Waupaca County, Wisconsin - Poor House and Farm Transcriptions


Last updated March 8, 2009

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From "Standard History of Waupaca County, Wisconsin" Edited by John M. Ware 1917

     In 1860 it was decided that the question of the purchase of a poor farm and the erection of a poorhouse would be submitted to the voters at the town meetings of 1861. Evidently the voters were not yet ready for the installation of that county department; and it was a dozen years before they were.

POOR FARM ESTABLISHED

     At the November meeting of 1869, a vote was ordered taken through the county at the spring election of 1870, to reach the public sentiment on the question of purchasing a poor farm. The result indicated that the time was then ripe. The building was erected, as well as an insane asylum as a later day, and was occupied for about ten years. It was then (1895) burned; but more this hereafter.

THE COUNTY POOR HOUSE AND FARM

     At a special meeting of the county board, held in June, 1873, a committee was authorized to purchase a poor farm, at a cost not to exceed $400. They did purchase ninety-seven acres of James Meiklejohn in section 34, Town of Little Wolf, but paid only $2,000 for the tract, which became the Waupaca County Poor Farm.

     At the same meeting the board named a building maintenance committee to erect a suitable house for the county's charges, and appropriated $2,000 for that purpose. That amount was supplemented by a donation of $1,000 from James Meiklejohn, and before the end of 1873 the first floor of the poorhouse was finished for the reception of inmates. At the November meeting of the board an additional $2,500 had been appropriated to complete the house and outbuildings. In the spring of 1895 they were all destroyed by fire, but during the year they were replaced by more substantial and convenient structures at a cost (including furnishings) of $10,000. In 1898 the county board purchased eighty acres of land in the same section as the original holding, and in 1909 made an addition to the main building at a cost of $2,800.

     There are therefore 177 acres in the present property, 120 acres of which is outside the building sites and immediate grounds. The land is devoted, under the care of the superintendent, and chiefly through the labor of the inmates, to mixed farming and dairying.

     The successive superintendents of the poor, with the years when they assumed office, have been: William Master, 1872; John Gardineer, 1874; C. Caldwell, 1882; Thomas McNely, 1887; J. K. Smith, 1890; R. J. Woolsey, 1891; William Carew, 1893; C. M. Hayward, 1896; S. W. Carley, 1902; M. J. Nolan, 1904; Charles H. Horn, 1908.

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Fire at the Poor House 

From the Waupaca Republican Newspaper, Waupaca, WI
 Dated March 29, 1895

     On Wednesday about 2:30 p.m. fire caught in the poor house from sparks blowing into the cupola. The wind was blowing a gale and in ten minutes the house, barns, out buildings including the old Chronic insane house were ablaze. A few articles of furniture was saved, otherwise the loss was total. There was an insurance of about $4,550 on the property as follows:

Poor House - $2,950; Furniture, etc. - 625; Wood house - 75; Barn - 250; Hay and Grain - 50; Horses and cattle - 150 and Chronic Insane House - 450. Carried by the companies. Home of N. Y. - $1,500; German of Freeport - $1,500; Farmers, of York - 1,100; Northwestern Mutual - 450  All Insurance except on the Insane building carried by I.P. Lord. Insane building A. B. Balch.

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From the Manawa Advocate Newspaper, Manawa, WI
Dated October 3, 1895

The steel roof of the poor house building is being put in place. The plastering of the structure has also been begun.

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