Martha Didn’t Eat Dinner . . . or Anything Else
by Janelle Molony
DGS 2022 Writing Contest Submission: Your family’s black sheep
In 1934, not long after Martha Nasch (1890-1970) returned home on parole from a seven-year sentencing at Minnesota’s Saint Peter State Hospital for the Insane, her husband called the press. “I do not want people to think that I am starving my wife.” 1
My great-grandpa Louis Nasch (1884-1964) explained the situation to a news journalist at his cottage-sized home in Saint Paul, Minnesota while Martha sat on their living room couch, casually mending socks.2 The journalist may have prompted Louis for more. He gave, “I’ve never seen her eat or drink. That’s all I know.”3
Louis pointed earnestly to a paper he presented the journalist. It stated that Martha had taken no food or drink since July 29th, 1934. It was now September 18th, fifty-two days later. Three witnesses signed the document: Louis, his son Ralph, and a next-door neighbor
Perhaps the journalist was still skeptical, even with signatures in hand.
“I’ve tried surprises to find her eating, but never have!” Louis enthused.4
The journalist turned to forty-four-year-old, first-generation German-American Martha Nasch to get a statement. She confidently claimed she no longer needed food.
My great-grandma admitted she knew folks would not believe her, 5 so she tried to explain. She said the best explanation for her “supernatural condition”6 was found in the Bible; not in any scientific or medical texts of their time. “My body felt and still feels,” she declared, “as though it were petrified.”7
When the journalist puzzled over this analogy, Martha used plain terms. Her desire for food had disappeared, confounding her local physician and the psychiatrists who tried to solve her mysterious case for the last seven years—when she stated the change occurred. When Martha shared her symptoms with a doctor in 1927, he diagnosed her with a “case of nerves,” and later, supported her committal.8 At the hospital, a psychiatrist declared Martha insane and tried to force feed her, “because I refused to eat,” she vented.9 All the while, she continued her usual hobbies of reading, drawing, and writing poetry. “I was normal in every other way,” she defended.10
Louis vouched for his wife. Back at home, Martha made meals for the family and completed chores without issue. He complimented her as “an excellent cook,”11 though she hardly tasted the food. As seen on the front page of Texas’ Fort Worth Star, Louis promised the journalist that his wife’s health, after seven years of fasting, “has not been harmed.” 12 He believed she could continue living on nothing.
The journalist may have asked Martha to comment. She assured them she felt fine, aside from having dropped from 140 pounds to a near skeletal 103.13
To fact check this bizarre news, the journalist asked a local doctor to weigh in. “It’s all bunk!” the unidentified expert spat.14
Martha Nasch is the Oddball, Black Sheep of my Family
Finding a seven-year-faster in one’s family tree is problematic at best. Coming to terms with the odds of this tale being more real than I can understand is flat-out embarrassing. My great-grandma Martha Nasch’s experience of living long-term without food is one such conundrum.
As a historical researcher and writer for several academic publications, I know that empirical evidence trumps anecdotal stories and pre-existing notions. I also know that primary and derivative accounts trump second-hand research. Finally, I know that secondary material that is nearer to the primary subject in time and distance can trump any later case I may have built to prove what witnesses said happened … didn’t. Couldn’t. Or could it?
Theoretically, if I prioritized the evidence on Martha by whichever trumps the other, I should find an answer to the problem my ancestor created.
1. Empirical Evidence Trumps Pre-Existing Notions:
If the definition of “empirical” means verified by an original, direct observation or experience without regard for any systems or theories (such as “no one can possibly live longer than X days without food”), then we’ll start with the three eyewitness accounts of 1934. Beyond signing an attestation, they withstood further questioning. Since I expounded on Louis’s testimony earlier, we’ll move on to the other two signatories.
The neighbor, Lynette Claus (1917-1974), knew the Nasches her entire life. She asserted, “although she goes in and out all during the day, she has never seen Mrs. Nasch eat or drink.”15 Descendants of the Claus family have no reason to doubt Lynette’s claim.16
My grandpa Ralph (1921-2019) responded to inquiries about his mother for years after the interview, with extreme consistency. In a memory book he created, he wrote, that Martha went to the hospital for “an alleged mental condition.”17 The cautionary adjective suggests his own doubts. During my original family tree research, I asked him point-blank, “Did you ever see your mom eat, Grandpa?”
