Nothing new under the sun

That old saw is very old indeed, taken from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes (1:9, NRSV): "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun." But I think it's still true although there are many more of us now than then and we communicate, when we choose to do so, with lightning speed --- although with no more clarity or charity.

I came upon my photocopies of the following consecutive entries from the "W" section of the Lucas County "Poor House Register," a bulky bound volume from the county archives, while sorting out a couple of oddities in my online family files this week. They speak for themselves, as old and dusty records sometimes do:

Name: Whitten, Mary
Age: 24
Sex: Female
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: May 1864
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 1870
Height: 4 Ft. 8 In.
Weight: 90 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Black
Col. Of Eyes: Dark
Complexion: Dark
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: Jan. 3 1876
Remarks: (None)

Name: Whitten, Matta
Age: (blank)
Sex: Female
Nativity: Born in the County Home
Date Settled in County: Nov. 11, 1870
Date Admitted to Poor House: Nov.11, 1870
Height: (blank)
Weight: (blank)
Col. Of Hair: Black
Col. Of Eyes: Blue
Complexion: Fair
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: Feb. 22, 1872
Remarks: Adopted by Wm. Weberster of Lucas County

Name: Wilson, Jane
Age: 22
Sex: Female
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: (blank)
Date Admitted to Poor House: Jan. 1, 1872
Height: (blank)
Weight: 100 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Black
Col. Of Eyes: Hazel
Complexion: Fair
Peculiarities: Deformed and never walked
Date Discharged: Died Aug. 18, 1896
Remarks: Buried at Newburn by her Father

Name: Wallas, Mary
Age: 66
Sex: Female
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: 1855
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 17, 1872
Height: 5 Ft. 10 In.
Weight: 110 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Grey
Col. Of Eyes: Blue
Complexion: Fair
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: 1874
Remarks: (blank)

Name: Ward, Nancy
Age: 35
Sex: Female
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: 1855
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 17, 1872
Height: 5 Ft.
Weight: 110 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Dark
Col. Of Eyes: Black
Complexion: Dark
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: 1874
Remarks: (blank)

Name: Ward, Martha J.
Age: 3
Sex: Female
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: 1869
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 17, 1872
Height: (blank)
Weight: 35 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Brown
Col. Of Eyes: Black
Complexion: Dark
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: 1874
Remarks: Bound to A. D. Minshall

Name: Ward, Ishmal W.
Age: 5
Sex: Male
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: 1869 (sic)
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 17, 1872
Height: (blank)
Weight: 65 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Light
Col. Of Eyes: Blue
Complexion: Fair
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: 1874
Remarks: Taken by Jacob Myers

Name: Ward, Samuel D.M.
Age: 1
Sex: Male
Nativity: American
Date Settled in County: 1869 (sic)
Date Admitted to Poor House: Oct. 17, 1872
Height: (blank)
Weight: 35 Lb.
Col. Of Hair: Light
Col. Of Eyes: Dark
Complexion: Fair
Peculiarities: Ordinary
Date Discharged: 1874
Remarks: Adopted by Mr. Walters

There you have it: A probable birth outside of wedlock, to use the old-fashioned term, then separation; disability; families broken by poverty and dispair and circumstance. And here we have it still.

The Jacob Myers who "took" Ishmal W. Ward was my great-great-grandfather. Jacob and his wife, Harriet, raised Ishmel Myers as a son. Ishmel married Elma Redlingshafer, they relocated to central Louisiana (near Alexandria) and he lived a long and useful life --- dying in 1964 at age 97. I know nothing more about his siblings and mother than what the records state.

The photo here of the Lucas County Poor House is not the poor house Ishmel and his family lived in, but its successor built on the county farm just northwest of Chariton during 1904. Although I remember it, the county farm is gone now and Hy-Vee's huge frozen foods distribution warehouse stands on its site.

The only remaining trace is the old poor house cemetery, northwest of the warehouse right along the Burlington Northern tracks, where several of those who did not leave the poor house alive and who had to fathers to bury them were interred.