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Allegan County Poor Farm Allegan's Best Farm |
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SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOME OF THE UNFORTUNATES - They are better cared for Than Many Suppose - What they eat and Where They Stay - A Few Interesting Statistics About the Poor-House. Few indeed are the inhabitant of the Allegan county who are not interested in the poor-farm, and yet there are many who have never visited the place and who know very little about it. For such as the latter thi article is more particularly written. Situated in the southeast corner of section five, Allegan township, are 160 acres of land, second in quality to none in the country. This quarter-section was purchased by Allegan county of Jedediah Pope and wife, June 14, 1866, to be used as a county poor-farm. Previous to the establishment of the country infirmary, indigent persons had been cared for by John B. Allen a number of years, and afterward by Riley Granger of Trowbridge at the county's expense. As the population increased, the necesity of a separate establishment became apparent, and so the county-house was started. Little is known of the early history of the farm, owing to the burning of the records in the Allegan fire of 1884. The first county-house was erected soon after the purchase of the farm, and was occupied until it burned Feb. 1, 1883. The board of supervisors were at once called in special session to make provision for for a new building. A committee, consisting of Supervisors Thos. Gray of Saugatuck, Leonard Bailey of Allegan, E.C. Knapp of Gunplain, P.C. Whitbeck of Manlius, and David Stockdale of Wayland, and superintendents of the Poor S. S. Dryden, C.W. Calkins, and Oka Town, was elected by ballot to approve plans for a new infirmary to cost not to exceed $10,000. A building committee was also elected, consisting of W.F. Harden of Martin, Leonard Bailey and S. S. Dryden of Allegan. Plans were selected, and the contract was let to Dumont & Howe for $9,665.50. Extra fixtures bought the cost up to $11,108.80, and furnaces, grading, etc. increased the amount $1,270, making the total cost of the building $12,378.80. This structure was considered suitable to comfortable accommodate 100 inmates. Alterations and improvements of more or less consequence have been made from time to time, the most noticable of which was the addition last year of a large veranda to the front of the buiding and a convenient stoop at the rear. The county-house at present consists of the keeper's apartments, which occupy the front of the house on the two main floors, comprising a hall, sitting-room, dinning-room, and bed-room on the first floor, and a hall and four sleeping-rooms on the second. The inmates department occupies the remainder of the building. In the basement is an assembly-room, a dining-room with a seating capacity for fifty persons, a commodious kitchen, and large pantry, and a bakery A furnace-room and cellar are adjacent to the assembly- and dining-rooms. The upper storied are divided into twenty-six large and airy wards and four halls. A system of steam heating is used, giving an even temperature all over the building. To the west of the kitchen is a large milk- and butter-room. Between the milk-room and kitchen is to be built a refrigerator, and, with the use of the thirty-five loads of ice put up each year, a beeve hog may be butchered, stored, and kept during the warm weather. Excellent water is obtained from a well 111 feet deep. A wind-mill pumps the water into a reservoir twenty feet long, ten feet deep, and also forces it into the attic of the main building to be used in the heating apparatus. A compound is used to keep the water from corroding the pipes. Sewers and drains keep the house and surrounding grounds in a sanitary condition. The house is roomy, comfortable, and pleasant. During the intervening years other buildings have become necessary. An asylum for the county insane was erected west of the main building, and also a school for orphans still further west. The asylum has not been used to any extent for some years. The new heating plant for the hospital has been located in the basement. The building has been thoroughly renovated, and will hereafter be used for inmates whose habits and physical condition make them undesirable tenant for the other buildings. There are still some alterations to be made about this place, the greatest of which will be a new porch on the east side. Among other improvements at the county-farm will be the building of a stone wall under the laundry, rebuilding of the arch and chimney, and the construction of a floor. A cement floor is also to be placed in part of the basement of the west barn, and feeding-rack for stock will be built under the straw-barn. One of the more recent and most important improvements is the etablishment, under the supervision of Dr. W. E. Rowe, county physician, of a county hospital. The purpose of this institution is not for county charges alone, but for any persons of limited means who have the misfortune to require the services of a surgeon. Patients placing themselves in the county hospital will receive the best medical aid, and none but professional nurses will be employed to care for surgical subjects. Any one may take advantage of the excellent facilities for surgical operations thi place offers, by making arrangements with the supervisors of his township, and may pay the expense himself, or the entire cost of physician's or nurse's services, medicine, etc., will be borne by the county. The building was originally erected for a county orphanage before the state school was established at Coldwater. This structure was moved from its former site in the orchard east toward the main building in the spring of 1899, where it has been remodeled for its present use, and is in every respect a creditable place. The first floor contain two wards, each large enough to accomodate six beds. Adjoining these rooms are two bath-rooms equipped with porcelain tubs and bowles. The first ward will be used for surgical patients only, and the second is so arranged that persons suffering from any contagion may be confined there with perfect safety to the other occupants of the building. On the west side of the hall are three rooms. In the first will be kept the instruments and dressings; the second is the operating room, well lighted with a large west window and provided with sink and other conveniences. Back of the operating room is an apartment designed to contain a sterilizer, etc. The second floor is divided into seven rooms and a bath. The three front rooms are for the use of the seamstress, Mrs. Porter, who will have charge of the building. Two other rooms will each contain two beds, and the remaining rooms six beds each. Here will be accommodated persons suffering from ordinary