Graduate Students

Dunlop, S. - M.A

Across the Generations: A Case Study of Family Poverty and Public Relief in Wellington County, 1889-1912 - Dr. Terry Crowley, advisor       

         From 1889 to 1912, three generations of the Hollingshead-Everson families from the small town of Harrison engaged with public assistance systems that included outdoor relief through the town council and indoor relief at the Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge. The convergence of several levels of social assistance in the 1890s and the early twentieth century introduced changes to the policies and practices that intervened in the struggles of families such as the Hollingshead-Eversons to survive destitution. Contrary to the assumptions of passive acceptance of charity that are often assumed in instances of generational poverty, this paper argues that the survival of the destitute family depended upon the ability to negotiate strategies that enabled member to meet basic needs through public relief with the aid of an extended kinship network. These support systems did not act independently of each other but co-existed as sources of assistance throughout the decades, adapting their roles as caregivers and providers as the relationship between family and state support emerged. This case study uses municipal records and primary sources from the House of Industry and Refuge at the Wellington County Archives to reconstruct the generational experiences of these families and their encounters with local public relief.