Greenwood County History -
Poor Farms, Part 2 of 2,
The population of Kansas poor houses varied during the year from 2 inmates in some poorhouses to 297 inmates on the largest poor farm in the state. Usually, the poor house was located in the country so that not only were the inmates isolated and cut off from natural human contact, but the citizens of the community, while aware that there was a place for the care of the indigent and infirm, had little knowledge of, or interest in it. The following excerpts, taken from reports of persons who visited some of the poor farms, show briefly the non-uniform character of Kansas poor farms in both the human element and in the physical properties of the institutions:
•The little houses which have been built for the men inmates are clean. The men seem to be happy.
•Although the place is unattractive, the inmates seem to respond to the superintendent.
•The matron has little understanding of the human needs of the persons under her care.
•On the poor farm is a fine eight-room, furnace- heated, stone building in which the caretaker lives. Nearby are three shacks in which three elderly men inmates live.
•The poor house is an old wooden building. There is running water only in the kitchen. The outdoor toilet is in a disgraceful condition. Conditions at the home were unspeakable prior to the death of one of the women who was suffering from a disease which made her very offensive. There are not even sufficient chairs for the old women and there is a lack of bed clothing. Living among the old people in these deplorable conditions are four children.
•The aged are housed in a steam-heated, brick building. The superintendent and his wife are kindly and jovial in their attitude toward the inmates. The men are allowed to smoke and play cards and although the quarters are not very clean, there seems to be a fairly happy spirit among the inmates. Such inmates as can, work around the farm: the women piece quilts. All do their own cleaning and sewing.
•The following is a description of the physical properties of a remote rural poor house in which there were only a few inmates:
•The poor house is located on a large farm, several miles from a small Kansas town. The road from this town is not hard surfaced, and is often impassable in rainy weather. Due to the condition of the dirt road, it sometimes is impossible for a doctor to attend cases at the poor house for days at a time.
•The house, a rambling two-story frame building, constructed in the 1860s as a poor house, is not in good repair. The porch on one end is shaded by a vine. There are no chairs on the porch, and the inmates are forbidden to sit there because they cannot be seen from the superintendent’s cottage and, hence cannot be supervised. The lower floor consists of the living room, dinning room, kitchen, bedrooms, and a cell room. The second floor consists of bedrooms and a store room.
•The older women inmates who were feeble use the downstairs bedrooms. One room, which is painted a bright blue, contains no furniture except a bed on which there were, at the time of the visit, during the summer, no sheets, but only a pair of gray cotton blankets, a heavy comforter, and a pillow. The inmate who occupies this room said that she would like to have sheets but that she had not been given any. There are no curtains at the windows and only one window has a shade. Old dresses and soiled underclothing are hung over the lower half of the window, but through the upper half the sun streams in so that room is unbearably hot in the summer.
•This was a summary of the findings the investigation did into poor farms in Kansas in 1935:
•Seventy-seven Kansas operated poor houses during 1934 at an expenditure of $370,393 for maintenance and labor. Two thousand five hundred inmates received 649,822 days’ care, making the average population for the year 1,780. The investment in Kansas poor house property was valued at more than $2,000,000, or an investment of $797 per inmate in 1934. Such an investment seems hardly justifiable from an analysis of the type of care afforded the inmates.
Poor house population varied from a total of two persons cared for in one poor house in 1934 to 297 inmates in another.
Twenty-one Kansas poor houses still housed children who, in 1934, numbered 62. Many mentally sick persons were cared for in poor houses.
The ratio of inmates to paid employees ranged from two inmates per employee in one small poor house to 40 inmates per employee in a larger institution.
Sanitary conditions in some poor houses were appalling. Rooms were filthy and ill-smelling; clothing and bedclothing were insufficient and unclean; bedridden patients were left uncared for; and in some poor houses it was found that a common drinking dipper and roller towel were used by all inmates, even though many of them were ill and diseased.
Too often superintendents of poor houses were selected for reasons other than ability to care for the aged and infirm. Because of the large acreage in connection with Kansas poorhouses, superintendents were employed on the basis of farming experience rather than on the basis of ability to care for the indigent aged.
In some poor houses confinement in cell rooms was used as a disciplinary measure, and some poor farm superintendents used hand-cuffs and even sent aged inmates to the county jail for disobedience. Such disciplinary measures probably continued as long as poor farm superintendents without an understanding of the aged and mentally sick patients are employed.
No planned activity relieved the monotony of life in the majority of poor houses. Some able-bodied inmates had regular duties, but no provision was made for occupying the time of many others who were not able to do some form of work. The lack of duties or any other form of diversion was devastating to the mental state on the inmate.
Diets in many poor houses were not suited to the inmates’ needs, but the meals apparently were served with the least preparation possible and, in many instances, showed lack of planning. Menus were burdened with starchy foods, and the meals in many cases were monotonous. Vegetables and fruit were used far too sparingly for the health of the inmates. Bed-ridden patients and able-bodied working inmates often received the same diet.
Many inmates of Kansas poor farms were chronically ill and often bedridden; others mentally sick. Inadequate medical care was furnished in most poorhouses, and in many poor houses no medical examination was required before or at the time of admission. Necessary nursing services, except in the few large institutions, must be given by the superintendent, his wife, or the inmates, some of whom were scarcely able to care for themselves.
Although the poor house, as such, cannot be justified in the present social order, it cannot be entirely abolished unless there is substituted some provision for the care of the aged ill who could not live in the community even though financial assistance was given to them.
The Kansas Emergency Relief Committee conclusion follows: “Socially minded citizens, believing that the aged should be assured comfort and security in their own homes, if possible, or specialized care elsewhere, if necessary, are interested in providing a substitute for poor house care. These citizens should aid and support public officials who have the social vision and ability necessary to promote the needed reforms.
It is hoped that Kansas soon can look back with as much abhorrence to her present short-sighted policy of caring for all the indigent aged and infirm in poor houses as she now does to her earlier policy of admitting to the poor houses the young, the blind, the orphan, the handicapped, the delinquent, and the unemployed. There is great need for the consideration of the whole poor house situation and for progressive action in the near future.”
