Turner County Poor Farm

The bronze names Social Security as what replaced the poor farm, and the law worked against such places by design. In the act Roosevelt signed on August 14, 1935, federal matching money for old-age assistance covered only people sixty-five or older who were not inmates of a public institution, so an aged lodger who left a county farm could draw a payment that one who stayed could not. Poor farm populations fell sharply in the late 1930s and 1940s, and counties turned many into hospitals or nursing homes, the path Turner County took after 1948.

What the plaque says

Turner County Poor Farm Before Social Security, old age assistance, and other social safety nets, poor farms throughout the United States provided a place for those suffering through desperate times. The Turner County Poor Farm housed primarily aged and disabled men, although there were several single indigent women and, during the height of the Great Depression, families with small children. In 1897, the County Commissioners paid $13 an acre for two quarter- sections of land. A large two-story wood-frame house was built at a cost of $2,295, and the rest of the 160 acres was farmed. The first lodgers moved in on April 4, 1899. During the 1930's, the house accommodated nearly twenty lodgers as well as the Superintendent and his family. The farm had a garden, barns, and other outbuildings for chickens, hogs, and dairy cattle. Peter Meyer was the first superintendent, hired in 1899 at an annual salary of $600. Harvey and Bertha Nelson were the last superintendents. Harvey Nelson managed farm operations while Bertha oversaw cooking, food preservation, and laundry for her family and all the residents. After the farm closed in 1948, funds from the sale of the land were used for a county nursing home, and the buildings later demolished.

Where it stands

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