Kewaunee County Poor Farm

Within six years of statehood, poor houses existed in 22 of Wisconsin’s (then) 58 counties. In 1854 filthy bedding and foul odors were common in such places. That was in addition to a lack of privacy and a lack of ventilation. Housed primarily were the aged, the mentally and physically handicapped, and mothers with children for whom they could not provide. Some lived there temporarily while others were there to die. Wolf River’s Matt Simon was there because of business reverses. Called the “Aristocrat of the North Side,” Simon was elected to Wisconsin’s Assembly in 1858. One would not expect a man of his stature to be in a poor house.

During its first few years, Kewaunee County had two houses for the poor, the first poor farm being in the original Town of Casco. A few years later, it was relocated to the site of the Rushford post office, now the location of Grace Lutheran Church at Alaska in Pierce Town, the location at which it remained until the doors closed over 100 years later.

Physical privacy was non-existent and nothing was confidential. Lists of those living at the poor farm, or receiving any kind of assistance, regularly appeared in the county’s papers and in the minutes of the county board. If testimony was necessary, it was common knowledge. Between 1878 and 1905 Kewaunee County Clerk’s Committee on the Poor kept records that remain today. In the 1870s that committee consisted of Patrick McConnell, George Bottkol and Vojta Mashek. Their charge was to “regulate the support of a family by accident or different circumstances” to be admitted. A family did not usually mean both parents and children, but did refer to a husband and wife or to a woman with children.

Postmarked 1915

When Anton Gauthier presented a committee report on September 30, 1877, he said the county was responsible for the insane and idiots - 1 and 9 respectively - and non-resident paupers, while pointing out that each town supported its own poor. The farm’s overseer was paid $550. While the salary might seem fair for the time, the overseer had to furnish a team and farm implements. Not only that, his wife’s work was included in his salary. The woman whose industry was regarded as of so little value was as important as her husband, and often more so, in insuring the success of the farm. At the time a hired man was being paid 20 a month while a hired girl got $1.75 a week. Additionally, Gauthier noted that the wood house could hold 20 cords. The farm had 120 acres, 70 of which were improved and it was said the place was worth $6,850. Land was valued at $4,500, the buildings at $2,000, furniture at $150 and livestock at $200. County Board proceedings listed all the bills, sundries, wood, animals, and everything else one could think of including the fish from commercial fisherman Peter LaFond. Included in the lengthy pages of inventory were such things as curtains, bowls and spoons.

March 1878 brought need for a superintendent who, the board felt, must be a “heavy taxpayer of well known integrity and possess good business qualifications.” Two months later, May 1878, the Committee on the Poor furnished its report for clothing and keeping. There were 18 people, 5 of whom were under the age of 10. Planning for additional residents before winter, the board felt a two-story, 23’ x 30’ addition was required. The addition would be in front of the main building and cost about $500.

Doctors were paid for assessing residents’ physical and mental health. In March 1881, resident John Altan was judged insane and was taken to the state hospital near Oshkosh. Today medication and counseling would have been the first step in addressing his needs.  Altan’s name does not appear among Kewaunee County men serving in the Civil War though it is possible that he did indeed serve. In reading the old papers, there are a number of men – and women – who were sent to the Oshkosh asylum to deal with the blood, amputations, death and privations of the war. Some could not rid themselves of such demons. One hundred years later medical science treats those diagnosed with depression, bi-polar or another illness much differently.

John Spitka apparently had an amputation because when he was sent to Milwaukee for shoes, it was to the Manufacturer of Legs. Spitka’s conscientious was noted in the September 1887 proceedings when the Committee on the Poor consisted of Lorence Lutz, Fred Johannes and Dennis Sullivan. They attested to the number of times they visited the poor farm, consistently finding the place clean and well lit. In May they brought material for brooms that Spitka was making.  When they gave the September report, they had picked up the brooms that were sold for $7.41. It was then that improvements were mentioned – a new fence, addition to house yard and the need a new stove.

