1857 INVESTIGATION:
This house is located
about two miles from the village of
Homer. It is an old two story
wooden building, thirty by sixty feet, with a wing, twenty-two by sixty, one
and a half story, also an asylum, twenty-two by fifty feet, one story, to
which is attached a farm consisting of 118 acres, and yielding a revenue of
$600. The number of rooms
appropriated to the use of the paupers is twenty-five, including ten cells for
the insane. It is warmed by means
of stoves and fire places. The
rooms have low ceilings, and no ventilation.
Fifty-two inmates were
found in the house which is about the average number, of these twenty-four
were males and twenty-eight females, of whom two were foreign and fifty native
born, in (the) charge of one keeper and his wife, who has also as is usual the
oversight and management of the poor house farm. The sexes are separated at night and also during the day,
except as they come in contact in the discharge of duties about the house.
There were nine
children under sixteen years of age, all of whom of suitable age attended the
district school.
The inmates are
distributed through the house in groups, from one to six a room. A physician is employed by the year, at a salary of $40, and is
required to respond at all times when called upon, and although there are two
penstocks discharging pure clear water in the yard, the year round the house
is destitute of a bath; an omission under the circumstances that seems
singular when viewed as a question of economy or health.
The paupers are
supplied by or under the direction of the superintendent of the poor, with
plain wholesome food, consisting of meat, vegetables, milk and butter, at an
average weekly cost of 65 cents each, the paupers assisting according to their
several abilities in the performance of the work upon the farm and about the
house. The house is supplied with
Bibles, and preaching is enjoyed at 5 P.M. every Sabbath, the services being
performed by neighboring clergymen in rotation and without compensation. When the children attain suitable age they are bound out by the
superintendent.
The house has been
visited once by the board of supervisors during the year. There have been during the same time seven deaths and three
births. Of the inmates ten are
lunatics, five males and five females, nine of whom are paupers. During the year four have been received, three of these lunatics are
confined in cells night and day, and the remainder only nights. Of the above number, not one has been cured or improved, but one has
escaped and has never been found. The
forms of restraints used, are confinement in cells, hand cuffs and
occasionally slapping. The
accommodations for the insane admit of a partial classification, but they
enjoy no special attention either medically or otherwise. The superintendent delegates to the keeper the right to discharge
lunatics in his discretion.
Of the inmates three
are idiots, one male and two females, the boy about ten year old.
Two-thirds of the whole
number supported at this house are brought there consequent upon habits of
inebriation.
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Transcribed by PHS-Volunteer, Cheramie Breaux in Louisiana
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