Greenwood County History -
Poor Farms, Part 1 of 2,
Poor farms, also called county farms, were relief institutions that provided food, shelter, medical care and sometimes burial services in Kansas and other states. Treatment of the indigent, sometimes referred to as inmates, varied with some poor farms providing refuge for those in need while others operated more like prisons. Poor farms were started about 1787 in Maryland for residents of that state who were thought to be unable to support themselves. The idea of poor houses dated back to the first English workhouse in Bristol, England, in 1697. The Kansas Constitution required that counties provide for the indigent. Counties could purchase land and erect poor houses on that land, not to exceed 320 acres. The first poor farms were started in Leavenworth and Douglas counties in 1866. By 1899, 80 of the 105 counties in Kansas had poor farms. By 1912, all but 11 counties had poor farms. In 1914, 893 persons were living on poor farms in 73 counties.
Poor farms tried to be as self-sufficient as possible by growing grain, vegetables and dairy production. Residents were expected to undertake farm chores to the best of their ability. Some residents were asked to cook and do house cleaning chores.
Greenwood County had a county farm (poor farm) located three miles north of Hamilton on the west side of highway 99. The farm was in existence as early as 1881 as the county was seeking a doctor to attend to inmates for one year. All medicines were to be furnished by the physician receiving the contract.
In April of 1918 fire destroyed the structure housing the residents. The superintendent’s family and the inmates were at dinner when the fire was discovered. The inmates were brought to Eureka first and then five of the residents were taken to the Lyon County infirmary to be housed there until a new structure could be built. The building was insured for $2,900 and the rebuild cost was estimated to cost $3,000 above the insured amount. In 1918 the county farm, which consisted of 200 acres, was sold and plans were made to build a country infirmary (poor house also called the county home) which stood where the ambulance barn is now located in Eureka on south Jefferson Street. The approved bid for the infirmary was $7,915 for the building above the foundation and $1,770 for the foundation and basement. In 1928 the Superintendent of the county farm in Greenwood County was paid $65 a month. The county home was finally closed around 1965.
In 1935 there was a study done of poor farms in Kansas and that investigation was published into a pamphlet. An intensive study of poor house or county farms was done in the counties where county commissioners requested one be performed. A case study of each inmate was done by trained care workers, including interviews with the inmate and visits to relatives and friends. Mental tests were given by psychologists. Diet studies were made by trained dietitians and farm management studies by agricultural experts. Some of the contents of that study are found in this article.
The report stated that the state relief system had established no minimum standards for the aged and infirmed and placed slight emphasis on the qualifications of personnel in charge of poor houses and provided little local supervision and no state supervision of these institutions. In 1935 Greenwood County had 2029 inmates for the year.
Many of the early poor houses were also used as temporary hospitals for there were few public hospitals. Inmates who had mental disorders were many times housed at poor houses and the staff was not qualified to care or deal with these people. In one poor house it was reported that the superintendent ordered a nurse to give a mental patient excessive hypodermics and narcotics to keep her quiet, so that she would not annoy the other inmates. Kansas, in 1934, was still allowing children to reside at poor houses. There were 62 children living at poor houses in 1934.
Seventy four percent of the poor farms were operated by a superintendent who was employed by the county and paid a salary. He was given what help he needed to operate the farm and all expenses were paid by the county. The produce raised on the farm belonged to the county. If there was surplus grown and sold, the proceeds went to the county treasurer. The other system for operating a poor farm besides the one mentioned above was a contract system where public property was leased to an individual who agreed to care for the poor farm and inmates on stipulated terms. While the atmosphere of the poor house is dependent, more upon other factors than its physical properties, the adequacy and the condition of the household furnishings, do affect the happiness and well-being of the inmate. The following is a description of the furnishings in one poor house. “The living room has, in one corner, a small oilcloth-covered table with church hymnals and Sunday School papers and the curtains at the window are not ironed. Every chair in the room is in need of repair. One oak chair is split across the entire seat. A wicker chair has string and rope woven across it for a seat, but the weaving has not been completed so that there are large holes, which have been covered with a piece of gunny-sack. Another wicker chair has lost one arm and is held together by a rope. A rocking chair has cardboard tacked in for a seat, with a thin pillow covering it.
“The kitchen has no sink, consequently all refuse water must be emptied in large cans and pails on the back porch and carried away by the inmates.
“Most of the men live in rooms about 9 feet by 15 feet with three or four men in each room. One or two chairs and an occasional small stand are the only furnishings besides three-quarters size iron beds, on which are soiled mattresses, covered with blue denim sheets and infested with bedbugs. The odor of perspiration-filled clothing permeates the men’s quarters. None of the rooms have curtains at the windows or pictures on the walls. Since at times there are not enough rooms for all the men, there are two beds in the hall. One bed had a board, wrapped in cotton blankets, under the mattress to keep it from sinking too low in the center. A typical room for women is about the same size as that for men with a single window, in some cases no curtain a radiator, and on the wall a few nails from which clothes are hung in lieu of closet space. One of the cell bedrooms occupied by a woman inmate had nothing in it except a radiator and a bed.
“There are only enough sheets for two sheets for each inmate with a few for emergencies, so that it is necessary to launder the bedding and return it to the beds, not ironed, the same day. With invalid patients often requiring frequent changes of bed linen, a shortage of sheets might easily occur. There are only enough blankets for two for each inmate, which seems inadequate for winter use.
‘There were few chairs for the old ladies and no bed comforts. The town women, concerned over the inadequacy of the furnishings, provided a few chairs and bed covers which served to brighten up the house considerably. The commissioners refused to give any chairs to the old men because they believed they could find logs to sit on. The only chairs they have are made by laying a board between two logs. The only stove is made out of an old oil can.”
