Feature Article on Children's Home.
Topic: DOWNTOWN/BUILDINGS
By L.C. "Lefty" Bevans in August, 1999
MY LIFE AT THE SHELBY COUNTY CHILDREN'S HOME, 1937-1945 |
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| The Shelby County Children’s
Home, located just southeast of Sidney, was dedicated November 4, 1897, and was
opened a short time after. The children from Shelby County who had been living at the
Logan County Children’s Home were transferred to the new Home in Sidney. From
1897 until it closed in 1976, the Shelby County Children’s Home provided a safe haven
for many children. Those of us who entered the Shelby County Children’s Home during the depression years of the 1930’s appreciated having a warm place to live, clothes to wear and food to eat. The cottage we lived in became our home. The boys or girls in the cottage, with whom we played, worked and went to school, became like our brothers or sisters. At one time there were 72 children living in the Home, most of them because of the depression and the difficulty the parents had in providing for them. Mr. and Mrs. Ed Calhoun were the Superintendent and Matron at that time. Other employees were: Miss Emma Allinger, Boys’ Governess; Miss Edith Staley, Girls’ Governess; Miss Ethel Boyer, Seamstress; Mrs. Baker, Cook; Mrs. Zimpher, Laundress; Mr. Bill Herndon, Farm Hand; and Mr. Forest Hook, Stationary Engineer (Fireman of the Boiler). When I became 13 years old I became a "Barn-Boy." Then the work began. The older boys helped with the farming, milking, gardening, butchering of the farm animals for our own meat, providing the wood for the kitchen and coal for the boiler room. The Home was self-supporting. The older girls helped with the washing, ironing, cooking, canning, sewing, in the dining room and with the cleaning of the main building. [ Back ] [ Next ] [ Up ] [ New Search ] |
The No. 1 clause in the By-Laws, Rules and Regulations of the Children’s Home read: "1. The family plan shall prevail as nearly as may be, each cottage being a separate family, and the whole institution, including all children and employees, to constitute one family." |
Ed and Hattie Calhoun were the superintendent and matron from 1920 to 1940, the period in which Lefty Bevans resided at the Children’s Home. |
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