Others, other than poor farm staff and doctors, were compensated for care that extended beyond the farm. Red River’s chairman Joe Valcq was paid $120 in the matter of Mary Lancelle on March 21, 1882. Matter was not defined. Other residents were widows or widowers, often elderly,who were without families, a population which today has access to assisted living facilities or nursing homes. Minutes in December 1908 reported that members of the poor farm board had visited each person caring for an “insane or idiotic” person. It would appear many were paid for caring for their own family members, possibly aged parents. In 1908, the Committee recommended compensation to those caring for others at home. William Flaherty cared for Horace Flaherty and William Bacon kept Mathilda Bacon. Each received $100 a year for his efforts. Martin Wachal cared for Martin Wachal, Jr. and got $80. David Sconset kept Louisa Sconset for $75 and Catherine Colle was paid $54 to keep Mary Colle. Some were called feeble-minded.  It is quite possible those called insane, idiotic or feeble-minded were suffering from what in the 1950s was called hardening of the arteries. Sixty years later dementia and Alzheimer’s describe some of the same behaviors.

Residents lived at the poor home for a number of reasons. The prominent Matt Simon was a Catholic Wolf River resident who gave the land for that church. He didn’t forget his fellow Germans when he also donated land to the Lutheran congregation. Simon was a Wisconsin Assemblyman who, a few years later, lost his money because Milwaukee parties failed to pay him for substantial wood products’ sales. Family members were not paupers. Was a man who did so much for others, in essence, hung out to dry? It was really Simon himself, also in ill health, who asked to enter the institution in July 1884. In reading a number of histories and proceedings, Simon’s circumstances become even more curious.

Simon’s first wife bore 14 children before dying in 1871. While working in Madison in 1880 he remarried and fathered 4 more children.  A Record article on June 21, 1894 informed readers that the Simon’s four young children were taken from Ahnapee, inferring that they would be residing in orphanages . Father Adalbert Cipin took the two young daughters to a Catholic school in Green Bay and J. McDonald represented the Committee on the Poor when he took the two boys to the State School for Dependent Children at Sparta.  Simon was 88 when he died in 1914. Though his obit listed his survivors, it was noted that the whereabouts of children from the second marriage were unknown.

In a 2004 personal interview with Kewaunee’s much respected Dr. Reynold Nesemann, he said that the poor farm served a purpose that was (today) dealt with in medication. He talked about those who were alone and what happens without communication and a sense of being needed and belonging. He said that everyone at the poor farm had a job to do. Physical condition determined the kind of work. Whether one helped with milking, caring for animals or the land, or whether it was cooking, cleaning or washing, it was work that served the group. Each person had value and each was a cog in a wheel. One hundred years later, many of these same people would fall through the cracks and become homeless.

Then there were the children. They were there with mothers unable to provide for them. Today many would be homeless. While children are eligible for programs through the schools, homelessness is a stigma that the average teen keeps quiet. But, the number of children called “idiots” on the poor farm list, and thus listed in the U.S. census roles, is questionable. Why were they so identified? In today’s world, if someone is called an idiot, one ascribes another’s actions to something totally ridiculous, foolish or without any thought to ramifications. Time has changed the word’s implication.

For some years, the word “idiot” was regarded as pejorative. Psychology now uses the term “profound intellectual disability” when describing one with a mental age below three years and one generally unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. Following a few children living at the poor farm and listed as idiots on the census indicates they grew to be successful adults. If such children were intellectually disabled to the point that circumstances of the day required such notation, how could those children have achieved the success they did?  Is it possible delayed speech or severe stuttering could have labeled them? Would a physical deformity bring such a label? Would young children be so painfully shy in such circumstances that they were so labeled?

In reading such reports, one must keep a historical perspective and an open mind. Things are not always what they seem to be at first glance.

Today’s definition of “idiot” comes from Dictionary.com and from Wikepedia.

Sources: Minutes of the County Board found at the ARC at UW-GB and Ahnapee Record. HIPPA laws prevent one from reading reading actual files poor farm files at the ARC, however, most of the same information can be gleaned from the Kewaunee County Board proceedings and in the county newspapers. The photo of Grace Lutheran was taken by the blogger and the Poor Farm postcard comes from the blogger's collection. Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010 Kannerwurf, Sharpe, Johnson.