History of the Bexar County Poor Farm explored and explained.

Not too much history of the Bexar County Poor Farm has been documented or explored. So much history about this poor farm seems to have been forgotten. The history of Bexar County Poor Farm is short of nothing too compelling. This news article will explain the history behind Bexar County Poor Farm. The property was never an insane asylum or mental hospital as many people would have you believe.


On November 21, 1849, the County Commissioners Court passed an order making it the duty of the court to support and bury indigents of the county. The county and city were to maintain and bury their paupers.  Methods were mapped out on how to take care of the poor in San Antonio in February 1854. This led to the establishment of Bexar County Poorhouse. (Ref: San Antonio Express, Welfare Problems Given Different Treatment in Past, Page 108, August 3, 1969)

Bexar County Poor Farm was established on Farm Road off of Southton Road in San Antonio, Texas in 1857. Bexar County Poor Farm was first known as Bexar County Poorhouse before becoming Bexar County Poor Farm. County officials established Bexar County Poor Farm for the purpose of housing the poor and indigent paupers from the area and providing housing for indigent people. (Ref: Bexar County Official Public Records - Real Estate, Volume 2427, Page 442)

The Bexar County Poor Farm facility was a 3 story wooden structure with a basement built in 1856 and opened in 1857. Small one room structures were used for tuberculosis patients. The rooms were small and isolated from the other charges along with everyone else. Residents who were healthy and able were expected to work on the property.



In March of 1875, the county published the rules of the poor-house in the minutes which provide excellent details about what they required supervisors to do along with some basic regulations concerning the poor. The rules required the superintendent of the poor farm to keep full records of all inmates of the poor farm. This included name, age, nativity, trade, sex, marital status, citizenship, date of admission, and cause of pauperism. They also had to keep full accounts of all funds spent on food, clothing and other supplies. The county physician had to examine each pauper before admittance to the poor farm. If found contagious of any disease dangerous to life or health, the county would not admit them. Upon admittance paupers were bathed and provided with new clothes.

(Ref: Rules and Regulations for County Poor-House, Bexar County, TX, Rules 1-4, Bexar County Commissioners’ Court Minutes, Vol. 3-A, 588-590)


There is often conflict and questionability as to whether two county poorhouses existed in Bexar County. There seems to have been a county poorhouse located closer to downtown in the Tobin Hill neighborhood.

Although the Bexar County Poor Farm had a working farm located off Southton Road, the Bexar County Poor Farm had a central annex and hospital located north of downtown on what was once known as Rock Quarry Road and is now St. Mary’s Street. The Bexar County Poor House was located west of Rock Quarry Road (now St. Mary’s Street). (Ref: City of San Antonio Texas map from 1889)

The 1885-1886 San Antonio City Directory lists Bexar County Poor House with an address shown as:
"West Side Rock Quarry road, nr N. city limits, J.A. Smith, supt [superintendent]." It is possible Bexar County had two poorhouses due to the size of the county. (Ref: 1885-1886 San Antonio City Directory)


However a Sanborn Insurance Map from 1911 of San Antonio shows Bexar County Poor Farm being located at the intersection of Jones Avenue & Olympian Way (now St. Mary’s Street & Mulberry Street). Bexar County Poor Farm is listed under the name of “Bexar County Poor Farm and Hospital”. (Ref: San Antonio Sanborn Insurance Map of 1911, Vol. 2, Page 184)


So it seems that Bexar County had already had a poor farm established before the one in Tobin Hill was established. The one in Tobin Hill seems to have came afterwards. The Poor Farm facility in Tobin Hill was established in the 1880s. (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6930706/pauper_history/)


According to a news article from Austin Weekly Statesman dating back to 1878, Bexar County Poor Farm was listed as being well managed. “The Bexar county poor house is well managed and is a credit to the community in which it exists.” (Ref: Austin Weekly Statesman, Page 2,  Thursday, February 21, 1878)

Albert Huppertz was the attending physician and druggist for Bexar County Poor Farm and Home For The Aged during the 1890s. (Ref: https://txbexar.eppygen.org/Records/Re_CD_1891_H.htm)

According to a late 1908 article from San Antonio Gazette, Conditions at the Bexar County Poor Farm were found to be first class by the county commissioners.” This meant the facilities were in pristine condition. (Ref: San Antonio Gazette, Inspect Poor Farm, Page 10,  December 29, 1908)



New rules were proposed by commissioners as reported in the San Antonio Light in 1908. 

