County Poor House or Farm

 

History of the County's Poor House

From the archives of The Crittenden Press we learn about the past history of the county's poor house/farm. The poor house was first located on the farm of Ira Nunn. This land was located off of S. R. 365, turn right onto the W. E. Newcom Rd. From the end of this gravel road it is several hundred yards to the right in a wooded area. The Nunn family cemetery is also located here. There are many unmarked graves outside the cemetery's metal fence. These graves are said to be inmates from the county poor farm.

Keepers of the Poor House would be chosen by the lowest bidder. In October of 1890 the bidders were George McBride, Tom Lanham and Ben Rutherford, the first bid was $7.00 per month for each pauper, and George McBride was the bidder. Then the bids dropped under this sum, and Tom Lanham got the bid at $5.50.

***

The Poor House, A Disgrace to the County. Oct. 15, 1891. Mr. Asher gives his report.

For some years it has been rumored that the state of affairs at the county poorhouse was not such that conduced to the happiness nor comfort of those unfortunates who appeal to the charity of the county for maintenance. But until recently these floating reports were given little or not credence.

Monday the Court of Claims convened to look after the county finances and county institutions generally. On Tuesday, the new Superintendent of the poorhouse, Mr. William H. Asher, made his first report concerning the management of this institution. His written report was handed in and read to the court by county Attorney Blue.

The report showed that in the way of household good and clothing the provision was about as scanty as it could be and bear a name. The report gave an invoice of goods on hand when Mr. Asher began his duties as Superintendent and also of the present contents.

After this Mr. Asher was called upon for an oral statement and he made it. Mr. Asher is a responsible man and no one could or would for a moment question anything he said; yet it was hard to believe that there was a habitation in this or any other county so destitute of cleanliness, and so foreign to comfort.

Mr. Asher's statement was that the poor farm is rightly named, for as it now stands it is about the poorest specimen of a farm I ever saw, consisting principally of a 15 or 20 acre filled of gullies without any fence around it, adjoining the garden on the north, and a small fenced field of beautiful yellow clay opposite the house.

I learned that the farm of some 200 acres was originally purchased by the county for $200, that some $500 or $600 worth of timber has been realized from it, and that 150 acres were sold to Eli Nunn for $500. The land purchased by Mr. Nunn lays well, and is the only part of the farm worth shucks.

The paupers were clothed in rags, and scantily clothed at that and the rags were filthy. The place of their habitation was filthy and foul in the extreme, totally unfit for a home for a human being.

This was the condition when Mr. Asher made his first visit and about the time the present keeper took charge. Since then there had been some improvement, but the inmates were still poorly clad, there was no fuel and cleanliness was a stranger to the place.

After discussing the matter, the magistrates directed the Superintendent to buy clothes for the paupers, if the keeper failed to do this, they were to deduct the cost from the keeper's allowance.

***

Improvements to be made.

In October 1902 the Fiscal court ordered that the old county poor farm, (also known as the county's Alms house), be sold and the proceeds of the sale go toward improving the county pest house two miles south of town, on the Chapel Hill Road, which would thereafter be used as the county poor farm. (I haven't found where this location was.)

It was decided that the present poor farm was too great a distance from Marion and it would be better to have it closer to town so it could be visited more often by the Fiscal Court to see that it was being kept in better condition and that the inmates were being better taken care of.

***

July 1928 Destroyed by fire.

In July 1928 this county poor house was destroyed by fire. When the blazes were discovered they had made such a headway that it was soon found to be impossible to save the building or any of its contents.

Jack Tabor, the caretaker, his family and nine inmates, occupied the house at the time of the fire.

The nine inmates were Tom Hall, Wm. S. Teer, Mrs. Lizzie Roberts, Mrs. Zona Rich, Mrs. Nancy Edwards, Mrs. Annie King, Mrs. Julia Adams, Mrs. Mollie Dare and Bill Vinson. They were sheltered for the past few days at the county jail awaiting the arrival of tents, which were ordered as temporary shelter. When the tents arrive they will be erected on the county farmland.

***

Wilson Hill new location

A few weeks later a deal was closed by the Crittenden County fiscal court for the purchase by the county of the Wilson Hill farm from S. M. Jenkins. The land would be the new home of the county farm or Alms house. It contained a total of 132 acres and would be conveniently located on the Piney Road about 1 and 1/2 miles from the courthouse.

On the farm were two frame houses in good repair. One of these houses contained four rooms and the other three. There was a stock barn and a metal roofed stable. Water was supplied by two wells and a cistern.

Kentucky Utilities power lines passed close by the main building making it convenient for the county to install electric lights if it so desired.

While this business transaction was taking place the inmates stayed in temporary quarters in tents on the county property on the Chapel Hill Road. As soon as the transaction was closed and some work done to prepare the two buildings, the inmates and keeper were able to move into their new home on Wilson Hill.

N. A. O'Neal was keeper of the farm in 1932. Clarence C. McDonald was keeper until the county closed the home and sold the property in January of 1943.

The county farm, although a needed necessity for the people who were unable to provide for themselves, was slowly but surely draining the county of their funds. To help with this problem the fiscal court decided they must sell the county poor farm and stop being solely responsible for this service.

***

My Findings. I am not sure what happened to the inmates that were there at the time, but some searching in the Fiscal court records at the time, I found that most of them found homes with other families and the court was then able to pay a small maintenance fee to the family for their care, and considering they were able to work, would help the family with their daily chores.

During the years of the County Farm and/or Poor House, there were many deaths that occurred. Most of these deaths went unnoticed and undocumented with the proper procedure. The old Marion Cemetery and also at Mapleview, which their area of burial was called the Free field, had areas where to bury the paupers, but most of these sad souls, had no monuments to mark their grave.

Some deaths had been noted by a mention of the death in The Crittenden Press and also in the Fiscal Court minutes located in the County Clerk's office, where the court had to pay the funeral home for the casket and for someone to dig the gave for burial. One entry read: The Court ordered that Marion Funeral and Undertaking Company be allowed $45.00 for burial expenses of one of the inmates, and Silas Gass would be allowed $6.00 for digging the grave. Expenses to be taken from the Paupers fund.

***

The last county poor farm was located where Richard and Betty Cruce's home is today, on Briarwood Lane, on top of Wilson Hill, Betty told me that when they bought the land in the 1970's, that the old county poor farm houses were still there, although very run down. The buildings had been used for storage of hay and other farm items during the time it had been closed in 1943.

When they had the land cleared for their new home they had the old buildings dozed down and burnt.