes insane
and naturalization cases], vol. A, 1889-1919 (1 volume).