This is a 1910 photo of the Arboga, Sweden fattiggård or poorhouse. Looks lovely and peaceful from a distance doesn't it? I seriously doubt it.
Through the earliest times in Sweden the church provided benefit relief . Local governments later provided assistance to the indigent: for the young, the old and the infirm. Poverty among the able-bodied had come to be viewed as a moral failing. Those who could work were expected to. Destitute able bodied adults AND children were auctioned for work. They were offered to townsfolk who took the lowest amount of money from the poor relief for a year of room and board in exchange for the indigents work. In 1847 Poor Laws were enacted that eliminated the auctions of children to work. The old, very young and infirm were provided for in the local poorhouse. Even those people however were required to contribute what they could. Work could be hard and provisions were bare minimum.
My grandmother's cousin, Lovisa Charlotta Majholm had more than one strike against her. She was born illegitimate, a stigma that remained with you for life. She was poor, her mother delivering her alone in the poorhouse. She was a woman in a time when women had few rights, choices or future. She had no siblings and never married. She was also noted in the following census as crippled and insane. Perhaps for a short time her health improved as she lived off the poor house for a short time in her late 20's. Maybe it was one of those contract deals. I don't know. I do know that my great great grandfather, Edvard Julius, was concerned about her welfare. In 1886 he wrote to the welfare board concerning her upkeep. Unfortunately he died shortly after. Did she ever receive help from our family? Again, I don't know.
•Arboga stadförsamling census 1926-1928.
•Residing at "Fattiggården" (poorhouse),
•Majholm, Lovisa Charlotta
•work: "sinnessjuk" (insane)
•born: November 20, 1850 in Arboga
•has been vaccinated for smallpox
•Notes: "ofärdig" (crippled)
my grandmother Lydia's cousin
Lovisa Charlotta Majholm
b: 11 February 1850 Arboga, Västmanland, Sweden
d: 10 Oct 1931 Arboga, Västmanland, Sweden
She was born in and died in the Arboga "fattiggärden" (poorhouse)
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