Ron Romano’s The Graves of Scarborough’s Paupers: The Town Farm Cemetery, 1867–1891 offers a moving, thoroughly researched account of Scarborough’s 19th-century approach to caring for its poorest citizens. When the town purchased the Brackett Farm in 1867, it became a self-sustaining alms house for residents who were unhoused, mentally or physically unwell, or otherwise unable to care for themselves. A cemetery was established onsite, where at least 19 individuals were interred, including Deborah Dyer and Priscilla Burnham. Romano reconstructs lives often forgotten, using town reports, census data, vital records, and cemetery surveys. He details the farm’s operations, changes in overseers, and the transition of remains from the farm’s cemetery to Dunstan Cemetery around 1891. The cemetery and farm, once central to Scarborough’s welfare efforts, are now lost to development, but through this paper, their history and the names of those buried there are spoken again and remembered.
Topics include:
- The 1821 Town Warrant
- Scarborough’s Earliest Annual Reports
- 1850 & 1860 US Censuses for Scarborough
- “The Poor of the Town Should Find a Home”
- The Sad End of Daniel Richards
- More Than Four Decades of Care for Samuel Snow
- The Brackett Farm becomes the Town Farm
- The First Residents of the Farm
- Deborah Dyer: First to Be Buried at the Town Farm Cemetery
- The Farm’s Second Keepers
- Following the Paper Trail
- The Whereabouts of Samuel Plaisted’s Remains
- Through the 1870s
- Through the 1880s
- More Burials at the Town Farm Cemetery
- Into the 1890s
- The Longest-term Resident of the Farm
- Curiosities in the 1892 Town Report
- Checking Records Through 1899
- The Overworked Matron
- The End of the Farm
- Lingering Questions…
- …and Summary Thoughts
- The Paupers’ Field at Dunstan Cemetery
There are also four appendices:
- Appendix A: Those who died at the Town Farm, 1867 to 1891, and are believed to have been interred at the farm cemetery.
- Appendix B: Overseers of the Town Farm, 1867 to 1900 (As recorded in Town Annual Reports).
- Appendix C: Number of Residents at the Town Farm, 1867 to 1900 (some years unreported).
- Appendix D: Others who died while under the town’s care and may be buried at Dunstan Cemetery’s paupers’ field.
Find the report/paper HERE.
