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Page 99           Biennial Report of the State Board
                    of Corrections and Charities
                               1875
                    
                             ALLEGAN
                               
      The poor-house is pleasantly situated on a farm of 160 acres,
   in the township of Allegan, about four miles northwest of the
   village of the same name.  There is a fair orchard on the prem-
   ises and a good vegetable garden.  On one side of the house,
   and almost in front of it is a cluster of fine shade trees, which,
   with a suitable lawn about them, might form a pleasant retreat
   in the hot days of summer.  The building is of wood, well
   painted inside and out, has large rooms, high ceilings, and
   transom windows over the doors.  The rooms and halls are 
   light and airy, and present a tidy appearance, except the dining-
   room and some of the rooms occupied by the males, which need
   renovating.  On the day of the visitation there were twenty-
   five paupers in the institution.  One insane female is very
   difficult to care for, keeping her room and her person at times
   
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Page 100

   plastered with her own excrements.  There are nine of the
   inmates who are idiotic, some of them badly so.  There are six
   pauper children in the house.  One noticeable feature, worthy
   of imitation, in this establishment, is the placing of mosquito-
   bars at the windows of the paupers' rooms.  The keeper stated
   that this expense was only seven cents a window, and the addi-
   tion to the comfort of the inmates must be considerable.  The
   cellar looked clean and orderly; but the construction of cells
   for the insane, in one part of it, is a great mistake, for the
   noise and ravings of lunatics confined there must always disturb
   those above.  Sinks, with other apparatus for washing hands 
   and faces, are furnished for the use of the paupers, but there
   is no preparation for bathing.  Wooden bedsteads are in use,
   and the keeper says that, despite the utmost exertion, vermin
   will gather and breed in them.  The house seems very well
   kept; but a bath-room, an ice-house, a better classification of
   the inmates, and a little more attention to ornamenting the
   ground would add to it very much.  The secretary was accom-
   panied by Messrs. Calkins and Jewett, two of the county super-
   intendents.
   
   
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