Farm and Hospital
In the mid-1870's,
the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors acknowleded the need to house
the county's ill and indigent citizens.
acquired a 140 acre parcel of ranch property in the hills west of
The San Mateo
County Poor Farm & Hospital opened at this location in July of 1876.
"Patients with diseases like tuberculosis, rheumatism, malaria, diabetes,
asthma, chicken pox, heart problems etc. were treated in the hospital .
. . The impoverished were housed in adjacent housing and were considered
inmates . . . Record books for these facilities...starting from 1876...list
all the inmates that came to the poor farm and died there . . . The Poor
Farm Graveyard was first established in 1894, when the first dead were
buried and their names, places of origin, age and the reason for dying
were entered into a logbook . . ." ---Adela Morris, Director,
Institute for Canine Forensics
Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) is a non-profit organization in Northern
California for the advancement of research and education of Forensic Evidence.
One of their projects, in cooperation with the Archaeology and Anthropology
Departments of the University of Santa Clara, is the San Mateo County Poor
for Canine Forensics, San Mateo County Hospital and Poor Farm Project
(also known as
Poor Farms, Almshouses, etc.)
1880 Federal Census, California, San Mateo County, San Mateo, Enumeration
District 237, Supervisor's District No. 1, page 27 [written], page 388
1900 Federal Census, California, San Mateo County, Second Township,
Enumeration District 38, Sheet 5B.
1910 Federal Census, California, San Mateo County, Township 2, Enumeration
District 55, Supervisor's District No. 5, Sheet 33A/33B.
1920 Federal Census, California, San Mateo County, Second Township,
Belmont Precinct 2, Enumeration District 78, Spuervisor's District No.
7, Sheet 1A.
1930 Federal Census, California, San Mateo County, Township #2, Enumeration
District No. 41-41, Supervisor's District No. 10, Sheet 3A/3B.
California Poorhouse History < http://www.poorhousestory.com/poorhouses_in_california.htm
> 30 Aug 2005.
History of San Mateo County, by Philip W. Alexander, 1916 < http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/smhsm1.htm
> 30 Aug 2005.
Moore & DePue's Illustrated History of San Mateo County, California,
G.T. Brown & Co. Lith., San Francisco, 1878.
< http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/smhis78a.htm > 30 Aug 2005.
The Poorhouse Story < http://www.poorhousestory.com/ > 30 Aug 2005.
Record Book of San Mateo County Hospital and Poor Farm July 1876. (Original
book at San Mateo County Historical Society, #75-183-3.)
San Mateo, A Centennial History, by Mitchell P. Postel (Scotwall Associates,
San Francisco, CA, 1994).
San Mateo City Directory, 1925, Coast Directory Co., Burlingame, CA
< http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/smdma25.htm > 30 Aug 2005.
San Mateo County Chronicles, by Michael Svanevik and Shirley Burgett
(San Mateo, CA, 1995).
San Mateo County Hospital and Poor Farm Project by The Institute for
Canine Forensics < http://www.k9forensic.org/poor_farm.html > 30 Aug
Time & Again, article in the Redwood City Independent, May
18, 2002 by Michael Svanevik and Shirley Burgett.
1896 Topographical Map, USGS, Historic Topographic Maps of California,
Earth Sciences & Map Library, UC Berkeley
< http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/histopo/ > 30 Aug 2005.
What were Poorhouses? < http://www.poorhousestory.com/history.htm
> 30 Aug 2005.
Yahoo! Maps < http://maps.yahoo.com/ > 30 Aug 2005.
you to Eva Cecil, Shirley Hammon and Adela Morris for transcribing the
death and burial records, and to Carolyn Feroben, Ron Filion, and Joseph
Kral for their help, encouragement and enthusiasm for this subject.
Return to San Mateo
to San Mateo County Genealogy
© Copyright 2005 Pamela Storm.
All rights reserved.
Background courtesy Absolute Background Textures Archive
< http://www.grsites.com/textures/ >