Residents of the Montgomery County Poor House in 1860

The census of the residents of the Montgomery County Poor House in Glen, New York, was filed June 29, 1860. Unlike in the 1850 poor house census, there are fewer residents with early county surnames, and the residents could be categorized primarily as aged, mentally ill, disabled, and single unemployed males. In reading the order of the residents and their government-assigned "afflictions", I got the impression that as census taker P.H. Fonda moved from room to room, floor to floor, or building to building he saw people grouped accordingly in a precursor of the until- recent "modern" warehouse type of institution. I could imagine a room with the blind sitting packed together or a cramped dwelling with people raving. There was basically a 100% turnover in residents from the previous census, with few single mothers, or poor couples, with large families. The virtual absence of children is significant - they may have been "auctioned" to the lowest bidder to care for them or sent to orphanages. Mr. Fonda appears to have made no effort to find out what residents had formerly done for a living. There are also no U.S. born residents noted as being born outside of New York State.

Mr. P.H. Fonda's handwriting and spelling were relatively easy to interpret and I've made a literal transcription, letter for letter. Where I'm fairly sure he spelled a name incorrectly I've put "sp". Where I'm totally in the dark I've noted so with a "?". I would welcome anyone reading the original census rolls to send in corrections or new interpretations. Poor house records are an often underutilized or unknown resource when looking for people who have "disappeared", and valuable as a reflection of social conditions and attitudes.

RESIDENTS OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY POOR HOUSE - 1860

