The Franklin County Farm

In October 2016, the Franklin County, KS, Rural History Club toured the Franklin County Infirmary in Ottawa. Now a private home, for many years it was the main building on a farm that housed the indigent and infirm of Franklin County. The following article is a guest post from Eldon G. Evans, now of Mission, Kansas, who has a unique perspective of the infirmary: his parents ran the farm for several years, and he lived there as a child.

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The sign, written in stone above the door, calls it the Franklin County Infirmary. It was known in its day by a great number of other names. It was called: the county home, the poor house, the old folks’ home, and the county farm. The most common name for it was the county farm. Even the records of the county commissioners of the day call it the county farm. To me it had another name in my youth. It was home.

Welcome to Our Blog!

Welcome to the Franklin County Rural History Club blog! We are a group of history buffs who aren't satisfied with books and maps--we travel the dirt roads and forgotten trails of Franklin County to find sites where history actually happened. Located in eastern Kansas, due south of Lawrence and southwest of Kansas City, Franklin County was one of the original counties in Kansas. Historical sites are abundant here, from places where John Brown and his compatriots hid runaway slaves to ghost towns that once promised to become great metropolises. But they are not all well known, well documented, or well cared for. Our goal is to educate our neighbors about our community's role in local history, tell the stories that have been forgotten, and encourage the preservation of important parts of our local culture. You're welcome to join our club for meetings and field trips, or follow our adventures on this blog. We're also on Facebook. Thanks for stopping by!