As did many Texas counties of the era, Kaufman County created a poor farm in 1883 in order to provide the indigent residents and families of the area with food, shelter, and medicine. This work program replaced earlier relief efforts. All able-bodied persons were required to work, including resident guards and county inmates convicted of minor crimes who were originally brought from the jail daily for labor; by 1893 they were housed on the farm. In the 1930s the farm was used to demonstrate new agricultural techniques. Usually filled to capacity, the farm operated until the 1970s. By 1997, a cemetery and a few buildings remained. (1997)