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Caption: Lewis County Home, Lowville, N.Y. |
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The notes below have been abstracted from the following reports.
To obtain further information on these reports click on the appropriate button.
(This will open a separate window so simply close to get back to this page.)
YATES REPORT
1824 LAW
1857 REPORT EXPLANATION
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YATES REPORT:
Click here
to read the section of this historic report which deals with LEWIS county.
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| 1824 LAW (required establishment of poorhouse vs. exempted):
required
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1857 INVESTIGATION:
This building is built
of stone, forty by sixty feet, in height two stories above the basement, and
has been erected for nine years. The
basements are occupied for culinary purposes, and also contain two dark cells
for offenders and the insane. Connected
with the house is a farm of fifty-nine acres, yielding an annual revenue of
$600. The building contains
eleven rooms, or wards, and is heated by furnaces. It is partially ventilated by registers in some of the windows. The number of inmates is fifty, thirty males and twenty females. Of these, three-fourths are foreign born. Of the inmates there are twelve under sixteen years of age. The sexes are separated at night and partially during the
day. They are under one keeper. Sometimes as many as twelve paupers are placed in one room. The average number of inmates is ninety-three, supported at a weekly
expense of ninety-seven cents each, aside from the products of the farm. The paupers are employed on the farm, so far as able, and in domestic
matters and the manufacture of clothing for the house. The supervisors have visited and inspected the house twice during the
past year. It is supplied with
Bibles and a Sabbath school is sustained. No other religious instruction is afforded. During four months of the year a common school is taught. The superintendents of the poor furnish supplies and impose rules for
the government of the house and regulations for the system of diet. The food furnished is good and wholesome, equal in quality to that which a majority of the tax payers themselves
eat. A physician, who visits
the house four or five times each week, and oftener if necessary, is employed
at a salary of $200. There are no
facilities for bathing.
During the last year
one birth has occurred in the house and nine deaths. No contagious disease has visited the house. The lunatics number only four, two males and two females. All are paupers, and, as a remarkable fact, one of them was found lying
on a feather bed. Two have
been admitted within the year. They
have no particular medical or other attendance, and none are confined or in
any way restrained. There is no
case of improvement or cure. The
superintendents of the poor alone exercise the power of discharge.
There is in the house
one idiot, a female about twenty-two years of age; also one blind and one deaf
and dumb. The house can be kept
comfortable in winter. The
proportion of pauperism here caused by intemperance is estimated at one-half. The house appeared to be very well kept.
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Transcribed by PHS-Volunteer, Cheramie Breaux in Louisiana
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PERSONAL NOTES FROM READERS:
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| LOCAL
NOTES:
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This one is really FUN!
Here is a bill
from
"Horace Bush
Druggist & Apothecary
And Dealer in Everything Pertaining to the Business"
No. 88 State-street
Lowville N.Y.
for
Supplies
purchased for the LEWIS COUNTY POORHOUSE
November 31, 1867 through
February 19, 1868
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And here is another (1890)
poorhouse invoice -- for fish
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Caption: Lewis County Home, Lowville, New York
"Just looked at your picture.Brings back memory of driving by it. Road
goes onto Gardner Road going North out of Lowville NY, if I am
correct."
Rich
Allen (b. Lowvlle 1941) RICHFROG2@aol.com
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RECORDS:
List
of Residents of the Lewis County Poorhouse from the 1850 Census
List
of Residents of the Lewis County Poorhouse from the 1860 Census
Poorhouse INMATE REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES
Microfilm Series A1978 Roll
Number(s) 71-72 more information
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CEMETERY:
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| We are hoping to build this base of information about the poorhouse in LEWIS county through the helpful participation of readers. All are requested to submit items of interest by sending
e-mail
to The Poorhouse Lady.
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