ailments. The house is heated thoroughout with steam, and hot and cold water is supplied in all parts. No effort will be spared to make the patrons of this hospital as comfortable as their state of health will permit. The size of the farm remains the same as when the original purchase was made. Several attempts have been made to get an appropriation with which to buy more land, but to no avail. The farm is divided into eight twenty-acre fields. Of the fertility of the soil one may judge from the following figures: This year, from twenty acres, an average of thirty-five bushels of wheat was grown: 1,400 bushels of corn (shelled) were secured from thiry-two acres: nine acres yielded 1,100 bushels of potatoes; twenty acres produced 800 bushels of oats; thirty-two loads of cloer were cut from twenty acres of this year's seeding, and twelve loads came from the second cutting. The farm is abundantly supplied with small fruits, including cherries, strawberries, and grapes. Fifteen cows supply a sufficient amount of milk and butter, and the growing stock will provide meat in adequate quantities. Nearly everything consumed on the farm is grown there, groceries and clothing being the exceptions. There are present 66 inmate, 28 males and 38 females, four of the latter being insane. One of these, Cornelius Morency, has been a county charge since before the establishment of the poor-farm. The cost of keeping last year was $1.70 per capital per week. It may be interesting to know the quantity of eatables required to supply this institution. About eighteen bushels of potatoes sixty pounds of sugar, one barrel of crackers, eighty loves of bread, and fifty pounds of coffee are consumed each week. There are on hand nearly 9,000 pounds of flour left from last year, and in the cellar are 450 bushels of potatoes, nine thirty-gallon crocks of last year's pork, five barrels of krout, and 800 quarts of canned fruit. The coal-bin contains eighty-five tons of coal bought last July at $3.25 per ton. |
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Visitors
are welcome at the poor-farm Thursday of each week. The keeper and matron, Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Staring, are cordial and
polite and spare neither words nor pains in entertaining callers. Mr. and Mrs. Staring have been connected with the
institution about ten years, first as attendants under Mr. Frank Blain, and in their present capacity seven years. While
working for Mr. Blain they were married. They are thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the poor-farm work, and
their economical management saves the county many dollars each year. Their kind dispositions have won for them the
love of the unfortunates under their charge, while the order maintained and thier scrupulous neatness have gained for
them the confidence and esteem of the supervisors and superintendent of the poor, and their courteous manner have made
them popular with those whose businesses curiousity has taken them to Allegan county's poor-farm. What was the Fairfield Cemetery, or the Poor Farm Cemetery, has known burials and will be updated as more information is found. The following is a from
History of Allegan County, Michigan, The farm as first purchase soon proved inadequate, and a committee urged the erection of a poorhouse. this structure as erected during 1868, and was reported completed in January, 1869, at a cost of $2,090.07. This was ony one of the smaller buildings of the group as contemplated when all the buildings should be completed, and it was soon found that the new structure was insufficient to meet the needs of the institution, and that the old building was rapidly falling into decay. Accordingly, in January, 1870, the board of supervisors instructed the superintendents of the poor to proceed with the erection of the main building. This was built within contract time, and was accepted as complete on October 13, 1970, the total cost being $7,461.97. The next building to be erected on the farm was an asylum for the insane. The consideration of this matter was introduced before the board of supervisors in 1874. The asylum, a two-story brick building, with four rooms in the basement and sixteen above, was first occupied January 1, 1876, its cost being 41,328.62. That the children of the institution might have a building apart from the adult inmates, a juvenile building was next constructed. The supervisors took the first steps for the building of this addition in January, 1877, and the building was completed ready for occupancy before the end of the year. The total cost of this building was $1,633.39. The following actions taken by the board of supervisors in recent years indicate the material improvements at the county farm: Oct. 20, 1898.--". . . Your committee further finds that in the main building every available room is occupied, also the so-called insane building, and it is impossible to classify the inmates as they should be. The sick and also those who are afflicted with contagious diseases ought to be separated, but it is totally impossible with the limited room at present. And the committee thereupon would recommend that upon investigation to see if practical, the old school building be moved on the grounds in front of what is called the 'insane asylum,' as near as practical to a place that is most convenient to be heated and secure as much as possible from fire, and it be elevated enough on a stone foundation so it can be heated from the main building; and we recommend tht it be so connected, and said building be used as a hospital as far as necessary, especially for the isolation of contagious diseased patients, the expense not to exceed $50. We also recommend that the poorhouse be connected with a telephone at a cost not exceeding $25 and the regular rates for use of the same. "H.J. Klomparens, Jan. 10, 1899.--"Whereas, your honorable body, at the October session of 1898, did not vote to move the building known as the school building situated at the county farm and the repairing and the heating of the same, and to put telephone into the county poorhouse, but failed to appropriate the money for so doing; and inasmuch as the superintendents of the poor, in compliance with the action there taken, have contracted for the moving of said school building and caused to be put into the poorhouse a telephone, there being no fund for that purpose, we, the undersigned superintendents of the poor, do recommend that the sum of five hundred and twenty-five ($525) dollars be taken from the county contingent fund to be used as a building fund for the moving, repairing and heating of said building, to be paid by the county treasurer on orders drawn by the superintendents of the poor, said orders to be for the moving, repairing, or heating of said building." The amount asked for was voted by the board.
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