Austin Mires Papers, 1872-1936

Austin Mires was born in Parrish, Iowa on February 11, 1852, the son of John H. and Anna (Deardorff) Mires. At the age of one his parents traveled westward overland and settled at Oakland, Oregon. In his youth he attended public common schools and later Umpqua Academy (Wilbur, Oregon) and Monmouth College. He taught for several years in Douglas County, Oregon and served briefly as a railway mail route agent between Portland and Roseburg, Oregon. In 1880, Mires attended law school at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He graduated in 1882 and began practicing law in Roseburg. In the spring of 1883, he relocated to Ellensburg, Washington Territory to practice law. He married Mary Loretta Rowland, the stepdaughter of a prominent Kittitas County farmer, on March 5, 1884 Two years later he was elected the town's first mayor and 1889 was elected to serve as a delegate to the constitutional convention in Olympia. In 1890 Governor E. P. Ferry named him as a member of the state board of equalization and appeal, a position he held for three years. He was appointed as census supervisor in 1899 by President William McKinley for the 1900 census. The following year he was elected president of the Washington State Bar Association. In 1904, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Kittitas County after the death of his former law partner who held the office. He did not run for election in 1907 but remained in the city prosecutor's office for next six years. He also served as School Director for the City of Ellensburg and one term as a state senator. In 1912 Mires was chosen as a Progressive presidential elector. Six years later he ran for the United States Congress as a Republican candidate but was defeated. During his twilight years he served as city police judge and justice of the peace. On March 4, 1936 Austin Mires died of pneumonia. His body is interred at the Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery in Ellensburg.

(Source: Austin Mires Papers, 1853-1936, Ellensburg Public Library Northwest History Archives, Ellensburg, WA.)

A note about the expression “insane asylum”: Publicly funded psychiatric hospitals, then known as insane or lunatic asylums, emerged in the 19th century as part of a trend toward institutionalization of people with mental illnesses. Originally designed by reformers to provide a retreat from common society, asylums often perpetrated abuses against marginalized members of society. In addition, it merits noting that terms like “insane” and “crazy” have a problematic history in that they have often been used to stigmatize any person considered “unacceptable” to powerful members of society. For instance, asylums have at times been used to confine not only people with mental illnesses but also elderly individuals, assertive women, and conscientious objectors. These words often have the effect of excluding particular groups while perpetuating stereotypes about mental illness.