IF YOU DO NOT THINK PLACING CACHES IN CEMETERIES IS APPROPRIATE, PLEASE DO NOT COME TO THIS CACHE. MY INTENTION IN PUTTING A CACHE IN THIS CEMETERY, AS IT IS FOR PLACING CACHES IN ANY CEMETERY, WAS TO BRING PEOPLE TO A NOT VERY WELL-KNOWN RESTING-PLACE FOR THE DOWN-AND-OUT OF LONG AGO, WHEN THE ALMS (POOR) HOUSE WAS WHERE YOU WENT WHEN YOUR FAMILY OR FRIENDS COULDN'T TAKE CARE OF YOU. MOST FOLKS WHO COME TO THIS AREA ARE FOCUSED ON BASEBALL OR THE NEARBY POND, BUT I THOUGHT THE POOR WHO ARE BURIED HERE DESERVED SOME RESPECT. I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY DISAGREE WITH ME ABOUT THE PROPRIETY OF DRAGGING GEOCACHING INTO THE REALM OF PAYING RESPECT TO THE DEAD. I SIMPLY ASK THAT WE AGREE TO DISAGREE ABOUT THE MATTER. IF IT DISTURBS YOU TO COME TO THESE GRAVES AS A PART OF GEOCACHING, PLEASE DO NOT SEEK THIS CACHE. IF YOU DO COME, PERHAPS YOU'LL SEE, AS I DO, THAT THESE DESTITUTE RESIDENTS OF CARROLL DESERVE RESPECT AS CERTAINLY AS DO THOSE BURIED TWENTY MILES NORTHWEST IN GETTYSBURG, WHERE PEOPLE ALSO GO--SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF CACHING. YOU MAY FEEL THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT I HAVE DESECRATED A GRAVE HERE BY PLACING A CACHE UPON IT. AGAIN, I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE. I PLACE FLOWERS UPON THIS PARTICULAR GRAVE, NOT SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE WOMAN'S LAST NAME, WHICH IS SIGNIFICANT TO MY PERSONAL HISTORY, BUT BECAUSE HER GRAVE REPRESENTS, AT LEAST TO ME, THE WAY IN WHICH THE PEOPLE OF CARROLL COUNTY AT ONE POINT IN TIME CHOSE TO BE KIND TO THE POOR. SO, IF YOU COME TO FIND THE CACHE, PLEASE DO WHATEVER ELSE YOU CHOOSE TO DO TO HONOR THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US AND STRUGGLED WITH THE SAME ISSUES EVERY GENERATION FACES: HOW TO DECIDE WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS NOT GOOD, AND THEN TO SUMMON THE STRENGTH AND THE COURAGE TO DO THE ONE AND AVOID THE OTHER. IT IS APPROPRIATE TO KNEEL HERE, TO PLACE FLOWERS HERE, TO MEDITATE HERE. BUT PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE I AM WILLFULLY DISRESPECTING THE DEAD. RATHER, I MEAN FOR US ALL TO HONOR THEM, IN A SMALL WAY.
Nearby is Carroll Hosptial Center. Parking is available off the entrance road to the Ag Center off Gist Road; take the first right, drive to the end, and turn left; park near the ballfield. Please observe a proper decorum.
More than Carroll's destitute stayed at the almshouse over the years. Itinerants, hobos, even the mentally disabled and criminals were allowed to reside here. As the life history of Charles R. Groft shows, however, there were limits: when Groft became too unstable to remain safely at the almshouse, he was sent to Springfield Hospital, in South Carroll, where he died. His remains are not to be found here in the paupers' cemetery, however, but in his family's plot in nearby Westminster Cemetery. As Jeffrey L. Thomas notes, his ancestor was typical of those who lived at the almshouse at a certain period; that is, he was not there because he was destitute, but because he was beginning to suffer from senility or dementia and family were unable to care for him.
Between June 28 and July 4, 1863, both Union and Confederate forces encamped on the almshouse property on their way to the Gettysburg battlefield.
There's a good bit of solemn history right here, so sit, rest, reflect.
Congrats to TeamTDI for FTF--and to JAB430 for stumbling upon it before it was published!