A visit to the Poor House, 1877
By Sandy Vasko
A while back, we talked about the Poor House, once located in Troy Township. Today we get a close up look at it from the point of view of a reporter from the Joliet Sun from June 14, 1877:
“Four miles west of the city, in the midst of one of the richest and happiest farming communities in the West, we found the Will County Poor Farm. Its gentle slopes now covered with a mantle of bright green, now bathed in sunlight and again in shadows as the clouds sail along.
“Close to the main road a number of grim old buildings lie in the shade of a few fruit and forest trees, here and there a portion peeping out from the foliage like a child playing at hide and seek. Many an elegant carriage passes the poor house gates during the bright summer days, and few of the happy ones guess that this quiet peaceful haven is the only home known to more than fifty of their fellow creatures, and that within half an hour’s drive of our pretty city, there is a little community who have reached the end of life’s circuitous strand – the poor house; and that within the dim old walls, beaten and battered by the winds and storms of many years reside people to whom life was once a brilliant tale.
“Here we find men and women from whom the light of reason has been taken away by its Giver, men and women friendless and penniless whose lives perhaps were once as golden as the skies; all are gathered beneath the roof of the poor house, human nature’s last resort. Above the gates should be written “he who enters here leaves all pride behind.
“Poverty, the dark angel, is the great commander in chief of the army of American poor houses, and little we know today, rolling along in elegant equipages and dining upon the fat of the land how soon will life’s changes bear us along in the grim chariot of fate, and leave us even at the poor house gates.
“In Judge Simmons, the poor master, a better man could not possibly be found for the place. Kindly, genial, yet ever firm and true, he manages the farm admirably. The buildings being old and not of sufficient accommodation. Mr. Simmons has within a few years erected an addition, built two large cellars and accomplished many other needed improvements, and this without a special appropriation. He is allowed $1.30 ($36.67) per week for each pauper, by the different towns from whence they come, to feed and clothe them, and out of this meager sum he has somehow managed to save $1,700 ($47,960), with which he made the improvements mentioned. The east wing is too far gone for use, yet is kept as clean as is possible to keep it – as is every other department of the farm.
“The number of inmates now accommodated is 50 – 36 males and 14 females. Of this number two are sick and one consumptive, but aside from this, the general health is excellent, as attested by Dr. Casey, of this city, the county physician. Idiocy and insanity number its victims here as four genuinely insane and a number of idiotic and half-witted. Among the noted characters at the poor farm – for of course, even the poor farm has it noted character – is “General” Phil Sheridan, an old fellow who claims to have lived more than a century, and whose sands of life are about run out. Phil is well known in this city, where he occasionally visits and never fails to get drunk and suffer an arrest. But the police and the justices always send him away, and old Phil trudges back to his haven – no sadder, no wiser than when he came.
“Morris, a cripple, is quite an intelligent fellow – reads the papers for his constituents, discusses the eastern war, and talks learnedly upon the leading political subjects of the day, and is the general pauper encyclopedia, in fact. Another named Smith – what would a poor house or any other establishment be without a Smith? – is quite an expert gardener. A few of the half-witted paupers working in the fields imagining they own the farm, and have a chattel mortgage upon the balance of the world which they are liable to foreclose at any moment. And they work and talk as though they were in reality the sole proprietors. There are many of the paupers unable to work, and others will not work, so the labor gained from “home industry” amounts to but little.
“The method of admission is prescribed by law, and the provisions of the regulations are strictly enforced. No one is admitted without a written order from the supervisor of the township from which he comes, and who is in duty bound to examine carefully into the applicant’s circumstances. The infirm, the aged, the sick, the idiotic, the insane, and those who may be temporarily through accident or misfortune, thrown upon the common charity, are first candidates for admission, and of these classes the population of the farm is composed.
“The farm and house could not be conducted upon a more agreeable and economical plan than it is with the facilities for so conducting provided. And it is unnecessary to say right here that the accommodations, etc. fall far short of what is absolutely necessary. We understand the law does not give the county authorities power to build a poor house, but that it does give them the power to build an insane asylum – the erection of which should be commenced at once. The SUN has heretofore advocated the building of such an institution for the accommodation of the many insane persons now confined in the county jail and poor house, and also as an asylum for the large number of idiotic poor, and has called attention to the existing necessity for such an institution by abundant proof.”
Within three months of the publication of this article, the County Board approved the construction of a stone building to be used as an “Insane Asylum” on the grounds of the Poor House. Next week, we will look at the results of this improvement.