Kaufman County Indigent Cemetery
Kaufman, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground is part of 600 acres purchased for use as a poor farm operated by Kaufman County beginning in 1883. It is the final resting place for some of Kaufman County's citizens who were poor farm residents, county jail inmates, paupers, transients and other indigents. It is believed that anonymous victims of an 1871 Typhoid Fever epidemic were the first to be interred at this site, but the earliest marked grave is that of poor farm inmate George McCorkin, who died the year it opened. Though many graves remain unmarked, the cemetery is a place of final dignity for those whose names remain among those now forgotten. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground is part of a 600-acre poor farm that Kaufman County opened in 1883 to care for its indigent residents. It became the final resting place for poor-farm residents, jail inmates, transients, and paupers, and may first have received anonymous victims of an 1871 typhoid epidemic. Though most graves are unmarked, the earliest identified belongs to a poor-farm inmate who died the year the farm opened.
Why it matters
County poor farms were once the frontline of American social welfare, and this cemetery restores a measure of dignity to the forgotten people they served.
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Related people
- · George McCorkin
Related events
- · Typhoid epidemic (1871)
Themes & tags
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