It is sad to see three and four children from one family in the Morris County Children's Home, ca 1910-1920. Or is it good that they at least were still together? In some cases (the Miller family, 1895) some family members are in the County Alms House and the little one is in the Children's Home. And no, it wasn't scarlet fever that created the need for the children's cemetery (Littleton Rd, near the fire house, now), it seems to have been croup and diptheria. The County Children's Home operated from 1882-1929, when foster home placement became the norm. The organization lasted until 1974 as a placement and aid society. It's final trustee chief was the Rev. Thomas Mutch, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown from 1936-1966.
Picture by Richard Hrazanek, 2002
The wife and I have visited the Little Lost Cemetery recently a number of times. It is being very well kept by the Firemen, but it is still sad, and a little strange.
ReplyDeleteHow funny that we should have just visited there this past week and you posted this.
Tell the children we're thinking of them, when next you visit. Some vaguely contradictory, slightly fuzzy info about the Home, which we're tryng to prove out, gather up. Just found screaming headline, front page of the Daily Record, the morning afte the building burned down.//Have come to admire Ann Pennington, who was matron of the Home, at its largest populations, for at leasst a decade.
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