Please forgive the multiple posts if you subscribe to several Vermont lists. But this is an important piece of history, and we wanted to be sure that anyone interested in it would hear about it. Recently a reader of these lists submitted an article dated Feb 7, 1897 from the St Albans Weekly Messenger. It paints an extremely detailed and very poignant picture of the contemporary conditions in the SHELDON County Poorhouse. The article merits reading by anyone who wishes to understand the realities of day-to-day life in many a poorhouse of the times. This is a MUST READ! Even poorhouses in vastly differing places often were constructed and operated in the manner described so meticulously in this article. While such neglect seems not to have been true for the majority of county poorhouses in the country, it was nevertheless quite common. We have posted the article in its entirety on our website, The POORHOUSE STORY (a clearinghouse for information about 19th century American poorhouses)at http://www.poorhousestory.com (We think you will our formatting easier to read than was the posting by e-mail.) To find the article, please go to the homepage (link above)and click on POORHOUSES BY STATE, then click on VERMONT on the table of states. Near the middle of the page you will find the article highlighted in a blue box with a yellow NEW arrow. This article is of so much historic value that we will feature it on our FEATURED ARTICLES page very soon. Our thanks to Jim Carroll for caring and for taking the time to transcribe the article to share with all of us. Sincerely, Linda M. Crannell (aka=The Poorhouse Lady)