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Hood County's Poor Farms

            Things haven’t always been so swell here in Hood County.  There was a time before all the tourism and antique malls, before the bed & breakfasts and even before the lake was put in.  This was a time when Hood County was really rural.

            These were hard times, and some people found it hard to make a day-to-day existence.  Those who became unable to support themselves had to be taken care of.  These people would usually end up in the care of relatives or even friends.  But not everyone had family and friends who could do so; some were all alone or too hard to get along with, so in those days, they looked to the county for assistance.

            Something had to be done with them.  The answer was a Poor Farm.  Now, I had never even heard of a poor farm until this year.  Whilst reviewing a Commissioner’s Court record from the nineteen-teens, I came across several mentions of the afore-mentioned Poor Farm.  I also saw many accounts of indigents receiving money out of the county Pauper Fund.

            I had to wonder, where was this Poor Farm and what did those sent there do?  After looking through even more Commissioner’s Court records and the files on the Poor Farm at the Hood County Library, some facts revealed themselves.

            Records seem to indicate there were at least two different locations for the farm.  The earlier one was situated in the Milam County School Land, which was northeast of the Square and bumped up against the Brazos River.  It’s still uncertain when this farm was in operation, but it looks like it began around 1883.

            As the city of Granbury grew, the Poor Farm would have to have relocated.  In 1888 the county bought land that nestled against the northeast corner of Comanche Peak.  It seems it wasn’t till 1892 that plans were actually made to turn this land into a Poor Farm.

            Life on the farm couldn’t have been the best in the world, but things were taken care of. The county physician was provided whenever necessary. The manager of the farm was paid $8.00 per adult in the early years, a two-year-old child, was boarded for $6 per month. The manager had to plant the fields and pay rent to the county.  He was also required to maintain the property and make improvements.

            But what happens when a pauper died?  In 1919, we know J. W. Laxton, local mortician, was given $32 to bury the deceased.  This price included a coffin, grave, robe, underwear, conveyance to morgue and cemetery, and embalming if necessary while holding the body for relatives. 

          If there was no family or friends willing to take the deceased to a cemetery, then the said pauper was to be buried on the farm.  Obviously, headstones could not be afforded for those men and women, so how on earth can we find these burial sites?  For all we know, the lake could be on top of some of them!

            Some of you may know about the Poor Farms, in fact it could be in your living memory, because the farm wasn’t ordered to be sold until 1943. We have found little more about the Poor Farms, except through county records. The resources are scarce, but our curiosity is still great.