Jackson County Poor Farm & Cemetery Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony

Join us as we will unveil our latest county historical marker at a 0.4-acre site west of Airport Road on County Farm Road. The noon ceremony will take place on grounds of the 19th century Jackson County Poor Farm Cemetery, where many indigent county residents were interred with neither ceremony nor marker.

Why a historic marker at this desolate acreage? Dating back to decisions made by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors in 1839, provisions were made for purchase of the land for the care of people without means. That was the primitive "social safety net" of early days - a century before Social Security and other more modern programs.

The site is resonant with events tragic and memorable. In 1886 a fire destroyed the first poor home, taking the lives of five residents. In 1967, after residents had been shifted to the first Jackson County Medical Care Facility on…