By: Patricia Francis Good     

On the Protestant Orphan Home’s Monument (Lot 42, Blk 7)
which is in the oldest and most remote part of Mission San Jose
Burial Park on the south side of San Antonio, Texas, you will find
the following list of orphans, ranging in age from 2 months to 26
years old, who died at the Protestant Orphan Home during the
Great Depression, way before penicillin was developed in 1942.

• Rose Marie Anderson (1926-1943)
• Juanita Casas (1910-1937)
• Dalbert R. Denmark (01/1937-03/1937)
• Jerry G. Lawrence (1923-1927)
• David Lopez (1919-1931)
• Mamie E. Lorilard (Unknown – 1928)
• Belle D. Smith (Unknown – 1929)
• Kathleen Waggoner (1920-1929)
• Fern Wilson (1914-1934)

In 2001, it was my honor to join the Board of Directors of the
Southwest Mental Health Center, the only children’s psychiatric
hospital in San Antonio, Texas. I had no knowledge of our
organization except that it began as an orphanage called “The
Home For Destitute Children” in February of 1887 and evolved
into the Protestant Orphan’s Home of San Antonio in the1920s
during the Great Depression and in the 1960s began specializing
in the treatment of emotionally disturbed children. I asked about
the history of our organization and got many conflicting answers.

FINDING OLD RECORDS THAT TOLD THE STORY:

So, I became curious about how this psychiatric hospital began, and
started researching and studying our organization’s beginnings. I asked the staff to bring all the historical records to the hospital board room. They filled the room with old boxes. I read everything in every box. It was fascinating. Before long, I would find the true story that was richer than anything I had been told and would lead to some extremely historic discoveries.

The first was a photograph that would lead me to unmarked graves of
orphans who died at the orphanage. I found a photograph of a
monument that was erected in 1925 at Mission San Jose Cemetery.

Armed with only this photograph and a page out of a 1920’s
volunteer’s journal, I came to the cemetery to find the children
who were buried here. I tracked down the location of the
monument with the help of the cemetery staff. I also compared
orphanage, cemetery and death certificate records to confirm the
burial of nine orphans at this site. Further investigation of the
cemetery records revealed that these 9 orphans were buried in
this plot with no markers or head stones. The old, hand written
ledgers indicated that these 9 children had been buried in this
plot, but there was no indication of which grave belonged to each
of them. These children, buried in unmarked graves, came to us
looking for a safe home. They found it. We were a home and a
family to them. And, for a variety of reasons, they died in our
care.

And even though these 9 children left this world far too soon, it
was impossible for me to understand why they were not given
individual grave markers that would indicate to the world that
they had lived and that they had mattered.

Back to the hospital board room I went to search further into the
old records to find out “why”. The answer came in a letter from
the 1930s Board President, Mrs. Eldridge. She stated…

“During the extreme and bitter hardships of the 1920s and
30s, we have successfully fed, clothed, educated and cared
for the health of our children, and we feel great pride, not
only in having been able to do this in such a time, but in the
highly satisfactory manner in which it was done.

Unfortunately, we had to choose between paying for new
shoes for the surviving orphans or head stones for the
children we lost. We could not afford to do both. It was a
terrible decision to make, but we decided to buy the shoes
for the living orphans. There was nothing left we could do
for the orphans who had perished.

God rest their souls and ours.”

Reading through the old journals and records, I know these
volunteers and staff, who served these children, were
passionate, loving and kind people. One document recounted an
interview with a young orphan girl named “Jewel”. She was
asked if she liked the orphanage. She replied…

“Do I like the Home? How could I dislike the only home I
have ever known? It has been father, mother and
grandmother, all in one, to me. It has taught me and clothed
me and been kind to me. It has given me a chance. Without
the Home, I dare not think where or what I might have
become. Here, I have been happy.”

After further research, I discovered that Jewel was only 5 years
old when her mother brought her to the Home. She only saw her
mother twice in the years she spent with us and then lost touch
with her mother and father forever. Still at the Home at age 17,
she cared for the younger children like a big sister.

TIME TO MAKE IT RIGHT

After I conducted a successful fund raising campaign to cover the
cost to engrave each name onto the monument, these orphans
were honored and recognized at a graveside ceremony on September 3, 2003. City cemetery employees brought toys to the
graveside that day to pay tribute to these children, and placed
them lovingly on the base of the monument. Even orphans who
had lived at the Home in later years, showed up with their
families. I was touched by how many grew up to serve our
country in the military, became loving husbands, steadfast
fathers and grandfathers and excellent community leaders.

After conducting an oral history of orphan, Thomas Lackie, at 77
years old in 2003, he remembered arriving at the orphanage
when he was about 5 years old with his sister and brother. Their
parents could not afford to keep them. Thomas left the
orphanage when he joined the Marines at the age of 18. He
recalled working on the orphanage farm feeding the pigs and
later working in the laundry. He also remembered Christmases
with great food and presents, Labor Day Ice Cream Socials, and
on Saturdays in the summer picking up pockets full of pecans.
He further stated, “We got lots of love there at the Home.”

In 1930, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Let us
remember that every child who is restored to useful
citizenship is an asset to his country and is enabled to pull
his own weight in the boat.”

