Unpleasant Dreams

According to all accounts Susan Godsey lived a normal life for the first eight years of her life.  I can imagine the cute little girl dressing her dolls and playing house.  She would have been learning to read and write, even in those days when western Tennessee was the American frontier.

One day she complained to her parents of having chills that wouldn’t go away.

That apparently minor ailment would go on to make medical history…and change Susan’s life forever.

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Susan Caroline Godsey was born the second of three children to Lacy Godsey and his wife, Julia.  In 1840 the family was living in Gibson County, Tennessee and by 1850 in Obion County, near the town of Crystal.  The children were Mary, the eldest; Susan, who the family called Susie; and the William, the youngest.

Obion County is where little Susie fell ill, and made history.  As mentioned earlier, she complained of chills.  These chills persisted and the family tried many things to alleviate the condition.  Within their limited income they sought out doctors, none of whom were able to help the girl.

After suffering the discomfort for two years, the parents enlisted the help of a Doctor Wasson from the middle part of the state.  Dr. Wasson has been described as a quack but in those days of more lax medical laws, those weren’t uncommon.

The following day poor Susie was struck with severe cramping and violent convulsions.  At night she vomited blood.  People had to stay near her to hold her on the bed to keep her from getting hurt during her spasms.

These horrible symptoms continued daily.

About three years after these agonizing symptoms began, sometime in August of 1849, Susie fell asleep…and she slept almost constantly for a long, long time.

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Susie would sleep for most of the day.  Her slumber was so deep that it is said there were no clear signs of life in her still body.  Viewers could see no movement to indicate breathing, and a mirror held near her mouth and nostrils did not fog.  One doctor said, “the lightest filmiest down laid upon her nostrils would not be agitated.”

Despite the signs of near death, the girl was not in a coma.  She would awaken several times a day and less frequently at night, for a total of less than a dozen times.

That’s a lot of times to awaken, you say?  Of course it is, except for one thing.  It is reported that Susie never stayed awake for more than five to seven minutes at a time.  Never.  After just a few minutes of wakefulness Ms. Godsey would feel herself falling asleep, and then she would, no matter how hard she tried to stay awake.  If she had visitors, she would tell them goodbye and ask them to visit her again, then fall asleep.

This sleeping all day with less than one total hour of wakefulness in 24 continued for the poor girl for…are you ready for this…the next 24 years.

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A Dr. John H. Morton, along with a Mr. R. Roberts, visited her on August 8, 1869 and, while unable to help her, gave us a lasting impression of the girl who would come to be known as “The Sleeping Beauty of Obion County.”

According to Dr. Morton, “She is beautiful when lying in that quiet, passive, and dreamless sleep.  Her features are finely cut and her brow high and nobly set; her eyes a soft, deep, and mellow blue.  Her teeth are white and pearly, her hands are beautiful beyond compare, her feet are small, well-shaped, but ever cold and motionless.  Her complexion is as fair and pure white as the freshest lily that blooms and waves o’er the plains, of which that beautiful but afflicted woman is the spotless and drooping emblem in human form.

“Her hair, of a dark chestnut color, is as fine as silk and grows very slowly, having been clipped once in twenty years.  It is three feet long at present and when folded behind her head, serves as nature’s downy pillow to the racking and convulsed brain.  Though her hair has grown slowly, the nails of her hands and feet (strange to relate) have never grown one-sixteenth of an inch since the first day of her life-long slumber.

“She is mild, sweet, patient, and affectionate in her disposition, and though she is questioned and examined critically by hundreds of curious strangers, she never fails to give a sweet and meek reply.  She is very desirous of recovery and indeed, her life-long wish and prayer, in unison with that of the patient and watchful mother, ascends to the Good Master hour by hour that there may yet be recovery; and as Mr. Roberts remarks, he has never witnessed such a faithful devotion mingled with such never-ceasing hope between the slumbering daughter and aged mother.”

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Jonas Jutton, newspaper correspondent, wrote that, “Though but thirteen years of age when she went to sleep, Susie grew to a full sized woman.”

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Another doctor, V.S. Lindsley of the University of Nashville (which later became Vanderbilt), wrote an article in the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery in November, 1867.  In it he answered some of the questions I had about Ms. Godsey.

I won’t go deeply into his descriptions of her bodily functions other than to say that he described them as pretty normal although less frequent than in more wakeful patients.

He said, “Pulse obscured by constant tremor of muscles.” 

The doctor than went on with his descriptions of her other bodily functions before continuing with, “when awake complains of pain in the head and down the spinal cord.

“The first six years awoke only twice a day; since that time she awakes more frequently, but for the last five years the frequency has not changed…has a general spasm about every ten minutes, had two during the first twenty minutes I saw her.  Almost immediately following the spasms she has a spell of hic-coughs…generally ten times at each spell…head and neck raised and head falls forward.

“She awoke one time during the hour I was with her, remained awake seven minutes, talked rationally…in an instant she fell asleep…I could not rouse her.

“…complains of cramping in the stomach and pain in the left side, color is rather healthy; expression of eye good.  When awake she is rather gloomy; never calls for food (italics his), but generally relishes it when given; occasionally calls for water.

“The mother and the brother-in-law state that just before she passed into this state she was sick with Intermittent Fever (the name then often given to Malaria), and that her doctor gave her large doses of morphine, laudanum, and ether and that the doctor remarked to them…’I have tried to cure her and failed and then tried to kill her and failed.’”

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As I said before, her parents sought out the help of as many doctors as they could afford but, as Susie’s condition gained notoriety, doctors from other parts of the country, and some from other countries, came to visit her…with no success.

The family received numerous offers from showmen, including P.T. Barnum to exhibit the girl in her slumber.  Barnum’s last offer was said to be for $1000-per-week (about $22,000-per-week today).  To their credit, the family refused all offers to profit from their loved one’s illness.

Many physicians espoused the view that, if Susie could outlive the effects of the medicines given her by Dr. Wasson, she might recover fully.  This seemed to be borne out by the fact that, after 24 years of almost constant sleep, the beautiful girl’s caretakers found that they could rouse her, which they had previously been unable to do.

Whether she was finally about to overcome the effects of Wasson’s treatment or not, her body was worn out.  On October 27, 1873 passed into the sleep from which no one awakes.

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Although Susan Carolyn Godsey has been mostly forgotten over time, there is a display featuring her at Discovery Park of America, Museum and Heritage Park, in Union City, Tennessee.  The park also sells copies of a 24 page booklet about her, written by R.C. Forrester.  It is appropriately titled, The Sleeping Beauty of Obion County.

Unfortunately, there is no handsome prince in the story of this sleeping beauty.

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