Parker County Poor Farm and Cemetery
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created in 1883, a farm near this site housed the county's indigent citizens. Farm residents and some county convicts worked to grow crops and raise livestock. Although entire families were once housed at the farm, by the 1930s the residents were mostly elderly. Their barracks-style house was moved to Weatherford in the 1940s after the farm was closed. A small cemetery was created here, and contains one legible marker. Additional grave sites have been marked with bricks. The earliest documented burial is from 1904, and the last was in 1937. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1883, the Parker County Poor Farm housed the county's indigent residents, who along with some convicts worked the land to raise crops and livestock. Whole families once lived here, but by the 1930s the residents were mostly elderly, and the barracks-style house was moved to Weatherford after the farm closed in the 1940s. A small cemetery remains, with a single legible stone and other graves marked only by bricks, holding burials from 1904 to 1937.
Why it matters
County poor farms were early America's front-line answer to poverty and old age before modern social welfare, and their cemeteries preserve the memory of the forgotten poor.
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Themes & tags
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