County Home Cemetery

The only county-owned cemetery is a 60-grave site at the Henderson County Landfill where residents of the County Home for the indigent were buried. Some officials state the site contained the graves of 48 residents.
The cemetery was near the Henderson County Animal Shelter until a new shelter was constructed. With recent renovations at the landfill, the cemetery is now located at the main entrance to the landfill.
It is impossible to determine the number of graves since all the unmarked field stones were moved and scattered. The actual burial locations within the cemetery are not known and are not visibly apparent.
The County Home housed poor and homeless residents and residents with special needs who had no caregivers from 1838 until it was closed about 1948. A monument was erected designating the site in 1948.
The cemetery is maintained by staff at the Henderson County Landfill.
The cemetery at the former County Home has been maintained. It was not historically preserved.
After the Civil War, in 1868, the state charged county commissioners of each county to provide for the support of the poor and to pay for a “keeper of the poor” to operate a poor house.
In 1876 the state legislators said paupers were to be maintained at the poor house and could not be hired out at auction. Each county was to employ an overseer at the poor house.
In 1888, state records indicate there were four persons at the “poor house” in Henderson County.
In 1910 records indicate there were seven people in the county’s “almshouse.”