I expected an immediate, “Of course”-type response, but Lt. Col. Ralph Nasch, a proud WWII Air Force Veteran, blushed as if he were still that little boy back then. After a moment to think, he answered firmly: “No.”
2. Primary Sources Trump Secondary:
Primary and derivative accounts that accompany the witness statements include ninety news interview reprints appearing across the United States and Canada. Each article’s selective inclusion of quotes from the original content created a more sensational slant. Some headlines called Martha “derided.”18 An Ohio University writer called her a “phenomena in nature.”19 None offer fresh insight.
More supporting evidence exists in the back of a poetry journal Martha kept while in the insane asylum. She transcribed two letters from folks who had corresponded with her and knew her testimony. The letters are dated October of 1934 and March of 1935. The authors use new age jargon about an “eternal now” and Martha’s “wonderful spirituality.”20 They acknowledge her distress over being ostracized when people thought she was a fraud. Unless my great-grandma was delusional and the letters falsified, these statements add to the disturbing possibility that others in this time and day, were fully convinced that her extended fast was real and aided by spiritual forces.
Riding high on a cocktail of awe and dumbfoundry, I had to look further. As did my mother. In 2020, we conducted a nauseating amount of research which included the following:
- Interviews with St. Peter Hospital Museum docents and former employees of Minnesota asylums;
- Cross-referencing accounts from family historians of every former neighbor of the Nasch Family;21
- Reviewing official historical medical records for Martha Nasch;
- Reading about fasting in religious texts and digging up other documented claims of lengthy food abstinence;
- And reviewing one hundred years of published medical case studies matching Martha’s admitted symptoms.
After all that, we hit a wall. “Outside sources do not contradict any of her claims. In fact, they reinforce and validate her story,” concluded my mother, a Ph.D., Jodi Nasch Decker.22 She provided an extensive report of her findings in Poems from the Asylum, the nonfiction book we published in 2021 as a result of this work.
3. Secondary Material Nearer to the Source (Typically) Trumps New Discoveries
If we agree that late-game discoveries are subject to heavy scrutiny and if we accept that I, having been born a decade after Martha died, have no way to vet any of my ideas with her, then I submit to you the evaluations of a Twentieth-century dietitian who could have accessed more timely information. Dr. George Clements, using the pen name of Hilton Hotema, featured Martha Nasch in at least five pseudo-medical texts on living primarily dependent on a diet of air and sunlight (and some raw food juicing, to be totally transparent). Sometimes, these sources of energy are referred to as “prana” (vital life forces). Eventually, a popularized diet-lifestyle (coined “Breatharianism”) developed from Clement’s writing.
In The Facts of Nutrition (1947), Clements introduced her case: “Mrs. Martha Nasch, age 44, of St. Paul Minnesota …. [who] For seven years had eaten nothing and affirmed her willingness to submit to surveillance to prove her claim.”23 Using her as an example, he stated, “One case is enough to prove what is possible in a million other cases.” 24 I hoped he would elaborate on his research. Instead in 1962’s Live Better, he presented a conspiracy that further information on Martha, “for commercial reasons … is quickly smothered, and we were never able to get a definite report on the matter.”25 Eager to see if, in his next book, he’d made more progress, I read Cosmic Radiation in Florida (1962). When Clements presented Martha’s story here, he added that when he tried to get more information, “medics were not interested in helping me.”26
On one hand, Clements could not prove that my great-grandma had fasted for seven years. On the other, my mother and I cannot prove she didn’t. It appears, nearly a century later, we are all feeling a bit sheepish over the mystery Martha left behind.
