Bloomington (IN) Telephone, Dec 6, 1907, p. 1. OVER THE HILLS TO POOR FARM Aged Farmer, Once Prominent, Now Insane, Feeble and Penniless A pathetic scene was enacted at the county jail yesterday when J. J. Starks, aged 86 and one of the most prominent of Monroe County citizens years ago, was taken from his cell, hopelessly insane and feeble from second childhood, to spend the remainder of his days at the poor farm. Starks was brought from the home of his daughter, Mrs. Milton McPhetridge, at Gosport, Saturday, and place in the jail here. An insanity commission had adjudged him of unsound mind, but the Central Insane Hospital would not accept him on account of his helplessness and extreme age. The story of Starks is one of blighted hopes and lost fortune. In the 70s, he was one of the biggest stock raisers in the northern part of Monroe County. In Bean Blossom Township he owned 2,200 acres of good land, was a stock breeder and race horse fancier. He owned Capt. Walker, the sire of as fast a stock of blooded horses as ever stopped on a local track. He was a Democratic politician and ran for treasurer of the county at one time. The flood of ''76 ruined himm, causing a loss of thousands of dollars to his estate. He was involved in debt and lost practically everything in a few years. In his later years, he married a Miss Goss near Paragon. Two years ago, his three daughters by a first wife, two of whom live at Indianapolis, took charge of him. Broken in mental strength, he went to live with Mrs. McPhetridge, the daughter at Gosport. Isaac Van Buskirk of that place was appointed his guardian. The $700 left of his fortune was exhauted in nurse hire and other expenses of his keeping. His money gone, he is now thrown upon the county to pass his last hour as a public burden. The aged man is helpless as a babe. He is still strong, physically, but childish and broken in spirit. Though not told that he was to be taken to the poor farm, he suspected it, and wept bitterly when led to the buggy for perhaps his last ride but one. The widow at her home in Paragon says she would have cared for him until death had the children allowed her.