Poor Asylum
Sullivan County did not have a poor farm and asylum for the destitute and helpless until 1855. Previous to this time there was a county official who looked after the poor, but the few paupers in his care were assigned to some individual who, for a certain amount each year, agreed to house and feed the unfortunates, at the same time getting the benefit of their labor so far as he was able to utilize it. The amount bid for the care of the poor in 1852 was $35 for each person.
In the summer of 1855 the county board bought from Henry K. Wilson eighty acres of land lying in Sections 35 and 26, of Town 8, Range 9, for $1,825. The little house on the farm was to be the asylum, and was improved for that purpose. In that year the pauper contract was let to Thomas Hale at $20 per person and the use of the poor farm.
The first asylum building was erected during the last year of the Civil War. The bids were received on July 27, 1864. The accepted bid was $4,480, for a two-storied front, 18 by 45 feet, and a one-story rear structure, 25 by 48 fe3et. The building was complete at the time called in the contract, which was September 1, 1865. A frame building put up in 1877 was used for an infirmary. In 1885 a new infirmary was completed. In 1896 plans were laid by the commissioners for the erection of a new building, modern in arrangements and sanitary conditions. The building was designed 120 feet long by 95 feet wide, the front to be for the use of the superintendent and family and the center and rear to contain twenty sleeping rooms and two sitting rooms and two dining rooms for the inmates. Steam heat, electric light and the most approved plumbing and ventilation were provided. The contract for the building was let in May to Briggs and Freeman of Sullivan for $15,307, without plumbing, which was a separate contract, bringing the total up to $18,554.
Source: A History of Sullivan County, Indiana. Closing of the first century’s history of the county and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth. Thomas J. Wolfe, Editor. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909, page 218-219.