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.)

          In the year 1816,           $  ,650
                           1817,             1,550
                           1818,             1,310
                           1819,             1,300
                           1820,             1,925
                           1821,             1,525
                           1822,             1,507
                          
                          Total,            $9,767

     In the town of Chester there is on hand a fund of $400 for the support of the poor.

JOHNSBURGH.

     This town has lately purchased a small farm, contemplated for the use of the poor. Paid the year past, for said farm, $211.31. No other fund. [Letter from the supervisor of Johnsburgh.]

QUEENSBURY.

     The mode adopted, and which has been practised in this town, for three years past, is to receive sealed proposals from competent and discreet citizens of the town. The inhabitant offering to take charge of the poor, and furnish them with all the necessaries and comforts suitable to their condition in life (including even extra expenses, such as surgeons' and physicians' bills,) is entitled to the contract, which is reduced into writing, and contains a clause providing that the agreement shall be performed under the immediate and exclusive direction and superintendence of the overseers of the poor. This system has materially reduced the expense, although the number of paupers has been increased, and by a judicious selection of contractors, the paupers have been well fed and clothed, lodged and attended. [Letter from the supervisor of Queensbury.]

   Is a wooden structure, two stories high, 26 x 60 feet, and fifty years old, and is in a very dilapidated condition.  This house is ventilated through the cracks and crevices, and cannot be kept warm and comfortable in severe weather.  There is no provision for bathing.  Connected with the house is a farm of 200 acres yielding an annual revenue of $800.  Six rooms are appropriated to the use of the paupers, in each of which from four to fourteen are placed.  The number of inmates found in the house was thirty-four, seventeen male and seventeen females, and one-half foreign and one-half native born, including eight children, all under the care of one keeper, who, assisted by his wife and aided by the paupers, provide for the family and manage the farm.  The average number supported in the house is fifty-four, at a weekly expense of 90 cents each.  The fare consists of plain, wholesome food, provided so far as not produced on the farm by purchase by the superintendent of the poor, who also prescribes rules regarding the diet, binds out the children on arriving at a suitable age, and exercises the power of discharging lunatics when they are dismissed from the house.

   The house is annually visited by the board of supervisors, and is supplied with Bibles, but enjoys no other means of religious instruction. The children either attend the district school or are taught in the house.  A physician is employed, who visits the house once a week, at a salary of $75 a year.

   There have been two births and eight deaths, two are blind, occasioned by disease, one twelve years old.  Of the inmates three are lunatics, two males and one female, and all are paupers; three have been admitted during the year.  They have no special attendants, or special medical attention.  One has improved during the year.  Confinement in cells is the only form of restraint practiced. There is one idiot, a boy fourteen years old.

   Two-thirds of the inmates come to receive public charity consequent upon habits of instruction. [Note: after review of the entries for other counties in this report, it is believed that the word  instruction here is an error. Intemperance is what was likely meant.]  

     "When we were researching the poor house records at Warren County, we found that our earliest admission book was 1875. We know there must have been an earlier one, but what happened to it is unknown. We did find a number of documents relating to the poor house, including the original deed to the Warren Co. poor house from 1826. I did a census of the poor house cemetery. The minutes of the Board of Supervisors stated that they authorized the purchasing of gravestones in 1896. Burials before that time are unmarked.
     Our poor house was located in Warrensburg and the cemetery across the Schroon river in the town of Bolton. One discovery I made was that many Catholic poor were buried in the local Catholic cemetery not the poor house cemetery. In the "potters field" of the Catholic cemetery along the south fence, I found the county authorized grave stones, identical to those of the poor house cemetery. The only explanation I was able to come up with was at the time Catholics were suppose to be buried in consecrated ground."
     Thomas John Lynch [an499@freenet.carleton.ca ]

---

"There is an article in the December 2000 issue of Adirondack Life magazine called, "Hard Times Come Again No More." It mentions several of the poorhouses in and around Warren and Essex County. There are pictures of ones in ESSEX County, WARREN County, and FRANKLIN County in the article."
     Kathy Campbell   katcamp@mediaone.net 

A reader generously sent me a copy of that issue ... and the article was great! But I have not been able to get any response to my requests to copy the article to the PHS website.  I went to their website and found a portion of the article on-line  There was a wonderful anecdote about a colorful "local character" (complete with an old photo of him in his Adirondack woodsman dress) who sadly wound up in the Warren County Poorhouse. However, the magazine apparently only keeps articles from the two most recent issues on-line. So now that is no longer available.   If we are ever able to obtain consent to copy the article or link to it on their website, we will gladly do so.    PHL

The Warren County Archives has done a really outstanding job of presenting information about their holdings on their website at http://www.co.warren.ny.us/Records/index.html 

Their information and name indexes for their poorhouse holdings are as follows:

Almshouse Admission Records    1855 - 1979  (Including Building Photograph)

Almshouse Burial Permits   1911 - 1933

Almshouse Reports of Death   1906 - 1930

Almshouse Cemetery -- Town of Bolton, Warren County, NY
recorded spring 1995 by Tom Lynch  [See Local Notes above for more information about the cemetery. PHL ]