One of the enduring and somewhat vague aspects of life in Freeborn County is based on a place called the poor farm and a nearby cemetery for people who couldn’t afford the costs of funeral and burial expenses.

The site of this particular cemetery is near the corner of 755th Avenue and County Road 14 (240th Street) and to the north of the Good Samaritan Center. This particular site is now a combination of small trees and somewhat rough ground with scattered grassy covering. There seems to be no indication of a cemetery ever being at this location.

Yet, there’s historical evidence that burials of indigent county citizens were once made in this part of Bancroft Township.

An undated document in the files of the Freeborn County Historical Museum Library states the Freeborn County Poor Farm was once located in Section 21 of Bancroft Township.

The first 80 acres was owned by Alexander Ramsey — the land transfer to the county was recorded Jan. 6, 1871. In this area the town of Bancroft was once platted but never really materialized and was then taken over by the poor farm. (The present community of Bancroft is located to the east of the original site and along North Bridge Avenue (County Road 22).

Ramsey (1815-1903) was the governor of Minnesota Territory (1849-[1853), mayor of St. Paul (1855), Minnesota’s governor (1860-1863) and U.S. Senator (1863-1875). He may have purchased the original site of Bancroft as a investment. Ramsey County, the twin cities suburb of Ramsey, the small locality of Ramsey just north of Austin, and a grade school and street in Albert Lea perpetuate his name.

One of the museum’s documents states, “On the County Farm were two cemeteries called Potters Field — some say there was three. The first cemetery was located just west of the Bancroft sand pit which was weed grown and unkempt in 1939. We believe this was the cemetery which is near a home now owned by Gene Severson and the Ladies Clubs of Albert Lea dedicated Nov. 11, 1914, and named Calvary. The second cemetery was located where part of the now Good Samaritan Center now stands which was dedicated by Rev. Burdette Maine of the First Methodist Church on June 9, 1939, with the first burial being J. W. Kish. This cemetery was improved and fenced.

“The graves were marked with wooden crosses and some only with tree branches wired together into crosses which long since have decayed. Visible evidence of a cemetery is very remote today.”

Potters field is more correctly spelled potter’s field. This term is described as a place for the burial of unknown or indigent (poor) people. Potter’s field is a term which Wikipedia describes as having a Biblical origin (Matthew 27:3-8) in the New Testament and has a connection with a place that was the source of potter’s clay. There are burial places designated as Potter’s Field in New York City (Hart Island) Philadelphia, Pa., Omaha, Neb., London, England, and Toronto, Canada. These two words have been used as song or recording titles by several musical groups. And J.K. Rowling reportedly used this term as the inspiration for the naming of the Harry Potter books.

The only known records regarding burials in the Poor Farm or Potter’s Field Cemeteries are in the minutes of the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners meetings up to 1953 when the Good Samaritan Center became a reality. JoAnn Flugum is credited for doing this research in 1983.

According to a listing in the museum’s files, there are nine people, plus Kish, who may be buried in Section 21 of Bancroft Township. Then again, maybe the remains of several of those people may have been reburied later in other cemeteries.

The museum’s document says, “The county also owned lots in various cemeteries in the county where they made burials also. Thus, those listed in the records may also be buried in one of these lots besides the poor farm cemeteries.”

Two of those cemeteries specifically listed in the county board’s records are Lakewood and the Albert Lea Cemetery Association (Graceland).