A look back at the local poor

MILLBROOK — For those who think the terms social services, welfare or even “on the dole,” which is a British term,  are all relatively modern, think again. The Millbrook Historical Society has done some research and found a gentleman back in 1788, one Samuel Farr, who was in need of welfare and a social worker. He was poor and in need of assistance while living in Amenia, and the village of Millbrook had helped him quite generously.

The village discovered that Farr originally had come from the town of Washington,  a little ways down the pike, with no papers for resettlement in Amenia. So, the village sent him back to Washington, along with a bill demanding restitution for their care of Mr. Farr. The town of Washington wasn’t sure the claim had any merit, and certainly didn’t want to pay up nor want the physical presence of Farr, who was still needy. The town decided to fight back in court.

Dutchess County Historian Will Tatum, with help from Dutchess County’s Ancient Documents, provided the Millbrook Historical Society with a quaint, often comical account of poor Farr and the two municipalities that didn’t want him, on Saturday, Feb. 22. Even if the story isn’t hair raising, it is by all accounts both historical and just a tad sad. Most have heard the wretched tale of “The Man Without a Country,” but this being Dutchess County, Farr was the man without a town.

Back in those days, even as today, many laws were beholden to the English judicial system, and there was a law governing a system of relief for the poor using tax money. King Henry VIII and Elizabeth the 1st devised a standardized system that allowed for each parish to take care of its own impoverished citizens. Poverty was a challenge then and remains so to this day.

Amenia filed an order for removal of Farr on March 15, 1788. No settlement has been found, but he was removed to Washington and Amenia then asked to be reimbursed for food, lodging and clothing for Farr in the amount of 36 pounds, 2 shillings and 3 pence for his upkeep for the previous year. This was rather a large amount, given that the tax allowance for the all of the poor was about 40 pounds, and of course, Farr wasn’t the only poor man in town. Washington refused to pay up, so it went back to court. After a few back and forth motions, Washington lost; they got Farr, they had to pay Amenia what they owed and presumably they cared for him from that day until his demise.

The remarkable part of the story isn’t about Farr, or the early handling of poverty in America, but in the finding of the tale and the Ancient Documents that present history buffs with so much vital information. Tatum credits Kathy Derringer, keeper of the archives, with discovering a whole cache of papers when she opened an old ledger from the back instead of the front and found records kept by a Mr. Beekman of Mabbettsville. It had all kinds of information about a variety of topics; possibly the market and the court shared the building as well as the ledger.

Tatum is very proud, and rightly so, of the work the county’s Historical Society has been doing, namely getting much of its archives digitalized and online. He asks all those who come across any documents, photographs and other artifacts from the early days of Dutchess County to let the Dutchess County Historical Society or the Millbrook Historical Society know, so that early history can be preserved for those who come later.