Home for the Friendless

Home for the Friendless, circa 1914 (Springfield Survey photo)

Home for the Friendless, circa 1914 (Springfield Survey photo)

The Home for the Friendless assisted indigent women and children of Springfield from 1863 to 1928, when it was merged into the Children’s Service League. The gradual addition of other social service agencies ultimately led to formation of the Family Service Center of Sangamon County in 1974. The Family Service Center operated for decades near Seventh Street and South Grand Avenue, where the Home for the Friendless was built in 1865. (The original home was demolished in 1935.)

The Rev. Francis Springer, a Lutheran minister who worked with destitute refugees as a chaplain in the Civil War, is often given credit for inspiring the creation of the Home for the Friendless.  However, an account written in 1927 by Mary Humphrey for the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society makes it clear that the Home’s organizers also were motivated by their own experiences with homegrown Springfield poverty.

Whatever their motives, once the Home was authorized by the General Assembly, prominent Springfieldians responded with donations – of money and property, but much more. According to one report quoted by Humphrey, contributions also included “a sleigh ride, 40 candy canes, China asters, Zu Zu ginger snaps, 3 large watermelons … loan of a cow for the summer; bread from the Democratic National Convention.” Annual Christmas fairs – three days long and held in the Capitol Rotunda – also supported the Home for many years.

The Home’s first officers were all male, headed by president S.H. Melvin, but much of the work of the group was done by women. For instance, when committees were formed to visit “the poor of the city” in each ward, the visitors appear to have been exclusively female, and women supporters of the Home made the items sold at the Christmas fairs.

Although the Home was designed to take both indigent women and children, children always predominated. In 1902, for instance, 16 women and 168 children lived at the Home during the year. Over the years, at least two infants were left on the Home’s doorstep – “Johnny Knight,” who was deposited after dark, and “Mary Stone,” who was left on a stone step, Humphrey reported.

The Home, however, did not knowingly accept illegitimate children and did not care for black children (who became the responsibility of the Lincoln Colored Home, founded by Eva Carroll Monroe on South 12th Street).

Officials of the Home for the Friendless tried to find new homes for many of the children who passed through the Home’s doors – by adoption, fostering or indenturing. Springfield historian John Carroll Power, quoted by Humphrey, wrote, “The greater number were placed in homes of comfort and positions of thrift and usefulness. Some had died, some had been taken away by families, and a few have preferred freedom of outdoor life and have departed without leave.”

Only in 1903 did the Home begin to investigate families who applied for children. (Again, the investigations were done by women volunteers.)

Volunteers for the Springfield Survey in 1914 compiled four case studies involving Home for the Friendless clients, which detailed circumstances under which the Home was, and wasn’t, effective. (The case studies also give sometimes heartbreaking glimpses at working and living conditions among poor Springfield families in the early 20th century.)

Here is one of the studies, along with the Survey’s comments (comments in italics).

 The third case shows a complex situation in which a whole set of community problems undiscovered by the institution had been lessening the chances of family rehabilitation while the institution cared for the children. Moreover the problems were those with which many other families were struggling, and broad community treatment was needed as well as immediate personal help for this particular mother.

III. The family was not known to the Associated Charities.

Mrs. A. put her four-year-old girl and six-weeks-old baby to board in the institution at $10 a month. Her given reason was that she had been divorced from her husband and had to go to work. The institution felt that it was helping her in the best possible way and the mother was delighted at the treatment which the children were receiving. It seems, however, that the husband was under court orders to pay her $10 a month alimony but in this he had lapsed. Twice he had been arrested for contempt of court, yet no money had been forthcoming. Although the mother had undergone a serious surgical operation three weeks before putting the children in the institution, she took a position as dish-washer in a restaurant. Here she worked for twelve hours a day standing, and lifting trays of dishes weighing from 50 to 75 pounds. The room was hot and she often thought that she would faint from the heat and strain. Later she was transferred to potato peeling, at $5.00 a week and meals, working from 6:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. seven days a week, with one hour off for each meal and free time from two to five; but this she seldom took because she felt that she was slow. Here the visitor found her. Financially she was not getting ahead because she paid $10 a month to the institution and required the balance for clothes for herself and the children. She lived with her mother rent free.

Considering that the need for the institution’s care was in reality due to a defect in the court proceedings, against which a strong protest should have been entered, and that the institution was permitting this good mother to work under conditions which were dangerous to health in order to earn money to pay the children’s board, it was hardly discharging its social obligation.

