POOR RELIEF RECORDS

The deaths listed below were gleaned from the Poor Relief Records, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries, covering 1851-1888. Paupers in Delaware County often recieved items at the county's expense. Vendors would submit their expenses and the county commissioners would direct payments be made (or occasionally refuse to pay). Most receipts are for expenses involved in running the Poor Farm, paying families to house invalids, supplying groceries and clothing to struggling families, medical care, and burial costs. Several of these can be helpful in determining death dates. Expense filings for housing and care my say that they family cared for the person until they died. These sometimes include the actual death date. Occasionally, doctors's submissions also noted treating someone until they passed away. Burial costs such as coffins, burial clothing and grave digging were also submitted by retailers, cabinet manufacturers, and undertakers, etc. There is plenty of opportunity for guess work, but those records included here specifically indicated the person had died. As with other assembled lists on this website, the dates notes here should be handled as 'dead by' dates unless otherwise indicated. This list covers documents from 1851 to 1879.