Putnam County Poor House

Putnam County Poor House
Opened	1894
Closed	1961

History

The Putnam County Poor House was open from 1894-1961. The poor house and farm laid across 150 acres of land located on Country Farm Road. It had barns and buildings that not only housed the inmates, but housed the manager and his family at the time. There was no electricity on the farms, and for water, they had to use a hydraulic ram. Some of the jobs that were done there included wheat thrashing and butchering animals for materials. Eventually a screen room was added by Oakley and Lawrence Chaffin to confine mentally disturbed people. Life in any poor house was not great and people died on the farms and in the poor house. It was common enough that they had homemade coffins and when someone passed, they would take them to the cemetery on the farm and bury them. This land now, has been cultivated and the cemetery no longer is there.

Aside from the structure of the farm, it was controlled by the County Court which was made up of one justice of the peace from each district. The justice of the peace is now known as the County Commissioner. At one point in the history of the poor house, someone named Bill Rippletoe was the manager. During his time there, a little boy showed up at the farm looking to work there. Rippletoe and his wife felt so bad that they ended up adopting the boy. Alvin Palk was another manager, after Rippletoe who left the farm and came back until the early nineteen fifties. Then, the county court decided to close the county home and move the patients into a nursing home. After these patients were moved, Putnam County hired a county health doctor to check out the people that were at the county home and to vaccinate the school children of the county. After the county home finally closed, Willow Avenue Church of Christ leased the property for Happy Haven Home for children.