Mary K. wrote:
Hello and I am writing to inquire if anyone knows where the following
was
located: The House of Refuge for the Correction and Reformation of
Junivile Offenders. Was it in Marion Co., IN or where?
I found a couple of articles in an Indiana newspaper about what I presume
to be the place which you are referring to.
- Ed
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The Fort Wayne, "Daily Gazette", Tuesday Evening, June 18, 1867; pg. 4
Gov. Baker has located the Indiana
House of Refuge near Plainfield, Hen-
dricks County, a station on the Terra
Haute Railroad, fourteen miles west of
Indianapolis. The farm to be purchased
contains 218 acres under cultivation.
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The Fort Wayne, "Daily Gazette", Thursday, January 18, 1870; pg 2
INDIANA HOUSE OF REFUGE.
About a year ago I published an article
in the Gazette calling the attentiion of
the people to our your but promising
House of Refuge for boys, located on a
farm of 225 acres, near Plainfield, Hen-
dricks county.
I recently had the pleasure of visiting
this institution and seeing for myself,
evicences of its success and prosperity,
and I only express what I am confident
would be the feeling of every citizen of
the State, after visiting the institution, and
seeing its practical working and results,
that it is a wonderful success, and that
it is destined soon to become one of the
leading and most popular institutions of
the State.
At the time I visited the institution
they had 105 boys. These congregated,
the worst boys of the State, are here
placed under the very best reformatory
influences.
The simple truths of the gospel as
taught in the Holy Scriptures, andthe
powerful influences which prevail in well
regulated families, have been found the
most effectual means of reform.
The boys are divided into families of
fifty each, as near as can be, having a
"House Father" over each, assisted by
his wife, if married, and an assistant call-
ed an "Elder Brother." The whole in-
stitution being under the government of
a superintendent and matron, to whom
the boys have access at all times. The
matron fills the place of a mother to the
boys, to whom all their wants and griev-
ances can be and are freely commuica-
ted, and it is wonderful the influence for
good she has over them.
One-half the boys in each family are in
school half the day, while the other half
are at work, the "Home Father" and
"Elder Brother" being half the day in
school and the other half at work with
the boys.
Of the 100 boys there, 8 work at shoe-
making, making and mending all the
boy's shoes; 6 at tailoring; 30 at cane
bottoming chairs, which promises to be-
come a very profitable employment for
the boys. It is now bossed by one of the
first inmates of the institution. Besides
these, the baking, cooking, washing, iron-
ing, etc., is mostly done by the boys. A
large force work on the farm, raising last
season 20 acres of corn, 18 of oats, 8 of
sorghum, 6 of broom corn, 10 of potatoes,
5 of beans, 12 of wheat, and 16 meadow,
besides garden vegetables for their own
use.
The first boys received at the House of
Refuge were 10 from the Northern Peni-
tentiary, January 1868, and by October of
that year the two family houses, which
had been erected, were full, and since
that time the applications from all parts
of the State, necessarily have had to be
rejected.
The Legislature last spring wisely ap-
propriated $50,000 for the erection of ad-
ditional buildings and furnishing the same.
One additional family building was
finished and ready to occupy on the 1st of
December, which makes room for 50
more boys. The centre main building
will be complete by April, and then one
of the family buildings, now occupied by
the family of the Superintendent and
other officers, can be used for another
family of 50 boys; so that within a few
months from this time they can receive
100 additional boys, and half of the num-
ber they are ready for now.
The object of the institution is to have
a proper place to send boys guilty of
crime, instead of their lying in our jails
under the pernicious influence of adepts
in crime, and sent to the penitentiary to
come out educated and hardened in crime;
also, for those not yet guilty of actual
crime, but are on the high road leading
thereto, and have become unmanageable
by their parents, or have no parents or
others to care for them.
The law specifies the following classes
as those intended to receive the benefits
of the House of Refuge: 1st -- Boys con-
victed of crime. 2nd -- Those guilty of
crime can be sent by the court to this in-
stitution, on presentment of the facts by
the Grand Jury, without trial and convic-
tion. 3rd -- Boys who have parents or
guardians, but have become ungovernable
and vicious, can be sent by the Judge of
the Court on application of said parent or
guardian. 4th -- Boys who are destitute
of a suitable home, and of adequate
means of living, or are in dange of be-
ing brought up to lead an idle and vec-
tious life, may be admitted to the
institution by the Trustees of the town-
ship, or by the mother when the father is
dead, or has abandoned his family, or is
an habitual drunkard, or does not pro-
vide for their support.
"No one can be sent to the institution
for a shorter period than until they shall
be reformed, or until they attain the age
of twenty-one years."
I close this article with the earnest re-
quest that our city authorities and courts
will not allow juvenile offenders to be sent
to the jail and kept there for days, but at
once take the necessary steps to place
them under the guardianship of this insti-
tution, where they will be under those
kind, moral and religious influences that
are working such wonderful effect in the
reformation of those under their care.
A.S. Evans.
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