Greene County, Arkansas - Centennial Edition Section 2

Greene County Arkansas

Paragould, Arkansas

Centennial Edition Section 2

Monday, August 29, 1983, Paragould Daily Press Section 2, Centennial Edition -15

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    The cooperation of a long list of
Greene County civic, fraternal and
service organizations resulted in the
establishment of the Greene Acres
Nursing Home in 1957.
   Three years earlier, County Judge
J. Ed Thompson had begun a cam-
paign to replace the county's 63-year old "poor farm" with a modern nursing home facility. Organizations
answered his appeal and formed a
special committee with Donald Cox,
manager of the Paragould Chamber
of Commerce, as chairman.
   With the decision to build a new
home on Linwood Drive, the Greene Acres Nursing Home As- sociation, Inc., a non-profit organ-ization, was chartered Oct. 26, 1956.
   Two public subscription drives in
1956 and 1957, contributions from a variety of individuals, businesses and organizations and the sale of the old poor farm helped raise almost $28,000. The county bought the present nursing home site and the donated funds along with dona-ted materials and labor were used to construct a one-story brick building valued at $74,000.
   The new home opened Nov. 25, 1957, when 10 poor farm residents were moved into the new 21-bed facility. A formal dedication cere-mony was held two days later, on Thanksgiving Day. Since then, the home has expanded twice, the most recent being a 35-bed addition in 1981 named in honor of Mrs. T. J. Dickey, who has served on the nursing home board since its incep-tion, representing Business and Professional Women.
   In addition to Dickey, Cox and
Thompson, the charter board mem-
bers and the organizations they rep-resented included Thomas E. Wat- son Young Men's Civic Club; Roy Garner, Kiwanis Club; J. T. Brown, American Legion; Tom Ballard, Farm Bureau; Mrs. Luther Cline, Home Demonstration Council; the Rev. T. Watson Daniel, Ministerial Alliance; Jim Davis Jaycees; John Easley, Lions Club; Joe Howard, Rural Community Improvement Clubs; Mrs. Earle D. McKelvey, Greene County Nurses Associa-tion; W. G. Nutt, Rotary Club; Dr. Donald I. Purcell, County Medical Association; and Mrs. L. V. Rhine, Garden Clubs of Paragould.

....

Photo Captions:

Middle Left Photo:
W.D. Newsom, far right, was caretaker of the county farm when this picture was made in the fall of 1899. With him on the porch of the main farmhouse were his children Elma, Otho and Hardy and a visiting baby
Jerry Guin. The 85-acre farm had been purchased eight years earlier from T. R. Willcockson for $1,750 "to provide systematic and economical care for the poor," according to Vivian Hansbrough's History of Greene County. It was located three miles north of Paragould on what is now Fairview Road.

Photo courtesy: Mabel Bishop

Lower Left Photo:

Greene Acres Nursing Home, 1983

Photo courtesy: Daily Press by Bruce Moore

Middle Right Photo:

In 1955 the campaign to replace the county poor farm was well underway and these photographs from the Greene Acres Nursing Home's scrapbook were probably taken to document the need for better facilities. There were at least three buildings on the poor farm: a residence for the women (top photo) and a similar one for the men (photo at lower right) as well as the caretaker's house where residents ate. Photo above appears to be the living room of the men's quarters. The calendar on the wall indicates the photographs were taken in September 1955.

Photo courtesy: Greene Acres Nursing Home

Related Poor Farm and Pest House articles may be found at the following links:

PEST HOUSE ; PEST HOUSE 1902 ;

PARAGOULD'S PEST HOUSE

Transcribed from the 1983 Centennial Edition by : PR Massey

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