Excerpts from earliest board meetings…starting 1888About admissions, dismissals, conduct, staffing, etc.

“Notes of rules and regulations to govern the Lutheran Orphan Home:

Who are to be received, and the forms of applicationIllegitimate children not to be received into the Home”

More notes concerning the first board meeting…

“Children not allowed to work out in the community except in serving an apprenticeship…Maximum age 10 years except in special cases…”

Superintendent’s report…

“On September 11, 1888, Ollie Lee Repass and Effie Ophelia Repass, two little sisters six and eight years old, from near Wytheville, entered our Home. They have had good health and are right promising little girls. Another youth came later, and remained a few months, but was returned as not an appropriate inmate of an orphan home. I have received a number of applications during the year, but all only half orphans. Two are now seeking admittance from Waynesboro.”

Selection of children

“I think I began fully to realize the responsibility resting upon me in the selection of children. I have had several trials of this kind during the year. Some I can give you verbally if you wish. If the Board will be pleased to give me a little latitude in this particular, it may aid me. Some other things of interest may be brought before you outside of this report.” (Wm. McClanahan)

Cost per orphan…

“…That one hundred Dollars be deemed an appropriate amount for the annual expenses of an orphan in the Home.”

Letter to be sent to all the churches…

“1st …That the officers of the Board be instructed as soon as provision for necessary support is guaranteed, to issue a circular letter to all Lutheran pastors in the state of Virginia and to all ministers in Roanoke County. Notifying them of our arrangement to support twenty five orphans and writing them to send all orphans under their influence after consultation with the Superintendent.”

First teacher…salary

“#4. That the Supt. be allowed One hundred Dollars for the support of a teacher in the Home.”

Request to purchase a home

“What we most need today is permanent property owned by the Board or Church. You can readily see how embarrassing it is to me to ask aid for a work in my home or inmate property. Please relieve me of my embarrassment so that I may work to better advantage.

Problems with “half-orphans”

We learn in all business from experience, and so it is in this orphan work,and my experience teaches me that half orphans give far more trouble than full orphans, and here the trouble comes more by far, from the living parent than from the child.

Reorganization - 1892

“4. That the management of the Home for the present be placed in the hands of an Executive Committee of three members, of which Mr. Terry shall be chairman. 5. That the immediate supervision of the Home be placed in the hands of a matron with proper assistants.”

1893 – McClanahan to keep older children in his home…

“Of the above five children only one, Hugh Atkins, will be suitable on account of age etc. to place here in the new Home. If therefore the Board will assign these four older children to me, I will continue to care for them in the future just as in the past without money or price. They have been with us now for several years and we have studied from year to year their dispositions and are deeply attached to them, and will try to do our duty by them.”

Resignation of Wm. S. McClanahan

“…to you with this report, may resignation. Thanking you for your confidence, trust, and co-operation for the past four or laborious years, I now step out of the way, that you may select a woman to preside over the little fatherless ones, which may knock at our door for admission.”

Terms of admission - 1893

“In discussing the terms of admission it was…Resolved… That no child born out of wedlock be received into the Home.”

List of children admitted 1894

Hugh Atkins – Vinton, Va.Arthur Walton – Roanoke, Va.Harry Walton – Roanoke, Va.William W. Bently – Pulaski, Va.Randal K. Bently – Pulaski, Va.Lorenzo Clarence Brown – Burke’s Garden, Va. Harry Estes Waddle – Wytheville, Va.Shelton Warner – Roanoke, Va.Susie B. Repass – Wythe Co., Va.Villa Repass – Wythe Co., Va.Dora Lentz – Craven, N.C.Lula Belle Brown – Burke’s Garden, Va.

1894 – About arrangements for Susie Repass

• Since the last meeting three children have been received into the Home. Negotiations are pending in regard to five others. There are now eleven children in the Home. The oldest, Susie Repass, has been placed at Mrs. Gilmore’s, in Roanoke, where she has excellent school advantages. She pays for her board and schooling by her work, the Home providing her only with clothing. She is preparing herself to be a teacher.

About the depression… 1894

“The income of the Home for the past ten months has just been sufficient to meet the current expenses. Considering the extraordinary financial depression through which the country has been passing, this is, perhaps, as well as could be expected…”

1895 – List of GirlsGirlsSusie Belle Repass 17 yearsVilla Repass 8 yearsFannie B. Hagy 8 yearsAnnie Florence Hale 9 yearsLula Brown 9 yearsDora Lentz 11 yearsFannie Elizabeth Jones 12 yearsWillie Fleetwood Watts 10 yearsBeulah Saffell 10 yearsAlice Saffell 12 years

1895 - List of Boys

BoysHarry Walton 10 yearsArthur Walton 8 yearsLorenzo C. Brown 11 yearsWilliam A. Hale 7 yearsLeslie Zepp 11 yearsMarvin Hagy 5 yearsHenry Hagy 6 yearsJames M. Jones 9 yearsHugh Atkins 9 years

Exception to the rules for admission – children whose parents are both “dissipated”

“…. are in the Home by special arrangement. Their father and mother are both dissipated, and they were placed in the Home by their uncle and grandfather who pay $10 ($110?) towards their support. The application for their admission was made by the Rev. L. L. Smith of the Virginia Synod, and the Executive Committee believed it consistent with the charitable principles of the institution, under all the circumstances to receive them.”

Changing policies… to accept children with infirmities

“One of the conditions of admission at present requires that the children should be healthy, sound in body and mind, and free from all physical deformity. It seems to be the wish of the Church that this condition be modified. It is therefore recommended that the Home be opened to infirm children when their reception will not necessitate the employment of additional help in the way of nurses.”

About the Lutheran Church

“In this country today the Lutheran Church is maintaining no fewer than forty orphanages, in which hundreds of children are cared for…”

Hiring Rev. Cronk - 1897

“The item referring to the call of the Rev. B. W. Cronk as resident superintendent, and Mrs. Cronk as matron, was adopted. Mr. Cronk was invited before the Board. His salary, including that of matron, was fixed at $400 a year.”