Introduction As with most of the stories I write these days, this started out to be a basic but thorough coverage of the history of McDonough County’s early almshouses, or poor farms as they unfortunately were called at one time.
When I realized the vast amount of information available, I had to rethink my angle and decided to include as much about this subject as possible. It is an interesting story that deserves to be heard, and has been told down over the years in various newspapers, newsletters and journals by local writers. I am just bringing the story back one more time to hopefully a new group of readers.
Our invaluable local historians, such as Kathy Nichols, Alan Nemec, Marla Vizdal, Sue Scott, and above all John Hallwas have put in countless hours documenting various aspects of McDonough County’s 200 years of history, including research on the almshouses.
When I earlier this year wrote a story about the 1883 Bushnell’s Randall’s Opera House, I was delighted to find that the original ledger of performers still exists in the Bushnell Historical Society Museum at 470 East Main Street. Each cast’s names were entered into the oversized ledger, in calligraphy, the date they appeared and the name of the performance. Then, as icing on the cake, an artist, perhaps from the cast, would draw, usually in colored pencil, a scene from the play, such as mountain or a river scene. The fi rst entries began in 1883 and continued for many years. The ledger is, to say the least, fascinating, especially considering that many of these traveling troupes were known worldwide. And the ledger is right there in Bushnell for the public to enjoy. A treasure.
The story on the McDonough County Almshouses was coming together rather routinely when I paid a visit to the WIU Archives and Special Collections floor of the WIU Malpass Library. Historian and archivist Kathy Nichols had some materials waiting for me and it was as I was sifting through them I realized I was looking at something huge. It was, like the Bushnell Opera House, 25%
a ledger of those who had lived, at one time or another, at a McDonough County Almshouse. Suddenly this story became real to me, not just a historical read drawn from books. These were real, struggling people in a difficult time.
The ledger reveals the following information about these persons who were once alive as could be and found themselves in dire need of living accommodations : name, sex, age, color, occupation, birthplace, residence, education, habits, authority for admission, supposed cause of pauperism, date of discharge, and comments (which listed if they had died and the date of death, but not WHERE they had been buried). Left blank on the ledger pages are the columns headed as civil condition, parentage, and property.
In addition to discovering that this ledger exists, I was made aware that John Hallwas had, from this ledger, chosen a young girl who lived at the first almshouse, and brought her experiences to life. He had written a full story entitled “Nettie; A Girl at the County Poor Farm”, and it ran in the McDonough County Voice on July 29, 2017. With John’s permission we will run that publication again at the end of my story.
Stay tuned for Part One of McDonough County Almshouses - Why Almshouses Were Needed and Macomb’s First Almshouse
