Poor House Data

Reports of Inspections of the County Infirmaries of Illinois in 1911

BOONE COUNTY ALMSHOUSE— JULY 26, 1911. P. M.
LEACH, Contractor, Belvidere.
Boone county has no farm. Mr. P. M. Leach contracts to care for the totally destitute of the county at $1,000.00 a year. An additional allowance is made for very helpless cases or for an over supply of inmates. Last year, the keeper received $1,150.00. A committee on the poor reports the names, age and condition of each person cared for by Mr. Leach once a year.
Two small, one room frame buildings are used to house men sent to Mr. Leach.
Both are heated by stoves and lighted by coal oil lamps or candles. The houses are both old and they are barely furnished, but they are kept clean and free from vermin. There are eight men boarded at present; four of them are crippled, two are feeble minded, and one is so old as to be helpless. One woman of seventy-four is entirely helpless. With the assistance of three inmates, who can do a little work, Mr. and Mrs. Leach have the entire care of the people sent to their farm. The men told me that they had plenty to eat. They are given magazines and a weekly paper to read. Tobacco Is furnished them. Water is heated for them to use for bathing in a wash tub, once a week. Boone county has been unwilling to go to the expense of providing a poor farm while it could get the services of Mr. Leach to care for the poor at so little cost. It is hoped by many of Boone county's citizens that a farm will be purchased in the near future, and a modern building equipped for the care of unfortunates.

Source: SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE State Charities Commission, By Illinois State Charities Commission, December 31, 1911 - Submitted by Candi Horton

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