On January 1, 1848, the same board ordered the superintendents of the county poor to purchase a farm of one hundred or one hundred and sixty acres for a county poor farm. One was bought the same year of Cyrus Schellhous for two thousand eight hundred dollars, in the township of Colon. It was subsequently sold, and another one, the old Latta farm and tavern-stand in Fawn River, obtained in 1857 by the forfeiture of Latt's recognizance under an indictment for counterfeiting, and which the county then owned. The farm consisted of two hundred and forty acres or more, and was located on sections three in Fawn River and thirty-four in Burr Oak. According to the 1877 history of St. Joseph county, the house on the premise was a large and comfortable building of about seventy by seventy feet on the ground, two stories in height, and will accommodate about fifty persons comfortably. "The unfortunate poor are here cared for humanely while living, and when dead are buried in the Fawn River cemetery, and at their graves neat marble headstones, bearing inscriptions which give the name age and demise of each, are erected by the county authorities. This last act of humanity is the result of Hon. Isaac D. Toll's efforts, while on the board of supervisors."