FAQs

1) What was the original purpose/use of the Poor House and Farm? Why was it founded?

Poorhouses, also known as almshouses and sometimes workhouses, were first developed in England during the 17th century in response to the English Poor Laws. It gave counties (known as parishes) a way to collect local taxes and provide 'relief' to the poor. Poorhouses were meant to assist the poor that had no ability to work and make an income, such as the elderly and persons living with physical disabilities. The concept was brought to Colonial America when the country was forming, based on British laws applied to the colonies. 

2) Why did you become interested in this project?

In the summer of 2016 I was looking for what are known as "open source databases" to integrate into my Fall 2016 Research Methods courses for my students. I found through a simple Google search the "Morgan County Poor Farm Records Index (1850–1932)" located on the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State's website, through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System (IRAD), University of Illinois at Springfield . I asked the MacMurray College librarian Susan Eilering if she could find out if they had the records in any type of data format. She then sent me a .CSV data file, which became the foundation of the research. Social scientists like myself are trained in conducting data analysis of large databases, so I was quite excited to have received it. 

3) What was your research/investigative process and what did it involve?

The primary core of the research revolved around analysis of the database, which included all the "inmates" that were residents of the Morgan County Poorhouse and Farm from 1850 to about the 1930s. Databases have their limits, so in order to "fill in the blanks" I had to then go to the original poorhouse Admission record books that the database was based on, which are housed at IRAD at the UIS library. Also, after 'cleaning the data,' the database records were cross-checked with online records compiled by the Jacksonville Genealogical & Historical Society and Rootsweb (an ancestry.com community),  or the U.S. census posted online. Online and microfilm newspaper archives through the Jacksonville Public Library or other Illinois newspaper sources were utilized as well. The goal in using all these sources for a researcher is to build a comprehensive story and to find common themes from analyzing the data, such as when there was an influx of Irish immigrants that were getting injured while working on the 'new' railroads in the late 1850s.

4) Why is this research important to Jacksonville/Morgan County history?

The story of the Morgan County Poorhouse and Farm had never been told in a comprehensive way (there were smaller essays housed in different locations), and the database based on the admissions record books had never been analyzed. Writing about history gives us a better, and sometimes more accurate, understanding of the past, and the lives of people in the past. Jacksonville and Morgan county history publications are filled with stories about the famous people of the town - the founders, the important business people, etc. What about ordinary people?  History rarely tells the stories of ordinary people, and especially the vulnerable. The books provided an opportunity for Jacksonville to read about the lives of the poor and marginalized, many of whom are from the very same families history writes about. But very few in the 19th century really knew what to do about persons in the community that were suffering from severe mental illnesses, dementia, alcoholism, etc. The other key point is that there were varying ways different geographic communities utilized the poorhouses - some were quite punitive. In my initial research, I had heard stories about what a "bad place" the poorhouse in Jacksonville was, but my research was saying something different. Those stories I was hearing may have been accurate in people's memories for the period after the 1930's when social service programs were developing and there was widespread disinvestment in "County Homes." But my research found that Jacksonville and Morgan County's  poorhouse was actually a well-run institution prior to local memory and a very caring place, thus it is important for the community to understand the accurate part of its history. It also helps us understand the dynamics of the community and its institutions, such as when young pregnant teenage mothers were ostracized by the community, but the poorhouse and farm took them in and provided necessary health care for the mother. 

5) Has this project encouraged or influenced you to do similar project(s)?

Indeed. First, there were some interesting stories about the residents that I had not found yet, so I compiled them into a series of short stories that are available here on this site. In addition, there are two cemeteries at the poorhouse and farm, and I actively researched who may have been buried there, to try to give an actual name to the gravestones there, which are only slabs with numbers on them such as "34." These folks, in my mind, were a part of the community as well (and still are as they are buried there), so I compiled over a 100-page document that is more genealogical based, which shows who we think is buried there, and anything additional I could find about the story of their lives. This is also available online.

     After I released the Poorhouse and Farm book in November 2017, I was approached by a number of friends and local residents who told me something along the lines of "now you have to do a book on the Jacksonville State Hospital." I knew there had been other publications on this historic institution, known originally as the Illinois Hospital for the Insane, but I wondered if, similar to the poorhouse book, the stories of ordinary people had been written about, or just the 'famous people.'  In addition, a colleague at MacMurray named Derek told me about "a big pit" where people who died at the asylum were buried. I thought he was giving me old ghost stories, so he directed me on where to look and I couldn't believe there was just a big "Potter's Field" graveyard with no markers. At least at the poorhouse they have a number! I think it's appropriate to re-tell the story of the people buried there, and that became the foundation for my second book, The Untold History of the First Illinois State Hospital for the Insane. 

Many thanks to the staff of MacMurray College’s Office of Communications for helping develop this material (Todd, Alexia, Marcy!!)