“Hereafter persons to be admitted to either the Bexar County Poor Farm or hospital must have been residents of the county for at least six months. Applications must also be accompanied by a certificate signed by at least two citizens of the county, certifying the applicant is in a destitute condition and is in need of assistance. In a formal order the county commissioners will tomorrow adopt new rules governing the poor farm and hospital and hope thereby to do away with much of the expense caused heretofore by the shipping of indigent persons to this city from outside points. The county physician will be authorized to deny assistance to persons capable of self-maintenance or having families capable of giving support and he will also be empowered to use his own discretion in cases of urgent immediately.”

(Ref: San Antonio Light, Commissioners Propose “New Rules For Admission to Poor Farm and County Hospital, October 6, 1908)


Documentation from the US Government reported 73 deaths occurred at the Bexar County Poor Farm in 1910. (Ref: ftp://ftp.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1910/bulletins/demographics/120-paupers-in-almshouses.pdf)


Bexar County Poor Farm had a number of problems. Complaints of poor care of the residents and lack of food were a common problem. Staff were eating well and the charges were not. Mistreatment of charges often went unreported.


Gruesome deaths occurred in such an unsettling manner at the Poor Farm. For instance, pauper named Henry Pusch won a bet. Part of the deal for that bet was that he had to hang himself.

“Having offered to wager with a grave digger that he would be dead within twenty-four hours. Henry Pusch, an aged inmate of the Bexar County Poor Farm, has shown that he was in earnest by hanging himself from a mesquite tree. His body has been buried in a grave of his own selection. “

[Ref: PAUPER WINS A BET BY HANGING HIMSELF, Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky),  December 31, 1904)

On the morning of Wednesday, December 29, 1904, Henry Pusch selected a grave in the poor farm cemetery that he would be buried in 24 hours. He uttered to bet with grave-digger that he would be dead in 24 hours. Thursday morning was found dead, hanging by the neck a mesquite tree. Thursday afternoon he was buried in the grave he had selected. This was the unusual ending of an old age inmate of the Bexar County Poor Farm. He was 86 years old and was committed to the farm in 1902. (Ref: SELECTED GRAVE AND DIED Suicide Offered to Bet Grave-Digger He Would Be Dead in 24 Hours, Daily Arkansas Gazette, December 30, 1904)

There were early attempts of selling the Bexar County Poor Farm beginning in the early 20th century. In 1909, efforts were made later to remove the poor house burials to the City Cemetery in hopes of securing a buyer. A county judge attempted to sell the property in an effort to relocate charges to an existing County Poor House on 100 acres outside of the city limits on Southton Road. However the property was not sold at that time. (Ref: http://www.poorhousestory.com/TX_BEXAR_County.htm)

The county judge was considered cemetery at the Poor House “unsightly” to be unsightly by public standards in 1913. The county judge wanted to remove all evidence of the Bexar County Poor Farm Cemetery. Bodies were exhumed from this location and reentered to Cemetery No. 1. There is no inventory on the number of interments at the Poor House Cemetery and no record of whether any or all those interments were ever moved to the City Cemetery.  (Ref: https://www.sanantonio.gov/Portals/0/Files/HistoricPreservation/arc_reports/BrackenridgePavilion.pdf)

In the middle of 1913, San Antonio Light reported the property was approximately 18 acres including the cemetery which was to be sold or leveled. Bexar County had already begun removing bodies from the cemetery on the old Poor Farm cemetery. The property was reportedly for sale. (Ref: San Antonio Light, July 27, 1913) 

Judge Phil Shook sought to sell the old poor farm, having in mind the construction of a building on the new farm. Judge Shook believed that the 18 acres of the old place ought to bring at least $1,000 per acre, but the best offer he could secure was $12,000. (Ref: San Antonio Light, WILL REMOVE BODIES FROM COUNTY FARM, July 27, 1913)

The contract was let to the Zizik Undertaking Company, which company agrees to provide suitable graves for each of the known dead in the potter's field and to re-bury all those whose identities are unknown.  The known dead were re-buried in City Cemetery No. 7 and City Cemetery No. 1. Others were put into a common grave to be dug at the new poor farm.  (Ref: http://www.poorhousestory.com/TX_BEXAR_Article_Cemetery.htm)

In 1914, 110 acres worth of land were purchased from H. C. Feldman and Cheryl Neese for the sum of $12,932.40 dollars. An additional 10 acres were purchased for staff housing on the end of Farm Road for more than $1,000 dollars. (Ref: Bexar County Official Public Records - Real Estate, Deed No. 69676)