Name	Age	Occupation	Place of Birth	Status
SCHUYLER, Winslow	59	Keeper County House	New York
SCHUYLER, Catherine	52		New York
SCHUYLER, Renseller (sp)	25	farmer	New York
SCHUYLER, Gordon	22	farmer	New York
LEROY, H.V. (male)	35	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
McCLOUD, H. (male)	40	pauper	New York	pauper
CARY, Arthur	50	pauper	New York	pauper
CRANDALL, H.V. (male)	30	pauper	New York	pauper
HINESMAN, Jacob	55	pauper	New York	pauper
ROBERTS, John C.	40	pauper	England	insane; pauper
SANFORD, James	50	pauper	New York	pauper
HOGG, John	50	pauper	Boveria (sp)	insane; pauper
LEFLER, Alida	36	pauper	New York	pauper
ANGLE, Sophia	35	pauper	New York	pauper
VEDDER, Sarah	70	pauper	New York	cannot read or write; pauper
GILLENS, Margaret	60	pauper	New York	pauper
NEIL, James	30	pauper	New York	idiot; cannot read or write; pauper
SHAY, James	40	pauper	Ireland	insane; pauper; a 25-year-old James Shay was in the poor house in 1850, and not classified as insane
WAGGER, Sarah	70	pauper	New York	cannot read or write; pauper
HOAG, Mahala	60	pauper	New York	idiot; pauper; she was in the 1850 poor house (spelled Nahuley) and classified only as a pauper
MURPHY, Ann	40	pauper	Ireland	cannot read or write; pauper
MURPHY, Marietta	3	pauper	New York	pauper
NAHOFF, Benjamin	75	pauper	New York	pauper
NAHOFF, Thankful	70	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
McDONALD, James	70	pauper	Ireland	cannot read or write; pauper
CARTER, Eli	75	pauper	New York	pauper
MEAD, David	50	pauper	Ireland	blind; cannot read or write; pauper
MEAD, Sarah J.	40	pauper	New York	pauper
STORES, Hugh G.	9	pauper	New York	attended school; pauper
WHITNEY, Angeline	40	pauper	New York	pauper
FARREL (sp), Mary	45	pauper	Ireland	pauper
FARREL, Elisha J.	2	pauper	New York	pauper
McDONNALD, Mathew (sp)	60	pauper	Scotland	pauper
McDONNALD, Josephine	60	pauper	Canada	pauper
HAKER, Bastian	50	pauper	Prussia	pauper
WARREN, Charles	20	pauper	New York	pauper
FARREL (sp) Margaret	12	pauper	New York	attended school; pauper
WILLIAMS, Dennis G.	45	pauper	New York	pauper
FRYER, Isaac B.	60	pauper	New York	pauper
WHEELER, Catherine	62	pauper	New York	pauper
VROMAN, John W.	60	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
KIRK, Henry W.	30	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
HAVENS, Dinah	68	pauper	New York	black; blind; pauper
BEASELY (sp), George	60	pauper	New York	blind; pauper
St. PETER, Peter	75	pauper	Canada	blind; cannot read or write; pauper
ROURK, Thomas	50	pauper	Ireland	blind; cannot read or write; pauper
SMITH, Patrick	28	pauper	Ireland	blind; pauper
DONNELLY, Thomas	52	pauper	Ireland	blind; pauper
WHITNEY, Josiah	65	pauper	New York	blind; pauper
McGRAFFY, Thomas	47	pauper	New York	blind; pauper
McGRAFFY, Charlotte	40	pauper	Ireland	pauper
QUIN (sp), Michel (male)	22	pauper	Ireland	pauper
MULLIN, Margaret	30	pauper	New York	pauper
LEGGET, Anly (female)	75	pauper	New York	black; pauper
WHITE, Anthony	45	pauper	Ireland	pauper
BARREY, Micheal (sp)	20	pauper	Hanover	pauper
HUMBURT, Frederick	55	pauper	New York	pauper
BRADDY, James	55	pauper	New York	pauper
ROSS, Mary	45	pauper	New York	pauper
ROSS, Susan	42	pauper	New York	pauper
STOREY, Mary	55	pauper	Ireland	cannot read or write; pauper
SIXBERRY, Benjamin	92	pauper	New York	blind; pauper; in the 1850 poor house census there was a Benjamin Sixberry, age 66 and idiotic
SIXBERRY, Lany (female)	50	pauper	New York	pauper
SIXBERRY, Adeline	9	pauper	New York	attended school; pauper
TAYLOR, John	60	pauper	Ireland	pauper
AUSBURN, James B.	40	pauper	New York	blind; pauper
LEWIS, Catherine	65	pauper	Ireland	insane; cannot read or write; pauper
TORRY, Eli R.	55	pauper	New York	pauper
DUMP, Jenny	45	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
GREEN, Richard	70	pauper	New York	pauper
RYON (sp), Roger	72	pauper	Ireland	insane; cannot read or write; pauper
CAULKIN, James	45	pauper	New York	pauper
STALY, Samuel	72	pauper	Scotland	pauper
STALY, Ann	70	pauper	Canada	pauper
GOODRICH, Margaret	60	pauper	New York	pauper
PHILLIPS, Margaret	40	pauper	New York	blind; pauper
MUNN, Barney	72	pauper	New York	pauper
DOUGHERTY, Rosa E.	10	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
LEONARDSON, Eliza	45	pauper	New York	pauper
CHAMBERS, John	35	pauper	New York	idiot; pauper
DINGMAN, Hester	73	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
DINGMAN, Mary	40	pauper	New York	pauper
GARLOCK, Elias	84	pauper	New York	pauper
GARLOCK, Elizabeth	80	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
BLESSING, Mary	40	pauper	Canada	pauper
FITZPATRICK, Peirce	71	pauper	Ireland	insane; pauper
CARRHART, Henry	50	pauper	Ireland	pauper
McCADY, Lawrence	58 or 68	pauper	Ireland	insane; pauper
McCADY, Biddy (female)	68	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
ABBY, Eunice	55	pauper	Ireland	cannot read or write; pauper
COLONEL, Jethro	75	pauper	Ireland	cannot read or write; pauper
MYRES (sp), John	60	pauper	Ireland	pauper
SART, Jacob	42	pauper	New York	idiot; pauper
WATSON, William	55	pauper	New York	insane; pauper
DINGMAN, Peter	72	pauper	Ireland	pauper
MAYOR (sp), Abraham W.	40	pauper	Hanover	pauper
CUCK (sp), Peter	62	pauper	Ireland	pauper
JEFFREY, John	9	pauper	New York	pauper

Source: This electronic text was transcribed from original microfilm of the 1860 US census by Martha Magill. Due to the difficulties in transcribing old and stylized handwriting, the original census should be referred to.
Copyright © 1997 Martha Magill

Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this full paragraph remains on all copied material. These electronic pages, with commentary and underlying source code, cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation, nor may this copyrighted original electronic text be used on any other site or CD-ROM.

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