200. A Visit To The Poor Farm.

RCHS Blog Post Number 200. 

A Visit To The Poor Farm 

April 30, 1975 

By Sue HAGEN

   If one took a trip to the Randolph County Home today he would find superintendent and matron Don and Ann DWIGGINS, who have been there 24 years, plus 20 men 18 women residents, some who have stayed in the quarters longer than the Dwiggins.

  The Dwiggins said that there are beds for 62 persons at the home and the present population is 38. "We have had 90, years ago." Don Dwiggins said. Five years ago the population tapered down to 36 and in the last couple of years it varied from 38 to 43.

  Township trustees who function as overseers of the poor decide when a person is indigent and then requests that they be sent to the county home. The application which must be filled out and signed by a doctor needs the final okay from the county commissioners before a person becomes a resident.

  There are also some transfer patients from Richmond and Fort Wayne state hospitals. Dwiggins said that the youngest person that was admitted since he has been supervisor was 22 years old. "We don't take children," he said The eldest there now is a resident who will turn 93 in July.

  Neither will the Dwiggins' accept residents who are totally bedridden. The Dwiggins prefer that they be ambulatory since nursing homes cater to bed confined people. For the past ten years they have specified that the residents should be ambulatory, but a couple are not since they were admitted before the practice was observed.

  A person need not be completely without financial support in order to come to the county home. Dwiggins explained that once the institution was referred to as the "poor farm." Then it was renamed the county infirmary. In 1947 it was declared to be the county home, although the stonework on the front of the building on State Road 27 three miles south of Winchester, still carries the second title.

  People on social security are admitted. "A few more men than women have social security," Ann Dwiggins, L. P. N., said. If a person does not have his own finances for the home, the trustees provide the funds from their county budgeted amount. The cost for staying at the county home is $75 a month. Revenue from boarders does not completely finance the operations of the home, however, Don Dwiggins said. The surrounding 300 acres, 180 of which are tillable, helps provide the difference in costs when farmed.

  Dwiggins said the ratio of patients who have financial means to pay for their room and board and those who do not is presently 1 to 1. One man, he specified has enough financial support to handle his affairs, but his reasoning ability requires that he stay in the county home.

  Part of the operations of the county home include residents working at various maintenance jobs, Dwiggins said, "A few of the men help me around the barn, or in the garden." Others are responsible for mopping and waxing floors, making beds, cooking, doing laundry or providing music on occasions when they gather for a church service or party.

  Most of their waking hours, however, are filled with television. Because their eyesight is waning they read very little. Some of the ladies sew or embroidery in their spare hours. Groups will get together to play cards. One man has a fetish for painting furniture.

  Parties are occasionally sponsored for the residents by sororities and other civic organizations. On Sundays, various ministers and religious leaders rotate coming in to lead a church service. Dr. Howard KOCH, who is the county doctor responsible for care of the county home residents, is a weekly visitor who checks up on their health.

  The average age of the residents is 64 for both men and women at present. Dwiggins said that some of  the residents have been at the home for 30 years. How long depends on their temperament: whether they can get along with others., and on their health. If they get seriously ill they leave. If their financial status changes, there's a possibility of them leaving, but this has not happened, Dwiggins said, in his term as superintendent of the county home.

  One woman said she marked the 30th anniversary at the home last week. She appeared to be in her 50's. Her daily duties, she said, included working in the laundry and washing dishes during noon and dinner hours. She complained slightly of working too hard. What she likes to do, she said, was "fancy work" such as crocheting or embroidering.

  Another lady who said she was 23 years old when she entered the home has been a resident since the beginning of the second world war. She is one of the cooks. She said on occasion some of the other residents are "aggravating."

  A very vocal lady lady who has been a resident for two years said she did her work in the morning which consisted of washing and dusting, so she can watch "the dramas on television in the afternoon." She played the piano on special occasions and liked to sing.

  Another lady who couldn't remember how long she had lived in the county home said she watched a lot of television. But her favorite activity was playing the harmonica during Sunday services or sharing her Sunday radio programs with the others.

  One man who sat smoking a cigarette in the men's television room said he did all kinds of work at the home which included mopping or mowing the yard, tending the laundry, and making beds. He said in his seven years at the home he had found most of the residents friendly. Another man wandered into the television room and said he was only finished with his work. He said he started work at 8 a.m. and finished at 2:30 p.m. He was responsible for mopping the upstairs and down, he said proudly, and for making beds and baths for other residents for 13 years.

  One man in a wheelchair who didn't know when he came to the home said he was wheeling himself down the hall "just to exercise  his arms." He had no duties, "I just sit and look out the window," he said.

  He also talks to visitors: "I can't do anything else," he said. "Some of them (the residents) are kinda cross sometimes, kinda crabby." His mother and cousin come once a week to visit him.

  Although relatives are welcome, one resident said, and the sign on the door tells the visiting hours, some residents have no relatives.

  Such is the case of one man who came to the county home four years ago from Fort Wayne. His mother was sick at the time, but he couldn't take care of her. Later she was admitted to the county home, but soon died of a series of strokes. His brother later passed away. "I'm staying here by myself and that's all I got to do," he said. He liked to watch television but "got tired of sitting there all day." He also liked working around the barn.

  Before Christmas he lost his vision in one eye and had it removed. "It got so bad I just couldn't stand it," he said. The day I visited the man he was celebrating his birthday and said that the township trustee came to see him.

  Looking into one of the dormitory rooms with half a dozen beds, one lady was leafing through a magazine. Another has just returned from the hospital where she had an operation and was resting in bed.

  The layout of the county home consists of a corridor and living quarters for the men and one for the women on each floor. Two floors house residents.

______________________

Want to learn more?
Visit The Museum.
     Hours vary with volunteer availability. Check the website or Facebook for current open to the public hours or call/message/email to arrange an appointment.
Facebook group: Randolph County Indiana Historical and Genealogical Society

Visit the website.
     Here is a link to the cemetery database.  https://rchsmuseum.org

Follow the blog.
     Scroll to the right or below the article to click "FOLLOW" to get email updates as soon as a blog is uploaded.  This is a great feature to share with family and friends who are not active on social media.