Bexar County Poorhouse was moved from Jones Avenue to an existing poor farm on Southton Road in 1916. Bexar County Poor Farm relocated to HFTA replaced the dilapidated wooden structure with a beautiful Colonial style building. The wooden structure served as a hospital facility during the pre-Civil War era during the same year. The new facility was a Colonial style building on beautiful grounds in spite of politics and the dark history surrounding the property. (Ref: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth399351/m1/1/zoom/?q=southton&resolution=2&lat=2905.5&lon=2217)

On November 26, 1919, 111 acres worth of land were purchased from H. C. Feldman and Cheryl Neese for the sum of $12,932.40 dollars. An additional 10 acres were purchased for staff housing on the end of Farm Road for more than $1,000 dollars. (Ref: Bexar County Official Public Records - Real Estate, November 26, 1919 Deed)

Juanita Rodriguez was reported to be the oldest person living at the Bexar County Poor Farm at 120 years old during the 20th century. She was 115 years old when she moved into the Bexar County Poor Farm. She had lived in Texas since before the Alamo fell. Also she lived in Texas before the siege on the Alamo. Her shack that lived in on the banks of the San Antonio River was washed away. This left her homeless. She was excited to move to the Bexar County Poor Farm. (Ref: https://hubpages.com/education/Southeast-Bexar-County-Awareness-Mendelsohns-hand-in-Southside-ISD-decisions)

Bexar County Poor Farm had a cemetery located north of their buildings. A cemetery was plotted on their property near Salado Creek. All the paupers and indigents in the area were placed on this land outside of the city. Today the cemetery is now gone. So are the fence and markers. (Ref: https://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=23427)

Over the course of several years, several hospitals, detention facilities, and schools were located on the same property. Southton Sanatorium, Home For The Aged, Bexar County Boys Home, Bexar County Girls Home, Bexar County Poor House, Southton Convalescent Home, Southton Boys Home, Southton Tuberculosis Hospital, and Bexar County Convalescent Sanatorium. The reason for this is because the county believed it would be easier to keep all the 'undesireables' in one location.

Blacks diagnosed as mentally insane were housed in the Bexar County Poor House since the crowded state asylum at Austin and San Antonio refused to accept black patients. (Ref: African Americans and Race Relations in San Antonio, Texas, 1867-1937, Kenneth Mason)



When Bexar County Poor Farm closed in 1968, the people who had lived there had no other place to go. Many were dispersed to nursing homes, halfway houses, and to the medical center at Robert B. Green Hospital (then Bexar County Hospital). (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/48916250/)

Tuberculosis patients were transferred to the medical center at Robert B. Green Hospital (then Bexar County Hospital). Elderly patients were transported to the new floor of Robert B. Green Hospital later during the summer of 1968. (Ref: https://newspaperarchive.com/san-antonio-express-and-news-sep-21-1969-p-36/)

Bexar County had advertised the Bexar County Poor Farm property up for sale numerous times in the San Antonio Express during the year of 1969. San Antonio Express reported Bexar County Poor Farm as being abandoned by (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/61039121/)

In August of 1969, Bexar County offered land south of the city that was once the county farm and Southton Boys Home (Bexar County Boys Home) for sale. University of Texas - San Antonio had announced plans on reusing the old Bexar County Poor Farm property as a college campus. The old Home For The Aged building would serve as an administration building for the college campus. (Ref: San Antonio Express, Casseb Heads Jail Committee, Thursday, August 21, 1969)

A new hospital building for the charges was expected to be built on the same site as Bexar County Boys Home and Southton Sanatorium. However those plans never came to fruition as newer facilities were built elsewhere inside the city of San Antonio.  Instead a portion of the land is currently deeded to the Bexar County Hospital District as a temporary home for Southton Convalescent Home. Southton Convalescent Home used the old Home For The Aged building as temporary housing for patients which lasted until 1972. (Ref: San Antonio Express, Page 54, September 12, 1969)


The property had sat abandoned for decades before being repurposed. The property was soon taken over by nature and greenery. The property was reported as still abandoned in 1996. Reasons as to why have never been made public. (Ref: http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/urban-exploration/19th-century-insane-asylum-abandoned-creepy-haunted/)


In 2011, the former property of Bexar County Poor Farm was repurposed as the Bexar County Police Training Facility. It is now home to a shooting range owned by Bexar County (Bexar County Police). The land is managed by Bexar County Public Works. (Ref: http://www.mesquite-news.com/southside-haunts-to-visit-this-halloween/)


People already have been arrested and charged for trespassing onto the property over the years. The property is now off limits.


Bexar County Poor Farm was located at 3678 Farm Road, San Antonio, Texas, US 78223.