Guadalupe County Poor Farm had once stood east of where the junction of Highway 123 (TX 123) and US 90 (Highway 90) intersect. Originally the convict farm for Guadalupe County Poor Farm was a 202 acre area that Edward Nolle sold to Guadalupe County for the purpose of housing prisoners from the area. (Ref: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~txguadal/calaboose.html)
The Guadalupe County Poor Farm was established on land of what was once Guadalupe County Convict Farm. The Guadalupe County Convict Farm was established in the 1890s. More acres of land tracts were purchased in 1897. There was a poor farm and a prison farm on what was once Abbey Dixie Drive-In.
A convict wagon laid beneath what was the hanging tree of the old convict farm. The convict wagon was used to house and haul prisoners of the area. Guadalupe County Poor Farm and convict Guadalupe County Convict Farm housed many people. (Ref: Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, Page 1B, Sunday, February 2, 1996)
According to local historian, B.J. Comingore, the last public hanging in Guadalupe County took place at the poor farm in 1915. Historian Joe Bruns Sr. explained that his brothers had witnessed several of the hanging executions at the convict farm at the old tree where now sits the wagon.
On March 31, 1937, Edward Nolle transferred 31 acres of the property were to Guadalupe County to be used as a poor farm which was called Guadalupe County Poor Farm. (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/20123839/)
Guadalupe County Poor Farm shut down in 1941 and the paupers were returned to their hometowns. Arthur Schmidt purchased some of the land from Guadalupe County in 1941. Arthur Schmidt later owned the property and had a slaughterhouse on the land with a butcher shop in town. The Dietz family owned the old caretaker's house for many years.
Guadalupe County Poor Farm had a cemetery called Poor Farm Cemetery. A cemetery was plotted on private property near Geronimo Creek in the 1400 block of East Kingsbury. 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. The property now belongs to the Melvin Pomerantz family. (Ref: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2410574/poor-farm-cemetery)
Address for Guadalupe County Poor Farm was 1409 East Kingsbury Street, Seguin, Texas, US 78155.
Arthur Schmidt is my zgrandfather. My mother and her siblings grew up here.
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting. Thank you for sharing your family history. Did your grandfather, Arthur Schmidt, live on Guadalupe County Poor Farm? Was he an inmate at Guadalupe County Poor Farm? Was your mother and her siblings inmates of Guadalupe County Poor Farm as well?
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