Transcription (year 2021) of a historical marker posted at the site of the La Salle County Pauper Cemetery, on the grounds of the La Salle County Nursing Home, 1380 N. 27th Road, Ottawa, La Salle County, Illinois, USA:

La Salle County Pauper Cemetery

On this site was located the 210 acre La Salle County Poor Farm. Seen here is a picture of the residential buildings that no longer stand. Through the nationwide poor farm system, La Salle County provided for their indigent, medically or mentally unhealthy citizens, who had no means of support, starting in 1835 until the 1966, when the present Nursing Home was constructed.

Just southeast of the Nursing Home is the cemetery. There are 383 names of poor farm residents buried here with their dates of death and cause of death. The list can be found at the La Salle County Genealogy Guild, 115 Glover St, Ottawa, IL.

The known residents were buried from 1903 to 1941. There are several grave-sites of the unknown, simply listed on the 1903 Cemetery Plat Map as “Old Cemetery.”

There were no markers in this cemetery until the 1980’s when a homemade metal cross was placed on the site.

This sign is to acknowledge the role of the poor farm in our county’s history and to commemorate the lives of the men, women, children and infants interred in the La Salle County Pauper Cemetery. We dedicate this sign in their memory.

May the souls of the known and unknown buried on these grounds rest in peace.

Transcription (year 2021) of a historical marker posted at the site of the La Salle County Pauper Cemetery, on the grounds of the La Salle County Nursing Home, 1380 N. 27th Road, Ottawa, La Salle County, Illinois, USA:

La Salle County Pauper Cemetery

On this site was located the 210 acre La Salle County Poor Farm. Seen here is a picture of the residential buildings that no longer stand. Through the nationwide poor farm system, La Salle County provided for their indigent, medically or mentally unhealthy citizens, who had no means of support, starting in 1835 until the 1966, when the present Nursing Home was constructed.

Just southeast of the Nursing Home is the cemetery. There are 383 names of poor farm residents buried here with their dates of death and cause of death. The list can be found at the La Salle County Genealogy Guild, 115 Glover St, Ottawa, IL.

The known residents were buried from 1903 to 1941. There are several grave-sites of the unknown, simply listed on the 1903 Cemetery Plat Map as “Old Cemetery.”

There were no markers in this cemetery until the 1980’s when a homemade metal cross was placed on the site.

This sign is to acknowledge the role of the poor farm in our county’s history and to commemorate the lives of the men, women, children and infants interred in the La Salle County Pauper Cemetery. We dedicate this sign in their memory.

May the souls of the known and unknown buried on these grounds rest in peace.