Franklin County Poor House

Located just a few miles outside of Malone, NY. Built by or about 1830, the Franklin County Poor House provided assistance to needy individuals in the community; the poor, the intemperate, the insane and even orphans. Unfortunately, though the idea of a poor house was a good one, in practice it was not always so pleasant. The conditions were frequently deplorable in these homes; overcrowding, lack of cleanliness, lack of care for those who needed it, etc. The poor house had a home farm which was worked by the residents and helped supply them with food. Children who ended up in the care of the overseer of the poor were often indentured into families rather than keeping them in the poor house or sending them on to orphanages in other counties. These indentured children earned their keep by working alongside the family on the farm or business. The original poor house in Franklin County was a wood building which burned down in 1845 and was replaced with another wood structure. By the 1860s, this wood structure was in sore need of repair and updating. In 1870, a new large building made of brick was built and remained standing until 2002 when it collapsed after years of neglect. Currently, I do not know if there was a pauper's cemetery associated with this poor house or not. Many times, pauper's graves went unmarked and the cemetery was usually on the home farm property of the poor house.

I can't even imagine an article such as the following appearing in today's papers!

Of course, any charitable house, whether governed by the state, or privately, should always be open to inspection by any and all individuals, to be ready to recieve visitors and their inhabitants be properly cared for at all times. But in many cases, these poor houses were understaffed (by today's standards). Franklin county had 40 or more residents, with only 3 or 4 adults caring for and supervising them, running the kitchens, keeping the rooms clean, supervising the farming, etc., certainly more adults were needed to do all of this for 40 or more residents of the poor house. Many of the individuals were old and infirm and could do little for themselves. Some of the more able bodied residents, who themselves were senile or "idiotic" were required to try to help care for other individuals. Overall, it was simply a very difficult situation for most of these poor house keepers and the best that could be hoped for was that they cared and did their best by the residents. In Franklin county, the worst cases were sent on to the state institutions, but that still left too many for too few to care for.

Keep in mind that any family or individual could be affected, not just those who were destitute due to their own destructive habits, but those who tried their best to overcome their situation. Those who were well known were not above the affliction of situations that could send them to a poor house, as well as the old and infirm, who had no one to rely upon, or if the family became destitute due to an accident or unusual situation, if the husband died unexpectedly, etc. Here's an article that I found of interest in the Malone papers:

Nick was born about 1842 in England, the son of a rather famous violinist himself. His father taught him violin and put him on the stage at the early age of 12. After his father's death, he eventually came to northern NY where he traveled as a vagabond musician, staying a few nights here, a few weeks there, and playing for audiences. He was "weak minded" and apparently beaten as a child. He fell on hard times, whether by some form of infirmaty due to alcholism, or some other reason, it is hard to tell, but he was sent to a poor house in Jefferson county on 26 Mar 1880 and died there on 19 Jan 1881. I found two nice long articles about him in the local papers, one from the Malone Palladium on 24 Feb 1881, and the other from the Malone Evening Telegram on 18 Jan 1928. This was a man who took care of himself, until he no longer could. He was sent to a poor house to live out the final days of his life, probably both a bit insane, as well as suffering from an unknown illness, where he died in his late 30's. Since he was well-known, his pauper's grave was marked by a stone, and later it was exhumed from the pauper's cemetery and placed in a "proper" burial at the Arlington St. Cemetery in Watertown, NY. But many were not so lucky, as their bodies still remain in pauper cemeteries throughout the United States in unmarked graves and many with no records whatsoever to tell whom is buried there.

From the poor house admission cards: Nicholas J. Goodall, Jr. was first admitted to the county poor house of Jefferson County on 26 Mar 1880. He was born in England, was considered at this time to be intemperate and the cause for his dependence was "homeless poverty and insanity". He was a musician, as was his father, and he was single with no support from relatives. The following comment was provided at the bottom of the card: "This person is said to be the victim of a pervicious secret habit. Is a stranger to this locality and is one of the most accomplished violinists in the U. States."

1834 Report

Source: Report of an examination of poor-houses, jails, %c: in the State of New York, Samuel Chipman, New York State Temperance Society, published by the society, Albany, NY, 1836

Franklin County - population 11,312

Malone, Jan. 20, 1834

Poor House
Whole number assisted in one year... 111
    Not from intemperance... 26
    Doubtful... 30
    Intemperance... 55

Malone, Jan. 18, 1834.

Remarks - A considerable number of the temperate are persons belonging to families, the fathers of which have left them to be provided for here at the public expense; while they have gone to the west to provide places to which to remove their families in the spring. Here too, as in other counties bordering on Canada, many of the inmates are foreigners.

1857 Report of the Franklin County Poor House

Source: January 9, 1857 NY State Senate Report of Select Committee appointed to visit Charitable Institutions supported by the State, No.8:

This house is located about two miles from the village of Malone. The building is of wood, poorly constructed, and illy fitted for its present uses. It was originally a farm house, and in size 80 x 24 feet, two stories high.

There is attached a farm of 110 acres, yielding a revenue of $1,500.

