The Cumberland Overseers of the Poor was a board created under the authority of Maine’s so-called pauper laws of 1821, with oversight to govern the treatment of the town’s poor and indigent citizens. The Town of Cumberland Overseers of the Poor Archive contains more than 1,200 documents dated from 1821 to 1915. The Cumberland authorities created over 900 of the documents, with the rest authored by Overseers of the Poor of other Maine municipalities, including Brunswick, Chebeague Island, Falmouth, Freeport, Harpswell, Hiram, North Yarmouth, and Portland. The collection includes bills, indentures, inventories of personal belongings, notifications from one municipality to another concerning paupers, pauper lists, proposals, receipts, reports, requests for funds, and statements.
Prince Memorial Library is in the process of archiving and digitizing these documents to make them more easily accessible to the public. Anyone interested in viewing or researching the original documents is encouraged to contact the library.
