Take Me to the Poor Farm
by Dusty Williams

A mention of the poor farm often brings up memories of times past and usually involves an urge to owrk harder and persevere to avoid being sent down younder to the poor farm.  Although many of us are very much familiar with the term, an understanding of what exactly the poor farm was is somewhat of a mystery.

For Grayson County, the County Poor Farm was established shortly before 1880 and was located west of Sherman in the Pecan Grove Community on the old Vaden homestead.  Some newspaper accounts claim that it was perhaps the best investment that the county had made thus far in its history.

The Grayson County Poor Farm has a unique and colorful history, as is the case with most historical places throughout any county;  In short, poor farms were established to house those without anywhere else to go and at times a place to send individuals who had committed crimes.  Some poor farms, such as Grayson County's, also had a hospital ward where individuals could receive medical attention.  Those admitted to the county farm became wards of the county, and in an effort to keep the streets clean, counties established "county farms" to house the less fortunate.  These individuals could include the aged residents who had no family or friends to care for them, the orphans of the county, husbandless mothers, and the mentally challenged.

Most poor farms were working farms.  Those who resided at the farm, if they were able, assisted in the daily functions of maintaining the farm.  This not only provided the residents with food, but the excess could be sold, allowing for county income.

Throughout the course of its life, the farm in Grayson County saw hundreds of residents come and go, many of which became lifelong residents and were interred at the county farm cemetery at the time of their passing.  Originally the small cemetery of the Vaden Family, the county expanded it greatly when it purchased the farm in 1877 or 1878.  There are hundreds of unmarked graves within its boundaries.  Most of the graves are of those who had no family to speak of, no money and many who were unidentified.  As a result, the county had the remains interred in the county cemetery as there was no one to claim the remains.  One notable burial in the cemetery is the remains of George Hughes, who was a casualty of the 1930 Sherman Riot.  The cemetery has several names, most commonly: Vaden, County Farm and Pecan Grove.

Conditions at the county farm were something of a roller coaster ride.  At times it was reported in the local newspaper that conditions were in superb condition and that residents were in the best of shape.  At other times, there were accounts of death by starvation, children bound by their hands and other inhumane treatment at the farm.  In the early part of the 20th century, the famed Edna B. Gladney made a march on the county farm to clean it up.  Not only did she have it cleaned and sanitized, but she had all the children removed and sent to an orphanage.  After her march on the county farm, conditions seem to have improved at the farm and it once again seems to have become a working farm for those who needed a place to go.  One resident of the early 20th century was Mrs. Mary Matney, a niece of Davy Crockett.  When her identity was discovered, a local doctor offered up his home in Sherman and gave her a place to stay.

My great-great-grandparents, Herman and Lois Goldston, came to the farm during the depression where Herman was the hired man.  He and his large family lived in a nearby log cabin while he worked here.  By the 1950s he had been promoted to the superintendent and the family moved across the street into the big house.  The Goldstons shared many happy memories with the residents and treated them as if they were family.  For the eight GOldston children, it was often remarked that they had several sets of grandparents and upon returned home from school each day they went directly across the street to visit the residents.  All was in harmony until 1946 when a fire swept through the old bu ilding, destroying all in its path, including the old record book that was kept under the stairs.  The residents stayed in little cabins that were on the property, as well as in the superintendent's house until a new building was constructed a few years later.

With the fire in 1946, all of the county farm records were destroyed.  In an effort to restore whan can never truly be replaced I have created a new file system for all the residents of the county farm.  If a resident ever appeared on a census record, newspaper article, vital record or any other record that relates them to the county farm, I have created a file for them.  These files also include anyone who is buried in the County Farm Cemetery, whether they were residents of othe farm or not.  In an effort to obtain research for these residents, I have enacted an Adopt a Pauper program.  The program allows for individuals to adopt a past resident, or someone who connects to the farm or cemetery, conduct research on the individual and then submit the information back to be to be included in the individual's file.  As of now, there are more than 500 files.

Herman and Lois ran the farm until their retirement in the early 1960s, shortly after the county farm was converted into the Shady Oaks Nursing Home.  My great-grandmother Mildred Goldston and her husband, Dennis Ferguson, were later residents of Van Alstyne.  In her possessions, and within her family pictures, I would often find photos that had belongs to residents of the county farm.  These photos have been placed within the residents file that I have created.

This has been a very brief history of the county farm in Grayson County; a complete history and biograph of those who lived at the county farm can be found in my new book, The Poor Farm of Grayson County, Texas.  Within the book, one can find not only history of the farm and the land, but a list of all known residents and in formation available on them, as well as histories of the superintendents and the community of Pecan Grove.  The book is available online at Amazon for $12.95.