Montague County Poor Farm
Montague, Montague County, Texas
Marker Inscription
MONTAGUE COUNTY POOR FARM ON MARCH 15, 1888, MONTAGUE COUNTY JUDGE GRIFFIN FORD OVERSAW THE PURCHASE OF A PLOT OF LAND ABOUT ONE MILE EAST OF THE TOWN OF MONTAGUE TO BE USED AS THE COUNTY’S POOR FARM. THE LAND WAS RENTED FOR THREE DOLLARS AN ACRE WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE RENTER COULD KEEP ABLE-BODIED NEEDY AS FARMHANDS. J. M. MARTIN WON THE FIRST BID, ACCEPTING $10.40 PER PERSON PER MONTH TO BE THE FARM’S FIRST OPERATOR. MARTIN WOULD FURNISH FOOD, BEDDING, CLOTHING, MEDICAL EXPENSES AND THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH BURIALS. THE 1887-88 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE’S AGRICULTURAL BUREAU LISTED 16 PAUPERS BEING HOUSED AT THE MONTAGUE COUNTY POOR FARM. THE FARM WAS MOVED IN 1899 TO 320 ACRES WEST OF MONTAGUE. A NINE ROOM “BIG HOUSE” WAS BUILT FOR A RESIDENCE AND A NEW WATER WELL WAS DUG. WITH THE LARGER LOCATION AND HOUSING, THE 1900 U.S. CENSUS LISTED 21 INDIGENTS LIVING AT THE POOR FARM. IN NOVEMBER OF 1934, THE COMMISSIONERS COURT ALLOWED THE BROCK FAMILY TO MOVE THEIR HOUSE TO THE POOR FARM, LEAVING THEIR HOME TO BE COUNTY PROPERTY. THIS WOULD BE THE THIRD DWELLING USED AT THE POOR FARM. LAND WAS ALSO RENTED OUT TO FARMERS WHO WISHED TO PLANT CROPS THERE AND THE COUNTY SOLD ITS CATTLE HERD. IN 1935, THE FEDERAL WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA) ESTABLISHED A PROJECT TO PRODUCE GARMENTS FOR FAMILIES IN NEED. MONTAGUE COUNTY AND TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY CAME TO AN AGREEMENT IN 1938 TO LEASE 56 ACRES FOR THE GRAPE EXPERIMENT AND HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH STATION IN MONTAGUE. DECEMBER 1939 SAW THE END OF THE COUNTY’S POOR FARM. THROUGH THIS SIGNIFICANT INSTITUTION, MONTAGUE COUNTY MET THE NEEDS OF ITS DISADVANTAGED CITIZENS FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1888 Montague County established a poor farm east of town, renting land to an operator who housed and fed the needy in exchange for their labor; its first year listed sixteen paupers. Moved to a larger tract in 1899, it grew a "big house" for residents and, by the 1930s, hosted a WPA garment project and a Texas A&M horticultural research station. The county closed the institution in December 1939 after more than fifty years of caring for its poor.
Why it matters
The poor farm records how rural American counties met the needs of their destitute before the modern welfare state, and how New Deal programs reshaped that care.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Griffin Ford
- · J. M. Martin
Related events
- · Works Progress Administration garment project
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
1927 Montague County Jail
Montague, TX
Erected in 1927 by the Southern Prison Company of San Antonio, this was the third building to serve as the Montague County Jail. It combined function and domestic life in one structure: living quarters for the jailer and his family on the first floor and six cells above. Serving until 1980, its entry portico, stone cornice, and cast-stone details reflect the civic architecture of small-town Texas in the 1920s.
First National Bank of Bowie
Bowie, TX
Chartered on March 10, 1890, the First National Bank of Bowie was the oldest financial institution in Montague County, opening eight years after the town itself sprang up along the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway. Starting with $50,000 in capital, it weathered hard times to become the town's only surviving bank by 1931. For more than a century it backed local charities and offered a gathering place for community groups.
M. Johnson Poultry Ranch
Bowie, TX
A baby chick given to three-year-old Mose Johnson to teach responsibility grew into a lifelong passion. In 1905 he and his wife Mabel started the M. Johnson Poultry Ranch with five white leghorn hens and a rooster; by 1915 a large incubator shipped day-old chicks internationally and the ranch spanned 350 acres, among the largest of its kind. Their 1924 home was billed as "the house that white leghorns built," and the business ran until 1974.
Farmers and Merchants National Bank
Nocona, TX
Founded in 1905 with $30,000 in capital stock, the Farmers and Merchants National Bank is the oldest financial institution operating continuously in Nocona. Its first president, W.A. McCall, was succeeded on his death by his son Cadmus, who guided the bank for thirty-eight years, and in 1926 the business moved from a corner store to its own building. Through it all the bank remained woven into the civic life of the small Montague County town.