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Heartbreaking Notes Pinned On Abandoned Babies At Orphanage In The Late 1800's
The Daily Mail ^ | 10-3-12 | The Daily Mail

Posted on 10/03/2012 7:53:50 AM PDT by trailhkr1

Abandoned on a door step in the dead of night, these are the desperate notes pinned to babies by poor and often unmarried mothers, pleading for someone to care for their child.

The heartbreaking letters became part of records at the New York Foundling Asylum in the mid-19th century.

In October 1869, a group of nuns renovated a brownstone at 17 East 12th Street in Manhattan into the Foundling Asylum

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: adoption; foundlingasylum; history; ny; orphanage; orphans
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One of the comments in the link pointed out how literate these women were for the day.
1 posted on 10/03/2012 7:53:55 AM PDT by trailhkr1
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To: trailhkr1

These notes where beautiful but very blurry. ,-(


2 posted on 10/03/2012 8:03:59 AM PDT by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: trailhkr1

No problem these days - we just kill ‘em off - by the millions. May G0d help us...


3 posted on 10/03/2012 8:10:48 AM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: trailhkr1
October 1869 ... East 12th Street
In 1869, my gg-grandparents lived half a mile away on East 2nd Street w/ their six kids.
While doing my family research I was stunned at the amount of poverty (real poverty, not today's pseudo-poverty), disease, infant mortality, filth, crime, etc., that overwhelmed city dwellers.
How my ancestors survived and I ended up eventually being born is truly a miracle.
4 posted on 10/03/2012 8:15:33 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: trailhkr1

The root cause of this and today’s abortion rate (which is even more tragic) is that these women were left alone to fend for themselves and baby and the father skipped out.

The problems haven’t changed, only the methods of dealing with it. Always was tragic.


5 posted on 10/03/2012 8:15:35 AM PDT by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: trailhkr1

Back in those days illiterates would often pay someone to write a note for them. Some of these women may have skipped several meals to pay for the note to attach to their babies. It’s all they could give their babies.


6 posted on 10/03/2012 8:18:38 AM PDT by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: trailhkr1
One of the comments in the link pointed out how literate these women were for the day.

And just look at the penmanship of the notes. What would these type of notes look like today?

7 posted on 10/03/2012 8:29:53 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah, so shall it be again,)
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To: oh8eleven
Back when Dr. Cantor was doing his studies in preparation for his book on The History of Venice, he and others looked into the reasons behind Venice's 25 years of residency requirement for citizenship.

Turns out almost everybody who was a citizen was born somewhere else. Further, life spans were short, so most of the people weren't even citizens so it wasn't a big issue ~ the Doge was elected for life anyway.

The city had few children ~ the maternal death rate was nearly 100%. Wealthy people would make sure their pregnant women were out in villages, and the children would be raised by peasants in a healthy atmosphere.

Venice, for most of 7 centuries, was the best place to live in all of Europe!

8 posted on 10/03/2012 8:36:12 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Lorianne

New York City regularly suffered from all sorts of plagues. Sometimes things just overwhelmed the government and social welfare groups so they’d round up the surviving children and put them on trains to the Midwest called ‘Orphan Trains’


9 posted on 10/03/2012 8:39:22 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: QBFimi

Sorry, 0bama is busy renewing his mandate to promote more abortions - he will not help you.


10 posted on 10/03/2012 8:52:51 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: svcw

So sad, and yes, they turned a bit blurry on me too.


11 posted on 10/03/2012 9:01:56 AM PDT by twyn1
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To: oh8eleven
How my ancestors survived and I ended up eventually being born is truly a miracle.

My great grandparents on my father's side grew up poor and Irish during the mid-late 1800's in the slums of Boston.Back then,the Irish of Boston were the "n words" of the day in every sense,discriminated against ("no Irish need apply",employers would announce at the front door/gate),sick,usually with 8+ kids many of whom didn't live to adulthood.My father's father was the only one of 8 kids to live to adulthood,the others all died of TB (also known as "consumption" back then).And his father died of TB at 52.

These letters have brought tears to my eyes.I've said a little prayer asking God to bless those kids,their parents,and the nuns who took them in and did their best to help them.With all the ugly things being said about the Catholic Church today it must be noted that it's done far,far more good in this world than harm.

12 posted on 10/03/2012 9:02:54 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: trailhkr1; mickie; seenenuf; seekthetruth; Chigirl 26; oswegodeee; flaglady47; Bob Ireland; ...
I was elected a Township Supervisor in my state of Illinois....and part of my responsibilities was providing aid for the needy poor and the struggling elderly in my township district consisting of 5 middle-income suburban cities and villages.

Over the years, I saw heartbreaking situations hidden in many houses along the tree-lined neighborhood streets.

