From the time the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum was established in 1855, the Society's emphasis was on providing a safe haven for children. The focus had shifted away from widows, as the name changed reflected. Over the next six decades, Indianapolis grew from a town into an industrialized metropolitan area. The population of the asylum rose and fell with the industrial economy. On a larger scale, an evolution occurred in the way that people viewed children and in the value placed on family life, especially life with mothers. Also in this era, social work and childcare became professions with definable standards.

1875 An amendment by the Indiana General Assembly changes the agency name to the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum.

By this year the Depression of 1873 has hit the city with full force. It will last until 1886. Banks fail due to the collapse of the real estate boom in the city, and many of the working class face uncertain employment.

1879 Influential pastor Oscar McCulloch, of the Plymouth Congregational Church, reorganizes the enfeebled Indianapolis Benevolent Society (IBS) to concentrate on the "best means" of aiding persons requesting assistance.

1880 Indianapolis is the nation's 24th largest city and ranks 21st in industrial productivity. Across the state, 700 children are living in county poor asylums, a situation that many recognize as totally unacceptable.

The Reverend Mr. McCulloch brings several charities together to form the Charity Organization Society (COS) of Indianapolis. The COS assumes the administrative and investigative functions of the Indianapolis Benevolent Society. COS and the Benevolent Society function as two arms of the same organization from 1880 to 1923. According to its mission, the COS "must secure relief for all needing it; Must teach habits of thrift and institute provident schemes; Must rescue those who are in danger of falling into vice or crime or pauperism."

The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum moves to College Avenue and 13th Street and rents the Northwestern Christian College building, a three-story brick
structure "totally unsuited" for the purpose. The Society later purchases the building for $35,000.

Two of the young charges of the Home for Friendless Colored Children, or as it was commonly known, the Colored Orphans' Home, are shown in this photo taken in the 1910's.

(Indiana State Library)

"A fair education"

Harry Willis's mother left him at the Indianapolis Asylum for Friendless Colored Children in 1875 because her husband had deserted her and she was sick. The three children of Fannie Merriwether also were left at the orphanage after her husband abandoned his family. The children, a boy, seven, and two girls, six and four, were separated; two of them went to live with two different families.

Desertion by a spouse was but one of many circumstances that created orphans. Loss of employment, the death of one or both parents, and mental illness or disease all added to the rolls of orphanages. Race liklely intensified the hardships faced by African American children, but the stories of Harry Willis and the children of Fannie Merriwether mirrored those of other orphans of the day, many of whom lived for a while at orphanages.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) founded the Indianapolis Asylum for Friendless Colored Children in 1879. As African Americans migrated north after the Civil War, the needs of orphaned or half-orphaned children strapped the efforts of Indianapolis's small African American community, which numbered only in the hundreds. The orphanage at 317 West Street offered "care and training of dependent colored children."

In that first year the Friends cared for 18 children. The first home was a large brick building administered by a board of women managers appointed by an all-male board of directors. The first head of women managers was a British woman, Jan Trueblood, a prominent Quaker minister. Along with her other duties, Trueblood oversaw the school in the building and declared that their teacher provided her charges with a "fair education." She noted that "many [of the children] are quick to learn," and that they were also "taught in Sunday School, in which their singing and memorizing of texts are very interesting." By 1900, two thousand children had passsed through the orphanage.

Two decades later, increased knowledge of treatement for illnesses and disease and a rising concern over institutionalizing children had raised the standards by which orphanages were evaluated. In 1918 the Board of State Charities (BSC) cited the Home for Friendless Colored Children for keeping seven-year-old Felix Spaulding, who had severe epilepsy, in a cage made of chicken wire. Two years later, the BSC found the home in "deplorable condition" and recommended its closure.

The orphanage continued to operate for several more years under its original name. Then, in 1926, it became the Marion County Orphans home (Colored). Its functions soon blended with those of other facilities for orphans in the county. By the time it closed, the organization that had begun as the Asylum for Friendless Colored Children had touched the lives of thousands of African American children in this city.

1882 Eliza A. Blaker establishes the Indianapolis Free Kindergarten Association, "schools for the benefit of the poor children of the City." Mrs. John Holliday is president of the association.

1883 The asylum cares for 252 children; 33 are placed in homes, and 103 return to parents or relatives.

The Flower Mission organizes a training school for nurses; Marion County establishes a workhouse. .

1885 The Indianapolis Orphans Aid Society is formed to payoff the debt on the Northwestern Christian College building.

1886 The editor of Rough Diamond, a local newspaper, issues a tough indictment of the city's treatment of the poor. "Under the shadows of their church buildings numbers of men, women, and even boys, not yet found to be guilty of any crime, are, while shut up in prison awaiting trial, compelled to sleep on the naked floor, half fed on the coarsest food, are deprived of every comfort, and if they complain of such treatment are often insulted for doing so and abused by their keepers."

