Hillsborough County Poor Farm

Hillsborough County Poor Farm (1850-1950)

Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Grave Number 8

Grave Number 8 is an unknown resident of the Hillsborough County Poor Farm. Records from this time period have been lost or destroyed. Like many, the numbered stone is broken and in need of repair.

Hillsborough County Poor Farm Cemetery (aka Pine Grove Cemetery)

Graves are numbered for identification, though many of the oldest have no surviving records. Children are buried between the adult graves without stone or identification of any sort.

Read of the Cemetery

A look at just some of the numbered graves in the rear of the cemetery.

Hillsborough County Poor Farm Cemetery

Some graves in the front of the cemetery are behind a chain and have been minimally maintained. Graves in the other areas of the cemetery, however, receive less care.

Brief Background on the Poor Farm

Hillsborough County Cemetery, also known as Pine Grove Cemetery or County Farm Cemetery, was established in 1896 (nearly 50 years after the creation of the poor farm) and is the final resting place of over 700 individuals who died as residents of the Hillsborough County Poor Farm. Many graves remain unmarked and unaccounted for while the others are marked with only a number. It is our mission to identify and research as many of the individuals who rest here so that their stories become known. Through this, we can examine how we addressed poverty in America during the 19th and 20th centuries in order to do better now and in the future.

Project Objective:

Located along the Goffstown Rail Trail in Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, is the remains of the Hillsborough County Poor Farm. Also along the trail is Pine Grove Cemetery, the final resting place of more than 700 residents of the farm. Our project began as an effort to connect the numbered headstones with the names and stories of the individuals they are meant to represent to allow us to see poverty in human terms rather than in social or financial terms like “indigent” or “pauper.”

However, it quickly became to be about much more.

Our objectives for this project include, but are not limited to:

• Documenting the lives of as many residents of the Hillsborough County Poor Farm (also known as Grasmere) between the years of 1850 and 1950;
• Documenting the history, both social and political, of the role that the Hillsborough County Poor Farm played in the local community and, in a larger sense, the state of New Hampshire;
• Identifying the individuals buried in the Hillsborough County Poor Farm Cemetery (also known as Pine Grove Cemetery) and documenting their stories;
• Identifying the individuals buried in an unmarked cemetery in Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire and documenting their stories;
• Documenting events that took place at both the Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire location and the Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire location;
• Bringing awareness to the use of poor farms and their effect on the poor and unhoused community;
• and connecting the stories of the past to the community of today to add to the conversation surrounding poverty in our communities and the solutions we may implement in the future.

Note: Our interest in this project is not meant to erase, demean, or cast judgement upon the work that other genealogists and local historians have done to commemorate these individuals and their stories. We honor and value their work. We hope to assist any local individual or organization working toward these goals so that we can add our collective energy to support the overall goals of all who care about the history and residents associated with the Hillsborough County Poor Farm.

Have you researched the poor farm and its cemetery, or are you interested in beginning? We would love to work with you!