Site of Wise County Poor Farm & Cemetery
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Operated 1885-1962 to support and employ dependent or needy citizens and as place for county convicts to work out fines. First superintendent of the 320-acre farm, R. Suffert, managed all land and activities and his wife cooked, washed, and sewed for both inmates and guards. Of inmates buried in the now-leveled cemetery at bend of Center Creek, only names known are Steve Abbey, Sarah McCain, Jim Wilson, Jim M. Goodner, Bill Hodge; Rankin, Owens (surnames); Della, Edna, Ike, and Mariah. In 1969 county sold buildings and 12 acres of farm at auction. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From 1885 to 1962, Wise County ran a 320-acre poor farm here to shelter and put to work its dependent and needy citizens, while county convicts labored off their fines on the same land. Its first superintendent managed the farm as his wife cooked, washed, and sewed for inmates and guards alike. The now-leveled cemetery at a bend of Center Creek held the poorest of the poor, most of them remembered by only a first name or none at all.
Why it matters
County poor farms were the frontline of American public welfare before the New Deal, and this one preserves the memory of the anonymous indigent whose hard lives usually vanished from the record entirely.
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Nearby & related markers
Wise County Reunion
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Confederate veterans and Wise County pioneers gathered for an 1881 reunion at Cold Springs, timed to the anniversary of Captain George Stevens' 1874 victory over raiding Indians; some 5,000 people came. Settling into its present grounds by 1896, the gathering grew to a multi-day festival of speeches, rodeos, and sham battles drawing crowds of 12,000. Sponsored by the Old Settlers Association, it endures as the oldest recurring public event in the county.
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