COLLIN COUNTY FARM
Hardin Blvd. S of Virginia, McKinney
Historical marker (1988)
COLLIN COUNTY FARM
AS EARLY AS
1858 COLLIN COUNTY
HAD A SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING
RELIEF TO ITS INDIGENT CITIZENS.
THIS PROPERTY WAS ACQUIRED IN
1886 AND BECAME KNOWN AS THE
COUNTY FARM. STRUCTURES WERE
BUILT OVER THE YEARS TO HOUSE
THE RESIDENTS, WHO HELPED MAIN-
TAIN THE FARM. IN THE 1920S THE
AUTHORITIES BEGAN HOUSING COUNTY
PRISONERS HERE IN SPECIAL GUARDED
FACILITIES. ALSO LOCATED ON THE
FARM WAS A PAUPERS’ CEMETERY,
WHICH IS STILL MAINTAINED BY
THE COUNTY. THE COLLIN COUNTY
FARM CEASED OPERATIONS IN THE
1950S.
COLLIN COUNTY FARM
Historical
marker application
In 1874 Collin County decided to provide for the indigent
of the county, when the County Commissioners bought land from Latitia James for
a “poor house and pauper purpose.” In 1878 the commissioners bought the farm of
Robert and Mary McLarry for a county poor farm for twelve hundred dollars.
Between the time of these two land purchases the commissioners accepted bids for
taking care of the paupers. The first person whose bid was accepted was N. W.
Moreland in 1877. He also had his bid accepted for 1878. For the next fifteen
years the records of the county commissioners court continued to list bids of
people for “keeping the poor farm.”
...the county commissioners decided in 1886 to purchase 336 3/4 acres of land
from Ethelred and Arrena Whitley for $5734.75. Mr. Whitley and his family had
come to Collin County in about 1848 as Peters colonists and this land was part
of the 640 acres he received as a colonist. The land is located on the waters of
Wilson Creek about 4.5 miles west fro McKinney...
The same year (1885) that the county purchased the Whitley land for a county
farm, Robert R. and J. R. Sinclair had their bid accepted “for superintending
the county farm.”... The first salary mentioned for the man who lived on and ran
the farm for the county was that of T. M. Faulkner, who made $33.33 a month in
1888.
...some time in the 1920s the county started sending to the farm offenders who
had been convicted of misdemeanor violations. There is evidence that by 1922 men
were kept locked in a small building behind the main house.
Collin County Farm Cemetery
Places Index
Recommended
citation:
"Collin County
Poor Farm - Places, COLLIN COUNTY HISTORY," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
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