Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 14 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
could provide food, fuel, clothing, and occasionally, medical treatment. Support received was meager, at best, but was better than an alternate practice in some regions: auctioning of the pauper to the lowest bidder. In the latter situation, the bidder was to provide necessities in turn for the labor of the ‘indentured’ for some period of time. This was obviously a system ripe for abuse and so it was on many occasions.
Poorhouse System
In the 1820s, as the industrial revolution spread across the US, a socially ‘enlightened’ aspect of that revolution, the Poorhouse System, was imported from England. The poorhouse, an institution to house the impoverished, would be cheaper and more efficient than ‘outdoor relief’ and would afford the opportunity to reform (through work) the bad habits and character defects considered at the root of poverty (sound familiar from modern arguments?). Most of the states enacted laws that specified the general terms under which poorhouses should operate, e.g. overseer, funding, ‘eligibility’ for residence at the facility, provisions for medical care, if any, etc.
During this period, it seems about half of Virginia’s localities, including Rappahannock County set up poorhouses or poor farms. Rappahannock had at least two and possibly more poor farms. The first was established in 1837 on 100 acres acquired from John and Elizabeth Finnell for $600 (yes, that’s $6/A for those freaked by recent assessments).
The site was in Bear Wallow Hollow northwest out of Flint Hill. The site was cho
96.4%