The History of the St. John’s Orphanage: 1873 – 1965

 

The History of the St. John’s Orphanage: 1873 – 1965 submitted by: Brooks Clark

In 1897, the Knoxville Tribune included a history of the St. John’s Orphanage in a roundup of charitable work in the community. “In the spring of 1873,” the story began, “a few Christian women, members of St. John’s Church, organized a “Sewing Society” for the relief of the poor, and the care of the orphan children of this city.” These good women “rented a small house on Cumberland Street, where the first orphanage ever inaugurated in this city was established. Shortly after, the attention of Col. C.M. McGhee [former president of the Southern Railroad] was attracted by this charity and with commendable generosity he came to its aid by donating a small two story building on High Street, and soon after donated a larger building on Henley Street.”

In 1878, an eight-year-old boy named Benny Wade was living in dire poverty with his unwed mother in what he described in his autobiography, The Unwanted Boy,[1] as “the lowest slum section of the city. For a period of two years my playground was the streets and alleys and my playmates the tough boys, white and colored, of that tough district.”

One day my mother gave me an unusually thorough scrubbing and put on me                  the best clothing available, which was doubtless none too good at that. I          wondered where I was going, for I had never been to Sunday school, and it          wasn’t Sunday anyway. . . . But after so long a time, we arrived at St. John’s          Orphanage, where I was turned over to the matron, Mrs. Richardson, and her          assistants, particularly Miss Matilda Goetz. As a matter of wise precaution, I was          treated to another whale of a good scrubbing—such a complete, hide-moving,          and soul-stirring ablution as had never been administered to me before in all my          life, and not since, except in a Seventh Day Adventist Sanitarium. I was then          given new clothes, somewhat better than I had been accustomed to. In a short          while I discovered that I had been incorporated into a larger family than I had          hitherto known. [Ben W. Wade was admitted to St. John’s on July 20, 1878.]            At that time it cared for not more than fifteen or twenty children. I soon found          that Mrs. Richardson was kind and motherly, but a firm and fair disciplinarian,          and that Miss Goetz was a patient and painstaking teacher.           I immediately adapted myself to my new surroundings and, in a short while,              established myself in the good graces of my preceptors. I learned the important          lesson of method and system—careful and regular habits. This lesson of having          a time and a place for everything is so often more religiously taught in such an          institution than it is in the lax indulgence of a private home. Along with this          secular training, I took my place in the little band of pupils that marched out          once a week to the St. John’s Sunday School.”

In a sermon in the 1970s, Rector Daniel Matthews related an anecdote about Ben Wade, who always quietly entered St. John’s through the back door so as not to be advertise his status as an orphan. One day the rector, Thomas Duncan, saw Wade and asked, “Whose boy are you?” Being no one’s boy, Wade had no answer. As Duncan realized Wade’s standing as an orphan, he said to him,  “You are God’s boy and you are always welcome here.” Matthews described it as a turning-point moment for Wade that he never forgot. Indeed, as he wrote in his autobiography, “Since reaching my years of maturity that should enable me to fairly evaluate my various educational experiences, I like to testify that the beneficial influence of St. John’s Orphanage was the most fundamental.

“No one can predict the results or measure the vast benefits that flow from the work of well-connected institutions of this kind. And I may add that there is not much reason for hesitancy in adopting a child from such an institution, assuming, of course, that it is a child of reasonably good sense and good character. Those things crop out quite early, too, in any child.”      In the fall of 1879, Wade’s father, a doctor named D.L. Hooper who had shunned him and his mother at birth, came and adopted him. On November 9, 1879, Ben Walter Wade became Ben Walter Hooper and relocated to Newport. After attending public schools Hooper graduated from Carson-Newman College in 1890, became a lawyer, and served two terms as the 31st governor of Tennessee from 1911 to 1915.

