A lookup was requested in George Reeser Prowell's "History of Camden County." Published in 1886, on pages 184 to 185, information is found on the County Almshouse. I also include the nearby Insane Asylum. Here it is for this NJCAMDEN Rootsweb list, as well as for the individual requesting the first part: THE COUNTY ALMSHOUSE.—The first mention found on record relating to the care of the poor of Gloucester County is in the minutes of the proceedings of the justices and freeholders, June 10, 1765, when Wm. Hugg and Samuel Harrison were allowed L62 16s, 2d, for repairs to the house. In 1770 repairs were ordered, but no mention is made of the location and character of the building. In 1799 Samuel Cooper, James Hopkins and James Stratton were directed to look after a site, but failing to report, the Board of Freeholders, in August, 1800, appointed Samuel Cooper, Jas. Hurley, John Hider, Samuel W. Harrison, Amos Cooper, Wm. Ford, Jas. Stratton, John Collins, Richard Westcott and Elias Smith a committee to purchase a site. The committee selected one hundred and twenty-five acres of land on the south side of Timber Creek, in Deptford township, belonging to Michael Fisher. The consideration was $3333 331/2 and the deed conveying the land to the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Gloucester County was dated December 12, 1800. A building committee was appointed,--Samuel Cooper, Jacob Stokes, John Brick, Amos Cooper, Samuel P. Paul, Enoch Allen, Enoch Leeds, Thomas Somers, Elias Smith and Isaac Tomlinson,--who contracted with Edmund Brewer and John C. Morgan to erect the almshouse for five thousand six hundred dollars. In 1812 the freeholders purchased two hundred and forty-eight acres of woodland, near Williamstown, for the purpose of supplying the almshouse with fuel. When coal was substituted and no use of the woodland had been made for a number of years, the ownership was forgotten, until 1882, when Timothy J. Middleton, then clerk of the board, called attention to the fact. In 1822 the adjoining farm of Jedediah Morgan, about one hundred and sixty acres, was purchased. The almshouse was enlarged from time to time as necessity demanded. The small building for the insane was built in 1816. Upon the erection of Camden County, in 1844, the two counties used the almshouse jointly under direction of a joint committee until 1861, when, under an act of the Legislature, the property was sold, and the present farm of one hundred and forty-four acres, containing the buildings, together with the woodland, was bought by Camden County for $19,802. Timber Creek is the dividing line between the two counties, but an act of the Legislature rectified the line so as to place the almshouse farm in Camden County. A new almshouse was built in 1864, which was enlarged in 1877 and again in 1881. In the latter a hospital ward was erected separate from the main building, and so thus arranged, the Camden County Almshouse is regarded as one of the most complete in the State. The farm and buildings, including the Insane Asylum, are valued at ninety thousand dollars. In the fall of 1880 an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in the institution, decimating the ranks of the inmates, including the steward, Isaac P. Wilson, who had filled the position from the date that Camden County first took sole possession. The stewards have been Isaac P. Wilson, 1861-81; Alfred Harris, 1881-86; and Charles F. Adams. The annual cost is about one thousand eight hundred dollars. THE COUNTY INSANE ASYLUM.—The County Insane Asylum was built in 1877, under the law giving counties an allowance for the care of its indigent insane. It stands north of the almshouse, on the county farm, is of brick, three stories high, with all the best modern appliances for the care of the insane, in the protection and cure of whom the institution has been very successful. It has been enlarged and accommodates over ninety inmates. It is in charge of a matron, under the supervision of a committee of the Board of Freeholders. The net annual cost to the county for maintenance is about ten thousand dollars. The matrons have been: 1877-85, Adelaide Stiles; 1885, Jennie Gardner; 1886, Mary Nichols.