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Article: History of welfare in West Virginia
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- August 8, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The history of welfare in West Virginia, according to publications
of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the
Center for Popular Economics in Amherst, Mass.:
* Pre-1863: Individual parishes in Virginia responsible for caring
for the poor.
* Statehood in 1863: Each county elects overseers of the poor.
Counties authorized to establish poor farms.
* 1870: Care for poor transferred to boards of supervisors
(precursor to county commissions).
* 1872: Responsibility for poor taken over by overseers appointed
by county officials. Throughout this era most social welfare needs
were handled by local charities.
* 1921: Federal Sheppard-Towner Act funds programs for maternal ...