Massachusetts. State Farm (Bridgewater, Mass.)

1852, c 275 provided for the establishment of three institutions (by 1854 called state almshouses) to receive, from cities and towns, paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth who were supported at public expense. St 1853, c 352 designated one of these as the State Almshouse at Bridgewater, which opened May 1, 1854. It soon received what were later termed the more willingly and needlessly dependent (Trustees of the State Farm at Bridgewater. Annual report, 1903 (PD 24: Oct l903)). Per St 1863, c 240 the almshouse came under the jurisdiction of the Board of State Charities.

St 1866, c 198 established the State Workhouse at the State Almshouse at Bridgewater, with a hospital, also under the Board of State Charities. The workhouse originally received inmates of state almshouses convicted of being rogues, vagabonds, and the like (i.e., misdemeanors) as per GS 1860, c 165, s 28. Per St 1869, c 258, any residents of municipal almshouses convicted of misdemeanors were committed to the State Workhouse, as were incorrigible inmates of state juvenile reform institutions. St 1872, c 45 abolished the Bridgewater almshouse (sending paupers to the remaining State Almshouse at Tewksbury), although state paupers could and did continue to be sent to the Bridgewater almshouse department. St 1880, c 257 directed vagrants to be sentenced to the workhouse. St 1879, c 291 replaced the Board of State Charities with the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, and gave the workhouse its own board of trustees, replacing a board of inspectors. St 1884, c 297 replaced this with a Board of Trustees of the State Almshouse [i.e., at Tewksbury] and State Workhouse. After a fire, St 1883, c 279 authorized temporary removal of the workhouse to quarters at the State Reform School at Westborough; return to Bridgewater occurring in Dec. 1884, authorized by Resolves 1884, c 76. The rebuilding in brick in 1884 also provided a more complete separation of the almshouse department from the prison (workhouse) wing.

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