Over the Hill to the Poor Farm: Allen County, Indiana's Asylum and Its Superintendents, Part 4
This is the final part in a 4-part series on the Allen County Asylum (the Poor Farm) in Indiana.
H.W. Felts (1893-1901)
Harman Felts was born in 1862 in Fort Wayne. Harman was his mother’s maiden name, but his name was misspelled as Herman more often than not. He attended Methodist Episcopal College, which later became Taylor University. His first career was as a locomotive engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a job he gave up to become the asylum superintendent. A “practical farmer” in Lafayette Township, he was the brother of the recently-resigned school superintendent George Felts. He and his wife Emma had three children, Clifford, Homer and Grace, who were only six, four and one when he took the position.
As usual when there was a change in administration, the newspaper reported a thorough cleaning and overhauling of the facilities. Beds and wards were described as clean as a first-class hotel. Felts was praised by the newspaper. He just finished harvesting 719 bushels of wheat, and 700 bushels of oats when the reporter visited.
In November 1893 there were 92 inmates, a record. In 1894 he was given a four-year contract. There was far less coverage of the county infirmary than there had been during the years of Spice and Wilkinson.
In October 1895 the fourth state conference on charities and corrections was held in Fort Wayne. Felts read a paper on managing poor asylums. The Weekly Gazette said it was “carefully prepared and valuable.” Participants were invited to visit all of the city’s charitable institutions; Felts issued a special invitation to those interested in care of the insane and arranged transportation once delegates went as far as they could on street cars. Most superintendents of county asylums took him up on his invitation.
In 1899 the Felts had the trauma of watching their oldest child, Clifford, die an agonizing death due to lockjaw.
When Felts announced his retirement the newspaper had good things to say about him and his wife. “,,,under their careful management it has indeed become a pleasant home for the poor and aged who have no friends on whom to depend for care and a living. At present the Allen County asylum ranks as the best-managed in the state of Indiana, if not the west.” Felts was succeeded by Thomas Turflinger.
Afterwards
In 1914 Felts ran for Wayne Township trustee on the Democratic ticket. He had a letter reprinted that he received from the county commissioners after his resignation from the asylum. The letter generously praised him, saying, “your management has been efficient and your conduct uniformly courteous. Your treatment of the inmates of this asylum has always been humane and kind and your management of the business affairs of the asylum capable, painstaking and honest.”
Felts did a number of things after stepping down from asylum management. He had a contract to transport mail; he took receivership of a Columbia City store, sold real estate and in 1914 ran for Wayne Township trustee. (He did not win.) He died in 1940.
The End of Poor Farms
Poor asylums began to close their doors in the 1930s after the onset of Social Security. From 1930 to 1955 there was a 50 percent decline in the poor house population nationwide. It was a bit slower process in Indiana. By 1953 ten counties closed their homes. There were different facilities for the “feeble-minded,” for the mentally ill, and for unwed mothers. There was different assistance for the poor that could keep a family together in its own home. The elderly were admitted to nursing homes.
Many of the nineteenth century buildings were beautiful, built in Greek Revival and Italianate style. As they were vacated, counties struggled to repurpose them. By 2014, only 47 of Indiana’s 92 asylums remained, and Indiana Landmarks added them to their Most Endangered List.
The scope of this article was not what the experience was like for residents, though inferences can certainly be made. Anne Sullivan, remembered today as the “Miracle Worker” who taught Helen Keller, spent part of her childhood in the Tewksbury Almshouse in Massachusetts. A notorious facility, Anne called it “a crime against childhood.” She wrote as an adult, “I doubt if life, or eternity, for that matter, is long enough to erase the errors and ugly blots scored upon my brain by those dismal years.”
It was common for baby boomers to hear jokes about the poor house from their parents, who were born in the 1920s and ‘30s. “Turn out those lights or we’re going to wind up in the poor house!” was a typical remark. Surely they heard the same from their parents when they were seemingly wasteful. Behind the jokes was fear.
It was an era that mercifully ended.
Sources:
Helm, Thomas B. History of Allen County With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Chicago: Kingman Brothers, 1880.
Schmidt, Caroline I. “Canawlers At Rest - Ulerick Saylor, Sr.,” The Hoosier Packet, August 2013, https://indcanal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Vol12Num8.pdf
Newspapers:
“County Asylum,” Dawson’s Fort Wayne Daily Times, 7 July 1860, p. 2.
