House Parents Through the Years (Steward/Matron)

This is a list of the House Parents, or Stewards and Matrons over the years at the Neffsville Brethren Children's Home. If anybody has any additional information or photos of any of these people, please comment below or to my personal email address gspne61@gmail. We are also still working on a list of children who lived here and the years they lived here.

1913-1914  Mr. & Mrs. Peter Heagy

1914-1915  Mr. & Mrs. Levi Ziegler

1915-1918  Mr. & Mrs. H.A. Buffenmyer

1918-1921  Mr. & Mrs. C.K. Kilhefner

1921-1926  Mr. & Mrs. John D. Ebersole

1927-1941  Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Dotterer

1941-1942  Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Dotterer

1942-1943  Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Hiestand

1943-1944  Mr. & Mrs. J.B. Hoover

1944-1957  Mr. & Mrs. John Hevener, Sr. (Reverend Hevener & "Mother Hevener")

1957-1958  Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Sherer

1958-1962  Mr. & Mrs. Glen Crago

1940 Census for Orphanage

Transcribed list of names from the Brethren Orphanage 1940 Census. It is interesting and wonderful that these children are now "lodgers" instead of "inmates." (The handwriting of this particular census person is very poor, so if you know that a name is incorrect or spelled wrong, please let me know so that I can correct it):

Dotterer, Phil (Head - Carpenter) age 30 born abt 1910 and married
Dotterer, Elverta (Wife - Matron) age 30 born abt 1910 and married
Schaeffer, Naomi (Lodger - Domestic) age 22 born abt 1918 and married
Bettendorf, Howard (Lodger) age 17 born abt 1923
Stoudt, Betty (Lodger) age 14 born abt 1926
Stark, Malvon (Lodger) age 11 born abt 1929
Geib, Alvin (Lodger) age 11 born abt 1929
Doupler, William (Lodger) age 10 born abt 1930
Swope, Robert (Lodger) age 8 born abt 1932
Domonic, Kenneth (Lodger) age 8 born abt 1932
Fray, Lester (Lodger) age 8 born abt 1932
Doupler, Gloria (Lodger) age 8 born abt 1932
Swope, Kenneth (Lodger) age 7 born abt 1933
Doupler, Dolores (Lodger) age 6 born abt 1934
Swope, Gloria (Lodger) age 4 born abt 1936
Swope, Frances (Lodger) age 1 born abt 1939
Schaeffer, Mabel (Lodger) age 1 born abt 1939

1920 Census Page for Orphanage

I have finally located the 1920 Federal Census page for the Neffsville Brethren Children's Home. There are very few children on this report which is part of why it was so difficult to locate. Unfortunately, these census reports were only done every 10 years, so there are still many names missing, including my own ancestors, since they were living in the orphanage between the years of 1920 and 1930. But hopefully, these census reports will help others searching for their ancestors.

Here is a list of names typed out since it is so difficult to get this page large enough to read:

Kilhefner, Christian (steward) age 47, born abt 1873
Kilhefner, Susan (matron) age 43, born abt 1877 (wife of Christ)
Kilhefner, Elva (daughter) age 18, born abt 1902 (single)
Kilhefner, Verna (daughter) age 15, born abt 1905
Shutter, Russel (inmate) age 8, born abt 1912
Stauffer, Samuel (inmate) age 5, born abt 1915
Faust, Ralph (inmate) age 5, born abt 1915
Herr, Edgar (inmate) age 5, born abt 1915
Howard, Charles (inmate) age 4, born abt 1916
Hurst, Mildred (inmate) age 3, born abt 1917
Chandler, Verna (inmate) age 3, born abt 1917
Connor, Elwood (inmate) age 2, born abt 1918

1913 Lititz Record Front Page Article

From the Lititz Record dated October 30, 1913

I found it interesting that they cropped the photo by taking out some of the land between the two buildings evidently to get the photo to fit better on the newspaper page, as there was quite a bit more space between these two buildings. But it is still an impressive article documenting the very beginning of both Brethren Homes including the costs and who was in charge of each building.

