Alms House, Macoupin County IL

compiled by Gloria Frazier

Carolynn Bettis researched the old newspapers and found that the Old Folks Home north of Carlinville on Route 4 was built in 1912, closed July 1976 and demolished in July 7, 1983.
Click for article.

Ron Robinson wrote, "My grandfather was living there when he passed away in 1962."

"Josephine Remling, age 93, advised today that she was working at the Nursing Home when the residents were relocated. Stated it was very confusing, sad and depressing for the employees and residents.

Carolynn found an article dated July 11, 1974 about the new Macoupin County Nursing Home. Click for article.
She wrote:
"University Manor was the new Macoupin County Nursing Home constructed and occupied in March, 1976, located on the very NW point of the Blackburn College Campus. Blackburn University was the previous name of the college; thus, the County named the new County Nursing Home facility, "University Manor". Today, it is privately owned and is known as "Heritage Manor", and it is located in the SE area of the Plaza Shopping Center."

M Trover wrote, "At one time, there was a Poor Farm out where the Sulphur Springs Cemetery (Nilwood Township) is. It was there awhile but the one north of Carlinville was soon built."

Hi, Gloria,
I am a person with interest in poor houses/poor farm/almshouses, having researched and written about the one in Henderson County, Illinois a while back. These days I live in Chatham and was searching for some info online, came upon the Macoupin Co. website with information about the former Carlinville poor farm. Just thought I'd provide you with another snippet of information for your page. I just love those old Board of Public Charities reports for the snapshot in time they can provide.

Report includes inspection results by the commission circa 1878. (I noticed that in later years the inspectors found significant improvement over this report.):

"Macoupin—One hundred and twenty acres, a mile ann a half north of Carlinville; cost fifty-five hundred dollars; farm of medium quality and poorly stocked. The almshouse has been built at three different times, and the front presents a singular appearance, in consequence of the line being part of brick and part of wood painted white. The internal plan is not good, but admits of separation of the sexes; they dine in a common room, which is not large enough; the number of rooms in the entire house is forty-seven, of which the keeper occupies six. The furniture is scanty, the house-keeping fair, the inmates apparently well cared for, in general; the female side of the house is the most comfortable. There were thirty-eight paupers when inspected, of whom nine were insane. The insane department is in the basement of the north wing; it contains six cells, four by eight feet each, with brick partitions, cross-barred iron doors, locked by padlocks and wooden bars across the windows, nailed on the inside of the lower half of the sash; the cells are arranged in a double block; back to back, with a corridor, three feet wide, on three sides; they are heated by a stove in the hall, and in winter the patients must suffer from cold; no bedsteads but loose straw, without ticks, on the floor; ventilation has been attemped by grated openings in the wall, but there is no current of air; no privy seats except one in the yard, not protected from the weather and with no vault—the hogs act as scavenggers. This department is simply disgraceful; the insane are treated as if they were animals and not men. There are two yards for the two sexes, separated by a high board fence. The out-buildings are inferior and insufficient. The keeper's salary is five hundred dollars. The amount of out-door relief is large."

Twenty-first Fractional Biennial Report
OF THE
BOARD OF
STATE COMMISSIONERS
Of
PUBLIC CHARITIES
OF THE
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Being Statistical Record of the Public Charity Service for the Period
July 1, 1908 to December 31, 1909, and Embracing Final
Recommendations of the Board.
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS:

Illinois State Journal Co., State Printers
1911

Appointed by His Excellency, Governor Deneen.]
DE. FRANK BILLINGS, Chicago.
DE. EMIL G. HIRSCH, Chicago.
DE. JOHN T. McANALLY, Carbondale.
MISS JULIA T. LATHROP, Eockford.
MES. CLARA P. BOURLAND, Peoria.

Old Peoples' and Orphans' Home of the Church of the Brethren of the Southern District of Illinois, Girard. M. Smeltzer, superintendent; no age limit; no fixed compensation.

The building has had other names, Poor Farm, Old Folks Home.

I don't know the dates but it started out as a farm for poor people.

I remember when it was an old folks home, my mother would visit someone there. I was young and seems like I went in once remembering the big hallway to a young girl.

When the poor died in Macoupin County they were buried in the Paupers Cemetery located east of the county fairgrounds.