Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-07-03
the COUNTY POOR FARM.

10 among his fellows. If not, why
not?
THE COUNTY POOR FARM.
Supervisor Postlewaite, of this city,
kindly rendered us a buggy ride to the
county poor farm, last week Thurs
day, which we accepted.
We do not recollect that we ever
before set foot upon this farm and
within the portals of the Poor House.
We don't say this to our credit, for we
don't believe we have done our duty
in not visiting it long, long ago; but
then in this busy, driving world it
has come to this that where business
does not call, nor occasional recreation,
men of business are seldom found.
We had lived like the balance of man.
kind, supposing that those charged
with the care of this institution were
attending properly to their duties,
and i'm fact our visit there convinced
us that we were right in this suppo-
sition. We should say from our eX-
animation that Mr.. and Mrs. Bradley,
aided by Patrick, who has been for
many years an inmate of the place,
and whose services could hardly be
dispensed with, are doing nicely and
we'll by both farm and the unfortu-
nate creatures who are the beneficial
ries of their attentions.
There are eleven children in the
Poor House, the youngest being four
years old. All these were at school
when we were there. The number
of adults we did not get, but it must
be from twelve to eighteen. Many Of
these are insane or idiotic, and some
badly crippled. We saw three very
old ladies among the number. There
are several men who are able to, and
who do a great deal of work upon the
farm.
What we desire most to speak about
in this article is, what we deem the
poor location of the Poor Farm and
how little of it is really susceptible OF
tillage. There is in all about 5Oacres;
all but about 60 acres lies among the
high, broken hills as one rises out OF
the valley of Sugar Creek. We give
this as we understood Mr.. Postle.
waite who furnished us with the in.
formation. The hill land is cut uI
with deep ravines and is very poor
From the gullies in time of heavy
rains the water pours in great album
dance and spreads out upon the low
lands below. In sinks in the low
lands great stagnant ponds of wate
are collected and stand there nearly
or quite the whole year. The Super
visors have, with pauper help, under
taken to drain some of this land ant
also to make, as well as may be posi-
BILE, a trench for the wash from tn
high lands to follow, SO as to proven
the waters spreading out upon tn
ground below, but the flow of tn
, water from the hills is so great a
! times that it is impossible, perhaps, t
! confine it in one bed unless it be yer
. large indeed. We saw where trenc
, was dug in the bottom for distanc
f of perhaps thirty rods, that they ha
o gone through plump foot of san
9 and large gravel that had been wasf
y ed down from the hills and complete
ly covered up the soil. This was tn
case on several acres of the bottor
land, and on this Mr.. Bradley WE
trying to raise corn, but it locke
: about as sickly as it would if GROWN
i over on the sand bar just opposit
this city. 1t is found very Difficult
too, to drain the ponds because
in order to do SO, the lands belong
q ing to other people will hav
:, to be invaded, and we are il
r formed that the persons owning thes
/, lands do not seem willing to join i
e getting the ditching done. There
# only one good field for tillage on tn
e whole place, and that is the strip {
e land which lies right along the ride
: on the river bank. This field, W
e would guess, contains from ten I
: fifteen acres of ground. Here til
' corn looked well, and we are full
' satisfied that it looks sickly in OIL
er portions owing to the poor qualit
e of the land and that alone. We mus
: believe, too, that such place as W
q have described and saw is not a yer
f healthy location.
v Again, it is in by-plaee, an QUITO
t the-way place; there is absolutely n
decent highway to it.
We are convinced that Supervise
! Postlewaite is giving good deal (
: attention to this institution and hs
q it's best interests much at heart. II
y tells us that the Board of Supervisor
f feel that, if a good farm and
+ good location could be obtained
the institution might be made neal
ly or quite self-supporting, but ths
| it is impossible to do this as now sitl
, ated. We are inclined to agree wit
him; at least we feel to know that til
present Poor Farm is a burden to tn
q taxpayers of Wapello county, {
, many hundreds of dollars every yea
more than it would be if it were jud
q ciously located elsewhere. There ca
be no possible doubt of this.
o Besides this we want to say that
, is humanitarian, it is right, it is th
mark of a benevolent and kind pee
a pie to provide a comfortable an
pleasant place for the unfortunate il
> mates of institutions of charity; it RI
wards the public donor more abur
. dainty than the recipients; it is, in
, deed, a moral axiom that sit is NOR
r blessed to give than to receive"
, We desire to call the attention {
our readers to the subject matter {
this article. We are assured in on
own minds that something ought t
be done at the earliest feasible time
change the location of our Poor Farm
"Tom Hendricks thinks Grant viii
be nominated in 1880, because he
the strongest man. Well, it is no
impossible; but it depends greatly up
ON the action Of the democratic party
, 1t is doubtless in the power Of the op
position to create such feeling a
will force the loyal people of tn
county TO turn instinctively to bold
true, courageous man for aid and pro