Lucy Grothoff, widow of Fred Grothoff, who lives near Opdyke, loaned me the old County Farm Ledger (1887 - 1936) to look through. The old ledger is very fragile and has been wet in places making it impossible to read parts of it Fred and Lucy rented the farm for a few years before purchasing it in 1943, by sealed bid, from the county.

They found the ledger in the attic of the house where the supervisor of the farm always lived. When they purchased the farm, Webb and Harris, Abstractors, said it was one of the shortest abstracts they had ever prepared. Colton Summers first owned the land and his wife and child were buried there in what was later to become the “Poor Farm Cemetery”. He purchased 40 acres in Sect. 27, Mt. Vernon Township in 1836 and in 1840 purchased 40 more adjoining it. Jefferson County purchased it from him, and the Grothoff's purchased it from the county. They in turn sold it to the Airport Authority along with 80 more acres that they owned, making a total of 160 acres.

Lucy said that the big brick building that housed the tenants was set on fire and burned down by one of the tenants before they purchased it.

THE LEDGER

The ledger listed who the Superintendent or Sexton was in each year, the name, address, reason for pauperism, occupation, who to contact, reason for leaving, and a list of items each tenant brought with him when he came.

For many the farm, was just a stopping off place before being transferred to Anna or Lincoln State Hospitals or to an orphanage. Many who came were mentally ill or otherwise mentally challenged, and many others just had no place else to go. Many were widows with children. Some were very sick when they arrived and after only a few clays there died and were buried there on the farm. In those days, there were no nursing homes, few hospitals, no public aid or welfare, no Social Security, and if something happened that you couldn’t take care of yourself, you ended up at the Poor Farm. This was especially a dreaded thing for old people who didn’t have family to take care of them and for people who were injured or became ill and couldn’t work.

In 1905 a deaf and dumb man was admitted, no name was listed, all the spaces said “don’t know”, and “went with it’s mother” listed as the reason for leaving. I found it very sad to think they listed him as an "it"rather than as a “he”.

One womans residence was listed “in a tent, near an oak tree, by the creek". Her occupation “Camping”, and her reason for pauperism “a disgrace to the county”.

Some of the occupations listed were (spelled as in ledger)

Most came with nothing, but some had a few things:

Some of the reasons for pauperism listed (spelled as in ledger)

Reasons for leaving

Superintendents were:

1890,91,92 -- Albert Schultz
1893,94 -- J.M. Purcell
1895,96 -- Albert Schultz
1897 (page had been wet)
1898 -- Albert Schultz
1899-1902 -- W. A. Smith
1903,04,05 -- unknown
1906 -- W.P Ford
1907-1911 -- C.W.Ragan
1912 -- I.N. or J.N. Smith
1913-14 -- W.A. Smith
1915-1918 -- John E. Hester
1919-20 -- W.A. Holland
1921-22 -- C.F. Davis
1923 -- J.W. Osborn
1924-29 -- John E. Hester
1930-32 -- unknown
1933-36 -- John E. Hester