WASHINGTON COUNTY (NY) POORHOUSE CEMETERY

Huge thanks are due to Richard Wilson who tromped through the cemetery, dug through records at the County Archives,  provided photographs -- and just generally kept this project going!  Blessings to the former Washington County Historian, Doris McEachron, who tenaciously kept the Poor House Records from being destroyed for many, many, many (well, you get the picture) years. More thanks to Joseph Cutshall-King, the current County Historian, who recognized their value and continues to guard & share them; to Loretta Bates, who volunteers in the Historian's Office, and who actually remembered where (in a very weird  place!) in the records were the scattered & cryptic notes that listed names of the people for whom specific numbered stones were used; to Virginia Parrott, Fort Ann Town Historian, who double-checked our steps and our final notes through the cemetery.

The Washington County Poor House evolved into the present-day Pleasant Valley Infirmary which can be found  in a beautiful and peaceful valley just outside the town of Argyle. On this original site -- the well maintained cemetery is very picturesque. Some of the stones have fallen but can still be found and read.

There are three sections:
  • A large area at the back which is kept mowed and which we believe is where paupers were buried in unmarked graves prior to 1891
  • a section to the left front where there are about 250 stones with only a number engraved on each (#1 bears the date 6/13/1891 and #250 bears the date 5/6/1930)
  • and the most recent section to the right which has stones on which names have been engraved (beginning with the earliest dated 1/10/1930 and the latest in 1965.)
Note: Certificate Numbers refer to inmate registration certificates which have been abstracted in a soon to be published book.

                            NUMBERED STONES      NAMED STONES      PHOTOS
Note: See New York  1896 Law -- Civil War Veterans not to be buried in Poor House Cemeteries. (There were some exceptions to this. But generally it was observed.)
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