Monday, October 19, 2009 10:21 PM CDT
Coles County Poor Farm: Local resident recalls memories of living there during her childhood
By Bonnie Clark, Features Writer
While little information is available on the former Coles County Poor Farm near Ashmore, one Charleston woman has an advantage over most researchers: she remembers living there.
Nancy Swinford recalls residing at the facility when her father, Leo Roy “Bill” Andrews, was superintendent of the County Farm — Poor Farm, or Almshouse, as it was sometimes called — and her mother (Lura) was matron during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
“I believe my dad was there a good eight years,” she said. “It’s where I learned there was no Santa Claus.”
Swinford remembers climbing on a chair in her dad’s office and spying a Mickey Mouse watch that was hidden in the days before Christmas.
“Every day until Christmas I went in there, pulled up that chair, and wound my watch,” she said.
Residents at the house had long before learned there was no Santa.
“They were all older people, some maybe in their 40s and 50s,” she said, “but they were all old to me.”
Swinford said she and a younger sister were the only children there while her father was superintendent. “The old folks liked having us around,” she said.
“The people who lived there were paupers. Most of them had no family and no home. We were their family.”
Although not a farm, according to early county records, there was a small building at the Coles County Fairgrounds in the early 1800s that housed indigent people, said local historian Nancy Shick.
“It was more a hut, really,” she said. “It was also used for people who were put under quarantine because of illness.
“I think they tore it down when they built the first county poor farm.”
It was located on about 100 acres near Farmington and was purchased in 1855 from George Halbrook. It was eventually condemned and the current building on the farm located between Charleston and Ashmore was built in 1916.
“The whole place was beautiful,” Swinford said, “especially in the summertime, with its big maple trees.
“And the house was grand. The brick building had all terrazzo and marble flooring and stairs, and everything was as clean as it could be.
“It certainly did a lot of people a lot of good,” she said. “They were warm and had good food on the table. And, they loved working and earning their keep. They weren’t moochers.”
Imogene McClanahan of Charleston, whose late husband, Jack, was employed by Andrews for about a year in about 1968, called the farm a showplace.
“It was beautiful,” she said, “Those guys kept the place immaculate. The people who lived there worked hard, and many of them were very talented.”
McClanahan spoke of one man who wanted to spend his winters there.
“Every winter he’d do something illegal — just a little something,” she said. “And, instead of sending him to jail, they’d send him to the poor farm. He worked hard while he was there, but he liked it.”
Swinford said there were two cemeteries, one north of the brick building she could see from her bedroom window. “There were probably not more than six grave markers,” she said.
The other cemetery, south across Illinois Route 16, still exists. Although the actual number of people buried there is unknown, it is estimated that more than 100 burials took place there.
The farm was entirely self-supporting, the women said.
“They mostly grew their own food, did their own butchering, and smoked the meat,” Swinford said. “They smoked their own bacon and hams in the smoke house, they killed and dressed all their own chickens, and made their own butter.”
The residents also milked the cows, did all the farming and mowing, she said.
As matron, Swinford’s mother oversaw all the cooking, food preservation and laundry.
“They’d set up three or four big iron kettles outside and light a fire under them,” Swinford said. “They they’d cook tomatoes from the big garden and take them down to the kitchen and can them.
The kitchen was in the basement of the three-story building, as was a barbershop, where the superintendent presided over the haircuts.
During the winter months, the Andrews family lived in half of the second floor, Swinford said. “The two-story house east of the brick building was for the superintendent, but it didn’t have a proper furnace so we only lived there in the summer.”
Swinford said the house was moved to a lot across from the park in Ashmore and now serves as an apartment house.
In the brick house the women tenants only had the first floor she said. “They had one of two porches; they had their own porch and the men had a porch. They also had separate dining rooms.”
The Coles County Poor Farm was closed in 1979 due to building safety code violations and the fact that other forms of public welfare were available.
The building later housed developmentally disabled adults prior to closing in 1987 because of health violations. It was called Ashmore Estates.
“When it became Ashmore Estates, a lot of the marble floors were covered up with tile and they also installed drop ceilings,” Swinford said.
After sitting empty for a number of years, the property was purchased in 2006 by Scott and Tanya Kelley, who use the building to host haunted house tours and other spooky events.
Swinford would like to connect with people who may have memories of the building when it was used for its original purpose. She can be reached by calling 345-0437.
“It’s sad to see something that was so nice in its day be so totally destroyed.
“So many people are gone now,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t get my tape recorder out when my dad was alive and record his memories, but we never do that, do we?
“It’s my history,” she said. “I caught the bus there to go to school in Ashmore, learned to ride my bicycle, we got our first television there...
“I don’t remember a lot of my childhood, but the time we lived at the County Farm is so embedded in my mind that I think of it often, especially when I’m driving down the highway toward Ashmore.”
Contact Bonnie Clark at bclark@jg-tc.com or 238-6847.
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