Transcription of Managers Meetings records from 1867-1900. For easier searching, access the document here.

Introduction

The managers held a monthly meeting of the board every month, as well as an annual meeting once a year, either in September or October, where the public was welcome and prizes were given to girls for areas like "helpfulness" and obedience". The records of these meetings, from 1867-1900, are available freely online, and offer a unique insight into the running of the institution. Even more important from a genealogical perspective, it includes details of the lives of the girls living there, as well as family members and even those who applied to take a girl into their home.

When thinking of orphanages, many people are reminded of characters like Oliver Twist or Orphan Annie - poor children under the management of cruel matrons or masters. The reality is surprisingly different.

While considered an "orphanage", it was, like most orphanages of the day, home to only some that had no parents at all. Most still had one parent living - "half-orphan" - or perhaps even both parents who were too poor to care for the child.

The committee reserved the right to accept or refuse any application to place a child in their institution. They aimed to help the "worthy poor" - those who were hard-working but still unable to supply the needs of their family. But despite beliefs of that time, that children from 'bad' families would themselves become 'bad', they still accepted children who may have had a parent in jail or with mental illness or even children born out of wedlock. At the Sept, 1876, meeting, Mattie Palmer, the daughter "of a Discharged Female Prisoner who had been at the Dedham Home", was accepted; in 1877, Mary Giglio was admitted, even though she was Italian at a time when that nationality faced much discrimination and her father had spent time in the state prison.

The managers did hold some of the prejudices common to the times they lived. On January 30, 1900, we find: "A friend of Mrs. Dockrill, Mrs. Burmingham, who applied for a girl a few years ago & was refused on account of being a Roman Catholic, renews her request. Voted To decline & for the same reason as before. "

The "little colored girl whose mother was unmarried" that applied for admission 1878 had no chance of getting in and was in fact denied. However, it is to their credit that, when a vote was a taken in September of 1868, about whether to accept "several colored children" if the Howard Industrial School went out of business, four out of the nine managers who voted were for accepting them. (Majority ruled, however, and the children were not admitted.)

The children also received health care that seemed by all means to have been exceptional for the time, but especially would have been out of reach for the poor, including regular visits to the dentist. Ida Swift, who was accepted into the asylum when she was just over 3 in 1868, was unable to speak due to a problem with her palate. She was taken to the Mass. General Hospital, where a false palate was fitted for her, and she was then taken on as a patient of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who "thought the case an interesting one and the chance of helping her very great." At the end of 1876, she was having half-hour lessons with him every day for a month and was noted to be "somewhat improved" by the end. She later received months of private lessons at a cost of $75. The asylum also covered the cost of operations on each of her eyes.

Punishment of the children was occasionally discussed at the meetings. In November, 1881, it was voted to remind those in the asylum that "children are not to be deprived of their meals as a punishment." In 1885, it was reported that "some of the children have been punished by shutting them up in the dark rag closet in the cellar for several hours at a time."

Corporal punishment was not allowed as a general rule. At the November 28, 1882 meeting, the schoolteacher, Miss Very requested an override to this particular rule, as she "thought she could not manage the school properly without some slight corporal punishment." Miss Very was given permission to try her method for the year.

The records also offer hints of lighter moments for the children. It mentions the fairs and picnics they attended. At Christmastime in 1893, "the children [had] some small trees, ice cream, etc. A box of wooden toys was sent to them by Mr. Luke Brooks of Leominster." They also attended the theater, the Public Garden, and, in 1892, the Mechanic's Fair in Boston.

We also get a glimpse at the gratitude of some of the girls who had spend time within the asylum. At the December 1900 meeting, the secretary notes a gift from a former resident: "Rosella Newbert Curtis, who has recently died, left the residue of her estate amounting to $350.00 to the Asylum. She was formerly an inmate and having married unhappily, was forced to support herself by doing house-work, scrubbing, etc., but managed to accumulate the above sum together with enough to pay all expenses for herself."

Frances Stevens also wanted to pay it forward. She was admitted to the asylum when she was 6 years old, after her father deserted the family. She grew up there and was bound out to the Chapins of Springfield, Mass., in 1844. She later got married and returned to the asylum. The records of April 27, 1880 state, "[Frances] had many years ago been in the Asylum herself and wished now in her turn to give a home to an Asylum child."