Miss
Allace Jennings, J.H. Stelz, Mrs. Will Jennings, Mrs. Jasper Estice and Jasper
Estice.
Other County Court Record Book entries pertaining to F.M. Taylor include: Aug.
8, 1892, Polly Turner declared a pauper and placed in the care and custody of
F.M. Taylor, the keeper of the paupers of Pope County; Oct. 7, 1892, F.M. Taylor
receives $192.54 for keeping the county paupers; January 1894, F.M. Taylor
serves on a coroner's jury (unnamed deceased infant).
Jail Cost More Than Poor Farm
Pope County spent more on constructing a county jail in Dover in 1877 --
$1,025 (worth $15,067.50 in 1997 dollars) -- than it did in 1876 when 80 acres
(with two buildings) was purchased for $400 ($5,705.81 in 1997 dollars) for a
county poor farm.
The County Court (today it is the Quorum Court) approved a 1/4-mill tax to pay
for the jail. This structure, located just to the northeast of the Dover town
square, was torn down in the fall of 1947 or the spring of 1948.
The county certainly didn't get its initial investments back when the two poor
farm properties were sold. The 1876 poor farm east of Dover cost $400 in 1876
($5,705.81 in 1997 dollars) and was sold in 1885 for $100 ($1,741.67 in 1997
dollars).
The county in 1898 spent nearly $3,000 to purchase land, erect buildings and
furnish same for a poor farm east of Russellville along today's Tyler Road. That
$3,000 is $56,400.94 in 1997 dollars. This poor farm was closed in 1939 and the
land sold in 1941 for $1,900 -$21,242.08 in 1997 dollars. A year later, in
1942, the buyers sold the land for $3,325 -- that's $35,403.46 in 1997 dollars.
Eligibility Determination
People appeared before a regular session of the County Court and were
examined by the Court to determine their eligibility to be declared a pauper and
put on the county charge, committed to the care of the county's "keeper of
the poor."
For example, on Page 62 of County Record Book F is this entry dated January 7,
1878: Robert Blackwood, Thomas Owens, Grace Rose, Sallie Price and Hannah Parker
petitioned the court for an order adjudging them paupers for 1878.
At that same time Jesse W. Linton received the 12-month contract as keeper of
the poor at $187 per pauper per year -- that's $15.58 per month. The contract
directed Linton to "feed, clothe and furnish medical attention to the
paupers of this county ...." [Jesse Walker Linton, 1824 -1899, also served
as county jailer in the late 1870s and early 1880s.]