Minnesota State Archives
The Minnesota state legislature authorized the board of directors of the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind to open in 1879 an experimental department for "idiotic and feeble-minded children" (Laws 1879 c31). In July of that year, a class was organized of fifteen children transferred from the Rochester and St. Peter state hospitals. In 1881, the legislature directed that the School for Idiots and Imbeciles was no longer an experimental program and was to be connected with the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind (Laws 1881 c145). In 1887, the school was made a department of the institute and the name was changed to the Minnesota Institute for Defectives (Laws 1887 c205). The name School for the Feeble-Minded was adopted in 1887, changed to the School for Feeble-Minded and Colony for Epileptics, and again changed in 1949, to the Minnesota School and Colony (Laws 1949 c142). It became the Faribault State School and Hospital in 1955 (Laws 1955 c662); in 1967, the Faribault State Hospital (Laws 1967 c6); and in 1985, the Faribault Regional Center (Executive Order No. 85- 17). The institution closed on July 1, 1998.
The Faribault school was originally established and operated under a board of directors. Beginning in 1882 the department for feeble-minded children had its own internal administration headed by a superintendent and an administrator. Beginning in 1883, the State Board of Corrections and Charities acted as an overseeing board. This was replaced by the State Board of Control in 1901. Although the board handled only the financial responsibilities of the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, it took over all of the functions of the board of directors at the School for the Feeble- Minded (Laws 1901 c122). The Department of Social Security replaced the Board of Control from 1939 to 1953 (Laws 1939 c431), when the Department of Public Welfare became the controlling authority (Laws 1953 c593).
List of stewards (later business manager, assistant superintendent, administrator, chief executive officer): H. E. Barron, 1883-1892; A. C. Rogers, 1892; John R. Parshall, 1893-1900; M. M. Shields, 1900-1901; F. H. Grane, 1901-1902; C. E. Harkins, 1902-1903; W. A. Richards, 1903-1917; Chris Barnholdt, 1918-1928; Harry B. Cobb, 1928-1938; Walter Muesing, 1939- 1940; Charles Lewis, 1941-1948; Melville E. Krafve, 1949-1968; Harold Gillespie, 1969-1974; Charles Turnbull, 1974-1985; William Saufferer, 1985-1992; Bridget Stroud, 1993-1998.
List of superintendents (medical directors after 1968): Dr. George H. Knight (acting), 1879-1881; Dr. George H. Knight, 1881-1885; A. C. Rogers, 1886-1917; G. C. Hanna, 1918- 1927; J. M. Murdock, 1927-1938; E. J. Engberg, 1939-1968; Roger Johnson, 1969-1970; Heinz Bruhl, 1971-1976; Iancu Foni, 1977- .
When the school opened it performed the functions of a school, a home, and a hospital. The three distinct departments were the School and Training Department, Custodial or Home Department, and Epileptic Hospital. In its later years, its functions included reducing the dependencies of mentally retarded individuals; providing care, treatment, and training for the purpose of returning persons to as normal a life as possible; assisting families in coping with the problems of mental retardation; fostering public understanding and involvement; promoting development and use of community services; and conducting research into causes, prevention, and treatment of mental retardation. The patient population consisted of persons of all ages representing all types and degrees of mental retardation, many of whom were also physically infirm.
The institution served the entire state until the mid-1950s, with a peak population of 3,355 in 1955. It then became a receiving institution serving 28 counties. Just prior to its closing, it served the counties of Hennepin, Dakota, Rice, Steele and Freeborn, but individuals from a number of other counties were still in residence.