The County Farm That Feeds the Poor—and Buries Its Unknown Dead

The county farm, situated on the Duwamish river, some four miles south of the city's center, is at present an interesting sight, with its nearly one hundred acres of rich alluvial soil all under cultivation and about ready to yield one of the richest crops of fruit, vegetables and cereals ever raised in King county within the same acreage. The new county hospital, with its unequalled appointments, supplies much of the labor for the farm, and every patient, whenever fit to do so, is compelled to contribute his quota of labor to the development of the farm, if only for one hour a day, and the result is that the county hospital and farm come pretty near being self-sustaining, as shown by the books of the institution and the reports in the county commissioners' offices, and it is safe to say that a continuance of the same care and management that now prevail will see the institution entirely self-sustaining within a year or so.

Mr. Parkhurst, superintendent of the farm, has accomplished wonders during the short time of his rule. He found the best part of the farm in a most deplorable condition. The so-called lowlands, a peninsula surrounded by the Duwamish, were flooded every year until they were nothing but mud flats. These Mr. Parkhurst diked, cleared and ditched, and a great part of them is now planted in oats and the rest furnishes good pasture for the cattle. To Mrs. Parkhurst is much of the credit of the successful management of the farm house and the dairy, the more so as she receives no compensation for her extra labors. Then there are A. L. Nailor, the farmer, and R. Johnson, the milkman, both with hard work and small salaries, besides others who have worked hard and steadily for many years for merely their board.

The old hospital building, now used to lodge the men who work on the farm, is in the center of the farm under cultivation, and is in charge of A. W. Parkhurst. A fine crop of hay will be ready for cutting July 1. About fifteen acres of rye is now ready for cutting. Twenty-five acres were recently sown to oats, seven acres are planted in peas for cattle, and are well advanced. There are some sixteen acres in potatoes that have furnished such an abundance that hundreds of bushels have been given for seed to the people working vacant lots on the Pingree plan. The new crop will be ready this month. Beside these, there are many varieties of vegetables growing, including small fruit and berries. The old orchard promises a big yield in apples, pears, plums and peaches, principally apples. Seventy-five new fruit trees set out around the old building will begin to bear this year. The new building has about six acres of ground surrounding it in close cultivation. This is in charge of A. A. Osborn, who is rapidly increasing the acreage and raising all and more of the vegetables that can possibly be used in the new hospital. This embraces peas, beans, potatoes, corn, lettuce, radishes, spinach, beets, onions, including raspberries and strawberries.

The stock farm is another interesting and productive feature of the place around the old buildings. Fifteen cows furnish all milk and butter used for the seventy-five patients and employees of the institution, and leaves a surplus for the market. The herd contains several heifers and a bull. The pasture and several of the cows are registered, and it is the expectation of the commissioners to have a complete registered herd. There are five horses used for farming and hauling produce to town. A drove of fat hogs, calves and various properties furnish meat that can be used there, and the pigs are smoked and cured on the premises. About 100 chickens furnish all the eggs and poultry for the patients, and this brood is made to increase every year.

About twenty of the patients are utilized in and about the hospital to help keep the farm in order, and about five men live there permanently. None of these are paid, except the superintendent, Parkhurst and Osborn, and their head man Nailor. In fact, the only paid employes are Dr. Wright, the physician, the housekeeper, the cook, one female and two male nurses.

The new cemetery, or potter's field, opened about two years ago, lies on the extreme south end of the farm. This already contains about 100 bodies. The remains of strangers, of friends, and of parties whose remains were overlooked by the coroner and ordered buried, have also been buried at the expense of the county. Many a poor unfortunate whose unpretentious tomb was covered up by the neglect of friends is buried with the single inscription "Unknown" marking the last place. A particularly large number of small graves of babies exists here—children of mothers too poor to have graves of their own—and a large share of the graves are of that army of poverty's loved ones, marking a history of as trying circumstances as could be told.

The old cemetery, which has given up one acre of seven, near the new cemetery, is also used. If non-residents give up their bodies, not all paupers formerly, and up to within a few years it was the hospital's potter's field. Many patients have died at the institution during twenty years past, and this field has received them.

The new hospital, fifteen rods square, is a model of neatness and perfection for the patients accommodated. Its reputation as such has gone abroad as far south as San Francisco. Every visitor in Seattle makes it a point to pay it a visit, and the general verdict, after having been over the place by Dr. Wright, is that the institution exceeds their most vivid expectations, and that the King county farm and hospital are the most complete and best on the Pacific coast.