Ramsey County History – Summer 2000: “A Roof Over their Heads: The Ramsey County ‘Poor Farm'”

A Roof Over Their Heads: The Ramsey County ‘Poor Farm’
Author: Pete Boulay

In less than a year after Minnesota became a territory, Ramsey County hired its first overseer of the poor, the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, James Goodhue. The “poor farm” under his authority had several locations for the ensuing thirty years, with its final site being land in today’s inner-ring suburb of Maplewood. At the Poor Farm, there were separate residential rooms for men and women. The farm, mostly devoted to dairy operations, was expected to be self-sufficient, even a money-maker for the county. The 1950s boom of suburbia around the farm resulted in the conversion of the property to sports activities, with the home itself becoming the Ramsey County Nursing Home.

PDF of Boulay article