Someday I still hope to find a list of names for these first 17 little ones, as well as a listing of every child who ever called this orphanage their home, even if only for a few days or weeks. Again, if you have any additional information for this blog either post a comment below, or write to me at gspne61@gmail.com

1930 Census Report for the Neffsville Brethren Home Orphanage

I have finally located a copy of the 1930 census report showing children's names for the Brethren Home Orphanage in Neffsville, PA. One of the reasons I have had such a difficult time locating this report is because they had it filed under Manheim Township instead of Lititz or Neffsville. I am also going to add a section to this blog for newspaper articles that pertain to this orphanage in the hopes that it can help more and more families locate their ancestors who lived in this home. Please feel free to contact me with any additional news stories at gspne61@gmail.com or any other stories or names of children from this home.

Here are the names from the above 1930 census report (note that the orphans are listed as inmates):

Dotterer, Jesse (Head) age 60, Stewart of orphanage
Dotterer, Nora V (Wife) age 39, Matron of orphanage
Dotterer, Philip E (Son) age 20, Plumber
Dotterer, Elizabeth J (Daughter) age 14
Dotterer, Ellis S (Son) age 2
Springer, Elverta (employee) age 19, Nurse of orphanage
Lehman, Willard E (Inmate) age 12
Lehman, Lloyd E (Inmate) age 11
Lehman, Edith S (Inmate) age 10
Lehman, Elias A (Inmate) age 9
Smith, Clarence O (Inmate) age 9
Purcell, Lloyd E (Inmate) age 9
Purcell, Caroline (Inmate) age 7
Purcell, Geraldine (Inmate) age 6
Rueppel, Harry F (Inmate) age 9
Myers, William (Inmate) age 9
Myers, Robert (Inmate) age 5
Ristenhlatt, Clara (Inmate) age 11
Ebling, Mary (Inmate) age 9
Ebling, Sarah (Inmate) age 6
Stoner, Harriet (Inmate) age 7
Thompson, Raymond (Inmate) age 5
Nicholas, Raymond (Inmate) age 5
Zellers, Earl (Inmate) age 3

Pleasant View School Class Photo 1930-31

Pleasant View School Class Photo from 1930-31 School Year

This doesn't exactly go along with the Neffsville Orphanage other than possibly some of the same children might be in both photos. The main reason I have added it is because this is where my Great Uncle Franklyn went next after being adopted from the orphanage by the Benjamin and Minnie Smith family.

From what I've been told so far, there were three schools in the Penryn school district during the 1930's, and this photo is from the one called Pleasant View for the school year 1930-31. The teacher in this photo is Anna Will Breitigan and below is a list of the students that we have names for so far. If you have any additional information on this school or can help with filling in any of the other name slots, please post it in the comments section and I will gladly add it to this post.

Here are the names we have so far for the corresponding numbers attached to each child in the photo:

1. Ruth Witman
2.  
3.  
4. Leonard Eshleman
5. Esther Heagy
6.  
7. Franklin Heffelfinger
8. Russell Ulrich
9.  
10. Elwood Heagy
11.  
12. ? Shelly
13.  
14.  
15. Margaret Ulrich
16. ? Shelly
17.  
18.  
19. Mildred Heagy
20. Arlene Galebach Lefever
21. Marian Nelson
22. Ruth E Smith
23.  
24. Clair Bruckhart
25. Arlington Miller
26. Harlan Miller
27.  
28. ? Bruckhart
29. Melvin Wenger
30. Ethel Wenger

Neffsville Brethren Children's Home in 1945

Neffsville Brethren Children's Home photo from 1945 with Rev John W Hevener and his wife Elva M Hevener of the Lititz Church of the Brethren. (Photo is from the Elizabethtown College: Church of the Brethren Photograph Collection and may be used only for non-commercial educational purposes.)

While searching for additional information about my grandmother and her brother in this orphanage, I ran across this photo from 1945 and some additional information. From 1944-1957 the house parents, or superintendents as some called them, were Rev. John W Hevener and his wife Elva M Hevener both from the Lititz Church of the Brethren.

I have already received a phone call from a woman who is in this photo and is planning to have her daughter send me the names of all of these children. Her married name is Dorothy Owens and once I receive that list of names I will post them as well to this blog.

Based on obituary information, another child in this photo is George Harrison born in 1941 and lived in this orphanage for approximately 10 years.

Unfortunately, the Lititz Church of the Brethren seems to be unwilling to share information from their archives with anybody not currently a member of their church, but hopefully, I'll locate somebody soon who is on the "inside," and we can get to those records.