Prior to the year 1889 the indigent children of Madison county were kept in the children's homes of other counties. In May of that year a carefully prepared contract was entered into by the commissioners with Mrs. Auburn Smith, of London, to care for the children for a period of three years. The county at that time had twenty six wards in the Franklin county children's home, who were to be transferred on July 1. By the agreement with Mrs. Smith she was to clothe, feed and care for the children and receive a compensation of thirty-six cents a day per capita. She remodeled her home in the northern part of town and the children were taken there. These contracts with Mrs. Smith were renewed from time to time until September 1, 1896, when she refused to renew the contract on account of ill health and the need of rest.
In the spring of that year a bill was prepared, as pushed through the state Legislature, authorizing the county to issue thirty-five thousand-dollar bonds for the purpose of building a county children's home. This bill was passed on April 21, 1896. The court of common pleas appointed William H. H. Morgan, M. L. Rea and John T. Vent to act in connection with commissioners for approval of plans, drawings, representations, bills of materials, specifications, work, etc. The commissioners voted to issue twenty-five one-thousand-dollar bonds on June 8, 1896. Seventy-five acres of ground was purchased on the same date, of A. T. O'Neill, for a farm. This farm is located one and one-half miles north of the court house on the east side of the Marysville pike. It is the north end of the old "Billy" Wingett farm and a part of old John Phifer farm in Deer Creek township and has a frontage on the pike of eighty yards and the cost of the same was seventy-five dollars an acre. The bonds were sold to Farson, Leach & Company, of Chicago, at a premium of eight hundred and five dollars, but they refused to take them and the cantract was cancelled. They were again advertised for sale and sold on August 20, 1896, to the Fourth National Bank of Columbus at a premium of two hundred and sixty dollars. These bonds bear date of September 10, 1896.
The commissioners hired George F. Hammond, of Cleveland, Ohio, as architect and approved his plans and specifications on December 16, 1896. These plans called for a plain, unelaborate structure of common brick. The whole structure presents a frontage of one hundred and seventy-three and one-half feet, consisting of a two faced administration building, thirty-nine and one-half feet front, with twenty-five feet corridors on each side connecting with one-story sleeping cottages, each forty-two by sixty-two and one-half feet. The main building has a depth of seventy and one-third feet back, inside measure, not counting front or back steps. The cottages and corridors also are of brick, with stone trimmings, all roofed with slate. The front steps lead to a large piazza from which entrance is gained to a vestibule fronting the hall, forty-two by thirty-six feet, divided by a fourteen-foot sitting-room and a ten-foot family dining-room back, and also an open stairway. Back of the hall is a fifteen by twenty-eight foot dining-hall, supplied with a forty-foot kitchen and large pantry. The side corridors connect with the cottages by arch doors, making it possible to see from one side wall to the other. The cottages have each three front dayrooms, all connected together, leading back to linen-rooms, cribrooms, sleeping rooms. attendants' rooms and twenty-two by thirty-four-foot dormitories. The second floors contain chambers, closets, a large schoolroom and bedroom. The basement contains boiler-room, coal houses, laundry, etc. Clint Morse was chosen to superintend the construction of the building. The contract for its construction was let to James Self, of London, for the sum of $16,456.18. The building was inspected and accepted by the commissioners on February 22, 1898. About May 1, the children, about eighty in number, were transferred from the Logan county children's home at Bellefontaine, to which place they had been taken at the expiration of the contract with Mrs. Auburn Smith.
A board of trustees to have supervision of the home was created on February 25, 1898, composed of C. M. Butt, Lester Bidweli, M. L. Rea and Xerxes Farrar. Mr. Butt died on January 12, 1904, and Howard Black was appointed to fill his unexpired term and was reappointed. He served until he left the county in 1911, when S. W. Beale was appointed to fill his unexpired term and was then reappointed. The other men have served continuously since the home was erected. Daniel Kulp was appointed the first superintendent, with his wife as matron, by the trustees. He served until B. F. Linson, the present superintendent, was appointed. The present visiting committee consists of J. B. Vanwagner, Henry Lenhart, J. R. Atchison. Lucy Beach, Mrs. G. T. Clark and Mrs. A. J. Strain. The present matron is Mrs. B. F. Linson, the wife of the superintendent. The report of the trustees for the year ending August 31, 1915, showed that there were thirty-one children in the home—seven having been admitted during the year. There have been one hundred and fifty-eight children admitted since the foundation of the home—seventy-eight being the greatest number at any one time and fifteen the least.
