Inmate? Poor House Living; Cozmic One To Race Friday

Zenyatta's first foal, Cozmic One (known to family and friends as Coz), will begin his racing career on Friday.  It's a special weight race for maidens, and Coz has drawn the number one, inside, post.  In the outside post will be a son of Blame, the only horse to defeat Zenyatta.  Hopefully Coz has matured enough to put his mind on running and will have a great racing career, like his mom.  Trainer John Shirreffs, who trained Zenyatta, believes that her son, sired by Bernardini, is ready for competition.  Victor Espinoza will be in the irons on Friday when this promising colt makes his debut at Santa Anita Park.
   I'm still working on the Busey part of my family tree.  Yesterday, I was looking for information regarding Andrew Jackson Busey; he was the fourth son of Samuel Andrew Jackson Busey and America King Busey.  Andrew was listed as a child, under his father's name in the US Federal Census. In the 1870 and 1880 Census, he was working as a farm laborer on his eldest brother's farm.  Samuel married at the age of 39, and he and his wife are listed in the 1900 Census as a farmer and his wife in Carroll County, Indiana.  In glancing further down the search return, I was amazed to see that Andrew was listed as an "Inmate" in the 1910 and 1920 Census.
  Now, when I see the word "inmate" I think of three places - a local jail, a state prison, or an asylum for the mentally deficient.  I was puzzled, then when I searched the records and found, in the 1910 Census, that both Andrew and his wife, Mary,  were listed as "Inmates" in the Carroll County Infirmary.  Andrew was aged 64, Mary aged 66.  In the 1920 US Census, Andrew was listed as a widower, and an "Inmate,"  in the Howard County Infirmary, aged 74.  Both of these Infirmaries were in the state of Indiana, and Andrew was born (and died in) Howard County.  So, what the heck was an Infirmary of the County in the state of Indiana?
   I found the answer in a master's degree thesis that was posted on-line: "In the first half of the twentieth century, the county home was a fixture in each of Indiana’s ninety-two counties. Known by a variety of names, such as poorhouse, poor farm, county farm, poor asylum, or county infirmary, the county home offered shelter to those unable to provide for themselves. Residents included the mentally and physically disabled, those with mental illnesses, unwed mothers, the aged, and orphaned children, along with whole families too poor to live independently. The county home was the original homeless shelter, foster home, mental institution, and rehabilitation facility. This institution was publicly owned and managed at the county level, and it preceded any state or federal government welfare policies. Most counties built large, stately, institutional-style brick structures to serve this purpose. Poverty, until the Great Depression, was mainly a local problem. "
  I could not find a grave site, or marker, for Andrew's wife, Mary.  I suppose she was buried in a potter's grave in Carroll County, Indiana.  Andrew got a marker - and I think that other family members contributed for  the cost.  Andrew is in the Chittick Cemetery, in Miami County, where his parents are buried.  He was the fourth born of seven children, all of whom lived and married - and I'm surprised that he was in the county poor house for over 10 years prior to his death.