Autumn has arrived. I venture this day to a place in the forest to the north of my town. Walking a distance along a wooded trail, I am shrouded in colorful foliage and a slight late afternoon breeze. Nature speaks to me as I walk in solitude. I feel somewhat comforted to find my surroundings to be peaceful for I venture toward hallowed ground.
It is this day I walk about the town of Boscawen in search of the past. Seeking something that once was but no longer is. I have travelled north of Concord to a place that was once known as the Merrimack County Almshouse. But people never really called it the Almshouse, people have always call this place the Poor Farm.
When I was a younger gentleman, I recall hearing short tales about a place called the Poor Farm. I never gave the term much thought, assuming it was just a place where people lived if they were not fortunate. I continued on with my life, but those thoughts sometimes have a way of creeping back when they are least expected.
It was late one evening several weeks ago when those thoughts returned to me. I visited my office and started to engage in some light research to see what the Poor Farm represented. Yes, there were some questions that needed to be answered, so I decided to visit Boscawen in the 1800s.
During the 1840s our ancestors were faced with a dilemma. There were many people living in society in need of extra care which did not exist during this earlier time. People living with mental illness had very limited options and in most cases were simply taken care of by members of the family. The families dealt with the individual situations, people in need of specialized care did not receive the care they needed. Families would provide a place to live to the mentally ill, food and clothing too. Sometimes they provided love and compassion but sometimes they did not.
The State of New Hampshire addressed these concerns and decided to establish places where the families housing people with many forms of mental illness could be guided. As a result of this decision in the 1840s, the next decades found establishments created for those in need. The New Hampshire Asylum opened in Concord during the 1840s and there were more places established both locally and throughout the entire state. It was during this period after the New Hampshire State Asylum was created that Merrimack County opened the Almshouse in Boscawen in 1865. The initial opening deemed the property a county farm. The Merrimack County Almshouse opened in 1871 and welcomed patients into distinct categories; Elderly, Mentally Ill, Poor and the Convicted.
The Merrimack County establishment in Boscawen was situated near the current day Merrimack County Nursing Home. People were soon referring to the establishment as the “County Poor Farm.” The effort by the county was both needed and appreciated by many. This was a structured and organized approach to managing mental health for residents of Merrimack County. This establishment for residents in need. With the county farm established in 1865, the system was in place to allow for self-sustaining care for the most part with Merrimack County budgeting and providing additional funds where and when they were needed.
In theory, this was a tool that was utilized and many did benefit from the lives they lived at the Poor Farm. There were issues, when you have a mixed population that included people of advanced age, mentally challenged individuals, some criminals and the poor the challenges were expected and managed. The elderly were housed in separate quarters of the main building on the upper floors while those with mental health concerns were housed across the road. The poor were housed in the same building as the elderly and expected to assist when needed with helping the other patients. Everyone capable was expected to work on the farm producing food for those living at the Almshouse.
With the poor being introduced to the Almshouse, the establishment saw some changes that were quickly managed. A poor person might be elderly; they might be mentally challenged or they might not be able to function in society and arrived with a criminal record. The arriving residents had to be quickly vetted to establish the proper location for their living quarters. Sometimes this worked well, other times it did not work at all. If you were living in Merrimack County and did not have family to care for you after you were injured, you might require a short-term visit to the county farm.
It was my great uncle that immigrated from Ireland with my great grandfather that was placed in this situation. My great grandfather’s brother was named James Spain. His son was also named James Spain. Young James was working on Rattlesnake Hill at the quarries when he suffered a terrible injury, fracturing his skull and never regaining consciousness. Unmarried and without children, only 30 years of age, he was transferred from the hospital in Concord to the Merrimack Almshouse for care. He passed away weeks later and his body was returned to Concord where he is buried today with his father. As a relative, as a person with the same name, I do hope he received quality care and kindness at the Merrimack County Almshouse in Boscawen during his final days.
These are my thoughts as I continue to walk the trail into the forest to visit the former residents of the Poor Farm. The setting sun is now casting shadows behind the gravestones located in the county cemetery in Boscawen. I am somewhat moved to see the vast number of old gravestones dating back to the 1860s. Stones that are now weathered and tilted and some broken. Many of the residents were not able to provide details about their lives as they lived their last days on the Poor Farm.
Their gravestones are engraved with their names and dates of death. Fewer letters engraved in the common stones meant the cost of the process was not as expensive. This continued for a number of years; names and death dates. Then the names and death dates were no longer engraved. Numbers replaced the names. Sometimes both the names and numbers were absent and a single word is engraved to depict the deceased buried beneath.
I walked from gravestone to gravestone all alone and in silence. Saying the names aloud, perhaps a name that has not been spoken for well over a century. Toward the end of one middle row of old gravestones, I found one stone to be particularly sad. The word “WAIF” is engraved on the face of the gravestone. Beneath there are a few words that brought heartache. WAIF was just a young infant buried at the county cemetery. She was so young that she did not have a name. She left this world as she arrived without a name. I felt sadness for WAIF. I prayed and thought about her. This sweet innocent child sleeping eternally.
During my research, I found the location of the Merrimack County Poor Farm Cemetery was most unfavorable. Before the Army Corp of Engineers built dams to the north to control flooding this cemetery was often under the water of the bordering river. There are over 300 souls buried here in Boscawen, challenged in life they now rest eternally.
My research also provided me with an understanding of those buried here in the forest at
Boscawen. There are people that were certainly unfortunate. Some are somewhat anonymous while others were accomplished in their respective lives. There is a doctor, multiple veterans of multiple wars too. There was a gentleman that was a well-known botanist. He was kind and considerate and preferred to spend time planting and nourishing his bountiful flower gardens. I will return next spring prior to Memorial Day to plant a flower at his gravestone. A colorful flower with a prayer for the old gentleman, for he was kind.