Published: September 08, 2007 05:30 pm         

Genealogy: Vigo orphanage Web sites offer great detail

TERRE HAUTE — Last week’s column introduced the topic of Vigo County orphanages and discussed the St. Ann Orphans Home for girls, the Rose Orphans Home, and the Glenn Home (also known as the Vigo County Home for Dependent Children). Jennifer Krockenberger’s three enlightening Web sites tell viewers all about these institutions, and can be found at stannsorphanshome.homestead.com/index.html, roseorphanshome.homestead.com, and glennhome.homestead.com. Her Web sites are detailed and instructional for any one wanting to know the history of these institutions, to see old and recent photographs, to search the censuses of each facility, or to connect with former residents of the homes.

Jennifer started her work in 2004 when she created her first Web site as a tribute to the Glenn Home, the last orphanage in Vigo County to close. An adoptee herself, who was never actually a resident of an orphanage, she is still keenly interested in the history of these institutions and the genealogical challenges that adoptees are up against when seeking their biological roots. She relates that searching for, and finding, her biological roots was a “life-altering experience,” Her story about her own experience is on her Web site www.bondedbyfate.com.

About 4 years ago, Lost Creek County Trustee Rick Long also became interested in the Glenn Home. He received a phone call from a man dying of cancer who was a former resident of Glenn Home. The man stated that he wanted to be buried in the Glenn Home Cemetery. As a township trustee, Rick is responsible for maintaining each cemetery in Lost Creek Township, but he wasn’t aware that there WAS a cemetery at Glenn Home. Meanwhile, Jennifer Krockenberger had found a map showing a cemetery on the property, but no one could locate it in the woods.

The search went on until April 2007, when the Glenn Home children’s cemetery was discovered with the help of several people, including members of Rose Hulman’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity that now occupies the old Glenn Home property and buildings. A single grave has been found, but there is death record evidence that at least 20 children are buried there. (See the Web site for the names of these children and a photo of the one known grave).

As the man responsible for all the township’s cemeteries, Rick Long wanted to honor those buried in the Glenn Home cemetery. But because the actual burial ground is in the woods and covered by thickets, it was decided to place a memorial to the orphans in a more public and accessible location. The Chamberlain Cemetery, located behind the old Glenn Home property on Old Maple Avenue, was selected.

So on Saturday, in the Chamberlain Cemetery, the Lost Creek Township board will dedicate a memorial stone to the memory of the children who died as residents of Glenn Home and to the legacy of the thousands of children and staff who once resided there. The dedication ceremony will be at 1 p.m., and will be brief. The public is invited. Due to the absence of parking in and near the cemetery, a shuttle bus has been set up. Those wanting to attend the dedication should park in the lot of the Victory Christian Church on U.S. 40 east of Seelyville to be taken by bus to the Chamberlain Cemetery. The bus will leave for the cemetery at 12:30 p.m.

Prior to the dedication ceremony, former residents and staff of the Glenn Home are invited to tour the campus from 9:30-11:30 a.m. by the fraternity. This event is not open to the public. Contact Lost Creek Trustee Rick Long at (812) 877-3415 for further information.