County Poor Farm of the 1930s remembered as a place to be proud of

Erle Abentroth’s father purchased a new Ford in 1937.
Reason enough to visit the Traill County Poor Farm, Erle figured.
Of course, there were other reasons.
The daughters of Otinius and Esther Foss would certainly be impressed with the new car, Erle and his friends were confident.
A least the hired girl in the kitchen, Christina Hoff, would be persuaded to offer a couple pieces of pie to the young visiting card players.
In trade for a ride in the new 1937 Ford.
Erle knew the Foss girls from high school.
Visiting the farm, he grew to know the Poor Farm’s foreman “pretty good” and he became friends with Alvin Foss, a nephew of Otinius Foss, who worked on the farm in the summer months.
“But I never knew to much of the hired hands working there. The inmates.”
There was plenty of help at the County Poor Farm, 30 to 40 easily, Erle tells.
“They had a very good barn and they kept it in good condition.”
The farm’s Holstein cows were milked and cared for by the Poor Farm’s older residents.
A working farm for five decades, the Poor Farm in the 1930s wasn’t considered a big farm, said Erle.
“It was quite small, actually.”
He doubts if he could find the Poor Farm Cemetery today, but he remembers helping bury an inmate there.
It wasn’t an everyday occurrence; still, Erle Abentroth questions if more than 14 aren’t buried at the Traill County Poor Farm.
“There certainly could be.”
Grace Cotton insists today that the Poor Farm in the 30s was a point of destination, not just for the poor and hungry, but of many residents in east Traill County.
“It was a beautiful farm. People wanted to see it,” Grace tells.
“And Esther Foss was quite the lady.”
At the time, she says, “it was a place to be proud of.”
Of the Poor Farm Cemetery, Grace Cotton is betting more than 14 are buried there.
“I’ll bet there is, somewhere.”
Meanwhile, she respects Steve Kimbrell’s ownership of the property.
“If it’s his, he should have a say who comes on his land.”