The Torch Magazine,
The Journal and Magazine of the
International Association of Torch Clubs
For 94 Years
A Peer-Reviewed
Quality Controlled
Publication
ISSN Print 0040-9440
ISSN Online 2330-9261
Fall
2019
Volume 93, Issue 1
Poorhouses
in America
by Judith
Landes
Once
I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I
built a railroad, now it's
done. Brother, can you spare a
dime?
Once I
built a tower, up to the sun, brick
and rivet, and lime;
Once I
built a tower, now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
—"Brother, Can You
Spare a Dime?" by E.Y. Harburg and Jay
Gorney (1931)
Little can be
taken for granted in our government
these days. What some call
"entitlements" are being threatened;
by 2030, some say, Social Security and
Medicare will run out (Miller).
The number of homeless people has
risen to record numbers (Weber and
Mulvihill). How many of our leaders
honestly believe in decent and
compassionate care for those who
struggle?
A look at the
past may be in order. What did
we do before social security?
Did it work? Did we provide good
care for those who were in
jeopardy? What did it mean to
care for the poor?
When I was a
teenager, my two sisters and I loved
shopping. One night, at dinner,
my father proclaimed, "if this
spending is not controlled, we will
all be in the poorhouse."
Playing the board game Monopoly, one
occasionally picked the card that
read, "Go to the poorhouse."
But few of us understand the reality
that once lay behind these phrases.
Millions of
Americans spent time in poorhouses.
Calamity Jane, Babe Ruth, Annie
Sullivan, Annie Oakley, Charlie
Chaplin, Henry Stanley and James
Michener are among the Americans who
lived in a poorhouse or workhouse,
some as adults and some as children.
(1) It was said that only the
wealthy in society had no fear of
winding up in a poorhouse (Katz
211). Those who lived in
poorhouses were often given terrible
labels: "lazy," "good-for-nothing,"
"paupers," "indolent," "beggars," and
"unworthy poor," among other names.
The concept
of poorhouses came from Europe, where
they had existed since feudal
times. In early times in the
United States, the poor and sick were
taken care of by churches and
charities. The first poorhouse
was reported to be in Jamestown in
1622 (McCarthy). The next, the
Boston Almshouse, was in use in 1660,
followed decades later in 1735 by the
Boston Workhouse Act (Wagner, Poorhouse,
152). Towns would provide those in
financial distress with products, such
as food, through town suppliers.
This kind of aid provided to those in
their homes was referred to as
"outdoor relief" (Wagner, "Poor
Relief"). The poor were
sometimes provided for by boarding
them out to work on farms for other
people; in some cases, this meant
auctioning a person off to the highest
bidder.
In early
America, poorhouses were designed to
enforce discipline (Wagner, Poorhouse,19).
"Spirituous liquors," disorderly
conduct, and profane language were
forcefully regulated. The severest of
punishments were dealt to one who
would bring or assist in bringing
liquor into the house. There
would be a stay in solitary
confinement with only bread and water
for a stay of up to two weeks.
Time would increase with a second
offense. Solitary confinement
was deemed necessary to keeping order
in the house (Wagner, Poorhouse,
40-45).
Some
poorhouses were organized to be
degrading to residents (Katz 95). Some
persons entering a poorhouse were
labeled "deserving": widows, children,
the elderly, the sick and those with
disabilities. The "undeserving"
category consisted of able-bodied
adults who were not working,
"foreigners" and those who were judged
morally deviant (Wagner, "Poor
Relief," 52) Residents were expected
to participate in the work of the farm
or at other labors. This never
seemed to work, as many were too old
or too weak or uncooperative.
As an
institution, the poorhouse was a
collection of contradictions.
They were to be shelters to care for
the poor—but also a way to keep the
poor from applying for relief.
The poorhouse was voluntary, and many
entered due to the threat of
starvation, but for many the shelters
became penal prisons, those with
mental illness faring the worst (Katz
25). Represented as a kind of
charity, poorhouses were at the same
time a source of private profit. Towns
often spent more money supporting them
than it would take to provide other
kinds of relief, and it was suspected
that much of the money was used for
the payment of fees to justices,
overseers, lawyers, and constables.
From the very
beginning, poorhouses, also known as
almshouses, workhouses, county homes,
city homes or poor farms, were
unpopular with the rest of the
citizenry (Wagner, Poorhouse,
6). The towns seemed to show little
interest in what was going on with the
walls. Once a person entered a
poorhouse, they became almost a kind
of non-person, out of sight, out of
mind. Even families turned their
backs, making few visits; indeed, some
had entered the poorhouse because
their families refused to care for
them. Children were also
residents of poorhouses; the 1910
census showed that "more than 110,000
were living in asylums across the
country. They were labeled 'dependent,
neglected and/or delinquent'" (Katz
91). By the end of the nineteenth
century, most of these children had
been relocated into what were called
"orphan asylums," even though an
amazing number had living parents
(Katz 52). A 1910 study of 985
widows showed that 15% of their
children under the age of fourteen
were in some kind of "substitute care"
(Moehling 206).
