The Outcasts of Penikese Island

10/6/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Sitting off the northwest coast of Martha's Vineyard in Buzzard's Bay is a small island that was probably visited by Vikings around 1,000 A.D.

Penikese Island - Anderson School of Natural History - Prof. Agassiz c.1873

In 1873, the Anderson School of Natural History was built on Penikese Island by John Anderson, a tobacco merchant. He had originally constructed his summer home on the south end of the island, on a hill overlooking the sea. He donated Anderson Mansion to be part of the campus, which included a laboratory, a dorm and a dining hall. In addition, Anderson had given an endowment of $50,000 for the school, which was to hold classes for teachers. Anderson hired Alexander Agassiz who at that time was publicly recognized as America's leading scientist, to run the school.

Alexander Agassiz Sr. died suddenly in December, 1873, the same year he started at the school. He was struck down by a mysterious illness that left him paralyzed, and he died a few days later at the age of 66. Within a few days of Agassiz's death his daughter-in-law Anna, died from pneumonia brought on by the fatigue of attending to him. She was 33 years old, and left behind three children.

Agassiz Jr., took over his father's position, however by November, 1874 the school was closed, with a deficit of $1,500. By October 1875, the furniture and goods inside the school were sold off at auction. The explanation of what happened to Anderson's $50,000 endowment were few and far between.

John Anderson decided to use the mansion again as his summer home. He died in 1881, and the following year the island was for sale.

After this Penikese Island developed a reputation as being jinxed; possibly tied to Agassiz's death since it was said he initially got sick when he spent the summer on the island, and then the unexpected death of his daughter-in-law a few days after his. This is perhaps why it was left for so many years unattended and unoccupied. This all changed in 1905, when the island was made into a leprosarium.

The Buzzard's Bay Journal wrote:

A national leper colony on Penikese Island will be a standing invitation for other states to dump their lepers. No laws can keep them out!

Penikese Island Cemetery

Despite the protests, the plans moved forward, and Anderson's summer mansion was used to house Dr. Louis Edmonds and his staff.

Small cottages were built for the patients, and The Massachusetts Board of Charity found five workers who were willing to come to the island and make everything ready.

At the end of 1905, the Penikese Island Hospital received five lepers.

Francisco "Frank" Pina, 38, an immigrant from Cape Verde, an archipelago off the coast of Africa was originally diagnosed by Dr. Edmonds, and was the first patient. His wife and eight children left Harwich and moved to the far side of town. The fear of contagion was so fierce, the house they had once lived in was burned down.

Cape Verde had a history of leprosy, and the islands were made a leprosarium by the king of Portugal in 1531. There were still cases reported as recently as 1950.

Isabelle Barros, also from Cape Verde was the only female patient in those first years. She had to give up her son and daughter to become wards of the state, since her husband Napoleon was sent to an insane asylum. The staff were surprised to find she was four months pregnant. She told Dr. Edmonds that she had once had smallpox and malaria, and suspected her father of having leprosy. In March 1906, she gave birth to a healthy child, Leontine Lincoln Barros. After 20 days, the baby was removed from the island.

John Roderick (1870-1907), 34, described by Dr. Edmonds as "very sick and slowly dying", was a sailor and his case was discovered while he was a patient at Boston Marine Hospital. He was soon sent to Penikese Island.

Goon Lee Dip and Yee Toy on Penikese Island c.1906

Two other inmates were Goon Lee Dip, 23, and Yee Toy, 25, both from China, who for many months after their arrival at the island only ate rice.

The patients were given gardens to tend, and other chores which made them feel useful. They had run of 65 acres, which was about 90% of the island.

Dr. Edmonds departure from Penikese was abrupt and unexpected. It came about after Isabel Barros had given birth, and he declared he had cured her of leprosy.

The examiners from the Board of Charity contested his finds, and he decided to leave after they overruled his decision. She was kept on Penikese Island, and the board's caution was justified as it seems her symptoms had only gone into remission. She died in 1915 from leprosy, and is buried on the island. Her husband Napoleon died on December 3, 1906 from what was listed as accidental drowning, but might have been a suicide.

In February, 1907 Joseph Needham was sought out by Dr. Proctor the medical officer of the state board as suffering from leprosy. He had worked for two years at the Boston Freight Office. It seemed he already had an advanced case of the disease. Needham was 24 years old, and had come to New York from Trinidad three years before. He was sent to Gallup Island, and they considered deporting him to Trinidad, but this would be too costly, and he ended up in Penikese.

Francisco "Frank" Pina (1868-1914) died at the leprosarium on Penikese Island (Source-FIndagrave)

In December, 1907 Dr. Frank Parker and his wife Marion replaced Dr. Edmonds. They stayed there for the next 15 years until the hospital closed. During the time it operated, boatmen would charge higher fees to deliver supplies. Those who came to work at Penikese, did so for higher wages and they were shunned by the residents of the main town when they went off-island.

In 1908, the family of Frank Pina was being sought, since it was feared Pina's wife and their several children were afflicted with leprosy. They were believed to live in the local Cape Verde colony, but after the state board of charities visited the community, it was found they had disappeared.

In 1909, Antonius Freisco (Friesa) was smuggled off the island and put onboard the ship Argentina, which was bound for his homeland in Greece. Only the United States authorities, agents of the steam line company and the master of the liner knew he was on board; the fear being there would a stampede of passengers if it became known a leper was on board.

