Published: May 13, 2008 12:02 am         

Genealogists reflect on Terre Haute’s orphanages

City was once home to three orphanages

TERRE HAUTE — When Jennifer Krockenberger was growing up on Terre Haute’s east side, she got to know several children living at the Vigo County Home for Dependent Children, better known as the Glenn Home.

Later, when the orphanage was closed, Krockenberger, 36, took an interest in what was left of the old facility, which stood near the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

“That interest never dimmed,” Krockenberger said Monday night before giving a presentation on Vigo County’s orphanages to the Wabash Valley Genealogy Society at the public library’s main branch.

Adding to Krockenberger’s interest in the orphanages was her own childhood. Placed in a foster home as an infant, the Terre Haute native would grow up not knowing her biological family. This added to her interest in the kids living at the Glenn and other Wabash Valley orphanages, she said.

“They were somebody’s kids,” Krockenberger said, adding that when children at the homes were adopted, they often moved far away from any family members living in the area.

Vigo County had three orphanages, Krockenberger said. The Glenn Home, which closed in 1979, the Rose Home, which closed in 1949 and the St. Ann orphanage, which operated at the end of the 1800s until 1919, she said.

The St. Ann’s Orphan Home, which was limited to girls, was close to Sixth Avenue and 13th Street, Krockenberger said. Other Wabash Valley orphanages operated in Greencastle, Paris and northern Vermillion County, she said.

“I’m a history buff,” Krockenberger said. She is also interested in the architecture of the orphanages and she takes an interest in helping others, including former adopted children, trace their roots.

Krockenberger, working with a former foster home sister, has even developed a Web site for Vigo County’s historic orphanages at www.terrehautechildrenshomes.homestead.com.

After many years, Krockenberger still keeps in touch with some children from the Glenn Home she met growing up with her foster family nearby, she said. Some former residents have painful memories of their times in the homes, but a handful have positive memories, she said. “[The orphanages] did save a lot of lives,” she said.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.



On the net

• Vigo County’s historic orphanages — www.terrehautechildrenshomes.homestead.com

• Wabash Valley Genealogy Society — www.inwvgs.org



What to know

• The Wabash Valley Genealogy Society is hosting a seminar from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 21 at the Forsythe Program Center at 1100 Girl Scout Lane.

Morning speakers include Shirley Fields, treasurer of the Indiana Genealogical Society; and Kandie Adkinson, supervisor of the Kentucky Secretary of State’s land office division. Adkinson will discuss genealogical information that can be obtained from Kentucky land-patenting documents.

The afternoon speaker will be Beau Sharbrough, lecturer, writer and president of Footnote.com, the history Web site.

For more information or to register for the seminar, visit www.inwvgs.org.

Admission is $15, with a $5 optional lunch.