The Children's Home - Defiance County

June, 1897 - The Defiance Democrat

"THE CHILDREN'S HOME

A Newspaper Man Visits It and Notes What He Learned.

General Appearance of the Institution.

How It is Conducted, Present Inmates, Improvements Needed.

Very few people of Defiance county are aware that the county maintains a home for indigent children, known as the Children's Home.  Yet there are probably quite a number who have never visited the institution and do not accurately know where it is located.

For the purpose of enlightening the readers of this paper to some extent concerning this important county institution, a representative visited the Home Tuesday afternoon.  The reporter found Superintendent Adam Hall following a cultivator between the rows of as thrifty looking corn as it has been his privilege to see this season.  Mr. Hall very obligingly gave enough of his time to entertain his visitors with an inspection of all the features of the charge which he so capably oversees and directs.  Seated in the cool, comfortable front room of the Home which does duty for sitting room and office, Mr. Hall instructed the newspaper scribbler as to the data concerning the Home sufficient to write an article.

(When the development of the Home was first considered by the commissioners of the county, they thought it might also combine with Henry and Williams counties, but that didn't work out.  So they bought 22 acres of land in Tiffin Township from Obadiah Partee which was about 7 miles north and slightly west of Defiance, on the west side of the road to Evansport.  One house sat on the property - a one story brick with four rooms, but they added an upper story and another framed portion and it grew to 14 rooms.)

"The Home was opened the first of September, 1884, with eight children taken from the Infirmary.  The first directors were Messrs. Rath, McCauley and Goller.  J. P. Fredericks was at that time superintendent of the Infirmary, and for a time superintended the Children's Home also.

At the present time, the Home contains 36 children inmates.  This is considerable less than it has accommodated heretofore.  In the winter, the number was 45.

The force of the help now kept at the Home...are Mrs. Hall, wife of the superintendent who is matron; Miss Blanche Hall, school teacher; Miss A. A. Sawhill, governess; Miss May Hall, seamstress; Miss Jennie Moninger, laundress; Miss Mary Gristman, cook.

(The reporter was very satisfied with the cleanliness and discipline and order in the place, noting the well ventilated rooms.  He thought the school room very orderly and was happy to see the children learning songs, as well.  The teacher noted that often the children come and go from the classroom to live with private families and new ones come in to take their place.)

...The garden and truck patch was an interesting place to visit.  Everything about the little farm is in apple pie order.  The crops, and every foot of the place, seems to be utilized, look as nice as can be found anywhere.  In the garden were 1600 fine looking cabbage plants and 400 tomato plants, besides all the other varieties of vegetables appropriate to gardening...  Last year the farm produced 400 bushels of potatoes, 1400 cabbages, 100 bushels of oats, 4 or 5 tons of hay and other garden vegetables.  They keep in the way of livestock, 2 cows, 2 horses and 7 hogs.

Children are eligible to admission to the Home under the age of 16 years, at which time they are discharged, if a suitable home is not sooner obtained for them with some private family.  They must, of course be without any means of support,  They are admitted upon the written recommendation of the Trustees of the various townships, who are required to investigate the circumstances surrounding the case when application is made for the admission of a child to the Home.

Defiance County Children's Home - 1920

Supt. Hall usually attends to the duty of finding homes for the children.  And in this work he has numerous trials and aggravations.  Especially where the children have parents to meddle and interfere.  One peculiar case was called to mind of an inmate of the Home who was blessed with a father, mother, two stepmothers, two stepfathers, and yet not a soul to prevent the child from becoming a county charge.

 It is a common experience to have parents, after a child has been placed by the Home with a good, comfortable, well-to-do family, step in and interfere by demanding the child, with nothing to provide for it, and thus depriving the little one from receiving the excellent care and pleasant home it would otherwise enjoy.  When the children are taken from the Home, it is usually on three months trial after which, they must either be adopted or taken on contract, which is otherwise expressed as 'indentured.'

Some children have been taken and cared for for other counties.  One year the Defiance county home earned $1400 by caring for children belonging to counties which have no home.  It is now contrary to law to place a child under 16 years of age in a county infirmary, and when such children become a county charge, they must be properly provided for at a Home...

 
The Home has several needs. More room is required.  Last winter, they were actually compelled to put four little girls in one bed.  And, this, too, in a dormitory which there is no way of heating.  Some system of heating should be provided. Then, too, better water and sewerage facilities are badly needed.  This, however, it seems is about to be remedied, as the Commissioners are soon to enter into a contract with plumbers for the purpose of putting in closets (water closets, toilets), baths and drainage. An elevated water tank is to be constructed. This completed will be a great improvement to the present facilities...



In conclusion, the writer would simply say that he fails to see how the management of the Home could be placed in more competent or painstaking hands than those of the present superintendent, Adam Hall and his estimable wife."