TALA Tales: Too Much Fiddlin'

Bill Hensley, Mountain Fiddle Player
(NOT Insane)

My last several stories from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum have focused on some interesting causes for admittance, based on the infamous info-graphic (found HERE). There are quite a few strange reasons why someone would find themselves as a patient at West Virginia's most infamous hospital for the mentally ill, but one reason I didn't find was: Too Much Fiddlin'.

Okay, actually too much fiddlin' IS one of the reasons, but in that case it had a different meaning! What we're talking about today is a man named James Conart from Wetzel County who went insane after getting a little too engaged in playing the actual fiddle at local dance. 

While playing the fiddle for a dance in Pine Grove during the summer of 1909, it is said that Conart suddenly became demented and had to be taken to the Wetzel County Jail at New Martinsville, where several days later, Justice Gordon deemed him insane and sentenced him to the state hospital at Weston (also known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum). But it wasn't just fiddle playing that seemed to agitate Conart's disordered thinking. The newspaper article about his incarceration also stated that he constantly asked anyone and everyone for some cider, but when it was brought to him in hopes of settling him down, he refused it.

Music absolutely has a way of affecting us in a variety of ways, and I can see where someone, already fragile, may become so obsessed with sawing the strings that their mind takes a temporary break from reality. However, I can't help but wonder if there was some other reason behind this man's condition. Did he see his sweetheart dancing with another at the dance? Was he already exhausted and stressed from other things going on in his life? Or was he just simply a mentally ill individual who finally snapped? Unfortunately, as of yet, I've been unable to find any follow-up on Conart and his condition, but as always, I hope it had a good outcome. 

Update September 2024: 

Thanks to an article from the Point Pleasant Register that I stumbled upon by complete accident, I was able to uncover some more information. James Conart is actually James Cozart, with a Z! According to that article, Cozart's affliction began due to his fiddle playing at a Fourth of July celebration. He began playing at 10am and went to midnight during Pine Grove's Independence Day celebration, and then kept it up for two more days. This was thought to have turned his mind, as he became violent.

With a correct spelling of his name, I was also able to find an unfortunate update to this story. James Cozart passed away on July 2, 1917 while still at the Weston State Hospital. He died of exhaustion from acute mania. He was only 45 years old. Ironically, he was taken on to Wetzel County and buried on July 4th. His mania began with the Fourth of July, and it ended on the same day, eight years later. 

Clarksburg Telegram
July 15, 1909

 

The Point Pleasant Register
21 July 1909

James Cozart's Death Certificate
WV State Archives