Massachusetts. State Board of Charity

The Board of State Charities from 1863 oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state's charitable and correctional institutions. In 1866 the board appointed a visiting agent, under its secretary, to track and visit state wards sent out to indenture. The Visiting Agency was made a separate department within the board in 1869 to investigate applicants wanting to adopt or indenture children, approve placements, conduct visits of children that were adopted, indentured, or otherwise placed out, and provide ongoing follow-up. Visitation work was continued by the Dept. of Indoor Poor within the successor agencies the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1879 and State Board of Lunacy and Charity in 1886, and then by the State Board of Charity in 1898.

St 1898, c 433 removed the functions of the Massachusetts State Board of Lunacy and Charity relating to the insane to a new State Board of Insanity, renaming the predecessor board as the State Board of Charity (s 25), the latter having jurisdiction over the settlement or non-settlement of the state poor under the control of the institutions supervised by either board, and administration of the laws of settlement relating to the support of the state's sane poor by cities and towns (s 24). The State Board of Charity included a Division of State Adult Poor (with indoor and outdoor units) and a Division of State Minor Wards, both of which had recently been established by the predecessor board. The Division of State Adult Poor was responsible for the welfare of adult poor without legal settlement, with the indoor department working with those confined to state medical facilities and the outdoor department providing supervision and reimbursement for programs of public relief administered by local authorities. In addition to continuing programs previously mandated, the board oversaw St 1913, c 763, ss 5-7, which provided relief to mothers with dependent children under the age of fourteen, as administered by local overseers of the poor, with reimbursement and supervision by the board. St 1919, c 350, s 87 abolished the State Board of Charity, replacing it with the Dept. of Public Welfare.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agency described above can be found by searching the following access point for the time period stated: 1898-1919--Massachusetts. State Board of Charity.