*
* *
Poorhouses
began to change in the late 1800s due
to political pressure, the growth of
political machines (especially in
urban areas among immigrants), the
rise of labor unions, and socialist
organizing (Wagner, Poorhouse,
97). Veterans of the Civil War
were the first to be granted pensions,
and when the depression of 1893
occurred, many cities and towns
provided public works for the
unemployed. A number of states were
able to pass "mothers' pensions" given
to mothers, of good moral character so
that they would not have to abandon
their children and go to the poorhouse
(Wagner, Poorhouse, 9).
Even though
changes came, some old attitudes
persisted. In 1910, the superintendent
of the Rockingham County Farm, New
Hampshire, wrote the following: "our
mission is to furnish everything
comfortable for inmates, kind caring
for the sick, but in no way to
encourage indolence and pauperism and
fill the institution with people too
lazy to care for themselves" (qtd. in
Wagner, Poorhouse, 39). A 1937
letter from a county commissioner to a
relief recipient in Rockingham County
indicated that "if you do not 'snap
out of it' and get to working and
paying your rent, my next call on you
will be with a police officer and will
take your family to the county
farm. The state of New Hampshire
will place your children. A word
to the wise is sufficient" (qtd. in
Wagner, Poorhouse, 99). Even in the
twentieth century, those who oversaw
the poorhouses were quick to judge the
residents in ways reminiscent of
Dickens villains.
On the other
hand, poorhouses were not all alike,
and some even made a positive impact.
James Michener's The Fires of
Spring, a partly
autobiographical novel, draws on his
own experiences growing up in the
poorhouse in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. "As long as he could
remember," writes Michener of his
protagonist, David, "he had lived in
the poorhouse with his Aunt Reba. She
was in charge of the women's building
[…]" (6). Aunt Reba was cruel
both psychologically and physically,
Michener describing her as an "ugly,
unloving witch" (6). At the age of
ten, however, David "was moved from
the women's building into a room of
his own on the long hall where he met
the most interesting men in the world"
(7). The old men took David under
their wings, and these times were some
of the most wonderful of his life.
From Old Daniel, he learned that "one
of the nicest things about the
poorhouse" was "that a man could lie
his heart out, could tell fantastic
fables of all the things he had
dreamed of and never accomplished"
(8). Furthermore, the old men
were always interested in his
schooling. David found that math was
easy and that English was hard,
referring to it as "sissy stuff," but
one of the men told him that almost
everything worthwhile was sissy
stuff. One of them tells him:
You
were meant to read all the books,
David. To study wonderful
things. You will wander about
the world and see kings and maybe
even talk to presidents.
You'll ride on ships and airplanes.
You'll see the deserts and mountains
and trees so tall you cannot reach
the top. If you study hard, David,
all things will come to pass. (9)
Though without
educations themselves, these men
encouraged him not to quit after
middle school, but to attend high
school. Michener not only completed
high school, but was also awarded a
scholarship to Swarthmore College,
where he excelled. Later in life he
and his wife took in needy children
and raised them.
*
* *
In Frederick
County, Virginia, there is a poorhouse
on Poorhouse Road. The
registration form to the national
register of historic places describes
it as "the oldest and best-preserved
such structure in Virginia" (Odell and
Salmon).
During the
colonial period, the Church of England
cared for the poor through various
parishes of Virginia. The
vestries used part of the money that
was collected from parishioners to
provide for the poor, either directly
or as a form of relief. In May 1755,
the House of Burgesses authorized
parishes to establish poor houses.
Thirty years later, after the
Revolution, the Virginia general
assembly required that each county
create a committee called the
overseers of the poor which would take
over the church's responsibility. The
Virginia assembly required that the
parishes sell the rectors' farmlands
(at that time, each Virginia parish
had a house on a farm that was set
aside for use by the rector) and apply
that money to the care of the poor.
The original
Frederick County poorhouse, operated
in partnership with Winchester, was
built in 1797 and located at what was
then the edge of Winchester and is now
the intersection of Fairmont Avenue
and Piccadilly Street. A new poorhouse
was constructed in 1819-20, at which
time the poor were moved to the new
building. (2) Lemuel Bent was
appointed clerk of overseers of the
poor in Frederick County and
Winchester and was required to issue a
report to the state auditor on the
conditions of the poor.
