2 Kansas History “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse”: Kansas Poor Relief by Marilyn Irvin Holt

Chase County Poor Farm, Elmdale, Kansas. Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 39 (Spring 2016): 2-15 2 Kansas History “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse”: Kansas Poor Relief by Marilyn Irvin Holt eflecting upon her Kansas childhood, Lettie Little Pabst wrote that despite uncertain times and financial insecurities, she grew up believing her parents’ hard work would keep the family from going “over the hill to the poorhouse.”1 People might make offhand remarks about going to the poorhouse if someone overspent or seemed unable to keep ahead of debt, but the poorhouse, or poor farm, was not an imaginary place. It was a physical reality, and by the early twentieth century, most Kansas counties had one. This article explores the genesis Rof the poor farm as the centerpiece of local poor relief in Kansas, examines the working mechanics of these institutions, and finally considers factors that led to their demise. While the terms “poorhouse” and “poor farm” were used interchangeably, state and local governments in Kansas generally referred to the institution as a “poor farm.” The concept had its origins in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century legal and social traditions, including the English Poor Law of 1601 (which levied a public tax for the maintenance of the poor); the 1697 creation of workhouses for able-bodied poor; the 1788 English law that established almshouses for the aged, sick, and women and children unable to work; and the 1662 Settlement Act, which made residency in a town or parish a condition for receiving assistance. In America, state and territorial laws later followed the language and intent of English statutes as templates for enacting their own poor laws. The Wyandotte Constitution, under which Kansas joined the Union as a state, addressed caring for the impoverished who, for any number of reasons, were unable to support themselves. Under this constitution, each county was responsible for its resident poor, and county commissioners were charged with providing “for those inhabitants who, by reason of age, infirmity or other misfortune, may have claims 2 upon the sympathy and aid of society.” Marilyn Irvin Holt, a former director of publications for the Kansas State Historical Society, is an independent historian who has been a consultant for PBS documentaries. Her articles and essays have appeared in scholarly journals and textbook anthologies. Her book publications include The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America, Children of the Western Plains, and Cold War Kids: The Politics of Childhood in Postwar America. 1. Lettie Little Pabst, Kansas Heritage (New York: Vantage Press, 1976), 12, 15. 2. Kansas Emergency Relief Committee (KERC), “A Study of Kansas Poor Farms,” KERC Bulletin 307 (October 1935): 1; Ks. Const. of 1860, art. vii, § 4; John E. Hansan, “Poor Relief in Early America,” 2011, Social Welfare History Project Online, http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/programs/ poor-relief-early-amer. Kansas Poor Relief 3 How the commissioners carried out their duties was Counties, which, like other counties, initially funded not specified by the Kansas constitution, although the purchase of land and construction of a residence by commissioners could be charged with a misdemeanor if issuing bonds. State law allowed counties to issue bonds they intentionally tried to rid themselves of problem poor for building bridges, jails, or other public structures, but by sending them to another county. Acceptable options to ensure that counties would not incur more debt than for poor relief followed common practices of the time. The they could handle, counties were required to petition the county could provide “outdoor relief,” which kept the state legislature for bond sale approval. The legislature impoverished in their own homes, where they were generally accommodated counties, but within limits. supplied with “reasonable supplies of provisions” and Stafford County, for instance, could issue bonds only to “absolute necessities” such as heating and cooking fuel. the amount of six thousand dollars for financing building The county could place the indigent in private homes construction and land purchase, and Marion County was under a contract system that paid a lump sum to a family limited by the legislature to spending no more than fifty willing to care for the dependent person. Poor families dollars an acre on its land purchase. How much acreage could be broken up, with children sent to orphanages or made up poor farm property was left for county officials indentured to work as farm hands or domestics. to decide, although legislative mandates set a maximum Commissioners also sought, though not always success- limit of 320 acres.4 fully, to relocate individuals to state institutions, particu- Despite the start-up costs associated with establishing larly those established to house and care for the insane. poor farms, the number continued to grow during the last Osawatomie State Hospital (opened in 1866), Topeka years of the nineteenth century as settlers moved into the State Hospital (established in 1872), and Larned State state’s western regions and new counties were created. Hospital for the Insane (opened in 1914) were available. By the end of the century, eighty of Kansas’s 105 counties At one time or another, county commissioners in Kansas maintained poor farms. By 1912 only eleven counties were used all of these options, both before and after a county still without. The majority of poor farms averaged in- poor farm was established for local poor relief.3 house populations of twenty to fifty, but more populous Settlers arriving in Kansas from other states brought counties such as Leavenworth, Reno, Sedgwick, Shawnee, ideas and institutions that were familiar, including the and Wyandotte usually averaged between fifty and one poorhouse/poor farm that was commonly found in hundred.5 states east of the Mississippi. Charged with looking In most counties, one commissioner was selected after the poor, county officials applied known methods to act as the “poor” commissioner. The job entailed to meet their responsibilities. The first poor farms were identifying those in need of aid and signing the written established in the years immediately after the Civil War, order for admission to the poor farm. By law, aid went when homesteaders and town builders began to migrate to any persons unable to support themselves because into Kansas in large numbers. In 1866 Leavenworth and of age, lack of family help, physical disability, or illness. Douglas Counties were the first to open poor farms, No other requirements, such as meeting criteria for a with Doniphan following in 1867, Jefferson in 1868, and Nemaha in 1869. Between 1869 and 1879 sixteen more counties opened poorhouses. In the next ten years, thirty- three more were added to the list. Included in this latter group were Hodgeman, Marion, Pawnee, and Stafford 4. KERC, “A Study of Kansas Poor Farms,” 1; “An Act to Authorize the Board of County Commissioners and the Authorities of Incorporated Cities to Issue Bonds for the Purposes of Internal Improvements,” in Laws of Kansas Authorizing the Issue of Municipal Bonds (New York: National Printing Co., 1871), 3–5; Session Laws of 1887 (Topeka: State Printer, 1887), 197, 184; Session Laws of 1888 (Topeka: State Printer, 1888), 110; Session Laws of 1889 (Topeka: State Printer, 1889), 152. Johnson County probably 3. Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Special had one of the earlier poor farms, but sources do not agree on a start-up Reports: Paupers in Almshouses, 1904 (Washington, DC: Government date, varying from 1863 to 1866 to 1868. Printing Office, 1906), 43; Hansan, “Poor Relief in Early America.” 5. KERC, “A Study of Kansas Poor Farms,” 1, 5; Fifth Biennial Report “Relief,” not “welfare,” was the commonly used term prior to the of the Board of Control of the State Charitable Institutions of Kansas for the twentieth century; “welfare” began to appear more regularly during the Two Years Ending June 30, 1914 (Topeka: Kansas State Printing Office, second decade of the twentieth century and became the more acceptable 1914), 34; “No Poor Farms,” Topeka State Journal, November 18, 1916. term by midcentury. See Michael B. Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: For one enumeration of poor-farm residents by county, see Department A Social History of Welfare in America, 2nd ed. (New York: Basic Books, of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Paupers in Almshouses, 1910 1996), 335. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1915), 56. 4 Kansas History The first poor farms were established in the years immediately after the Civil War, when people began to migrate into Kansas in large numbers. In 1866 Leavenworth and Douglas were the first counties to open poor farms. Pictured here is the Douglas County poor farm as it appeared around the turn of the twentieth century. Courtesy of the Douglas County Historical Society/Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. defined poverty-level income, were imposed. Individuals to non–county residents with the understanding that receiving county aid were the “worthy” poor, as opposed they would soon be moving on. This was not unusual; to people who were able-bodied and capable of work neighboring Oklahoma copied the Kansas residency but who seemed disinclined to help themselves. For this requirement along with “temporary relief to non- group, there was little sympathy and no county aid. residents.” Nebraska was more lenient, requiring only Determining who should receive help was usually thirty days of residency, but it attempted to keep out the obvious and straightforward. Two factors, however, nonresident poor by fining anyone bringing paupers into had to be considered. First was the question of military a county one hundred dollars.6 service. After 1885 the poor commissioner, or the county The county commission sometimes appointed a board commission as a whole, had to determine whether the of visitors responsible for making periodic inspections and destitute person was a Union veteran.

Load more