“Poor Houses and Town Farms: the Hard Row for Paupers,” a presentation about the treatment of paupers in early New Hampshire towns, will be given by Steve Taylor, an independent scholar, farmer, journalist,  and longtime public official, at 7 PM on Thursday, June 21, in the Highland Lake Grange Hall, 7 Chase Hill Road, East Andover.
Sponsored by the Andover Historical Society with a grant from New Hampshire Humanities, the event is open to the public at no charge.  The talk will mark Taylor’s third appearance in Andover in recent years. In 2013, he spoke on the state’s one-room schoolhouses, and in 2014 he described “New Hampshire’s Great Sheep Boom.” Both were also sponsored by the Historical Society.
Describing the June presentation, Society program chair Rita Norander said: “The earliest New Hampshire settlers struggled with issues surrounding the treatment of the poor in their communities.  Following England’s lead, they imposed taxes for the maintenance of the poor, but made no distinction between the ‘vagrant, vicious poor’ and the helpless and hones poor.
“This confusion led to the establishment of alms houses and poor farms.  Taylor will examine how paupers were treated in these facilities and how reformers eventually succeeded in closing them down.”
Refreshments will be available following the presentation.  For more information, contact Norander at 934-5397 or bobrita@nulljuno.com