“The Poor Farm Disposed Of,” Dawson’s Fort Wayne Daily Times, 10 Feb 1862, p. 3.
“Laying of the Cornerstone,” Dawson’s Fort Wayne Daily Times, 13 July 1864, p. 3.
“Commissioners Court,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 7 Sept 1864, p. 2.
“Allen County Poor House,” Dawson’s Fort Wayne Daily Times, 17 Sept 1860, p. 2.
“County Commissioners,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 23 Sept 1868, p. 4.
Marion County Poor Asylum and 18,000 insane: Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 6 Jan 1869, p. 1.
“Charities and Reform. First Report of State Board. Statistics of Crime and Pauperism.” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), 29 Jan 1872, p. 2.
“Superintendent of the County Charged With Fraud,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 8 Sept 1874, p. 1.
Spice On Trial: Fort Wayne Sentinel, 23 Sept 1874, p. 4.
“The County Asylum. Mr. Spice Explains,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 4 Nov 1874, p. 4.
“Our Grangers,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 21 Oct 1875, p. 4.
“The Poor House Question,” The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), 18 Feb 1878. p. 4.
Blazing Hot. A Great City Blistering Under a Tropical Heat. How the Work-House Prisoners Are Exposed to Sunstroke,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 June 1878, p. 3.
“The Poor Farm. A Reportorial Visit to the New Building,” The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), 10 Sept 1878, p. 4.
Visit to Poor House: Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 22 Nov 1879, p. 4.
“Spice Salted! Grand Jury, After a Week of Investigation, Report Against Him. Find Him Guilty of Cruelty, Inhumanity and Brutality,” Fort Wayne Daily News, 11 January 1880, p. 1.
“Spice Stays. Conclusion of County Asylum Investigation,” Fort Wayne Daily News, 29 Jan 1880, p. 2.
“Business! An Opportunity Now Offered For the Sentinel to “Put Up Or Shut Up.” A Card From John Spice,” Fort Wayne Daily News, 25 Feb 1880, p. 1.
The Poor Farm. What the County Commissioners Thought of It,” Fort Wayne Daily News, 31 Mar 1880, p. 2.
“The New Poor-Farm Superintendent,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 23 July 1880, p. 4.
Removing Chronics: Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, 16 Feb 1881, p. 9.
Grand Jury Member James Sheridan, Fort Wayne Daily News, 23 April 1881, p. 1.
“Nearly a Tragedy. John Wilkinson Attempts To Shoot Col. W.T. Royse,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 12 Nov 1881, p. 4.
“An Hour With the Insane. The Mad Sights Seen Among the Unfortunates at the County Asylum,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 7 July 1882, p. 6.
“Complementary To John. “Our Best” Superintendent of the Poor Farm Again Commended For Excellent Management,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 13 Nov 1882, p. 1.
“Taffy For John,” Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, 9 May 1883, p. 3.
Comparing Other County Poor Asylums: Fort Wayne Sentinel, 3 Feb 1883, p. 3.
“Needs Investigating,” Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 17 June 1888, p. 8.
“Not Now. The County Commissioners Will Not Erect an Additional Building at the Asylum at Present,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 6 Sept 1889, p. 2.
“The First Step. The County Commissioners Locate the Site For the Addition to the County Asylum Today,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 12 Sept 1889, p. 1.
“Among the Paupers. A Sentinel Reporter Visits the County Infirmary and Mingles With the Inmates,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 7 May 1890, p. 2.
“Our Insane. A Crowded County Asylum With the Prospect of But Little Relief From the Richmond Institution,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 6 Aug 1890, p. 3.
“Among Our Paupers,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 18 May 1892, p. 1.
“Herman W. Felts to Succeed John Wilkinson as Head of County Infirmary,” Fort Wayne Weekly Journal, 22 Dec 1892, p. 1.
“Our County Farm. The Commissioners Have Selected an Able Manager,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 9 Aug 1893, p. 1.
“Felts To Resign” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 16 Nov 1900, p. 5.
“John Wilkinson, An Old-Line Democrat and His Candidacy For Coroner,” The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 6 March 1901, p. 2.
Herman Felts Is Out For Trustee,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 14 March 1914, p. 5.
“Schulte Students Resume Campaign to Help Residents of Poor Farm,” The Terre Haute Tribune, 10 May 1956, p. 6.
“County Commissioners Vote To Phase Out County Poor Farm,” Jackson County Banner (Seymour, Indiana), 6 Oct 1971, p. 1.
Copyright by Andrea Auclair © 2024
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