Ohio History Journal

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OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

 

REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS

BY THE EDITOR

 

CATHERINE FAY EWING, ORIGINATOR OF

CHILDREN'S HOMES*

Children's Homes throughout the country have at-

tracted deserved attention as child-saving institutions.

They not only save life; they educate to usefulness.

The Ohio law is simple. It was enacted in 1866, and

in 1871 thirty-seven homes were organized under it.

They were established and conducted by counties and

intrusted to the care of three trustees by the county

commissioners. All neglected or destitute children, not

insane, imbecile, or affected by contagious diseases, are

received into them on proper certificate. The effort is

to make the homes for them all that the word implies.

From these homes they are committed to families. At

first when the children were placed in families the offi-

cers did not follow them with care systematically. Now

they inspect each child annually under an amendment

to the law made in 1889.

These beneficent homes originated with Mrs. Cath-

erine Fay   Ewing.  Mr. Fay, her father, in the early

history of Marietta College, moved with his family

from Westboro, Mass., where Mrs. Ewing was born.

 

* Reprinted from Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1903,

Vol. II, pp. 1309-1310.

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