Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....The County Farm 1879
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 7, 2007, 12:53 am

Book Title: History Of Coles County

THE COUNTY FARM.

   "The poor ye have with you alway." Originally, the mode of taking care of the
poor of the county, was through an officer in each township or election
precinct, styled " Overseer of the Poor," who looked after the welfare of the
poor and needy, supplied their wants and, at a regular meeting, brought his bill
before the County Board. But this system was found to be rather expensive, the
county, it is said, having paid out as much as $12,000 in a single year for the
benefit of its poor. So this mode was changed to a county farm. Some time during
the war the county purchased a small tract of land in Pleasant Grove Township,
but becoming dissatisfied with this, from some cause or other, probably its
location at the very edge of the county, it was sold in 1865, and forty acres
bought in La Fayette Township. After using this a few years in the capacity of a
county farm, it was sold and 258 acres purchased in 1870, in Ashmore Township.
Upon this farm substantial buildings have been erected, and all necessaries and
conveniences prepared for taking care of the poor comfortably. The main building
is a substantial two-story brick, and will accommodate about sixty persons. This
farm, at the time of its purchase by the county, was well improved, having a
comfortable frame residence, barns and all necessary outbuildings, so that the
only additional expense to the purchase of the land was the erection of the
brick building above referred to. Upon a written request to the Superintendent
of the farm, Joshua Ricketts, Esq., we received the following, which we give in
full, as it contains much of general interest, as well as some valuable hints:
"The number at present in our County Poorhouse is thirty-three. This is about
the average for the year. There are twenty-one females and twelve males. Four of
the inmates are over eighty years of age; two of them are white and two black.
One of these blacks is supposed to be at least 100 years old. The blacks are
both females, and were slaves until freed by the emancipation proclamation of
President Lincoln. Old John Golliday, well known to many of the citizens of the
county, having been a resident for over forty years, was once the lawful owner
of 400 acres of good land in Morgan Township, but by not doing right, he lost it
all, and now has to be taken care of at the expense of the public. I am
convinced that fully nine-tenths of all pauperism in this county may be traced
either directly or indirectly to the use of intoxicating drinks. Not that there
were that number who were drunkards, but the sin of others has, in many cases,
visited the children to the third and fourth generations. It is but a few days
since a poor, degraded creature left the house to return to his old haunts,
where he can again wallow in the ditch, steeped in the fire of the still. This
same man said that he felt as if could drink fully three inches of whisky, so
anxious was he to get back to his old rum-holes. I am thoroughly satisfied that
there would be no real necessity for poorhouses if intoxicating liquors were
banished from the land.

   "As to the mode of conducting the house, we have a set of rules for the
government of inmates, which are hung up in the house so that all can know what
is required of them. The Supervisors of the various townships are ex-officio
Overseers of the Poor of their respective townships, and by their order the
Superintendent receives and takes under his care those who are dependent and
helpless. The county owns some two hundred and fifty-eight acres of land, about
two hundred acres of which is plow and grass land: the remainder is principally
timber-land. On the farm is a brick building 38x58 feet, two stories high and a
kitchen attached to the main building, extending some 28 feet in length and 16
in width, with a large porch facing the east. There is also a very comfortable
dwelling for the Superintendent and his family and a large barn, with some
smaller buildings. There is an orchard of about one hundred and fifty bearing
trees, consisting of apples, peaches and cherries. In the summer time, the
paupers are employed some portion of the time in cultivating tobacco, of which
weed they are, as a rule, very fond."

   The Superintendent has to enter into a contract with the Board of
Supervisors, and give a heavy bond, obligating himself to take care and treat
kindly and humanely all who may be placed under his care, stipulating the kind
and variety of food that shall be furnished. It is now nine years since the
county bought the farm where the Poorhouse is now located, eight miles east of
Charleston, immediately on the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad. There were
twenty-seven paupers moved from the old house, four miles west of Charleston, to
this place, October 25, 1870, of which number there are remaining on hand at the
present time seven-two men and five women. There have been thirty-two deaths at
the house, out of some two hundred and fifty persons who have been received and
cared for. The attending physician (A. T. Robertson), says it is remarkable what
cures have been effected. Most of those who have died were far gone when
received. The oldest person who died was Mrs. Anna Higgenbotham, a cousin to
Gen. Winfield Scott.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY. ILLINOIS,

CONTAINING

A History of the County—its Cities, Towns, &c; a Directory of its Tax-Payers;
Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map
of Coles County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest,
Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c, &c.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO:
WM. LE BARON, JR., & CO., 186 DEARBORN STREET.
1879.

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