Rose Ellen:Birth to Age 6 1913-1919
My grandparents had more than their fair share of difficulties starting a family. Their first daughter, Virginia, was born on May 21, 1911 and died just a few days later, on June 4, 1911. My Mother, Lou Ann, was born 17 years later, when her mother was 43 years old. But before my mother, there was Rose Ellen.
Rose Ellen’s infancy was not a smooth and healthy one. Baby Rose Ellen, it is noted on the Record Of Inquest As To The Feeble-Mindedness of Rose Ellen, suffered “a birth injury” and “severe illness at 1 year”, Typhoid Encephalitis. She was born full term and had a normal delivery. No instruments were used at birth and she had spontaneous breathing and no signs of cyanosis. But It was difficult to get her to eat. Her teeth came in at the”usual” age but she walked late, talked late and was also “late” to sit up and take notice of things”
Rose Ellen: Age 6-16 1920-1932 Mollie Woods Hare.
Rose Ellen survived and lived at home with her parents until she was 6 years old but she did not develop as expected. Grandmama and Papa Don made the heartbreaking decision that their daughter needed more than they could give her. In Grandmama’s words, “she needed a special school”. They chose a school in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, Mollie Woods Hare School, which was 739 miles from their home in Gary, IN. According to The Handbook of Private Schools from 1926, the tuition was $1,500 a year. ( $33,984 in today’s dollars) The drive from Gary to Langhorn, today, would take eleven hours.There is no record of how they found this school but given that they were a doctor and an educator, it seems likely that they did their research. Rose Ellen lived there for several years, “until the first depression” when my Grandmama notes decades later that they did not have enough money for school fees due to the depression. She spent her elementary, middle and halfway into what would have been her highschool years, at Mollie Woods Hare. Mollie Woods Hare school, now called Woods Services, does not have records of former residents so no specific information about Rose Ellen could be gathered, but learning about the founding of the institution gives some understanding of Rose Ellen’s childhood.
I contacted Woods Services and heard back from Cheryl Kauffman, the VP of Communications and Development. She replied to an email inquiry from me and we talked by phone. I told her the little I knew of Rose Ellen, and she told me the history of the school and described a warm, loving environment. When I shared with her that Rose Ellen was six when she was admitted, she replied, “Oh, so she would have been in the little girls’ cottage”.
Learning about Mollie Woods and her pioneering approach to the education of children with learning differences was gratifying and a beacon of light in what looked to be a very sad childhood. Ms. Kauffman spoke with admiration for Mollie Woods and her progressive view of children who learn differently. According to Ms. Kauffman, all of the children went to school, were taught manners, and taught to do chores and have hobbies. Rose Ellen liked to do needlework, sewing and embroidery. Ms. Kauffamn also shared that photos from that era do exist and show children being tucked into bed, playing outdoors, and gathered around a staff member while she read to them. Mollie Woods Hare was clearly an exceptional woman, as written in this history.
“Our history dates back to 1913, when Mollie Woods, a Philadelphia school teacher, sought to establish a new type of educational and residential center, specifically to support children with exceptional needs.”
“Mollie’s vision was to provide care for the exceptional child in a home-like environment that would foster the ability “to meet the problems of everyday life, to make normal adjustments, to acquire sources of satisfaction for the present as well as for later years, and to know the joy of achievement.”
“Mollie’s determination, pioneering leadership, and innovative approach that was centered on creating an individualized program of supports for each person, was well-received resulting in growth that necessitated a move from her farmhouse in Roselyn, PA to Langhorne in 1921.”
“The move to Langhorne signaled an incredible period of growth and international recognition. In 1934, Mollie opened The Research Center, which introduced a scientific basis to the methods of supporting and advancing the capabilities of the exceptional child. Woods became an international leader in the field, sponsoring yearly conferences and publishing journals that featured the best minds in the field.”
Over the past century, we have grown from a 25 student farmhouse school to a world-renowned private non-profit organization serving more than 600 children, adolescents, adults and seniors. Mollie worked tirelessly, as we will, toward the realization of her original mission: to advance the quality of life and standard of care for individuals with disabilities.
Following 12 years at two different residential schools, Rose Ellen was brought home to live with her parents.
