Monday, August 4, 2008

Poor Farm Tour

Tonight our master gardener group toured the Kaufman County Poor Farm. The farm was established in the 1880's to house and provide for the counties indigent citizens. The original farm was 408 and a third acres. Above is a picture of the original gate into the yard of the supervisors house.

Above is a picture of the jail. This was in use through the 1950's. An inmate painted pictures on the wall. Unfortunately, we could not view the interior.

This is the only remaining original building. It is the barracks and kitchen.
Above is a picture of the cellar. None of us had ever seen one built quite like this.
During the small pox epidemic in 1900 the Poor Farm was used as a quarantine camp.
There is a silo, lake, well, barns, chicken coop, and some old farm equipment remaining. There is a cemetery, which remains on county property, but no longer part of the poor farm. It is still in used for burials of indigent citizens.
The plan is to turn the remaining acres and buildings into a museum.
Unfortunately, there has been some recent vandalism. That will explain the boarded up windows. During our fall Scarecrow Festival, there is a ghost walk at the Poor Farm. There is also an archaeological fair held there in the spring.
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11 comments:

  1. Oh wow - that looks like a really interesting place to visit. I love all that social history stuff.

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  2. nice to see where we'll end up!!

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  3. I've always heard the expression "end up at the poor farm". That is so cool that you got to tour such an interesting part of our history.

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  4. That looks really cool. Bet it has some spirits to it too(-: I love the fence. That is really pretty. The cellar is very interesting too. It is kinda scary looking.

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  5. I love that fence in front of the jail. Sure wish I could find some though I don't know where I would put it!:)

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  6. Very interesting and spooky...I like the fence, too.

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  7. Hi vp, hopefully the remaining buildings will be preserved.

    Meme, you and I both know how close we have came.

    Hi PG, this is the fact behind the saying.

    Hi Cindee, There are a couple of buildings there that I will not go into because the give me the creeps.

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  8. Hi Lisa and Tina, I would like some fence like that too.

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  9. How interesting! I think it's great that they are trying to preserve this as a museum. I used to hear the expression "the poor farm," too, when I was young, but always thought it was just a saying. Several years ago a relative of a friend of mine bought a "poor farm" and turned it into a bed and breakfast.

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  10. Very cool Rose. Ours is still county property, at least part of it is.

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  11. comments are going missing. I did not delete them. Sorry

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