Although the Home for the Friendless housed far more children than indigent women – to the extent, Humphrey wrote, “that peace and quiet were impossible” – one blind woman, Susan Moore, lived there from 1864 until her death in 1907.

The Home cared for an estimated 6,500 children during its existence, including at least 643 who died at the home prior to 1904. Those children are buried in a plot at Oak Ridge Cemeterybridge

Original content copyright Sangamon County Historical Society. You are free to republish this content as long as credit is given to the Society. Learn how to support the Society. 

This entry was posted in African Americans, Children, Social services, Springfield Survey, Women. Bookmark the permalink.

15 Responses to Home for the Friendless

  1. Barbara Reif says:

    Are there any records of who was placed in the Home. I believe my grandfather may have been placed in the home on July 7, 1874 and was placed in the custody of a Mrs. George Rohrer that same day. He died when I was just a year old and all my relative who lived during that time are gone. I would love to know if he passed through the door of the Home for the Friendless.

  2. Sherry Batke says:

    Were children from the orphan trains from NY put in this home and later sent out to families?

  3. Priscilla Stratton says:

    Thanks for a photo of The Home for the Friendless. My father was a “resident” there for probably 3 or 4 years, around 1913, and I always wondered what the place looked like.
    When I called the Sangamon County History I was told that the new Abraham Lincoln Library contained boxes of records and photos from The Home for the Friendless. So, possibly, I might be able to get copies of some old photos of the children. As it is now, my family and I have zero information about my Dad until he married my mom.

  4. Tina McRary says:

    Did this place ever burn down?

    • editor says:

      Ms. McRary: I don’t know of any disastrous fires at the home, but if you have an approximate idea of the year that might have happened, I can do a better check. Thanks for reading.

  5. Jen McMillin says:

    I’d love to know more about Susan Moore if you have any resources. Thanks!

    • Editor says:

      Ms. McMillin: That’s a great inquiry. Susan Moore is buried in the Home’s plot at Oak Ridge. Here’s Findagrave.com’s comment about her.

      “Susan Moore, born in Arkansas, was one of the original residents of the Home of the Friendless which was established in 1863 in Springfield, IL. The Home was designed to serve as a temporary shelter for indigent women and children displaced by the Civil War. The Home of the Friendless’ first occupants were refugee mothers and orphaned children from war-torn Arkansas.
      “Susan was blind and known to the others as “Auntie Susan” as she lived there 43 years and cared for those who came after her. She is buried within the grounds of the area set aside for the Home for the Friendless. She was given her own headstone during the Home for the Friendship Memorial project which was dedicated in June 2008.”

      And here’s a little more from Mary Humphrey’s article in the ISHS Journal:

      “Blind Susan, however, lived here until she died in 1907. The report of that year says: ‘Susan Moore made sunshine in the Home for 43 years, though she has always walked in darkness herself. Always blind, no home could be found for her, but she made a home for herself in the hearts of the children, many of whom, now scattered, have been influenced by the gentle, loving character of Aunt Susan. She has lived in the Home since 1865, when she was brought here a refugee from Arkansas during the war.'”

      Ms. Moore left an estate of $500; beneficiaries were the Home for the Friendless and Springfield’s First Christian Church.

      Thanks for the suggestion to look up Ms. Moore. Despite living at the Home for the Friendless all these years, she seems not to have been friendless after all.

  6. Margaret Bell says:

    My grandfather lived in the house in 1919-1921. I am wondering how his mother from Indiana ended up there. How did the erring girls find out about the home?

    • editor says:

      Ms. Bell: That’s a very good question when it comes to someone from out of town. For local residents, though, the home would have been well known. That’s partly because keeping it open required almost constant fundraising, and that, in turn, required (and got) a lot of publicity. The local newspapers also provided regular coverage of events — parties, holiday observances, etc. — held for the home’s residents. In addition, public officials, police, clergy, charity workers and others referred “erring girls” to the home.
      Perhaps your great-grandmother had had a reason to visit Springfield or may have known someone from here. It’s almost impossible to guess.
      Thanks for reading.

  7. Vanessa Staron says:

    My grandfather Clifford Andrews was there. His birth certificate says his mother was Lilian Ford and his father was Lawrence Andrews. I’m trying to find any info. Thank you in advancez

  8. Regina McGuire says:

    I may have missed it in the article, where was is located?

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