Elk County Poor Farm

[W. Gray]

I would like to remind or tell everyone if they are not aware that Shirley Sweet of Grenola put out a call in the Flint Hills Express issue before last for information on the Elk County Poor Farm.

Shirley is in charge of the Grenola Historical Society, which runs the Grain Elevator Museum, of which I am a member.

Membership in the society costs $10 lifetime and a newsletter is mailed once a year.

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Grenola/museum.html

As everyone probably knows, the poor farm was an early stab at "welfare" that started sometime after the second courthouse was constructed in 1886 and ended in 1957 or 1977, I forget.

Sheriff Burchfield traded his farm to Elk County in exchange for the first Elk County courthouse on Wabash Street in the area of the cabinet shop where he set up a hardware.

If anyone has anything, I am sure Shirley would appreciate the information. The Grenola Historical Society address is at the above web site.

I suspect part of any effort to tell the story of the poor farm would involve an issue by issue review of the Courant, Citizen, and Courant-Citizen from 1886 on but that would be an extraordinary and lengthy effort.

[Marcia Moore]

Waldo -
   Where, exactly, was the first Elk County Courthouse / Burchfield building located?  Is this the same building that burned to the ground in 1896?

[Marcia Moore]

Never mind.  I just found out.  It was located just south of the present Senior Citizens building.

[W. Gray]

The outer walls were stone, but it was one of the buildings that burned in that 1896 fire. The other building was the next door Welbourn House hotel, constructed entirely of wood.