The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum is sending children to families in the West. One little girl, six years old, is sent to Kansas. She is placed with a family who returns her the following year.

1888 The Indiana General Assembly creates the Board of State Charities to oversee the state's charitable and correctional organizations.

In a lecture, Oscar McCulloch states that self help disappears when people give to the poor. "What can we do? First, we must close up official out-door relief. Second, we must check private and indiscriminate benevolence, or charity, falsely so called. Third, we must get hold of the children."

1889 The Indiana General Assembly establishes the Board of Children's Guardians to investigate cases of children in danger and seek remedies. Children are returned to parents, adopted, indentured, or placed in orphanages. The Board works with cases involving both white and black orphans.

The Summer Mission for Sick Children is created in response to the large number of infants from poor families who died in the heat of the previous summer. The mission provides health care for babies and children and "[draws] attention to child and maternal health care among the poorer segments of the city's population."

1890 Indianapolis's population has grown to 105,436.

The Indianapolis Orphans Aid Society raises $4,505, by subscriptions of $5 per year, to payoff the debt on the Northwestern Christian College building. Mayor Thomas L. Sullivan attends the annual meeting, held at Tabernacle Church. Children from the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum deliver recitations. The annual report states: "the object of the institution [is that] children should be put in good Protestant homes."

The "Circle of Charities" is founded in Indianapolis "to draw around the poor, the miserable, the neglected and the forsaken, a circle of sympathy, affection, intelligent thought and resolute will." The Circle of Charities includes 33 charitable organizations active in Indianapolis in 1890.

1891 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum establishes a foundling ward. (A foundling is an abandoned infant.)

1894 The Suemma Coleman Home is founded for "erring girls and women who had been living lives of shame and had no homes." (Today, it operates as Coleman Adoption Services.)

1897 With the rapid increase in the number of homeless children, the Board of State Charities begins supervising all orphanages that receive public funds. The Indiana General Assembly passes a law prohibiting children between 3 and 16 years of age from staying more than 10 days in county poor asylums.

1900 Indianapolis's population is 169,164.

A struggle develops between proponents of asylums and advocates of placing children in outside homes, known as foster care. State governments begin to resolve this conflict by choosing a third option-mother's pensions, which provide money to the mother so that she can keep her children with her instead of sending them to an orphanage in times of distress. During the next two decades, people in Indianapolis will debate the validity of mother's pensions.

1903 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum acquires a site at 4107 East Washington Street and erects four new buildings. The orphans move to the site on 15 October 1905.

In March the Indiana General Assembly passes an act requiring that "every county with over 100,000 population shall create a juvenile court" that will deal with "all cases relating to children including juvenile delinquents, truants, and all other cases where the custody or legal punishment of children is in question."

1904 The Board of State Charities visits the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum in January; in residence are 108 children. The inspection report notes, "Children with one parent are paid for by the parent. "

1905 The Indianapolis Humane Society is established to prevent cruelty to animals and children.

1906 The Indianapolis School Board moves a portable school building to the asylum for additional classroom space.

1909 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum holds its second Annual Easter Flower Sale. Br'er Rabbit and the Bunni-mobile travel around Indianapolis to advertise. At the Conference on Infant Mortality at the Academy of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, the asylum reports that during the past 10 years, 882 infants have been admitted and 345 have died (39 percent). In pencil, someone notes: "formaldehyde in milk is supposed to have been the cause of high death rate in the early years."

The White House holds a Conference on Dependent Children. This watershed event advocates aid to widows and other needy women to enable children to remain with their mothers. Experts at the conference assert that foster care-not the orphanage-is the second-best option if maintaining the family unit is impossible.

1910 Indianapolis's population grows to 233,650, and the city begins to experience the problems of other major metropolitan cities with crime and labor unrest.

1911 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum again raises money through a flower sale, which is held "for the children's sake." Although it receives 30 cents per day per child from the county commissioners for room and board of wards, the agency looks for other ways to fund the asylum. For the Sixtieth Anniversary Party, an afternoon tea is held, with cake served to all 285 orphans.

1912 The federal government creates the Children's Bureau to study problems relating to children and to make recommendations.

1914 "Homes [are] especially desired for boys... 6-14 years of age and a number of little girls, who are capable of making themselves useful in many ways." Over the past year 476 children have been served, with the average enrollment being 187.

1915 St. Elizabeth Maternity Hospital and Infant Home opens.

1917 The U.S. enters World War I.

The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum speaks out against the McCray Bill before the Indiana General Assembly This bill is aimed at making the juvenile court system "more like" criminal courts.

