*This blog is honoring National Adoption Month (November).
by Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
Oliver Twist, Heidi, Peter Pan, Mowgli, Snow White, Huckleberry Finn and Annie. These aren’t just the names of fictional characters in classic literature. These fictional characters are all orphans who defy the odds in each of their own stories to adapt to their situations and overcome adversity. Unfortunately, however, not every orphan has a loner grandfather living in the Alps, seven dwarves in a forest, a rich millionaire or a pack of wolves to take them in. In reality, most orphans in our society are stuck in the foster system.
Seneca County has been home to thousands (yes, thousands) of orphans within it’s 200-year tenure and has seen the tremendous changes to the system over those two centuries.
Up to the 1850s, if you found yourself an orphan you may have been taken in by family members or some other family.
Being an orphan didn’t necessarily mean your parents had passed away. Orphans were also children of families falling on hard times who couldn’t financially support a growing number of children. So, while some children may have spent the rest of their childhood in orphanages, others only spent a short period of time until their parents could “get back on their feet.”
Orphanages in the United States pre-date the nation’s independence; Ursuline Sisters founded an orphanage in Natchez, Mississippi in 1729. The first orphanage in Seneca County, the St. Michael’s Orphan Aslyum, would not appear until 1844 in New Riegel, ran by the Sisters of Charity from Switzerland. However, by 1859 it was defunct. By this point in time, the Adoption of Children Act had been passed (1851), which sought to ensure the wellbeing of orphans.
“Although the founders of the community were German, and this was a Catholic home, the Sisters willingly accepted children in need, regardless of religion and nationality,” states the Centennial of the Sisters of St. Francis, which has been digitized onto the Seneca County Digital Library.
Tiffin’s first orphanage, the St. Francis Orphanage opened just ten years later in 1869. From the time it began to the time it shut its doors in 1936, the orphanage was a refugee for over 1500 children. These children were from areas outside of Seneca County, particularly the Diocese of Cleveland, but some as far away as Chicago, Illinois and the state of New York.
The St. Francis Orphanage, properly known as the Citizens Hospital and Orphan Asylum, existed on 58 acres in what was then known as the town of Oakley. Elizabeth Schaefer, along with her two biological daughters, helped Father Bihn develop the orphanage. When it closed, any remaining children were sent to the St. Anthony Orphanage in Toledo.
Another area orphanage, Flat Rock Children’s Home in Thompson Township, was in operation for over 100 years. It had begun in Tiffin shortly after the Civil War and later moved to the village of Flat Rock. (The Civil War caused the number of orphanages in the United States to increase by 300 percent).
Funded by federal, state, and mission funds from the United Methodist Conference Benevolence Fund, as well as charitable gifts from both civic organizations and individuals, took in not just true orphans and “orphans” in the sense of financial family strain, but also “delinquent and maladjusted children.” Children at this orphanage would have both case workers and “house-parents” living in their quarters. While it was somewhat self-sufficient with a working farm, this group home was able to provide the children continued social opportunities in the community (public schooling, club involvement, youth sports, etc.)
Perhaps the most widely known orphanage in Seneca County is the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, affectionately called the “Junior Home” by local historians. Established in 1896 on 200 acres, it had grown to 1200 orphans (ranging in age from 6 months to 18 years) in the 1930s before ceasing in 1944. In fact, at one time, its population was larger than any single village in Seneca County.
The Junior Order of the United American Mechanics (Junior Home) had several cottages on its grounds for groups of orphaned children to live in as small units. Only a few of the cottages remain standing today. This photo is a sitting room in one of the female cottages and is taken from a book called Junior Home: Our National Home on the Seneca County Digital Library.
The Junior Home took in children from 28 states who learned farming (the Junior Home had livestock, 175 acres of tillable land and a greenhouse), religion once the Ohio Junior Home Memorial Church was built in 1928, home economics in their own cottages, and vocational trades, including furniture manufacturing, food service, auto mechanics and even movie production.
Its football stadium, Redwood Stadium, was one of the first stadiums in northwest Ohio to have electric lights. The gymnasium became an Ohio National Guard Armory in the 1940s and the orchestra often played for area dances, which were very popular at the time.
All of these local orphanages declined after social security, food stamps, and the Aid for Dependent Children legislature were enacted in the 1930s. (To learn more about the government’s steps to curb the rate of orphans, a digitized document called “League of Women Voters 10 Years” can be found on the Seneca County Digital Library, which provides an extensive summary on both the national and local level.)
Today, orphaned children or children from severely broken homes are placed in foster homes while they await adoption, which can take several years. In Ohio, adoption agencies are located in Toledo, Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
To learn more about the orphanages that once operated in Ohio, especially the Junior Home, check out the library’s winter display in its Pat Hillmer display cases. In collaboration with the Seneca County Museum, who recently created a special collection about the Junior Home for public viewing during museum hours, the library is featuring memorabilia and written materials in these three cases (two are located adjacent to the biographies and one is located by the magazines and large print section).
Works cited:
Centennial of Sisters of St. Francis. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/36287
Between the Eighties, Tiffin, Ohio 1880-1980. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/65422
Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28803
League of Women Voters 10 Years. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/63567
Building of the Week. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28318
“National Adoption Month 2022.” Child Welfare Information Gateway. Children’s Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/nam/about/
“Brief History of Adoption in the United States.” Adoption Network. https://adoptionnetwork.com/history-of-adoption/
“The Origins of Adoption in America.” American Experience. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/daughter-origins-adoption-america/
Gates, David. “History of the Orphanage.” Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/history-orphanage-185444