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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Seventh Biennial Report of the
Board of State Commissioners of
Public Charities of the
State of Illinois
Presented to the Governor, November 1882


         
         [p. 252]
         
         JoDAVIESS. - We are glad to report that the almshouse
       is as clean as it is possible for an almshouse to be.
       The floors are white with repeated scrubbing; the beds
       and bedding are excellent, and the house is neatly kept
       throughout. It is needless to say that the inmates are
       well fed and kindly treated. The grounds on the outside
       are as nature left them, with grassy lawn and forest
       trees, and the view from the farm is captivating. The
       new insane department has been completed and presents
       a good appearance. There are facilities for bathing on
       each floor, water being supplied from a tank in the
       attic, which is filled by a force-pump. The rooms occu-
       oied by the insane are clean. The insane are occasionally
       taken out for exercise, but the policy of seclusion still
       prevails, though the keeper states that the county intends
       to erect airing-courts. Of the forty-seven pauper inmates,
       one was an illegitimate child, thirteen insane, one an
       idiot, one a deaf-mute, three blind, two sick, two bed-
       ridden and six cripples. Of the thirteen insane, seven
       were in seclusion. The number of paupers admitted in 1881
       was thirty; the number discharged twenty-two; and there
       were seven deaths. The annual cost of maintenance was
       about forty-six hundred dollars, and the amount granted
       for outdoor relief about eleven hundred and fifty; a
       proportion which indicates good management of the pauper
       business of the county.
       
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