A book titled "Asa James" by Jodi Lew-Smith is surrounded by colorful flowers and botanical illustrations, set against a textured background of faded script and subtle patterns.

Andover Center for History and Culture

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<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1773174237/wysiwyg/gwuuo1c9zyj5neq4q51g.png" style="width: 168px; display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; position: relative; max-width: 100%; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;" fr-original-style="width: 168px; display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; position: relative; max-width: 100%; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable">&nbsp;&ldquo;The Rise and Fall of New England Almshouses and Poor Farms&rdquo;lecture and book signing by author Jodi Lew Smith Vermont author Jodi Lew-Smith will speak about the history of almshouses, poorhouses and poor farms in New England. In an engaging talk that&rsquo;s been getting rave reviews, she&rsquo;ll follow the rise and decline of the &ldquo;indoor relief&rdquo; system, in which towns and counties took responsibility for sheltering &ldquo;their own poor&rdquo;. Her talk will touch on state-wide systems as well as the local, with discussion of how the old systems compare to what we have now. She&rsquo;ll further explain the reasoning behind her fictional portrayal of a poor farm in her historical novel, Asa James, the tale of a young man raised on an 1875 Vermont poor farm&mdash;where he grew the ambition to be the next Charles Darwin. The novel has won multiple fiction prizes, including the American Legacy and Feathered Quill Book Awards for historical fiction and the National Indie Excellence Award and Independent Publisher Book Award for regional fiction of the Northeast. Jodi Lew-Smith lives on a hill farm in&nbsp;Hardwick, VT with her husband, dog, chickens, and 250 apple trees. Her grown children come and go, staying long enough to make her laugh. She has always been a writer but also enjoys biology, which comes out in her fiction.&nbsp;She holds a bachelor&rsquo;s in English literature, a master&rsquo;s in botany, and a doctorate in molecular genetics, with which she works&nbsp;as a biocurator for a&nbsp;genomic database based at Stanford. Her stories and essays have appeared in various journals, including a story in&nbsp;The Wax Paper&nbsp;that was nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize. <span fr-original-style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;' style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; box-sizing: inherit;'>Location: Andover Center for History and Culture97 Main Street<span fr-original-style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;' style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; box-sizing: inherit;'>Andover, 01810 <span fr-original-style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(44, 130, 201); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;' style='font-size: 14px; color: rgb(44, 130, 201); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; box-sizing: inherit;'>*PLEASE NOTE: Zeffy is a free platform for nonprofits, however they include an intrusive ask for donations to the platform. To remove their intrusive request, select &quot;Other&quot; in the drop down and enter zero (0)

Hi <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 196); overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you for registering for &quot;The Rise and Fall of New England Almshouses and Poor Farms&quot;.&nbsp; We&#39;re looking forward to seeing you there. Martha Tubinismtubinis@andoverhistoryandculture.org

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1773174237/wysiwyg/gwuuo1c9zyj5neq4q51g.png" style="width:168px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;position:relative;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" /> “The Rise and Fall of New England Almshouses and Poor Farms”lecture and book signing by author Jodi Lew Smith Vermont author Jodi Lew-Smith will speak about the history of almshouses, poorhouses and poor farms in New England. In an engaging talk that’s been getting rave reviews, she’ll follow the rise and decline of the “indoor relief” system, in which towns and counties took responsibility for sheltering “their own poor”. Her talk will touch on state-wide systems as well as the local, with discussion of how the old systems compare to what we have now. She’ll further explain the reasoning behind her fictional portrayal of a poor farm in her historical novel, Asa James, the tale of a young man raised on an 1875 Vermont poor farm—where he grew the ambition to be the next Charles Darwin. The novel has won multiple fiction prizes, including the American Legacy and Feathered Quill Book Awards for historical fiction and the National Indie Excellence Award and Independent Publisher Book Award for regional fiction of the Northeast. Jodi Lew-Smith lives on a hill farm in Hardwick, VT with her husband, dog, chickens, and 250 apple trees. Her grown children come and go, staying long enough to make her laugh. She has always been a writer but also enjoys biology, which comes out in her fiction. She holds a bachelor’s in English literature, a master’s in botany, and a doctorate in molecular genetics, with which she works as a biocurator for a genomic database based at Stanford. Her stories and essays have appeared in various journals, including a story in The Wax Paper that was nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Location: Andover Center for History and Culture97 Main StreetAndover, 01810 *PLEASE NOTE: Zeffy is a free platform for nonprofits, however they include an intrusive ask for donations to the platform. To remove their intrusive request, select "Other" in the drop down and enter zero (0)