KYJacksonPurchase-L Archives

From: Bill Utterback <>
Subject: [KYJP] A Few Thoughts on "Poorhouses"
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 21:00:08 -0500

My friends -

I had planned to bring another JP Vignettes posting to the List today,
since Thursday is now the day for the "miscellaneous" types of postings
that are not strictly data. However, a conversation which I had with an
individual earlier today has turned my thoughts to county poorhouses and
the records associated with those. I want to share a few of those thoughts
in this post.

Most people believe that a "poorhouse" was just that - a place where people
who had no money and no means of making a living were relegated. And most
of us, I think, would think of the occupants of a poorhouse in the 1800's
as elderly, bent-over men, with a few women, dressed in clothes which
approach rags, etc. But that is not always the case. While it is true that
the occupants of poorhouses were there, in one way or another, because of
money matters, they were not all "beggars" or "panhandlers". Poorhouses
often had a wing for people who were chronically ill and who could not be
cared for by their families any longer(much like a "rest home" or "nursing
home" concept). In these wings could be found people who were relatively
young - in their 20's or 30's. Prior to the advent of the poorhouse
concept, there were states in which paupers and their families were placed
on the auction block, except that the lowest bidder was the winner. That
bidder received the labor services of these paupers for a certain period -
usually a year - in return for the winning bidder providing room and board
for the pauper and his family. There was much room for abuse of the
indigent in this system, just as there was in slavery, since this was a
form of indentured servitude.
There was also a process in some areas in which the care for the indigents
was contracted out to one or two individuals, who were responsible for the
care of a certain number of people. This was the nucleus of the beginning
of the county poorhouse.

By about 1860, the county poorhouse concept had taken hold in many places,
as it was seen as a better alternative to other processes, insofar as
maximizing the use of the taxpayers' dollar. By about 1900, the states had
taken control of these institutions, for the most part, and, as we all
know, the social reforms of the 20th century brought about much change and
eventually the welfare system became the common route which was taken with
indigent citizens.

Records in the Jackson Purchase do exist for a few of the poorhouses. Such
records often give the name of the indigent individual, whether ill or
healthy, the age, where born, sometimes when the individual entered the
poorhouse and when discharged, and - rarely - dates of death if the
individual died in the poorhouse. There are also poorhouse cemeteries near
where many of the poorhouse buildings stood, often with no grave markers,
and, if the poorhouse records have not survived(and many were simply thrown
out in the 20th century as having no value to the county), these
individuals are lost. So, when looking for poorhouse records, do not be
surprised if they do not exist, or they are very incomplete, as the record
keeping structure was not the best for these institutions. Nevertheless, if
you find one of your family in, for example, the 1880 census, and he is
shown in the "County Poorhouse" enumeration, it would be worthwhile to
check for availability of poorhouse records.

As is now customary, there will be no data post tomorrow, or on the
weekend, although I do plan to return with a file offering at some point,
so stay tuned.

-B
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• [KYJP] A Few Thoughts on "Poorhouses" by Bill Utterback <>