Data Analysis: Duration of Stay

One of the basic tenets of the ideology of the poorhouse was the idea that a patient (or inmates as they were pejoratively called) could choose to leave the poorhouse if they so desired. This is evident in countless historical descriptions of poorhouses identifying differences between themselves and other similar establishments like workhouses. Due to this freedom, which became more transparent as the 20th century progressed, the analysis of lengths of stay within specific poorhouses can be a good indicator of its treatment of patients, operations, and productivity. For the Ottawa County Poor Farm (or poorhouse), we cataloged and analyzed four different logbooks spanning 1866 to the 1970s. Throughout these books, the record of a “discharge” date among patients is less common the more we progress through time, probably because many people lived their entire lives there by choice.

The first logbook, chronologically, covers 1866 to 1883 and indicates in an average stay of 175 days for the 41 residents who were eventually discharged. The second logbook, encompassing the 1920s and 1930s, only lists a single exit date, being a death date. This is most likely due to the impact of the Great Depression on the financial lives of all citizens, causing a stay in the poorhouse to be an indefinite sentence. The third logbook, from the 1940s onwards, shows an average stay of 792 days across 265 residents who left the poorhouse. The final logbook, covering the 1950s to the 1970s, shows an average stay of 71 days for 12 residents. Being discharged does not mean being gone forever, though. Of the 319 residents discharged from all four logbooks, 45 were readmitted. Only 34% of those admitted to the poorhouse ever left, and while it may seem a grim statistic, it speaks to the hospitality and sense of belonging the Ottawa Poor House provided.