The Forgotten Souls of the County Poor Farm
A rare, unflinching account of the grim conditions inside Seattle’s makeshift county asylum, where the elderly and infirm were left to languish on hard wooden planks.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The King County poor farm, located outside the city, was originally intended for the aged and infirm, but was subsequently altered by the influx of paupers so that it is essentially an asylum. On the day of our visit, as we were informed by the superintendent, there were 41 people in the building. Of these, there were 25 men and 16 women. They were all in a condition of decay from old age or wasting disease, and many were suffering from the most disgusting filth. The building itself is a long, low, frame structure, about 80 feet in length by 20 feet wide. It is one story high, made of hewn logs and covered with dirty white cloth. The living rooms were small and filled with dust and foul odors. The floor was rough and uneven, and covered with filth. There were no chairs, the only furniture being the wooden bunks which lined the sides of the rooms, each about two feet from the floor. Each held a longitudinal slat of wood. The inmates had no straw, no mattresses, and no bedding except for the clothes they were wearing. These poor, suffering people were forced to lie on the hard planks, with only the thin coating of dust to serve as their couch.
“They were all in a condition of decay from old age or wasting disease, and many were suffering from the most disgusting filth.”
This 1889 report on the King County poor farm exposes the brutal reality behind the 'pioneer spirit' often romanticized in Washington history. While Seattle today grapples with modern homelessness and the failure of social safety nets, this account serves as a haunting reminder that the struggle to provide humane care for the most vulnerable has been a recurring crisis in the city since its earliest days.
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