Michigan County Poor Farms

The Rochester Hills Public Library presents “Michigan County Poor Farms” with Library of Michigan’s Adam Oster

Michigan County Poor Farms

The Rochester Hills Public Library will host, “Michigan County Poor Farms” with Adam Oster, Community Engagement librarian at the Library of Michigan, on Tuesday, February 11, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the library’s Multipurpose Room.

Long before the advent of modern social welfare, county governments in Michigan maintained poorhouses or poor farms. Oster will discuss the early history of these facilities and their attempts to become both self-sustaining entities and refuges for a county’s poor, elderly, and destitute. Oster will share the stories of those that resided at these poor farms and discuss how they transitioned to facilities to serve individuals with chronic illnesses and what led to the closure of many poor farms in the late twentieth century.

Registration is required for this program and open to library cardholders.