Shaping poor relief for the sick-poor in Indiana's pioneering era, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 1826-1846

Poor relief practices in rural Tippecanoe County first involved boarding th e sick-poor in the community and later broadened to include institutional c are. Local officials implemented these changes not to achieve social contro l of an increasing and more diverse population but, at first, to consolidat e the costs of caring for the chronically ill. Although the farm was not co st effective, it continued and expanded to include some acutely ill. County officials' pragmatic attention to local conditions, personal needs, and at titudes toward poverty and health informed their actions, shaping the count y's relief program-a program that served only a minority of the sick-poor.