Thomas and Jane Reading lived and worked in the House in 1880-1881. Once they began having a family, they decided to pack up and move to Niagara where they could be closer to Jane’s parents. Thomas helped establish a lot of the farm land around the House.
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Peter and Susannah Itter began working as the managers of the Poorhouse in 1880. Shortly after Susannah’s death in 1886, Peter married a staff member of the Poorhouse, Alvina. After Peter and Alvina began working together, accusations began to come out against the misconduct and poor treatment that they were exhibiting towards the inmates. The accusations accumulated in the Scandal of 1893.
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Henrietta Strasburger played a role in attesting against the Itter’s during the 1893 Scandal and subsequent trial.
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“The Old Man Hudson is in tolerable health for his age-getting weak and frail-although in this kind of weather he is still able to come out to church of a Sunday”
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Frederick Helwig was born around 1840 in Germany. He was living in Waterloo County before he entered the Poorhouse on January 5 1878, at 38 years old. No occupation is listed for him and the cause of pauperism is “weak intellect”. He stayed at the House for about three months before he is discharged. He was committed for a second time to the House on June 4 of that same year. He stayed at the House for about a year when he was sent to the County Gaol for being too dangerous to live with the other House residents. ...
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The Groff family had a total of eight relatives stay at the House between 1878-1939, almost the entirety of the Poorhouse’s operation. Five of the relatives were sent to Hamilton Insane Asylum and the Orillia Hospital of the Feeble-Minded from the House.
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