Also present that day in September of 2003 was the family of
brothers Dr. Thomas Jones Walthall and Mr. Walter Walthall.
In 1924, Walter Walthall was the Campaign Chairman who raised
a quarter of a million dollars to build the new orphanage on West
Woodlawn Avenue, where thousands of our orphans grew up.
His brother, Dr. Walthall joined the medical staff of the
orphanage in 1929 and in all likelihood, cared for some of the
children buried at San Jose Cemetery.

The doctor’s brother, Mr. Walter Walthall, who was the
Campaign Chairman in 1924 said …

“As we would have others do for our own children if they
were destitute and orphaned, let us not fail to do our full
share for these little charges of the Protestant Orphan’s
Home.”-
It is said that you never know where you’re going until you
understand from where you came. That day our hospital looked
back in time and remembered who we were and made sure that
“our little charges of the Protestant Orphan’s Home” were not
forgotten. And for those board members in the 1920s who made
such a tough decision of buying shoes instead of head stones, I
believe they did what they had to do then, as we did what we had
to do now. And to Mr. Walthall, “we [too] did not fail to do our
full share for these little charges.”

Would You Know My Name If I Saw You In Heaven? Yes, we
will know your name Rose Marie, Juanita, Dalbert, Jerry, David,
Mamie, Belle, Kathleen and Fern. And we will be able to tell Mrs.
Eldridge that we were able to do what she was unable to do…
mark the place where you were buried by adding your names to
the monument for the whole world to remember that you lived
and you mattered.

After immersing myself in the history of the orphanage, I also
discovered a time capsule had been put into the wall of the old
orphanage on Woodlawn Avenue from a newspaper clipping
from 1925. I had the wall X-rayed to make sure there was
something there. Many different organizations had taken up
residency at the old orphanage, but they had no idea that a time
capsule was in the wall near the entrance to the building.

On July 28, 2004 we called a press conference and opened the
wall and found a slender copper box, which was welded shut 80
years ago, containing sections of the local newspaper from
September of 1925, a Bible, Buffalo Coins, a history of the
organization’s capital campaign and lists of the contributors, the
children who were living there at the time, physicians and board
members.

But even more fascinating than the tiny slice of the organization’s
beginnings that emerged from the capsule was the vast body of
institutional knowledge that came from former orphans who were
invited to the press conference. I took oral histories of as many
of them as I could! I learned that the children worked on a farm
where they grew vegetables and raised 13 cows, a few pigs and
200 chickens — eggs were found everywhere! The facility had
dances for the children, and the boys participated in Boys Scouts
and church league sports.

At the press conference San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza said to me
that we would soon find out if our organization was still on
“mission” after we opened the time capsule. He was right.

Fred Hines, the President & CEO of the hospital said it best:
“Our mission to help children in need stands stronger than ever.
In honoring the memory of children we served nearly 80 years
ago as an orphanage, we are also rededicating ourselves to the
children we serve today and tomorrow as a mental health center.
Since 1887, when it was founded as an orphanage for destitute
children, it has adapted to meet changing community needs, and
in the 1960s began specializing in the treatment of emotionally
disturbed children. Since then, the Center has evolved into a
hospital, residential treatment program and educational training
facility.”

The last project I completed while on the Board of Directors was
to remodel the hospital lobby complete with a History Corner and
a Reading Area for Children. Above the History Corner I had
painted these words: “The mission continues …” and so it does.
As I look around the lobby I see the many faces that link our past
to our future, our hopes to our dreams, and to the dedication of
so many volunteers, board members and staff to our purpose
and mission that started such a long time ago taking care of the
most destitute children of our community.

Mr. Parker’s Chocolate Chip
Discharge Cookie

Ingredients

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups oats, uncooked
• 1-teaspoon salt
• 1-teaspoon baking soda
• 1-cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• Flaked sea salt

Directions:

1. Cream shortening, eggs, vanilla and sugar.
2. Add flour, oats, salt and soda and blend well. Fold in chips and nuts
3. Spoon 1 heaping tablespoonful of dough on ungreased pans; flatten slightly with fork.
4. Bake in preheated 350ْ degree oven for 12 minutes
5. Sprinkle flaked sea salt on top of each cookies

Makes 2 dozen large cookies

NOTE: For the DISCHARGE COOKIES, Mr. Parker would use enough dough to make dinner-plate-size cookies and would bake them until they were done. He gave one of these big cookies to every child that was discharged from the hospital while he was in charge of the kitchen.

INSPIRATION:

1930s Board President,
Mrs. Eldridge stated…
“During the extreme and bitter
hardships of the 1920s and 30s, we have
successfully fed, clothed, educated and
cared for the health of our children, and
we feel great pride, not only in having
been able to do this in such a time, but
in the highly satisfactory manner in
which it was done.
Unfortunately, we had to choose
between paying for new shoes for the
surviving orphans or head stones for
the children we lost. We could not
afford to do both. It was a terrible
decision to make, but we decided to buy
the shoes for the living orphans. There
was nothing left we could do for the
orphans who had perished.
God rest their souls and ours.”

---

If you know someone who would appreciate these stories, please share it with them! It really helps me and, hopefully, helps them too! – Pat