In a poor-farm system, indigent people were often situated on the grounds of a farm in which able-bodied residents were required to work. A poorhouse could even be part of the same economic …

Sixty-three of 87 Minnesota counties operated poor farms from the late 1850s to the late 1950s under the control of county boards of commissioners. Many adult poor farm residents suffered from …

This article will explain what poor houses and poor farms were and how to find your ancestors who may have lived there. Back before the days of welfare, food stamps, and long-term disability insurance, …

Poor farms were important rural institutions that cared for a wide range of poor and dependent people in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet today they are little remembered. This manuscript discusses these …

Jan 30, 2018 · As society tried to hide institutions designed to help the poor, poorhouses took on another form: the poor farm. Like poorhouses, these institutions were carefully regulated places for...

Oct 19, 2025 · The meaning of POOR FARM is a farm maintained at public expense for the support and employment of needy persons.

Dec 10, 2023 · Anyone who could not find self-supporting work – due to age, physical or mental disability, dependent children, or other factors – and who had no family to care for them – would find …

Poor farms were residential institutions that provided basic social care on working farms. They were sustained in part by the unpaid labor of “inmates” and support fees from the townships who sent them.

Living on the poor farm often meant inadequate medical care, poor nutrition, and severe punishment for the simplest of mistakes. The reality of life in a poorhouse was a nightmare you couldn’t wake up from.

Sep 8, 2019 · “Be careful or you'll end up at the poor farm” was a popular admonition well in the mid-20th century. From the early 1860s until the 1950s, the McLean County Poor Farm, located about …