1918 World War I ends, and the influenza pandemic strikes Indiana.

There are 97 residents (50 permanent and 47 temporary) from Marion County and 118 from other counties when the State Board of Charities visits the asylum. The staff includes an agent who places children in private homes and inspects the homes beforehand.

1919 The Indiana General Assembly passes an act creating mother's pensions to provide money to needy women with children. It also funds the Division of Infant and Child Hygiene of the State Board of Health.

1920 Indianapolis's population is 314,194.

1921 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum cares for 334 children, with an average enrollment of 181; 81 are placed in homes, 36 return to their parents, and 18 are adopted.

1922 The Charity Organization Society, Indianapolis Benevolent Society, Children's Aid Association, and Mother's Aid Society merge to form the Family Welfare Society.

1923 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum becomes a charter member of the Community Chest, the former Community Fund. The Community Fund, formed in 1920, was based on the federated fundraising model of the war years.

The American Child Health Association is founded.

1924 Miss Edna Emrich starts the caseworker program as the first social worker.

Concerns over the health and cleanliness of children rose in the 1920's.(Indiana State Library)

"Safeguarding the interests of the child"

In 1920, as part of its regular inspections fo childcare facilities, the State Board of Charities visited the Indinanpolis Orphans' Asylum. This visit had a different purpose than usual, however; the inspector, Dr. Estabrook, had come to check the mental capacities of the orphans. Nearly 30 years after Oscar McCulloch dies, the professionals in Indianapolis- and elsewhere- continued tp debate and examine the role that heredity and environment played in childhood development.

Since 1909, when the White House Conference on Dependent Children asserted the primacy of the family in the development of children, the well-being of American youth had been the subject of increased scrutiny. In Indianapolis the "Indiana Child

Welfare Exposition" was held in 1914 to "present the argument for intelligent community action on preventing child waste, in conserving child life and in safeguarding the interests of the child." The welfare of the child was "in reality [important to] the interests of the state."

Dr. Estabrook's inspection of the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum was likely an extension of this larger movement. In hindsight, however, the results of the survey are unsettling; it revealed that of the 140 children in the orphanage at that time, only'53 [were] found to be of average ability, 37 retarded, 12 probably mentally defective, and 38 definitely "feebleminded." Thus 62 percent of the children were deemed of less than everage ability. While professionals debated the effects of environment on statistics such as these, institutionalization in orphanages came to be seen as one culprit.

Not long after the state conducted its study on the intellectual abilities of orphans, the board of managers and the staff of the orphanage began reforming the institution. It hire its first caseworker in 1924 and two years later joined the Child Welfare League of America, an advocacy group of childcare agencies and orphanages. In doing so, the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum places itself in the forefront of a larger movement to professionalize and deinstitutionalize childcare in the city.

1925 The Indiana Division of Infant and Child Hygiene conducts a series of lectures on maternity and childcare to help mothers understand the importance of diet and good medical care.

1926 The Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum establishes an association with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and becomes a charter member. The Child Welfare League was founded in 1920 by orphanages and child-placing agencies.

1928 After the Child Welfare League of America conducts a study of the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum, social work becomes a separate department. The Indianapolis Foundation provided funding for the study. Gertrude Taggart, a longtime member and an officer on the board of directors, in answer to a question concerning the need for a board of managers now that the asylum has a paid staff, states, "the Board is the heart of our public relations program; it is the agency's primary tie to the public to which we must look for interest,
understanding and support."

1929 The stock market crashes.

1930 Indianapolis's population is 364,161.

1931 In "A Study of Child-Caring Work in Indianapolis," Cathenne Sanders examines the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum, Sanders finds that children in grades one through six attend school on the grounds of the asylum, and that approximately half of the children there at any one time are wards of Marion County, The study addresses the evolution of an orphanage <an institution) into a childcare agency "performing, " under social work administration," Sanders recommends that the asylum merge "with the Family Service Association,

1932 In October a group of charity-minded women establish the auxiliary to the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum, Its purpose is to provide recreational activities for orphans and to help in any way possible, Fund-raising begins "with regular puppet shows and bridge parties. The women also set up a motor corps to take orphans to medical appointments,

The Indiana Birth Control League, later known as Planned Parenthood, is founded to help married women who have two or more children plan for future children.

Members of the auxiliary donated time and talents to help the orphans and to raise money for the orphanage.

"Born of a need"

As the Great Depression tightened its grip on the United States, the money for "vulnerable" children became scarce. This made it difficult for the Indianapolis Orphans' Asylum to meet their needs. The director of the Children's Bureau, Lucille Batson, later recalled that the auxiliary to the asylum was "born of a need" to help the children. The auxiliary was established in Ocober 1932.

From the beginning, the auxiliary raised money and provided volunteer support. Often representing generations of Indianapolis's most affluent families, volunteers added an extra