By: Bob Gunter
Pat Gooby has lived in Sandpoint all his life
and as a child did chores at the old County Poor
Farm. I asked Pat to tell me a story about the
farm and here is his story. Due to lack of space
some editing was necessary.
My
understanding about what happened, and it is my
understanding of what I was told, was the Hunt
family had a brickyard south of the County Poor
Farm. The holes are still in the ground where
they dug the clay. Mr. Hunt built a two-story
home for himself that was approximately the
eastern third of the old Poor Farm. When he
built his home he started out about three feet
in the ground with his foundation and he used
bricks for a foundation. Back then they used a
lot of lime in their mortar which over time
weakens the mortar. The Great Northern, which
was a railroad here at that time, was a fast
track. Over the course of time with the
vibration of the railroad the bricks and the
mortar began to separate and disintegrate. The
part the county added to the home and the
original Hunt residence was separating from the
rest of the building. It is also my
understanding that the Hunt family lost the home
to the county for taxes. Whether that is fact or
not, I am not sure.
There is a sad story about something that
happened while the Hunts were there. They had
been having problems with coyote's trying to get
their chickens. One night they heard a noise and
Clarence, a son, went out back without his
father's knowledge. Mr. Hunt got his shotgun and
went to check on the chickens. He saw a movement
and not being able to see he shot his son in the
face. It did not kill him but he had very poor
eyesight for the rest of his life. I was told
that Mr. Hunt never got over the accident.
At
that particular time it was estimated that the
City of Sandpoint was going to be located out in
the general area of the Poor Farm and away from
the eastern side of Sand Creek. When the county
acquired the Hunt property it was their desire
to have a County Hospital and with brick left
over from the Hunt factory they went ahead and
added the two-thirds of the western part of the
old County Poor Farm. There was a swing in
sentiment at the time and they went ahead and
developed Sandpoint as we know it now. It was at
that time that the County converted what was to
be a county hospital into the County Poor Farm.
It was primarily designed to take care of
elderly men and gentlemen who could not take
care of themselves and had no means of support.
This was prior to Social Security and other
programs offering help.
Charlie and Alice Albertson, the caretakers,
lived in the part that had been the Hunt
residence. The county hired them to come in and
take care of the old gentlemen. They would see
that they were fed and that things were done the
way the county wanted them done. It was designed
to be self-sustaining because they raised their
own meat, and their own dairy products, and they
had a large garden. Some of the people who lived
there did what they could to help. The county
not only had the caretakers but they would allow
the caretakers to hire kitchen help and farm
help. Typically these were foster type children
of high school age and they would receive $25 a
month plus room and board.
When
we moved here in 1942 I knew some of the boys
that worked over at the Poor Farm for two or
three years. They later left and my Dad didn't
think us three boys had enough to do hand
milking fifteen cows twice a day and he went
over there and got us the job of doing the
chores at the Poor Farm. So we did the chores
there, my brothers and myself, for ten years. I
ate two meals a day there for almost ten years.
Mrs. Albertson had her meals always on time and
they were good meals. One of my jobs was to cut
wood and keep the wood box filled. I don't
remember ever cutting one stick of wood because
every day there would be a hobo there wanting
something to eat. He would fill the wood box to
pay for his meal. The people who came to the
Poor Farm for help were well taken care of. I
never saw any abuse by anybody. The men who
stayed at the Poor Farm were good people. Some
of them were young and had been hurt on the job
or they couldn't work due to the weather. They
always got good treatment. They were good
neighbors and it worked out well.
We
worked there until the county closed it down and
leased the property to two doctors just prior to
their opening of what was called Sandpoint
Manor. They operated it as their rest home for
about two years and then moved to their new
place. About 1960 the county put the property up
for sale and we as a family purchased the
majority of the County Poor Farm.
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