Travis County Poor Farm

1898 Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book, Precinct 2

This is a post of my history article for the March 2017 issue of the NWACA Newsletter.

Back in the day, before the social safety nets to which we are accustomed today – food stamps, unemployment benefits, homeless shelters – there were “poor farms”. As Christy Costlow [1], Travis County Archivist, explains, “In the Constitution of 1869, the State of Texas directed the responsibility for the care of its indigent and poor residents to the counties. Aside from general provisions, there were no special statutes governing in detail relief for the poor. Based on the tradition of the almshouse, many county governments established poor farms, which provided the means for destitute inhabitants to live and work in an agrarian-based institutionalized setting. Those who came or were sent to poor farms, unless physically disabled, were expected to work the land to help support the institution.”

Michael Barnes at the Austin American Statesman has written about the Travis County Poor Farm that was north of Windsor Road in what is now Tarrytown, but it was not the first. The first Travis County Poor Farm was here, right next to our Northwest Hills neighborhood.

If you recall from my January 2017 article, George Washington Davis, an early settler of this area, received a land grant of 3,154 acres from the Republic of Texas for his service in the Texas War for Independence at the Battle of San Jacinto; a good chunk of our neighborhood being on that old land grant. In 1879 Travis County purchased about 303 acres from Davis to establish the first Travis County Poor Farm.

This is the same poor farm Wilbarger referenced in his classic Indian Depredations of Texas in describing the abduction of the Simpson children by Indians (December 2016 newsletter): "After the Indians had gone some six miles from Austin [they arrived at] Spicewood Springs, which is situated in the edge of the mountains, opposite where the poor farm of Travis County is located".

So where exactly was the poor farm? 1898 road maps, part of the Travis County Clerk’s records, shows the location and layout. The west side was bounded by today’s MoPac railroad (then the Int’l and Great Northern; hence the name for Great Northern Blvd!). The northern boundary was a continuation of today’s Spicewood Springs Road east of the tracks running all the way to today’s Burnet Road. This portion of Spicewood Springs Road was a combination of today’s Foster Lane with a short jog north up to what is probably today’s Anderson Lane. The eastern boundary was today’s Burnet Road (then called Upper Georgetown Road; no I-35 back then .. this was how you got to Georgetown). And the southern boundary was what appears to be today’s Greenlawn Pkwy; one map shows it running all the way from the western side of the farm, next to the tracks, to Burnet Road, just as it does today. Shoal Creek ran north to south through the farm, no doubt providing a source of water for crops.

Photos

from 1898 Travis County Roads Map

Snippet from 1885-86 General Directory of the City of Austin

Wilbarger referenced the "poor farm" in his classic Indian Depredations of Texas

References, Notes

[1] Thanks to Christy Costlow, Travis County Archivist, for help in researching this article. Map shown is from 1898 Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book, Precinct 2. Purchase of land for poor farm is in Travis County Clerk Records: Commissioners Court Minutes D, p 218.