Folks often asked me a question...."Who are those who most desperately need assistance to survive?"

The questioners always guessed it was the aged and infirm. However, it was not this group.

The answer was and still is mothers with 1 or more children whose young husbands had either skipped or had skipped with no money to pay support even if they hadn't skipped.

So, babies are still being abandoned by fathers today, the difference being that the mothers are getting help....and the babies are not being dumped on the doorsteps of foundling homes except in some rare instances.

The Bible says "the poor you will always have with you"....and it's so very true. The folks in my district were extremely charitable and our general assistance tax fund was considerably enhanced by private donations and generous contributions of food and paper goods to our emergency Pantry.

Leni

13 posted on 10/03/2012 9:09:38 AM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: muawiyah
'Orphan Trains' are a very interesting chapter in American history. Many of these orphans ended up doing pretty well for themselves. One even became the governor of North Dakota.

I lived in North Dakota in a previous life and the demand for agricultural labor was so great in the late 1800's, that Dakota Territory (and later the young state) actually sent agents to the big cities on the east coast to try to recruit new settlers with little success. One of the exceptional success stories was our future president Theodore Roosevelt. Their next stop was Europe, where they met with a lot more success.

A young orphan was ideally suited to this sort of thing. A childless family (or one with two few children) would get an extra farm hand and the orphan would get a new life.

Not a perfect solution, of course. And there were abuses. But all-in-all, a far better solution than butchering unborn children in the womb.

14 posted on 10/03/2012 9:10:50 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: fella

The notes now read “Wemmacheck?”

From a recent email: An emergency room physician told me that a woman in her late 20’s came to the ER today with her 8th pregnancy. She told the first doctor she saw: “My Mama told me that I am the breadwinner for the family.” He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies, and babies get money from the State for the family. It goes like this:

Grandma calls the Department of Child & Family Services, and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for all of her kids. DCFS agrees, and tells her the children will need to go into foster care. The Grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and receives a check for $1500 per child each month in Illinois.

Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free and nobody has to go to work! In fact, they get more if there is no husband/father/man in the home! Not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid), plus a monthly card entitling them to free groceries and a voucher for 250 free Obamaphone minutes each month. This does not include WIC and other welfare benefits...that they are entitled” to. Indeed, Grandma was correct that her fertile daughter is the “breadwinner” for the family. This is how the liberal politicians spend our tax dollars. We are now hopelessly overrun with people who vote only for those who will continue to keep them on the dole.

The Muslims have been paying attention, and by mandating that each Muslim family have eleven children, they will soon replace the voting bloc above and can be running this country within 25 years.


15 posted on 10/03/2012 9:14:06 AM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: oh8eleven

Western Civilization and the modern world it has created is completely unappreciated by at least 99% of those who live in it.

Cities were festering cesspools until very very recently, throughout human history, and still are in many parts of the world.


16 posted on 10/03/2012 9:19:22 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: oh8eleven

Western Civilization and the modern world it has created is completely unappreciated by at least 99% of those who live in it.

Cities were festering cesspools until very very recently, throughout human history, and still are in many parts of the world.


17 posted on 10/03/2012 9:19:22 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: oh8eleven

Western Civilization and the modern world it has created is completely unappreciated by at least 99% of those who live in it.

Cities were festering cesspools until very very recently, throughout human history, and still are in many parts of the world.


18 posted on 10/03/2012 9:19:31 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: muawiyah

My grandparents sent my mother and her siblings to my maternal great-grandparents’ farm each summer. They did this to avoid polio, primarily, but the other childhood diseases like diptheria, mumps, measles and pertussis could also take the life of a little child. And, these folks didn’t live in a particularly large city of the time.


19 posted on 10/03/2012 9:21:24 AM PDT by Darnright ("I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
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To: Lorianne
Back in those days illiterates would often pay someone to write a note for them.

I was reading something the other day that made me wonder if illiteracy was as common as we imagine. In the 1890s there were two brutal murders in my home town. In both cases a former slave who had migrated north was suspected. In one case, he was tired and convicted and the conviction was overturned on a technicality. So he went free.

Several years later he was caught placing fake ads in the newspaper pretending to be an elderly lady seeking a young woman to be a live in companion. Someone got suspicious when he showed up to pick up a girl who had responded and they laid a trap, getting him to sign for a letter and proving that his signature was identical to the one of the fictitious lady who placed the ad. That woman was certainly lucky, nothing good could have come to her if he'd had his way.

But here we have a man born a slave, a poor man who made his living as a farm laborer and hog slaughterer. He was in and out of jail and very probably killed two women brutally. Yet he was literate, and apparently articulate enough to pass himself in writing as an elderly woman of means. It made me wonder if the stereotype about poor folk back then all being illiterate was really fair.

20 posted on 10/03/2012 10:02:20 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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