The basements of the building are occupied for domestic purposes only. In the house are eighteen rooms or wards, well warmed by stoves, but without ventilation. From one to eight paupers are placed in a single room.

The number of inmates was thirty-eight, fifteen males and twenty-three females. Of these twenty-eight are foreign, ten native born; nine are under sixteen years of age. The sexes are separated at night, but mingle together during the day. The average number of inmates is forty-eight, supported at an expense of thirty-one cents per week each, exclusive of the products of the farm. The paupers are employed, the men on the farm, the women about the house. It has been visited once during the year by the board of supervisors. They regulate the government of the house and the system of diet. The food of the paupers is of a plain and wholesome quality. The house is supplied with Bibles, but there is no regular religious instruction. A teacher of the common English branches was employed in the house for three months during last winter, but the children usually attend the district school.

A physician is employed by the year at $28, and comes only when called. There are no facilities for bathing. One birth and two deaths have occurred during the last year. No contagious diseases have raged.

Of the inmates seven are lunatics, three males and four females, all paupers, none are reported improved or cured. But one is constantly confined, and he in a cell. They are restrained by confinement, and sometimes handcuffs, shackles, and the straight jacket are used. Two have been admitted within the year. They receive no medical or other attendance, nor does the house permit classification. The superintendents usually discharge the insane; sometimes the power is exercised by the keeper. Two of the paupers are blind, four idiots--two male, two female.

The keeper reports nine-tenths of the paupers as here by reason of intemperance and its effects.

There is here a poor cripple, almost idiotic, whose limbs are drawn up and under him in strange contortions, and his tongue paralyzed by the disease. He can wear no garments but a loose shirt.

The unnatural parents were committed to prison, and the child sent to this house.

The hospital department of the house is wretched, and the nursing and medical attendance inadequate. The general appearance of the establishment however is good, and the rooms are particularly neat and clean.

1864 Report of the Franklin County Poor House

Source: Documents of the Assembly Of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 193-194.

It is a circumstance most fortunate that there are only five insane persons confined in the county poor house of Franklin county, for the record of its condition is shocking to humanity. The whole number of inmates is forty. Two of the lunatics are capable of some labor. One is restrained constantly in a cell, without the privilege of coming daily to the open air. There is a spring of water near by, from which the building is supplied, but the insane are not required to bathe, or even to wash their hands and face, except when they see fit to do it themselves. There is no provision for ventilation, or uniform heat in winter. "Have you bedsteads in all the rooms?" answer, "In two only." Two or three sleep on straw, without other bedding; the straw is changed once a month. Of course there can be no provision for the various grades of insane. In the day time the sexes mix as they please, and receive their only care from the sane paupers. The rooms were "not cleanly," and the atmosphere was "bad enough," and the keeper said that vermin were "somewhat plentiful." They have no changes of undergarments. One escaped during the year, who has not returned. They have no medical treatment, and are not visited by a physician. Only one case has been treated in an asylum. Dr. Sidney P. Bates says: "I believe the great object had in view by the people of this county, in the maintenance of the poor, is economy." The particular kind of economy is indicated by this report. The poor house buildings are all old, the roof leaky, the floors uneven, by reason of the settling of the foundation walls. The buildings are woundrously unfit for the purposes for which they are used.

Index of Admissions to the Franklin County Poor House 1831 to 1870

Note: this would indicate that there were few admissions into the Poor House, but these records are scarce and incomplete. Typically, it appears that the Franklin County Poor House maintained approximately 40 individuals most of the year in the 1850s thru the 1870s.

The Malone Palladium, 23 Oct 1873.

The poor house of this county is a decidedly fine institution, but it is not so well patronized as it should be. It is of brick, heated by hot air, supplied with water from attic to basement, well lighted, well ventilated, and has now room for two hundred inmates, and yet only about forty-five people are stopping there, and some of them talk of going away. The water for the building is stored in an immense tank in the garret. It is forced there by a hydraulic ram, and this ram, driven by six feet fall of water, throws a stream into the tank sixty feet above.

1875 NYS census (paupers are arranged alphabetically)

A Comparison of Conditions of the Franklin County Poor House Between 1868 and 1878

Source: State of New York, Twelfth Annual Report of the State Board of Charities; transmitted to the legislature January 21, 1879, Charles Van Benthuysen & Sons, Albany, 1879, Schedule Number One. Comparative statements of the condition of the various poor-houses of the State of New York, in the years 1868 and 1878, prepared and submitted by the Secretary.

1868

Located two miles from Malone, the county seat. The main building is of wood, one and one-half stories high, with several small out-buildings at the rear. The buildings are all old; floors broken; plastering off; roof leaky; rooms small and inconvenient; without ventilation or bathing conveniences. No classification is possible, nor even a secure separation of the sexes at night. Among the inmates were five children, nine insane, and several very aged and infirm persons. Three of the insane were confined in small unventilated cells, and one, a woman, was entirely nude. No speical attention is shown the insane, and the children are permitted to mingle with the adult inmates.