Rose Ellen 1932-1933: Home with her Parents
Following 12 years at two different residential schools, Rose Ellen was brought home to live with her parents. In a letter from the archives to the Fort Wayne Social worker, dated Jan. 24, 1971, My Grandmama explains, “When 6 years old, we put her in Mollie Woods Hare school, Langhorne, Pa. where she learned, Including third grade and perfect needlework. During the first depression we had not enough money for there, so put her in Dr. Sylvester School, Des Moines, Iowa. Again, no money caused us to bring her home at 18 years. For a year we tried to help her “fit in”. Week after week we watched her get…”..missing 2nd page.
Rose Ellen: age 19-57 ( 1933-1971) Fort Wayne, Indiana
Following the one unsuccessful year with Rose Ellen at home with Grandmama and Papa Don, they began the process to enroll her at the Indiana State Institution. Evaluations were completed and financial arrangements made. She would be classified as feeble-minded and deemed a menace to society.
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Once I learned from the 1940 census that Rose Ellen had moved from Gary, IN to Fort Wayne, IN, it did not take long to find extensive information on where she lived. A Google search of Fort Wayne, Indiana + Institution broke the story right open. A full-length documentary of the Indiana State School for Feeble-Minded Children came up on my screen.
The film was made by the AWS Foundation and the History Center to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was originally aired on September 26, 2022.
I watched the film right then and there, transfixed by the knowledge that this was Rose Ellen’s home for many years. The film tells the story of the state institution from its creation in 1887 through its closure in the 1970s. The institution’s history follows the same trajectory of many state institutions:(mostly) good intentions, idealistic beginnings, expansion, overcrowding, understaffing, under-funding, crumbling buildings and ultimately closure in the 1970s. A grim story emerges in the film but I can’t take my eyes off it.
The film opens, “This is the story of that forgotten place from the archaic days of the past, through the medical and behavioral progress that was gained through the building of a new complex to the eventual closure.”
The Indiana School for Feeble-Minded Youth was established in 1887 with 50 staff for 300 residents, By 1904 the population had swelled to 1,035.The purpose of the institution, according to the film was to “support, train and instruct feeble minded children. By June of 1931, the population at the school was at 1,721, with 200 people on the waiting list.
The school’s official capacity at that point was 1,130. By now, the campus encompassed almost 55 acres. The industrial building housed woodworking, shoemaking, and a mattress shop with a warehouse to store the surplus mattresses next door. There were several support buildings close by; the power plant, with its towering smokestack, the root cellar and the laundry. Just west of the administration building was the school, one of the first separate buildings constructed.
The facility included a boy’s cottage, a gym with a basketball court and an auditorium, a greenhouse, a lumber and paint storage building and horse stalls and a hospital .Next to the hospital was Carroll Cottage, which housed girls. What started out as the custodial cottage became the wing that joined the two buildings, which together were called Harper Lodge. Many of the cottages had exterior slides as fire escapes. These were easier and faster than a ladder for those with mental and physical disabilities.In the beginning, the residents were cared for and kept busy with academic classes,; basket weaving, cabinetmaking, sewing shoe making, and mattress making. There was a large music program with both a boy’s band and a girl band and boys and girls’ choir. Young men worked on a farm that provided food for the residents. But by the 1930s it had become seriously overcrowded and staff were not well trained. “In 1936 alone, residents working in the industrial department made over 2,000 pairs of shoes, with close to 2,000 residents. The Fort Wayne State School was a very crowded and busy place.”
The population of residents were divided by gender, there were the “boys cottages” and the girls cottages, but they were also segregated by ability level: Educable, Trinabale and Non-trainable. “Those with debilitating physical handicaps were confined to their beds for the majority of the day. Others struggled with behavioral problems and often had to be restrained using shackles and straitjackets due to violent outbursts and fits.”
Minimal funding was given to state institutions, and building supplies were scarce. Some residents with sleep difficulties had crib-like beds with sides, but due to overcrowding in some cases, two residents shared a bed at night. Day rooms where residents were to enjoy leisure time, had chairs lined up tightly in rows to accommodate 50 or more people in a space designed for 20.
One staff member shares her experience.
