I stumbled across some interesting history while looking for info on something else.
I was wondering where the Will Carleton Poorhouse near Hillsdale Michigan got it’s name and discovered poet William Carleton. He lived in the poorhouse while he was a student at Hillsdale college in the late 1860s. His poetry was kind of interesting in the sense that he wrote about hard work, family, and resisting taking charity.
>>What is the use of heapin on me a paupers shame?
Am I lazy or crazy? Am I blind or lame?
True, I am not so supple, nor yet so awful stout:
But charity aint no favor, if one can live without.<<
http://www.hillsdalecounty.info/history0053.asp
Fifty bucks cash and when she paid it back it was fifty dollars plus fifty cents.