1878

A new house was erected in this county in 1870, upon the site of the old structure. It is a three-story brick building, heated by steam, and has ample kitchen, dining and hospital accommodations. The water supply is abundant, and distributed to each story. The grounds are well underdrained, and the sewerage is adequate. No communication is allowed between the sexes, and a general classification is effected. The county early transferred most of its chronic insane to the Willard Asylum, and retains only mild and harmless cases. The dependent children of the county are mainly provided for in families.

1888 Report

No. 64 State Charities Aid Association of New York, Twenty-Third Annual Report, United Charities Building, New York

Franklin County. Organized June 21st, 1888. Poor-House at Malone.-The report of the Committee is dated October 16th, 1888. The inmates at date were-men, 29; women, 17. The largest number was 61, in March, and 47, in September, 1888. During the year 112 were received.

Five inmates of the poor house were committed there for vagrancy during the year, and it is known that others have been sent to jail, but the number is not given.

Two children were born during the year, the mothers having been sent in by the Overseers of the Poor. No children were there at date of report, nor were there any defective children. Homes are found and children indentured by personal energy, and sometimes by advertising in the papers. This year four have been indentured and two more are in families and will be indentured provided the Superintendent is satisfied that they are in good places. There are four children in the Home for the Friendless at Plattsburg, who have been there four years; and five in the hospital and asylum at Ogdensburg who have been there from one to three years.

There are no special rooms for hospital purposes nor paid nurses, but the Committee reports that two paid girls are employed by the Keeper, and that in cases of sickness they, with the Keeper's wife, assist in the care of the patient. Whatever the doctor orders for patients is provided from the Keeper's table.

The poor-house is so large that the rooms are not overcrowded.

There are three mild cases of insanity, presumably the same as those reported last year.

There is no report sent of the actual work of the Committee during the year. This is much to be regretted, as unless there is a constant intercourse between our committees and the central office their interest in the work lags and becomes perfunctory.

Fulton County. Organized June 5th, 1883. Poor-House at Oloversville.-The report of the Committee is dated December 1st, 1888. At that time the pauper inmates numbered 42-28 men and 14 women. The largest number in the poor-house during the year was on September 1st, 1888, and the smallest December 1st, 1887.

Three of the inmates were committed as vagrants; others were sent to the County jail.

Two children were born in the house during the year, and one under two years was there at the date of the report.

The Superintendent of the Poor and Poormasters of the towns find homes for as many children as they can; nine were thus placed in private families during the year.

Five years ago the County began sending children for whom such homes could not be found to the Albany Orphan Asylum, from which place they were bound out. The County now has 17 children there, several of whom are not very bright.

There are no rooms nor wards set apart for hospital purposes, but a special diet is said to be given to the sick.

There is one paid attendant, presumably for the sick and infirm.

The number of insane patients is not given; no particular provision is made for them. They mingle freely with the other paupers.

The Committee reports two much needed reforms as finally accomplished, namely, the separation of the sexes, except at meals, and the division of the yard and the erection of a new closet for the women.

A covered way has been built by which the men can pass to the dining-room without exposure, and the door leading to their part of the house is kept locked. The Committee says that the Matron is very much pleased with the new arrangements, for they lighten her cares very materially.

The Committee has held regular meetings each month, except in August, but the visiting at the County House does not appear to be as frequent as formerly.

The Malone Palladium, 12 May 1892

Sally Tracy, who was for years one of our noted street characters, of somewhat coarse though ready wit, and upon occasion sharp of tongue, died at the poor house last week, aged 76 years.

The Sun, Fort Covington, NY, 15 Jun 1899 (probably the daughter of Daniel and Nancy Brown of Fort Covington)

Alzina Brown, who it will be remembered, once resided here, died in the county poor house the past week.

1905 NYS Census (inmates placed in alphabetical order)

The Sun (Fort Covington, NY), 20 Sep 1906

There are at present 33 inmates in the Franklin County Poor House - five being women. Five of the 33 are over 90 years of age - one of those Margaret McClutchin is 92 years of age and the oldest is John Cox who is 93 years of age. Five other inmates are over 80, and nine others are 70. The youngest is 25 - an idiot. Eleven of the thirty-three were born in the United States and twelve in Canada. Two are blind - one woman and one man.

The Tupper Lake Herald, 17 May 1912

State Hospital Patient Loses Life on Shafting

Adam Marsh, 60, Committed From Franklin County Poor House Killed at Ogdensburg.

Adam Marsh, a patient at the State Hospital, was instantly killed Wednesday afternoon by being wound around a shaft in the power house. News of the tragedy was suppressed until Thursday. Marsh was shoveling ashes and backed against a shaft making at the rate of 250 revolutions a minute. His coat caught in the machinery and he was whirled around the shaft.

Marsh's back was broken. The victim was about 60 years old. He was committed to the institution from the Franklin County Poor House. He had no known relatives.

From another article on the inquiry into his death, it states that he was committed about 1 year ago from the Franklin County Poor House and that his body will be buried in the State Hospital cemetery.