[…]
the number of Paupers has increased
in greater proportion tha[n] the
population. The causes of this
increase, is believed in some
measure to be, the introduction of
more expensive and luxurious habits
of living among thriving and
affluent portion of the community,
which the poorer classes too
frequently endeavor to imitate
thereby acquiring habits of idleness
and intemperence [sic],
bringing on the inevitable
consequences, poverty and ruin to
themselves and their families. (qtd.
in O'Dell and Salmon)
Bent's
suggestions included a set of
"ordinances, rules and by-laws" to be
used by the manager to maintain
discipline, including the confining of
"unruly, disorderly, or perverse"
inmates to a "dark room" and a diet of
bread and water. Rules were
enforced against "feigning" sickness
or lameness in order to escape, as
well as begging (O'Dell and
Salmon).
The Frederick
County poorhouse population was placed
at fifty-five or sixty in 1820.
According to an 1850 census, there
were forty-one inmates:
thirty-two white residents and nine
black residents, with seventeen males
and twenty-four females. By 1900,
number in the poorhouse were
dramatically decreased, which was most
likely due to an increase in home care
and the construction of institutions
for those with mental illness.
By 1926, only nine people remained at
the farm (O'Dell and Salmon).
The Frederick
County poorhouse remained open until
1947. By 1968, when the farm was
purchased by Fruit Hill Orchards, just
one Virginia poorhouse remained open,
in Shenandoah County. Known as a farm
and almshouse and run by the
Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter, it
was used as a homeless shelter.
Two years ago, it caught fire and
burned to the ground (O'Dell and
Salmon).
The end of the poorhouse era has not
been achieved. We just call what
we do by different names.
Springing from poorhouses were such
institutions as nursing homes, old age
homes, respite facilities, maternity
and lying in hospitals, and homes for
pregnant women. There are a reported
554,000 homeless people in the United
States (Weber and Mulvihill).
There are an estimated 2.2 million in
jails and prisons (Gramlich). We have
for-profit nursing homes, which are
not regulated to the extent that they
should be. It is apparent that
the poorhouse concept is alive and
well. Unless we have political,
economical, and social changes, we
will continue as a country that
ignores what is in front of our eyes.
In 2016,
Nicholas Kristof of the New York
Times reported that people are
in jails because they cannot pay their
court fines and quoted a source who
said, "it is 100% true that we have
debtors' prisons." It happened
in 1820 and it is happening today.
Much has been
written about poorhouses. Here
is the last part of a poem written by
American poet, Will Carleton, in 1871:
So
they have shirked and slighted me,
an' shifted me about--
So they have
well nigh soured me, an' wore my old
heart out;
But still I've
born up pretty well, an' wasn't much
put down.
Till Charley
went to the poor-master, an' put me
on the town.
Over the hill
to the poor house --- my child'rn
dear, goodbye!
Many a night
I've watched you when only God was
nigh;
And God'll
judge between us; but I will al'ays
pray
That you shall never suffer the half
that I do today. (Carleton)
As we read
Carleton's words, we realize that the
history of the past has not shown us a
way to our future. Even now, our
government is arguing over how to
provide for those in need of
assistance or who have paid into a
system that may not be there when they
need it.
To conclude:
in 1957, a music group out of
Philadelphia had a huge hit which was
on top of the charts. A one-hit
wonder by the Silhouettes, and still
played by deejays today, it is
entitled "Get a Job." It is
interesting to note that the
Silhouettes' follow-up recording was
entitled "Heading for the Poorhouse."
Notes
(1) Caryn James, "The Michener
Phenomenon", New York Times, Sept 6,
1985. Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/08/magazine/the-michener-phenomenon.html>;
'Ann Sullivan Macy', American
Foundation for the Blind website.
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://web.archive.org/web/20180402230158/
http://www.afb.org/annesullivan/asmbiography.asp>;
'Historical Overview of the American
Poorhouse System'.
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<http://www.poorhousestory.com/
Celebrity_CalamityJane.htm>;
"Historical Overview of the American
Poorhouse System".
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<http://www.poorhousestory.com/
annie_oakley.htm>;
"Henry Morton Stanley" Dictionary of
Welsh Biography.
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://biography.wales/article/
s-STAN-MOR-1841#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&manifest=
https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk
%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4672304%2Fmanifest.
json&xywh=-1814%2C-1%2C7627%2C6276 >;
Cliff Corcoran, "99 Cool Facts about
Babe Ruth", Sports Illustrated, July
14, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://web.archive.org/web/20140208062047/
http://mlb.si.com/2013/07/11/99-cool-facts-about-babe-ruth/>;
and The Londonist, "Punished for
being Poor: London's Forgotten
Workhouses", 2018. Retrieved July 12,
2019:
<https://londonist.com/2014/04/
punished-for-being-poor-londons-forgotten-workhouses>.
