What type of new year resolutions did you make? Many resolutions focus on weight loss or exercise, but some people may resolve to get their financial affairs in order. One hundred years ago if you were experiencing extreme financial difficulties, you might get sent to the county poor farm. So what were county poor farms? Our guest columnist this week, Dr. Jim Connors from South Dakota State University will educate us about poor farms. Take it away Dr. Connors.
County Poor Farms
Every Christmas season one of my favorite movies to watch is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. There is a scene in the beginning of the movie where Ebenezer Scrooge is approached and asked to donate funds to help the poor. When asked to donate to the poor and destitute, Scrooge replies by asking…“The prisons, the workhouses are they still in operation? The treadmills, the poor houses, still in full vigor?”
Before there was welfare or Social Security there were various institutions that housed, fed, and provided shelter for the indigent in our communities. Depending on the state and county, these institutions were known by various names including:
- Workhouses
- Almshouse
- County Home or County Farm
- Poor Farms
It is estimated that there were over 130,000 poor farms across the country in 1935. The State of Ohio apparently had a poor farm in every county.
County Homes
The history of poor farms began in the mid-1800s when counties were charged with allocating resources to assist indigent citizens in their communities. Funds would be provided to citizens who would open their homes to poor people. These privately owned residences would very often be called County Homes. Below is a picture of a County Home operated by Dr. B.F. Russell in Oregon.
As politicians often do, someone had an idea that the poor could be asked (or required) to provide labor in exchange for their room and board. Counties began looking for agricultural land to purchase, both as an investment, and a location for a poor farm. The “inmates” who were physically capable could provide regular labor to grow gardens or crops and raise livestock.
Figure 1. Dr. Benjamin Russell County Home – Thurston, OR
Poor Farm Facilities
The idea was that the county would get free labor. The inmates would produce their own food, thus reducing the cost to the county taxpayers. Another main goal was to keep the poor active at productive work and eventually move them from a life of dependency.
The poor farm was overseen by a hired Superintendent. The Superintendent would be a paid civil servant, often with agricultural experience, who lived on the facility and managed the day-to-day activities of the farm operation.
Depending on the county and available funds, poor farms often had the following facilities:
- Superintendent’s Residence
- Separate housing facilities for men and women, often 2-3 story dormitory style buildings.
- Medical facilities including Pesthouses (small houses where residents with communicable disease were housed) for inmates with sickness, consumption (tuberculosis), smallpox, malaria, etc.
- Secure jail facilities for convicts, disciplinary problems, etc.
- Farm buildings including storage facilities, dairy barns, cotton gin, canning operations, etc.
Poor Farm Agriculture
There is limited information about the types of agriculture conducted on poor farms. Daley & Pittman-Munke wrote that “If able bodied, they could work in the fields or make soup for the farm. Often the elderly made blankets, knitted socks and sewed linens for the residents of the farm. Women cooked meals to serve the men first…” Some farms were large enough to have equipment, dairy facilities, cotton gin, or canning operations. Below is a picture of a County Farm (Poor farm) in Montana with house, barn, and outbuildings.
Figure 2: Fergus County Poor Farm – Fergus County, MT
The Huron County farm, located in Huron County in the “thumb” of Michigan, was large enough to have a dairy barn, silos, and herd of Holstein cattle. The picture shows the Holstein Group from 1938. Another photo shows a large poor farm operation with dormitory, barns, pastures, etc. in Multnomah County, Oregon.
Figure 3: Huron County Farm – Huron County, MI (July 13, 1938)
Figure 4: Multnomah County Poor Farm – Troutdale, OR
Poor Farm Cemeteries
Because the inmates at county poor farms rarely had any living family relatives, when they died, the county became responsible for their remains. Daley & Pittman-Munke wrote that,
“Many inmates of the county farm believed this was their last earthly stop. And, indeed for many, it was. That what remains of poor farms today is most often the cemetery is grim testament to that reality.”
Because the poor farms were in rural areas with plenty of land available, they often included a cemetery where inmates were buried upon their death. The inmates were usually buried in unmarked graves without even a headstone or marker indicating their name. In many cases these Potter’s Field cemeteries are the only remaining remnant that the poor farm even existed in that location. Below are two modern markers erected to identify the County Poor Farm Cemetery.
Figure 5: Poor Farm Cemetery markers (L – Hall County, NE, R – Waterville, Nova Scotia, Canada)
Demise of Poor Farms
The poor farms operated from the late 1800s into the early decades of the 1900s. A few were still in operation in the 1960s. Part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program was the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. This provided a “social” security net for poor and indigent people. Funds were given directly to the people to pay for housing, food, medical expenses, etc. Social Security was only given to individuals who did not live in government provided facilities such as county homes, almshouses, poor houses, or poor farms.
