The Confederate Soldiers homes were institutions; like hotels, cruise ships or prisons, they had to acquire the goods that allowed them to care for their residents.

While researching My Old Confederate Home I plowed through reams of operational documents, charting what management bought, who they bought it from and how much they paid. These documents---particularly the list of bills due and paid---helped me understand what was ocurring at the Home during a particular period.

In September 1920, the 150 residents of the Kentucky Confederate Home were about to move back into a facility rebuilt after fire destroyed the original building six months before. The payables list for that month shows that management wrote a check to Levy Bros. Department Store for $705.05 to replace inmate uniforms lost in the fire. The rebuilt laundry building was not yet operational, so the Home paid Capital Laundry Co. $278 to launder bed clothes, tablecloths, and the inmates' clothing. Louisville Grocery Co. and Denunzio Fruit Co. received checks of $181.38 and $28.25 respectively for fresh provisions.

The Theodore Tafel Surgical Supply Company billed the Home $9 in September, and Taylor Isaacs Drug Co. delivered $13.30 worth of medicine and supplies that month. Milton A. Stoess, owner of the funeral home in nearby Crestwood, earned $23.32 for mortuary service that month.

The expenses above are part of the $3137.33 in bills paid by the Kentucky Confederate Home in September 1920.

Many of the Home's operational documents are available on microfilm at the Kentucky Historical Society.