(2)
Back in 1785, the state assembly
had stipulated that if the
parish's Church of England
rector was still alive, the sale
of the attached land would take
place only after his death
(McCarthy); such was the case in
Frederick County, so the farm
was not sold until the incumbent
rector's death in 1822, at which
time the money from the sale was
applied to the debt for the
construction of the poorhouse
(Odell and Salmon).
Works Cited
"Ann Sullivan Macy", American Foundation
for the Blind website. Retrieved July
12, 2019:
<https://web.archive.org/web/20180402230158/
http://www.afb.org/annesullivan/asmbiography.asp>.
"Annie Oakley", "Historical Overview of
the American Poorhouse System".
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<http://www.poorhousestory.com/annie_oakley.htm>.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." Lyrics
by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney
(1931). Songs of the Great Depression,
lyrics, prepared by Professor Catherine
Lavender for courses in The Department
of History, The College of Staten Island
of The City University of New York.
Retrieved July 10, 2018:
<http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/
history/lavender/cherries.html>.
"Calamity Jane." Excerpt from
"Historical Overview of the American
Poorhouse System." Retrieved July 12,
2019: <http://www.poorhousestory.com/
Celebrity_CalamityJane.htm>.
Carleton, William. "Over the Hill to the
Poor-House." 1897. Poorhouse Story
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<http://www.poorhousestory.com/over_the_hill.htm>.
Corcoran, Cliff. "99 Cool Facts about
Babe Ruth." Sports Illustrated, July 14,
2013. Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://web.archive.org/web/20140208062047/
http://mlb.si.com/2013/07/11/99-cool-facts-about-babe-ruth/>.
Gramlich, John. "America's incarceration
rate is at a two-decade low." FactTank:
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Center, May 2, 2018. Retrieved July 10,
2018:
<http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/
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"Henry Morton Stanley." Dictionary
of Welsh Biography. Retrieved July
12, 2019:
<https://biography.wales/article/
s-STAN-MOR-1841#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&manifest=
https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4672304%2
Fmanifest.json&xywh=-1814%2C-1%2C7627%2C6276 >.
Hope, Henry M. The Poor Houses: A
Story of Atlanta's Almshouses.
Maitland FL: Xulon Press, 2008.
James, Caryn. "The Michener Phenomenon."
New York Times, Sept 6, 1985.
Retrieved July 12, 2019:
<https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/08/
magazine/the-michener-phenomenon.html>;
Katz, Michael B. In the Shadow Of
the Poorhouse: A Social History Of
Welfare In America. Revised and
updated edition. NY: Basic Books, 1996.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Is it a Crime to be
Poor?" New York Times, June 12,
2016.
The Londonist. "Punished for
being Poor: London's Forgotten
Workhouses." 2018. Retrieved July 12,
2019:
<https://londonist.com/2014/04
/punished-for-being-poor-londons-forgotten-workhouses>.
McCarthy, Martha C. "Richman, Poorman,
Beggarman, Thief: Down but Not Out in
Colonial Virginia." Colonial
Williamsburg, Autumn 2000.
Retrieved July 10, 2018:
<http://www.history.org/foundation/
journal/autumn00/poorhouse.cfm>.
Michener, James. The Fires of Spring.
NY: Random House, 1949.
Miller, Mark. "U.S. Social Security
reform: the clock is ticking." Reuters,
April 20, 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2018:
<https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-column-miller-socialsecurity-idUSKBN17M1BI>.
Moehling, Carolyn M. "Broken Homes: The
'Missing' Children of the 1910 Census."
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205–233. JSTOR. Retrieved July 11, 2018:
<www.jstor.org/stable/3656587>.
O'Dell, Jeffrey M., and John S. Salmon.
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Pipare, Stephen. A People's
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music by Earl Beal, Raymond Edwards,
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Poorhouse." Lyrics and music by Earl
Beal, Raymond Edwards, Richard Lewis,
and William Horton. Ember, 1958. Vinyl
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Author's
Biography
Born a Buckeye, but a resident of
Winchester, VA. for many years,
Judith Landes is a school
psychologist and registered nurse.
She holds RN., B.S., M.S., and Ed.S.
degrees from Shenandoah University
and James Madison University.
She worked in higher
education for thirty years, first at
Shepherd University and then at
Shenandoah University, as Director
of Academic Support Services.
Now retired, she loves
traveling and community service. She
has served on several boards,
including those of Shenandoah Valley
Community Residences, Boys and Girls
Club, and Lake Placid Sinfonietta.
She currently serves on
the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center
board. She has three children and
four grandchildren.
"Poorhouses in
America" was delivered to the
Winchester Torch Club on July 7,
2018.
Judith Landes may
be reached at jlandes@shentel.net.
©2019
by the International Association of
Torch Clubs
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