On August 30, 1888, the Knoxville Tribune ran a story under the headline “Work to Begin at Once on the New Home for Orphans.” The contract for the building went to McLemore & Kelley. “The entire job in their charge. The building was to be situated on the corner of Locust Street and East Linden Street on the South side of the dummy line, will be a delightful stopping place for the unfortunate children being cared for by good ladies of the Orphanage. It will cost $8,500 when completed and house between 30 and 50 orphans.” The contract called for the work to be finished by November 20, 1888.”

As of 1897, there were some 25 children in the Orphanage. Over 200 boys and girls had resided there over the years and for 175 “comfortable homes had been found.” A “Year Book for October 1912 to October 1913” listed the trustees, including the St. John’s rector, the Rev. Walter C. Whitaker, and Managers, including many St. John’s women such as Mrs. L.D. Tyson, wife of Lawrence Tyson, owner of Brookside Mills, a brigadier general in the Spanish-American War and World War I, and a U.S. Senator, among other things.

The matron was listed as Sister Helen Giles. The Year Book, with a donation form in the back, recounted how, in 1890, a three-story brick building in Park City had been erected to include three large dormitories, noting, We are not a reform school, for we do not care for delinquent children. We do not take children over 8 years of age. It is not an industrial school, for it does not attempt to teach the trades. Under Sister Helen’s motherly guidance, the housework is done by the older girls. The furnace is tended to by the biggest     boy. This year Miss Mulligan, of the University of Tennessee, will have a domestic science class. At age 12, boys not placed out are sent to a true industrial school. Girls where delicate of mind and body are kept during their entire youth. Secular education is received at the Park City High School. The Orphanage housed 46 children in the past year, averaging 34. The Year Book listed a current number of 38, ages 2-17, including 29 girls and nine boys with an average age of 7. “All regularly go to Sunday School and church at St. John’s. If they have not been baptized, the rite is administered.” In 1923, the Orphanage cared for some 40 children.

In our 1946-76 church history, Elise Morrell, whose mother served on the Orphanage Board, remembered her mother taking her to visit the orphanage one day “to see how little girls lived who did not have a home as I did.” Mrs. Morrell dined at the head table with Sister Helen. Elise sat at a table with “lots of girls. When we finished lunch and were officially dismissed, we went into the play yard. The big girls let me swing first and pushed me as high as I wanted to go. I had a grand time.” She noted that Dr. Douglas Caulkins “gave his services to the orphanage. He had a daughter who died at that time, and as a memorial to her the Board repainted, decorated, bought new equipment and installed a memorial plaque in the dormitory in his daughter’s name.”

In 1939, a building at 1505 Cecil Avenue was purchased from the agent of the Babies’ Home, which had closed. After. In 1946 it was renamed the Children’s Home and became a temporary placement home in accordance with a recommendation of the Child Welfare League of America.

A 1971 photo shows Virginia and John H. Gann Jr. with St. John’s parishioner Ramsey Harb, noting  that John Gann, who died in 2010, grew up in the orphanage.

In May 1965, the Cecil Street Center was closed, the home was put up for sale, the furniture given to the Florence Crittendon Home, and the books and toys sent to Child & Family Services. All the assets were placed in a trust at Valley Fidelity Bank & Trust that was named the Knox Children’s Foundation and administered by a board chaired by Dr. Veda Bateman and including Jerry Burdette, mother of Lyn Johnson, as recording secretary. Over the years, the foundation awarded hundreds of grants totaling close to $1.5 million. Among the first grants was for $3,240, enough for four two-year scholarships for Negro children to attend Montessori school at $405 per year per child. “In the early days we’d spend hours debating one grant proposal,” remembers Finbarr Saunders, a longtime board member. “One, for $500, helped get the Emerald Youth Foundation off the ground.” The EYF, an outgrowth of the Emerald Church on Central, received many grants thereafter, including for $6,000 in 2002, in the same batch as the Joy of Music School ($7,000), Junior Achievement ($2,300), and the Crutcher Memorial Youth Enrichment Center ($8,456). In 2004, the Knox Children’s Foundation Trust was terminated and rolled into the Youth Endowment Fund of the East Tennessee Foundation, where it continues to fund worthy youth initiatives to this day.