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WILL REMOVE
BODIES FROM COUNTY FARM |
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Commissioners Take First
Step to Prepare Property for Sale. |
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PLAN FOR NEW BUILDING |
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Another Site Available
for Modern Institution and Tent Colony. |
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| The initial
step in an effort to sell the old poor farm on Jones avenue,
thereby securing a sum which added to another sum to be
appropriated for the purpose, will be enough to erect a modern
institution on the 100 acres bought for the purpose by the old
commissioners' court, was taken yesterday when the county
commissioners ordered that all bodies in the burial grounds
adjacent to the poor farm be buried elsewhere. |
The contract was
let to the Zizik(?) Undertaking Company, which company agrees to
provide suitable graves for each of the known dead in the
potter's field and to re-bury all those whose identities are
unknown. The known dead are to be re-buried in City
cemetery No. 7, and it is expected that the others will be put
into a common grave to be dug at the new poor farm.
Suitable shafts will be erected in each instance. |
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Should Bring Good Sum |
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| Four years ago,
Judge Phil Shook, then county judge, sought to sell the old poor
farm, having in mind the construction of a building on the new
farm. Judge Shook believed that the 18 acres of the
old place ought to bring at least $1000 per acre, but the best
offer he could secure was $12,000. Neither Judge Shook nor
the ten county commissioners believed the offer was adequate and
declined to close the deal. |
Since Judge Davis
has been in office he has taken the matter up again and believes
that by doing away with the unsightly burying ground and
leveling all evidences of it after removal of the bodies, that
the property may be sold to advantage. Judge Davis is not
prepared to set a figure at which the county will be willing to
sell, but the value of real estate in San Antonio has increased
somewhat during the last four years. Possibly $1000 per
acre may be obtained, giving the county$18,000 to cash to be
used in building a new poor house. |
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What the Plan
Contemplates |
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| The county has
ample land about nine miles from San Antonio on which to place
an up to date institution of the kind that is needed to care for
the poor and indigent. In all, slightly over 99 acres are
owned by the county, the tract having been bought four years ago
from the late Dr. William Meier. At that time a detention
hospital was erected on a portion of the land but the greater
part has been used for three years as a farm. |
If the contemplated plans go through,
the county not only will get a modern poorhouse but also have a
tuberculosis colony of tents. The proposition of placing a
boys' training school there also has been under consideration,
but the belief prevails that this may not be so feasible.
In any event, the commissioners are working on the theory
that the sale of the old poor farm and the placing of an
additional sum with the proceeds thus obtained will be adequate
to build an institution for the poor that will not be surpassed
anywhere in the South. The first step is the removal of
the graveyard. |
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