On the 14th of April, 1870, an Act was passed by the Ohio Legislature to establish an Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, locating the same at the Ohio White Sulphur Springs, Delaware, Ohio. Shortly after the passage of this Act, a Board of Managers, consisting of seven members, was appointed by the Governor, which met at Columbus, Ohio, April 21st, 1870, and organized by electing Gen. R. P. Buckland, President, and Colonel H. G. Armstrong, Secretary. At the same meeting this Board, having found that the children collected at Xenia, Ohio, were of the class which, by the Act already mentioned, should be educated and sustained by the State, adopted them, leaving them temporarily under the management of the officers whom the G. A. R. had appointed, and whom we have already mentioned. Shortly after this the Board visited and inspected the property at the White Sulphur Springs, a portion of which they found occupied by the Reform and Industrial School for Girls. Although they found the buildings here totally unfit for an Orphans' Home, they addressed a communication to the Trustees of the Reform School, asking at what time they would give possession of such part of the property and buildings as had been set apart by law for an Orphans' Home. Finding that possession could only be obtained by a resort to legal proceedings, and being satisfied that the number of Soldiers' Orphans in the State entitled to the benefits sought to be conferred by the law establishing the Home could not be comfortably provided for here, the Board adopted the following resolution:

WHEREAS, In the opinion of the Board the White Sulphur Springs property will not accommodate comfortably and well all the children of deceased and disabled Soldiers and Sailors, of the class contemplated by the law of Ohio as orphans to be provided for at a Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home; therefore,

Resolved, That in view of the above opinion, the Board will accept and receive, under the law of the State, by donation or bequest, a suitable tract of land, of the number

of acres required by law, at a convenient and accessible point, with the necessary buildings and equipments thereon, for the accommodation of not less than two hundred and fifty orphans, and upon such acceptance open and establish a Home for Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans as is prescribed by law.

The Board of Managers again met April 29th, 1870, and elected Dr. L. D. Griswold, of Elyria, Ohio, Superintendent of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, the Institution still occupying the rented buildings in Xenia, already mentioned. Here it remained until August 25th, 1870, when it was removed to the property where it is now permanently located. This property, when conveyed to the State, consisted of one hundred acres of land, situated about one mile from the city of Xenia, with buildings sufficient. to accommodate two hundred and fifty inmates. No more beautiful, healthy, or convenient location for an Institution. of this character could have been found in the State. The property was purchased and buildings erected with funds contributed by the citizens of Greene County, and other portions of the State, and was duly conveyed to the State of Ohio in accordance with the requirements of the law. By means of subsequent State appropriations, the number of buildings at the Home has been greatly increased. It now boasts an elegant Administration and Domestic building, twenty Cottages, or family buildings, Church, Schoolhouse, Hospital, Steam Laundry, and other buildings, in all sufficient to accommodate six hundred inmates, and the officers and employes of the Institution. All these handsome and convenient buildings were planned by Captain Levi T. Scofield, of Cleveland, Ohio, the architect and superintendent of the work. The farm has been increased until now it contains 275 acres.

On the removal of the Home to its present location, the plan was adopted of distributing the inmates into families, each family to occupy a separate building, or cottage, and to be presided over by a Matron, or Cottage Manager, who should stand in the place of Mother to the children under

her care.

Three cottages had already been erected, which were immediately filled, and the number was afterwards increased to twenty. Each of these cottages was designed to accommodate thirty children, but in some cases it has been found necessary to put one or two more than that number in a cottage. This plan of distribution is thought to be much preferable to the congregate plan adopted by many Institutions of like character.

At this time also the School Department was organized on the graded school plan. It began with four departments, and with the growth of the Institution increased to eleven. The schools are under the general supervision of the Home Superintendent, and are conducted by a Principal and lady assistants, numbering at first five, now ten. Here are all the grades usually found in the town schools of the State, and in addition a department of Telegraphing, conducted by a practical operator, who instructs from thirty to forty pupils daily in this useful branch of business. The whole course of study in the schools is sought to be made as practical as possible, and in the High School especially much attention is paid to Book-keeping, and such other studies as shall be of practical use to the pupils in after life. All inmates of the Home six years of age and over are required to attend school.

The present number enrolled is five hundred and fifty. Since the organization of the School Department there have been employed two Principals, and twenty-six assistant teachers.

Dr. L. D. Griswold, the first Superintendent of the Home after its adoption by the State, was retained in this position four years.

In the spring of 1874, the Ohio Legislature repealed the law of 1870, under which the Home was established, and reorganized under a new law, the Governor appointing a new Board, consisting of five members, of which General Durbin Ward, of Lebanon, Ohio, was elected President, and Jacob Haynes, of Bellebrook, Ohio, Secretary. This Board met May 15th, 1874, and elected Dr. A. E. Jenner, of Crest

line, Ohio, Superintendent. Dr. Jenner resigned the Superintendency, October 21st, 1874, and one month after that time the Board appointed Hon. W. P. Kerr, of Granville, Ohio, to the position, who is the present Superintendent of the Home.

The State Legislature of 1875 passed an Act authorizing the Board of Managers and Superintendent of the Home to provide some plan by which the inmates could be instructed in some useful trades, and appropriated the sum of $5,000 for this purpose. In accordance with this provision, during the following summer, shops of various kinds were fitted up and put in charge of competent mechanics. In these shops nearly one hundred children are daily instructed in useful trades. The children in these shops spend a portion of the day in school. Shops for the following substantial trades are now established and in successful operation, namely: Carpentering, Blacksmithing, Tinning, Tailoring, Shoemaking, Printing, Dressmaking, and several others of no less importance.

Since the opening of the Home there have been admitted 1,087 children. Of this number 615 are still inmates. Four have been sent to the Imbecile Asylum at Columbus, Ohio, and nine to the Reform Farm at Lancaster, Ohio. Twenty have died at the Home. Of the remainder, the greater part have been honorably discharged. Some have been removed by their friends, and a few having run away, and not being returned, have dropped from the rolls. The age at which the children are required by law to leave the Home is sixteen.

In all this army of children we find as great a variety of tastes and inclinations, and as large a proportion of minds of brilliant promise, as in the same number of children in our city or town schools. Those who, by the conditions of the law, are early forced into the battle of life, are for the most part fighting their way manfully. Many are already filling positions of trust and responsibility. Some are striving to complete a college course. It is earnestly to be hoped that all may make an honest and useful if not a

brilliant future, and that each may accomplish to the best of his ability the work for which he is peculiarly fitted. Below we give a list of those who have served on the Board of Managers of the Institution since its adoption by the State.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD UNDER THE LAW OF 1870.

R. P. Buckland, President, Fremont, Ohio; James Barnett, Cleveland, Ohio; J. Warren Keifer, Springfield, Ohio; B. F. Coates, Portsmouth, Ohio; Barnabas Burns, Mansfield, Ohio; M. F. Force, Cincinnati, Ohio; J. S. Jones, Delaware, Ohio; A. Trader, Xenia, Ohio.

Secretaries of the Board-H. G. Armstrong, Cincinnati, Ohio; R. P. Findley, Xenia, Ohio.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD UNDER THE LAW OF

1874.

Durbin Ward, President, Lebanon, Ohio; J. W. Keifer, Springfield, Ohio; George Keifer, Troy, Ohio; Oscar White, Toledo, Ohio.

Secretary-Jacob Haynes, Bellebrook, Ohio.