"The History of Decatur County, Iowa: 1839 - 1970"

by Himena V. Hoffman
Published by Decatur County Historical Society, Leon IA, 1970
 
Children's Deaths in Decatur County; Children at County Farm, Pages 105 - 108
Transcription by Carmelita
 
The deaths of babies and of little children continued in appalling numbers. For instance as one enters the Garden Grove cemetery, one comes soon to the grave of Major Racine Kellogg and the wife he married during the War buried by them are: Racine 1865-66; Mary, 1867-71; Louise, 1874-75; besides a little stone marked only "Baby Carter." Nearby on the Stearns lot are buried Jennie, age ten months and Kate, aged six months, little daughters of Dan Stearns.

In the Shy cemetery five children of Jonathan Hamilton are buried though a large family survived his death. William and Amy Jenning Shields lost four children who are buried at Grand River Cemetery. While most families did not lose so many, the family was fortunate that did not have one small grave to remember.

Death came to older children, too. One of Judge Harvey's two sons died, a son of Dr. Layton died from a poison he mistook for something to eat. Tony and Kate Arnold lost their only child, and George Hamilton's fourteen-year-old son was dragged to death by a horse he had attempted to lead or mount. All of these families lived within a few blocks of each other in Leon.

Though there was no hospital in the county, there was a place for the care of the feeble-minded, and nonviolent insane. This institution came into existence in 1866 when the county Board of Supervisors purchased one hundred and sixty acres and the residence of Dozier Gammon as a place where paupers could be cared for and, as far as possible, employed. In 1878 an addition was added to provide for the care of the insane. From the time this Home was established until 1900, it would seem that more of the inmates were indigents than mental afflicted. For instance, in 1891 there was only one who was not admitted as a pauper, and he was classified as "has fits." Two pathetic entries in succession: Thomas ------------age 93 and Thomas Albert age 3 weeks, both paupers.

For years the records carried the name, Molly Unknown, who was found abandoned one July day in 1883. While she was entered as a pauper, she was perhaps feeble-minded. It is assumed that some family not wanted the care of the child left her on a country road. Molly had been a woman for many years when she died at the Home where she had been placed when a small child.

The other children at the County Home between 1890 and 1900 were there for months not years. Peter aged four, Henry, aged nine, and three-year old Willie were taken by a Children's aid Society, as were two little girls. A fourteen-year-old girl was sent to a "Home for the Friendly," according to the record, but it seems possible it was a "Home for the Friendless."

A year-old child of a deaf-mute mother was sent to an Ottumwa institution. A twenty-three year old mother who was admitted as insane brought a baby three-weeks-old with her.

The business firms that furnished goods for the County Farm included Wallace and Horner, H. Long, Bobbitt and Fluke, Van Werden and Co., Hurst Brothers, Hamilton and Gammill, Young and Thompson, John Bowman, San Farquhar, J. R. Bashaw, Bowsher and Biddison and Mike Myers.
 
 
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