Record Collections – County Home

COUNTY HOME
Infirmary aka Shady Lane Manor

On February 26, 1816, the Ohio General Assembly authorized boards of county commissioners to construct county poor houses for the care of paupers. Each board of commissioners was to appoint a seven-member board of directors, which would oversee the home’s management and appoint a superintendent. The superintendent was to live in the house and manage its day-to-day operations including assigning inmates to perform “reasonable and moderate labor” and maintaining a register of the inmates. Operating expenses were to be paid out of the county treasury. In 1831, the number of board members was reduced to three, and the board was empowered to send non-resident paupers back to their legal places of residence. Also, the board was given the authority to reject the admission of any pauper; those rejected consequently were cared for by township overseers of the poor. Through legislative enactment in 1850, the poorhouse became the county infirmary. In addition to caring for the poor, the county infirmary served as a place of confinement for the needy, sick, the mentally ill, and the epileptic.

After a two-year study, the Delaware County Commissioners moved forward with the establishment of a county infirmary in 1854.  A 113 acre farm in Brown Township was purchased from Joseph Blair for the purpose of housing a rise of indigent and mentally unstable people.  In 1855, a two-story brick building was completed.  A year later in 1856, a brick and stone building was built to house the insane population, With the purchase of 105 additional acres from John Thurston in 1870 the farm operations expanded. In 1884 the general assembly prohibited children from living in the county infirmary, unless the children were separated from the adult inmates. In 1881, three years ahead of the legislation, the Ladies Christian Union of Delaware County had started the process of a children’s home. Fourteen years later, it became unlawful to confine the insane and epileptic in the infirmary. Due to the poor conditions of the first asylum building, a second building was built in 1875. Starting in 1877, the new building functioned as a detention center for those transported to the Lunatic Asylum of Ohio.

In 1913, the board of infirmary directors was abolished and their powers assumed by the county commissioners. In 1919, the name was changed again. The new name – the county home – indicated emphasis on caring for the county’s needy, and aged.  By the late, 1980’s the Delaware County Home was known as Shady Lane Manor.

Delaware County established an Infirmary Cemetery that was utilized from 1855 to 1938.  The graveyard served those living at the infirmary. If the inmate’s family choose to bury them elsewhere, the county infirmary provided $19.50 towards burial costs.

In 1929, the general assembly made provisions for a county to close a home when the facility became unsuitable for habitation or when the population of the home became too small for efficient and economical operations.  The Delaware County Home operated until March 1996. The County Commissioner’s closed the facility after a failed levy initiative the preceding fall.

(Source: Ohio County Records Manual, Revised Edition. Ohio History Society aka Ohio History Connection)

Delaware County Infirmary Superintendents