There is no mention made in the town’s earliest records of aid rendered to the poor, and probably there were few or none so needy that they would consent to become a public charge. The imbecile and those otherwise incompetent for their own support were cared for by their relatives; the aged, and unfortunate “scratched along” as best they could. The descendants of Puritans always found the bread of charity hard to swallow.

The town’s officials, however, were ever diligent in guarding the treasury against possible claims for support of the shiftless and indigent. Residence for a twelvemonth in town without being warned out entitled one to the rights of citizenship. Sooner or later therefore, each stranger who sought permanent shelter in the town, if the selectmen were not convinced of his thrift and worthy character, received a formal call from the constable, who, in the name of the king, warned him to depart forthwith under penalty of more stringent measures for his expulsion. The fact of the delivery of such warning was duly recorded with the county court’s proceedings.

An example of a Harvard warning is given to show what watchfulness was expected of the town fathers:

“Whereas there is now Residing in the Town of Harvard Nathaniel Stone, an infant child of about two months old who came from Milton in the County of Suffolk, on the twenty-third Day of September last past: also a Lad named Silas Harris who came from Leominster in the County of Worcester on the first Day of January last past; also a young woman named Rachel Wright who came from Sudbury in the County of Middlesex in the Month of June last past, who are all poor Persons and in our Judgment likely to be chargeable to the Town of Harvard speedily, You are therefore hereby required in his Majesty’s Name forthwith to make Diligent Search within your Limits where said Persons may be found and to warn all and every of them the above named poor Persons to Depart forthwith out of the Town of Harvard, and make Due Return of your Doings herein unto some one of us Subscribers within four Days from the Date hereof as you will answer your neglect at the peril of the Law in that case made and Provided.”

Joseph Blood and family seem to have been the first to receive regular aid from the town treasury. May 22, 1749, the town voted to instruct the selectmen to “see what the necessity of Joseph Blood’s family was and Releave them as the thought best for the Present.” For two or three years bills were paid “for finding Joseph Blood and family house room.”

In 1753 the town built a small house upon the eastern border of the common, where an acre had been temporarily improved by John Wright, the pound-keeper. In this, which was called the “town’s house,” and was in fact the first alms house, Blood’s family were installed. In 1758 a well was dug and stoned “so that it may be sufficient for Joseph Blood’s family.” This was known down to the present century as “the town’s well.”

May 17, 1762, “the Town voted to purchase a Cow for the use of Joseph Blood’s family, and also voted to have the said Cow kept this year at the Cost of the Town.” In 1778 Joseph Blood and his family being dead, the cow was sold by order of a vote in town meeting.

November 18, 1785, it was “voted that the Town’s House be appropriated to the use of a Work House to put idle persons in if need by.” In 1797 ground and house were sold.

The town had by this time adopted a less humane but then customary method of providing for the care of paupers—they were sold for the year to the lowest bidders. Soon there began to appear annually in the town’s accounts such strange items as: “For Liquor at Vendueing the poor. 3.13.” The bidding at an auction, even where humanity was for sale, went very slowly on, if without fluid stimulants. It is said that many of the recruits who swelled the ranks of the Shakers were the lonely and aged, chiefly widows and spinsters, who feared the coming of poverty and the shame of the annual vendue. The evils of the system probably stirred the town’s conscience, for in 1818, a committee was instructed to consider whether some better method for the support of the paupers could not be devised. The recommendation of this committee, which was adopted, was to contract with some one to relieve the town of all care of the poor for a term of years. Captain Oliver Hill offered, for the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, to support the town’s paupers for three years, including “clothing, lodging, food, necessary doctoring, and funeral expenses,” and this bid, being the lowest, was accepted.

The increase of pauperism became so marked at this period that a committee was appointed to investigate the causes. Their report is the first word favoring temperance found in the records, and closes with allusion to the persistent survival of an ancient custom, which on the day of burial brought to the house of mourning guests whose free libation neither did honor to the dead nor to themselves.

275 Years of a Town:  In June 1732, the town of Harvard incorporated within the colony, after nearly 100 years of settlement in the area and several years of petitions, objections, and re-petitions to the legislature. To celebrate this milestone, the Press is running extracts from Henry S. Nourse’s History of the Town of Harvard Massachusetts 1732–1893.