Four Dollars and Eighty Four Cents for Mr. Enos, County Pauper

The Archives contains in its "subject" files one file labeled "Poor House." It contains two lists of poor house residents from two random years and about 8 very old documents relating to the early days of the county poor house, which once stood in present-day County Farm Park, near Washtenaw and Platt.

The pictured document reads,

4-84 To the Treasurer of the Town of Ypsilanti

Sir

Pay to [Edmunds] and Godard four Dollars and Eighty four cents for expenses laid out for Mr. Enos (deceased) a county Pauper

Elias M. Skinner

Poor Master for the Town of Ypsilanti

for G. [Spencer]

Ypsilanti Sept. 16 1833

"Elias Skinner" was the name of the first lawyer to hang a shingle in Ypsi, and presumably is the same man who wrote this letter.

$4.84 in 1833 dollars would be about $105 today. Is this document a bill for Mr. Enos' death expenses? Dusty Diary at first thought so, but reflected that 1. I don't believe funerals were as expensive in those days and 2. the county would spend the minimum for a pauper's death and also 3. the poor house had its own graveyard, now partially buried by Washtenaw Road. So what is this document?