Jane, I think you'll find all the information you want about the Venango County Home/Poor Farm on the Venango Co. website. http://www.rootsweb.com/~pavenang/ After you've entered the web site, scroll down the pane on the left of your screen until you come to "POOR Farm". There's also a listing of 'occupants' of its cemetery. Joyce Neidich has posted a 'mini-history' here for all to read. I have a distant relative on my family tree who spent his final years in the "Poor House"/County Home. According to the records, he was committed by the commissioners in 1906, their records show he could not 'write his name, he was abstinent, not able-bodied and sane'. His disease was 'old age' (he was 87 when he died). Under their notes of 'how discharged' it says "dead"! If you read Joyce's history of the poor farm, this fits--commissioners oversaw the 'farm'--and its 'occupants' were indigent, disabled and insane. (Apparently this relative met two of those criteria) I don't know for sure, but I feel it was likely he was in that institution because of poverty--and probably had no one to care for him at home. Fast forward to 1989 - the building used for the Poor Farm was then known as Venango Manor, an 'Old Folks Home'. My aunt was a resident there for the last couple years of her life, dying there in 1989. The facility may still exist--I'm not sure. Pat (Patricia Hays Roberts), Aiken, SC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MY FAMILIES (all from Pennsylvania)! PATERNAL: HAYS, Baer, Carnahan, Dickey, Gilliland, Klinger, Peter(s), Rissinger, Watson MATERNAL: MYERS, Burns, Diener, Fritz, Koch, Schmalze, Singree, Stroble, Weaver