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274 The WOFS indenture contracts always listed where an adult guardian lived. I compiled this information into the four categories listed on the chart. Indentures, BV 3687; CBIR, IHS.

275 1880 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population schedule, Indianapolis, p. 35, dwelling 244, family 253, Nellie Burnham; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com.

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for them properly.”²⁷⁶ The Branham twins were only fifteen months old at the time. In March 1880, Henry C. Long, an Indianapolis resident who operated a lumber yard in the city, signed an indenture contract and took both of the Branham twins to his home at 351 North New Jersey Street. Henry and his wife Sarah had been married since 1870 but they had no children until Arthur and Daisy came to their home.²⁷⁷ In the 1880 census (which was taken three months after Henry took the children from the WOFS), Arthur and Daisy were listed as Henry W. Long and Alice N. Long, Henry and Sarah’s son and daughter.²⁷⁸ Although he had signed an indenture contract, Henry and his wife wasted no time in changing the children’s names and treating them as their own. By 1900, Henry W.

(Arthur) was married, owned his own home, and worked in an Indianapolis lumber yard, undoubtedly the same lumber yard his adopted father, Henry C., operated. Alice (Daisy) was living at home and attending school in 1900. She married in 1905.²⁷⁹

There are multiple other examples of children who seem to have been indentured by the WOFS but in practice were adopted by men and women.²⁸⁰ However, there are

276 Notes on Children, 1877-1882, BV 3677, p. 33. CBIR, IHS.

277 The 1900 census lists Henry and Sarah’s marriage year as 1870. It is highly likely that Henry and Sarah (after eight years of marriage) would have already had biological children in 1878. The fact that they did not indicates that the couple perhaps could not have biological children which is why they adopted Arthur/Henry and Daisy/Alice. 1900 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population schedule,

Indianapolis, p. 4B, dwelling 91, family 91, Henry C. and Sarah C. N. Long; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com.

278 1880 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population schedule, Indianapolis, p. 4, dwelling 49, family 37, Alice N. and Henry W. Long; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017,

http://ancestry.com.

279 1880 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population schedule, Indianapolis, p. 4, dwelling 49, family 37, Alice N. and Henry W. Long; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017,

http://ancestry.com.

1900 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population schedule, Indianapolis, p. 4B, dwelling 91, family 91, Henry C. and Sarah C. N. Long; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017,

http://ancestry.com.

Indiana, Select Marriages Index, 1748-1993, Alice N. Long; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com.

280 Ora Merriman was indentured to Andrew and Louisa Lower in 1875 at 19 months old, but he is listed in the 1880 census as their “A. son”—shorthand for adopted son. His last name was changed to Lower and he grew up with the family in Hendricks County (1880 U.S. census, Marion County, Indiana, population

just as many examples of children who truly were indentured from the institution. Jacob L. Toner signed an indenture contract for eleven-year-old Katie Smith on August 5, 1879.

He agreed to give her “a good bed with bedding and two suits of good cloths” along with ten dollars when she turned 18.²⁸¹ In the 1880 census, Katie was listed as the Toner’s servant.²⁸² This was not the first time that Jacob and Melinda Toner had kept a servant.

Ten years earlier, seventeen-year-old Jennie McDonald was listed as the family’s domestic servant in the 1870 census.²⁸³ Mary LeDuke’s story is not much different—

except that Mary was indentured twice from the institution. In 1876, Josiah L. Burton from Martinsville signed an indenture for the eight-year-old Mary, but he returned her to the WOFS less than two months later and argued that returning her within two months should “annul this indenture.”²⁸⁴ Mary was at the orphanage less than a year before she was indentured again, this time to William H. and Ellen E. Graham from Newton County.