Dr. and Mrs. Parker who worked on Pekinese Island for 15 years, until Dr. Parker's death

When Friesco learned he was to be sent back to Greece he drew a knife, and attacked the keepers on the island, wounding one of them.

Later they learned that Friesco's fear of returning to Greece was because he had murdered someone, and he thought they would put him on trial. He had been in the United States for 3 years, spending 18 months of that time on Pekinese Island. Deporting him was very costly since the owner of the schooner and the tug demanded hefty bonuses in order carry a leper.

The hospital closed in 1921 when all the patients were transferred to the new national Louisiana Leper Home in Carville, Louisiana. Once the lepers left, all the wooden buildings were burned and a concrete-block structure was dynamited. Left standing was the cottage Dr. Parker once occupied. He had requested that his ashes be spread over the island.

The patients who died at the hospital were buried in a cemetery bordered by a picket face, and facing north to the sea. There were fourteen graves, most of them with wooden markers that disintegrated under the onslaught of the weather; only four granite memorials survived. The remains of two unidentified sailors, whose bodies washed ashore after a big storm were buried there as well.

During Prohibition the IRS and Coast Guard kept watch from Penikese on nearby Norman's Land, where rum runners would rendezvous after unloading booze from steamships far out at sea.

Harry Turner on Penikese Island c.1935

From 1927 to 1973, Penikese was a bird sanctuary. The first government caretaker was Henry "Harry" Turner, who lived in Dr. Parker's empty cottage.

Part of his job was to take stock of wild animals and bird, and make reports to the State Conservation Department. He trapped birds for banding and rabbits for transfer to greener pastures on the mainland.

He lived there without a telephone and using a kerosene lamp for lighting. If he needed help, he would hang out the American flag, union down or a large blue flag with a white center that would notify the Coast Guard. A red lantern at night was the emergency signal. Fresh water was held in one of two reservoirs, and the other had sea water to be used for bathing.

In 1937, Turner found the body of Milne Parmenter, 42, which had washed up on the shore of the island. Parmenter was lost at sea in Buzzards Bay while sailing with a group of friends in a small boat 3 weeks before.

This would not be the last time a body washed up on the shore of the island. Melbourne Dorr, 48, had been missing since November 7, 1944 following a collision between boats, and his body turned up almost a year later in August, 1945.

The shell of the leper colony laundry building still stands on the west shore of the island.

It was a tragedy that emptied the island of permanent human occupation for 32 years. In 1941, Louise Turner, 13, was killed. She had been visiting her grandfather on the island, along with her mother Katherine Fletcher and her cousin Alfred Dunkley. Initially authorities were told she fell from a couch and struck her head on the heavy metal base of a floor lamp, since she had a gash at back of her head. Later her cousin who was 15 years old, confessed he had accidentally killed her when the rifle he was handling went off. He didn't know it was loaded. She was shot behind the left ear, and the bullet emerged through her right ear.

In the following years, only scouts would camp out there, but there was no permanent occupancy of the island.

In 1956, a 500-year-old tomahawk was found by a fisherman while digging for bait on Penikese Island. It was described as an oak-and-traprock warclub, and it was considered a rare find.

In 1973, the Penikese Island School for delinquent boys was established on the island to help teenage boys turn their lives around. These boys were troubled, had numerous run-ins with the law and were battling some type of addiction. George Cadwalader, an ex-Marine founded the facility. Whatever the intention had been for the effort, it did not have the results hoped for. Of the original 106 boys, who were tracked from 1973 to 1980, only 15% righted their course. Ninety of them would go on to commit 309 violent crimes, and more than 3,000 non-violent offenses. The school closed in 2011.

In 1979, the bloated, barefoot body of a well-dressed man was found floating, chained to a 42-pound cinder block off Penikese Island. An autopsy showed he had been killed by a blow to the head, before being tossed into the water. The body was found by persons in a sailboat. The M.E. estimated he had been in the water for about two weeks. The crime was not solved.

Alex Friedman, who in the 1990s worked as a counselor at the school, retold a Penikese Island ghost legend known as The Man with the Yellow Pants. This is how it goes:

Every year at Christmas, the school closes down for the winter. The kids leave, the counselors leave, and a local custodial staff — usually a single family — comes over to watch the house.

About twenty years ago, a mom from the (Martha's) Vineyard and her two kids, a little boy and a little girl, were the winter caretakers. One lazy afternoon all three of them fell asleep on couches in the big room. All of a sudden the daughter started screaming, ‘Mommy! Mommy!’ The mother and the son woke up to see a man standing over the little girl, reaching out to stroke her . . . . His motions were gentle; it looked as if he were trying to soothe her back to sleep. He had a long black ponytail, Asian features, and he wore yellow pants. Of course , anyone who’s been on Penikese can identify him — Goon Lee Dip from the leper colony.

Well, kindly as his ghost seemed to be, the family was terrified, and they left the island immediately. A couple of years ago, here at my house on the Vineyard, I was telling this story to a bunch of my buddies. One of them stayed really quiet the whole time I was speaking. Finally, after a long pause, when I’d started to wonder what was eating him, he said in a low voice, ‘I was that little boy. I saw the man in the yellow pants. He was standing over my sister.’

In 2015, an opioid-addiction treatment facility named Penikese was opened on the island, but in little more than a year it closed its doors due to lack of funding.

Sources - The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Enquirer