“When I got here, they were overcapacity. I mean, when you looked at the dormitories, they were bed to bed.I think that most of the people just sat in those day rooms and I don’t know, I don’t know, it was not enriching I can tell you that. People frequently referred to them as warehouses, and I think that’s the best description where you put the inventory and it sits there till it expires. You have no rights.You’re locked away. Yes, you’re fed and clothed, but you don’t get your basic needs met.You know, you’re housed, it’s deplorable.Who would want this.I mean, some people were here, what, 40, 50 years? It’s like this is not a way to live. Individuals didn’t have anything meaningful to do for themselves.They were just part of a large mass of people usually in a building. it was a crowded place that was not at all a place we should have put people.”
“Additionally, the institution was greatly understaffed. They were operating at a constant shortage of nearly 50 employees, especially for direct care attendants. At one time, there was one nurse for the entire campus on State Street, and then later they had two.And then they went to four. So, you know, the staffing was awful really in terms of ratios.1 to 30, uh, not much training. You just literally got them together and hoped that you could keep them under control.
“There was a time when people would work straight through 24 hours a day and Indianapolis picked up on that and said, there’s no way somebody can provide services and not sleep.” “Extreme overcrowding, a serious shortage of help of all kinds, buildings which are fire hazards. That is the situation at the state maintained institution for the feeble minded here”, said the News Sentinel on July 19, 1944.
The 1950s
Overall, the fifties were a period of mixed messages.On one hand, a visitor to the institution would see residents in overcrowded infirmaries, dormitories and day rooms, sitting and lying in a hopeless manner. Some crippled, an idiot appearing, leaning over carts or lying doubled up in bed, wrote Kenneth Weaver in a March 12, 1956, News Sentinel article.
On the other hand, a growing philosophical change on how to care for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities was taking place. Instead of simply warehousing these individuals and providing the most basic custodial care, it was now being recognized that with the right training this population, although limited, can be taught to perform simple tasks.
In 1956, Bernard Dolnick became the superintendent of the Fort Wayne State School. He inherited dilapidated buildings, a less than adequate staff that were too few in numbers and too low in wages. A transition in care and treatments, and an ever-growing number of residents with disabilities.One of the first things Dolnick did was remove last remnants of a bygone era, meaning jail cells, whipping straps, leg and arm irons and straitjackets, the doors and bars on basement cells were removed and shackles were unbolted from the walls and floors.
At the time, the Fort Wayne State School was the most overcrowded of all state operated facilities 71% overcapacity. They had four psychiatrists on staff, but needed 15 to meet minimum standards. Due to noncompetitive salaries, they continued to have a high turnover rate and staff shortages. We didn’t have people that were advocating for the population that we had. People were embarrassed that they had somebody living there or that they had a child that needed special help.
1960s-1970s
“ A natural consensus was building that individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities be given the opportunity, skills and financial support to live in the least restrictive environment. The first big step was the transferring of residents with only medical needs to nursing homes.The idea was that the institution should be a training center, not a medical facility. We had people well up into retirement age.” That was the first group that was moved largely to nursing facilities in the seventies because it was age appropriate. Many residents had been institutionalized since they were children and these changes could seem very overwhelming. Residents age 55 and older had preparatory classes before they moved that show them what to expect in their new surroundings. By the fall of 1971, 215 residents had been placed in 83 facilities within 37 counties.”
Rose Ellen was one of those 215 residents. In 1971 she was moved to Carlyle Nursing home in South Bend, IN. She was 57. As described, the move did not go over well with my Grandmama. She was frightfully terrified that Rose Ellen would become depressed, lonely and without friends. That story unfolds later in this narrative.
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After watching the film I began an online search for more information. I first discover the census data from 1920 and 1930 listed her as living gin Gary, Indiana but in years 1940 and 1950 her residence changed to Fort Wayne, Indiana. that led me to the Indiana State Archives. Between the film and the records I was able to obtain, I began to understand much more about who Rose Ellen was, how my grandparents took care of her, and what her life might have been like,
It has been a sad journey, learning about institutional life for Rose Ellen and so many others, but it was also a heartwarming story of my grandparent’s dogged attempt to parent their child from afar, to support her and love her as best they could.
The story itself, though, is a tragedy. Not because Rose Ellen had disabilities, but because she was misunderstood, mistreated and denied a loving home and relationship with her family. And we were denied a life with her. All of us lost so much.
Up Next: The Indiana State Archives, Record of Inquest, Historical perspective, The Indiana Pan