schedule, Indianapolis, p. 6, dwelling 52, family 52, Ora C. Lower; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com). Jessie Galleher was indentured to John and Mary Dawson in 1878 at the age of 13 months. The Dawsons changed her name to Emma Dawson and listed her in the 1880 census as their adopted daughter “taken from orphans home [in] Indianapolis” (1880 U.S. census, Clinton County, Indiana, population schedule, Perry Township, p. 13, dwelling 130, family 135, Emma J. Dawson;

digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com). Some couples even came from out of state to adopt from the WOFS. Charles and Margaret Jarrell came from Dayton, Ohio, and signed an indenture for Charles Wilmot-Carson in 1877. Three years later, in the 1880 census, the couple had changed the boy’s last name to their own and listed him as their son (Indenture record for Charles Wilmot-Carson, BV 3687, p. 31; CBIR, M0983, IHS; and 1880 U.S. census, Montgomery County, Ohio, population schedule, Dayton, p. 18, dwelling 164, family 181, Chas. Jarrell; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com).

281 Indenture record for Katie Smith, BV 3687, p. 60; CBIR, IHS.

282 1880 U.S. census, Johnson County, Indiana, population schedule, Edinburgh, p.30, dwelling 299, family 321, Katie Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com.

283 1870 U.S. census, Johnson County, Indiana, population schedule, Blue River Township, p. 38, dwelling 281, family 316, Jennie McDonald; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017,

http://ancestry.com.

284 Indenture record for Mary LeDuke, BV 3687, p. 17; CBIR, IHS.

Three years later, in 1880, Mary still lived with the Grahams and was listed in the census as their servant.²⁸⁵

Like the examples of children who were adopted through the indenture system, there are numerous examples of children who were truly indentured through the

system.²⁸⁶ Although tracking individuals through the population census presents several difficulties, the census provides information on what happened to the children once they left the WOFS, while the indenture contracts simply give demographic information and dates.

While the census records are invaluable in discovering what happened to children when they left the WOFS, the demographic information contained in the indenture records provides valuable information on the institution’s policy as well as nineteenth-century views on indenture and adoption. For example, the records indicate a preference for girls over boys, even though there were more boys available to be indentured/adopted from the Indianapolis institution. Of the 152 WOFS indentures, 91 of the children (sixty percent) were female, and 61 of the children (forty percent) were male. This number is not representative of the ratio of girls to boys at the WOFS, for, during the same timeframe, there were significantly more boys than girls at the asylum. Throughout the

285 Indenture record for Mary LeDuke, BV 3687, p. 33 CBIR, IHS. 1880 U.S. census, Newton County, Indiana, population schedule, Jefferson Township, p. 13, dwelling 144, family 150, Mary L. LaDuke;

digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com.

286 Belle Draper is listed as Peter and Caroline Zurbrigg’s servant in the 1880 census (1880 U.S. census, Bartholomew County, Indiana, population schedule, Columbus Township, p. 17, dwelling 154, family 160, Belle Draper; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com). Anna Bell Gershner is listed as W. H. and Sarah Bussell’s boarder (1880 U.S. census, Hamilton County, Indiana, population schedule, Clay Township, p. 27, dwelling 242, family 252, [Anna] Bell Gershner; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com). Lula Jane Coover is listed as Martin and Eleanor Deck’s ward, probably because she was only five years old and not old enough yet to work (1880 U.S. census, Macon County, Illinois, population schedule, Oakley, p. 8, dwelling 62, family 62, Lula J.

Deck; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 10, 2017, http://ancestry.com).

1870s, there was an average of sixteen more boys than girls per month at the WOFS. In 1878, the average number of girls per month at the asylum was less than half of the number of boys (see figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2. Average number of girls and boys at the WOFS.²⁸⁷

Intriguingly, the number of boys and girls indentured does not reflect the number of boys and girls at the asylum—if anything, it is the opposite.

In 1878 for example, fifteen children were indentured with the number of boys indentured drastically lower than the number of girls. In 1878—a year when there was an average of twenty-eight more boys than girls per month (see figure 2.2)—four of the fifteen children indentured (27%) were boys. The remaining eleven children (73%) were girls. Despite the much higher percentage of boys at the asylum, a higher number of girls were indentured.

287 Record of Children Admitted, 1871 – 1881, BV 3676; CBIR, IHS. The asylum admission records from the 1870s list the number of boys and girls at the asylum each month. Using the numbers from each month, I calculated what the average was for each year and used the results to make this chart.

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