Combined with changing social norms, the era of the poor house or poor farm came to a close in the years after the creation of Social Security. The rise of private nursing homes for the elderly also contributed to the end of the county home or poor house.
Poor Farms Today
If a person does some research and a little investigation, remnants of poor farms can still be seen today. Just outside of Iowa City, IA is the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm. It is part of the Johnson County Poor Farm and Asylum Historic District which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
If you have the chance to visit the Minnesota State Fair, I would highly recommend it. It is one of the largest and best state fairs in the country. The state fair is located next to the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota and on land once home to the Ramsey County Poor Farm. The large red brick barn and silos was part of the Ramsey County Farm, which can still be seen at the top of the picture below. The Poor Farm Barn is the only building in Maplewood, MN on the National Register of Historic Places.
Figure 6: Johnson County Historic Poor Farm
Figure 7: Ramsey County Farm Barn – Maplewood, MN – Iowa
Conclusions
Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, many counties around the country, from New England to Oregon, operated poor farm facilities to house and care for the poor and indigent populations of their counties. Able bodied people worked to grow crops and raise livestock to feed the inmates or sell to support the cost of the facilities.
In many cases these poor farms were the last resort for individuals with no family, friends, relatives, or church organizations to care for them. It was a way to give them work and dignity during their remaining life. Numerous inmates were buried in poor farm cemeteries on the property.
Agriculture played a small role in the social welfare system during this era. Farming was seen as a way of providing inmates the dignity of labor, the ability to grow their own food, and a way to give back to the county in which they lived. However, it tends to be a dark part of this tragic period of American history.
The Friday Footnote for next week will focus on an agricultural education program in Montana that started farming the county poor farm land and still does today. The school’s agricultural center is located on the former poor farm. Stay tuned.
Figure 8: Fillmore County Poor Farm – Minnesota (c. 1900)
Activities
- Visit your local library or historical society to research poor houses or poor farms in your county in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
- Search for any photographs of the county poor farms in your area, county, or state. Develop a historical display to recognize the place these farms played in the social welfare system in your area.
- Find plot maps from the era to determine where the county poor farm was located.
- Determine if any poor farm cemeteries are located in your county. Visit to determine if the cemetery is maintained. Determine how your FFA chapter could conduct a community service project to improve or maintain the poor farm cemetery.
References
Bank, T. (2023, April 26). Grounding the poor farm: A geographical perspective of pre-welfare America. Macalester College. Grounding the Poor Farm – News – News – Macalester College
Ebenezer Scrooge at his very worst. YouTube Video. Ebenezer Scrooge at his very worst
Hahn, A. J. (2025, February 25). Before social security, Fillmore County poor farm helped the poor and aging. Root River Current. Before Social Security, Fillmore County Poor Farm Helped The Poor And Aging – Root River Current
Hardy, M. (2024, September 10). How Michigan’s poor farms shaped social care – Huron County poor farm’s 60 year legacy. Thumbwind. https://thumbwind.com/2024/09/10/huron-county-poor-farm/#google_vignette
Horton, K. (2023, Nov. 6). Oregon counties once used poor farms to care for their neediest residents. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Oregon counties once used poor farms to care for their neediest residents – OPB
Iowa History 101: “Protector of the Poor”: Iowa’s poor farms and midwestern social welfare. State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. YouTube Video. Iowa History 101: “Protector of the Poor”: Iowa’s Poor Farms and Midwestern Social Welfare
Johnson County Historic Poor Farm (n.d.). Home | Johnson County Historic Poor Farm
McClure, E. (1963, December). An unlamented era: County poor farms in Minnesota. Minnesota History, 38(8), 365-377. An unlamented era: county poor farms in Minnesota.
McKeig, C. W. (n.d.). Beltrami County poor farm. Minnesota Historical Society MNOPEDIA. Beltrami County Poor Farm | MNopedia
Pittman-Munke, P. (2016). Over the hill to the poor farm: Rural history almost forgotten. Murray State University Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal, 8(2). Over the Hill to the Poor Farm: Rural History Almost Forgotten
Rusch, E. & Clink, K. (n.d.). Blue earth county poor farm: A brief history. Minnesota State University Cornerstone Library. Blue Earth County Poor Farm: A Brief History
The Poor Farm. Ferris State University. YouTube Video. The Poor Farm
This place in history: Poor farms. Colchester County Poor Farm – Vermont. YouTube Video. This Place in History: Poor Farms – YouTube
Figure 9: Anderson County Poor Farm Historic Marker – Tennessee