Abraham Transue in the Poorhouse? Interesting Possibility!

We came across this interesting possiblity for Abraham Transue. Ancestry.com's Hints function came across two census records that might be matches. The first was the 1860 United States Federal Census



Ancestry.com's record has the following

Name: Abraham Transue
Age in 1860: 72
Birth Year: abt 1788
Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Home in 1860: Upper Nazareth, Northampton, Pennsylvania
Gender: Male
Post Office: Nazareth

He is listed with a variety of people who have different surnames. We scrolled back a few pages and came across this image:



It appears that Abraham Transue was living in the Poorhouse in 1860. Then we moved on to the 1870 United States Federal Census.



Once again Ancestry.com's record gives

Name: Abraham Transue
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1788
Age in 1870: 82
Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Home in 1870: Upper Nazareth, Northampton, Pennsylvania
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Bath

Scrolling back a page we find out that he is still in the poorhouse, although this time he is listed as an inmate. He was a pauper in 1860. Here's the other page:



What was life like in the poorhouse? How did he have the misfortune to have to move into one? What about his family? Why was he considered a pauper and then an inmate 10 years latter? Was there a difference in the way to poorhouse was run or was it just symantics? This opens up a lot of questions that need to be answered before we can finalize that this is our Abraham Transue (although his age and location make it likely).