Epilogue
Poems from the Asylum by Martha Nasch was previewed and vetted for historical, scientific, medical, and genealogical accuracy by practicing psychiatrists, psychologists, asylum personnel, modern day Breatharians, and more. To this day, Martha Nasch is internationally recognized as a historical figure who proved to the world that daily food is not necessary for living an otherwise normal life.27 Also to this day, I am credited with both defining the strongest plausible explanation for her circumstances, while simultaneously being accused of perpetuating an elaborate hoax. It appears, those who read the full account will have to decide what is true for themselves.
Author Bio
Janelle Molony, M.S.L. is a family historian and award-winning author-editor of the 2021 tell-all on Martha Nasch, Poems from the Asylum. Martha’s story and every theory under the sun is up for discussion on the book’s social media page: Facebook.com/SevenYearsInsane
1 “Woman Has Gone Without Food, Drink 7 Years,” Sioux City Journal, September 19, 1934, page 1.
2 “St. Paul Woman Claims She Hasn’t Eaten, Drunk Anything For 7 Years,” La Crosse Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 10.
3 “Woman Claims She Has Gone Seven Years Without Food,” South Bend Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 4.
4 “Woman Claims She Has Gone Seven Years Without Food,” South Bend Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 4.
5 “Woman Has Gone Without Food, Drink 7 Years,” Sioux City Journal, September 19, 1934, page 1.
6 “Woman Has Gone Without Food, Drink 7 Years,” Sioux City Journal, September 19, 1934, page 1.
7 “Woman Has Gone Without Food, Drink 7 Years,” Sioux City Journal, September 19, 1934, page 1.
8 “St. Paul Woman Claims She Hasn’t Eaten, Drunk Anything For 7 Years,” La Crosse Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 10.
9 “St. Paul Woman Claims She Hasn’t Eaten, Drunk Anything For 7 Years,” La Crosse Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 10.
10 “St. Paul Woman Claims She Hasn’t Eaten, Drunk Anything For 7 Years,” La Crosse Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 10.
11 “Woman Says She Has Gone Seven Years Without Food,” Garrett Clipper, September 24, 1934, page 3.
12 “No Food in 7 Years,” Fort Worth Star, October 2, 1934, page 1.
13 “Woman Has Gone Without Food, Drink 7 Years,” Sioux City Journal, September 19, 1934, page 1.
14 “Woman Claims She Has Gone Seven Years Without Food,” South Bend Tribune, September 20, 1934, page 4.
15 “Woman Says She Has Gone Seven Years Without Food,” Garrett Clipper, September 24, 1934, page 3.
16 MaryAnn Johnson, personal communication to Janelle Molony, December 31, 2021.
17 Ralph Nasch, A Grandfather Remembers, album and memory book, 1987.
18 “Her ‘Seven-Year Fast’ Is Derided,” Muncie Evening Press, September 25, 1934, page 9.
19 Jane Werner, “The World in Review,” The Green and White, University Newspaper, October 16, 1934, page 1.
https://media.library.ohio.edu/digital/collection/studentnewspapers/id/24518
20 Martha Nasch, “Letters on the Final Pages” in Poems from the Asylum, ed. Janelle Molony (Arizona: Molony, 2021), 300-304.
21 Janelle Molony and Jodi Decker Nasch, “642 Hall Ave: Asylum Patient, Martha Nasch reflects on her St. Paul Neighborhood,” Ramsey County History Journal (St. Paul: Minnesota, forthcoming).
22 Jodi Nasch Decker, “Martha Hedwig Nasch” in Poems from the Asylum, ed. Janelle Molony (Arizona: Molony, 2021), 39.
23 Hilton Hotema, The Facts of Nutrition, (Washington: Health Research, 1947), 20.
24 Hilton Hotema, The Facts of Nutrition, (Washington: Health Research, 1947), 20.
25 Hilton Hotema, Live Better, (Washington: Health Research, 1962), 83.
26 Hilton Hotema, Cosmic Radiation in Florida, (Washington: Health Research, 1962), 96.
27 Breatharian World, “Martha Nasch,” Accessed April 4, 2022. https://www.breatharianworld.com/en/martha-nash/
©2022 Janelle Molony, M.S.L.
Published by Dallas Genealogical Society with the author’s permission
