Re: Poor Farm Bluff Creek
FISHER
Posted By: Cherie (email) In Response To: Re: Poor Farm Bluff Creek (Mary Ellen)
Date: 5/5/2015 at 15:21:41
the poor farm was essentially a county home for those who were one of the following:
1.Disabled-mentally/physically
2. no living relative, or whose relatives could not care for them(elderly parents,etc)or had no relatives to turn to for support.
3.paroled from prison/jail, homeless, and/or no relatives to go to.
All were usually indigent, with maybe a few exceptions. In the late 1880-1890's people who went bankrupt were sent to the "Poor Farm". It did house criminals, and children were often living there with their parents. Widows with children often lived there until stories began to surface of rape and molestation of women and children. Ca. 1900, poor farms or county homes no longer took in widows with children. New programs came into existence that provided homes for widows. In worst cases, the children were placed in orphanages and their mother's to fend for themselves. This occurred from ca. 1900 even into the late 1940's. My mother was placed in an orphanage with her two brothers when the state took them away from their parents. It was still hard living following the Depression Era. Her parents had 7 children, living in a modified garage that may have had a dirt floor(unable to verify-concreted garages didn't come into fashion until the 50's(maybe40's). They likely didn't have an inside toilet, but they did have water because of stories of doing laundry & the children running unsupervised.
I think all states had something similar to Poor Farms operated the say way across the country in the 1800's. Then reorganized as County Homes. As mentally hospitals began to close, those who could not function on their own were sent to the county homes. As they aged, some were sent to nursing homes until they died.
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