The Journal

Jackson County, Mo., Poor Farm Transformed Into A Rich Healthcare Center

By David W. Jackson

The Spring 2004 JOURNAL of the Jackson County Historical Society features Jackson County, Mo., Poor Farm Transformed Into A Rich Healthcare Center By David W. Jackson.

Jackson Countys commitment to caring for its poor over the last 150 years is the focus of this article. It also reveals to interested researchers the availability of pertinent historical records.

Genealogists with Jackson County connections . . .and even health care professionals and residents of Lakewood in Lees Summit . . . may find interest in how Jackson Countys Poor Farm transformed into a rich healthcare center. The full-length, 15-page article to the abridged printed version is available in the Societys Archives and at the Mid-Continent Public Library Genealogy and Local History Branch.

David W. Jackson is director of education and archives for the Jackson County Historical Society. He continues to search for record of death/burial for his great great grandmother, Frances Evelyn (Woods) Rogers Wininger/Winegar Boze, who was reportedly sent by train from her home in Lexington to the State Mental Hospital in St. Joseph between 1920 and 1924. Failing to find substantive record at St. Joseph, a certified death certificate, or hometown burial, Davids next step is to see if she may have ended up at the Lafayette or Ray County Almshouses.

Jackson and James A. Tharp, reference librarian for the Mid-Continent Public Librarys Genealogy Branch, have compiled copies of documents including more than 125 newspaper articles about this subject; an abstract of known Poor Farm superintendents and physicians; plus, Tharps abstract and index to the names of Jackson County Poor Farm inmates from U.S. Census Population Schedules, 1860-1930.

Websites offering more information:

Cyndis List of Poor Farm Information

Missouri Poor Farms and Poor House History

Articles about Poorhouses and Poverty

The American Poorfarm and Its Inmates, 1925

Poor Farms and Asylums

Heritage Quest article about "Going to the Poor House"

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