Scope and Content: In Massachusetts, the Division of Aid and Relief (Dept. of Public Welfare) received weekly returns from institutions under its total or partial jurisdiction. Among these was the State Farm at Bridgewater, the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. –Although in 1919 the Dept. of Correction became responsible for the State Farm as a whole, the Dept. of Public Welfare, through its Division of Aid and Relief, was responsible for the remaining pauper admissions to the State Farm, largely those admitted to its hospital (Infirmary Dept.) for medical care. The division’s settlements unit remained in charge of investigating settlements (through 1950) of those paupers admitted to the State Farm. The division’s institutional unit had the State Farm Infirmary Dept. under its jurisdiction, and was charged with the admission and dismissal of pauper department. inmates. Although Dept. of Public Welfare charges were generally sent to the State Infirmary at Tewksbury (later Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary), St 1921, c 486, s 28 allowed the department to transfer paupers from one state charitable institution to another, including to the State Farm for those whose labor could contribute to the cost of their support, or in an emergency. From 1930 onward, the Infirmary Dept. inmates admitted from the cities and towns were gradually discharged, with all thereafter sent to the State Infirmary, with the last one dying at the State Farm in 1939. Thereafter the department only oversaw care at the infirmary for those male indigents not chargeable to any city or town, generally those released from the State Farm Prison Dept.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Volume for 1938 lacking. Formerly classed under (M-Ar)HS9.10: Massachusetts. State Farm
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