Front Porch Steps of Neffsville PA Brethren Orphanage (ca 1924)

Photo from the front porch steps of the orphanage sometime during the mid 1920's.

This photo is the main inspiration for my blog. Somewhere in this photo are two of my dearest ancestors, my grandmother (Sarah Jane Heffelfinger 1919-1998) and her brother (Franklyn Grant Heffelfinger 1917-1989). They were both left on the steps of this orphanage by their mother back in the early 1920's because she couldn't afford to feed them anymore and their father, my great grandfather, had abandoned them and run off to Ohio. Their mother later died suddenly of a stroke in 1925.

I currently know next to nothing about this orphanage or this time in their lives since my grandmother refused to talk about her childhood and I was too young to be interested in all my Great Uncle's stories while he was still alive and unfortunately they have died with him and likely been lost forever. Now through the help of this blog I'm hoping to piece together this part of their lives through the stories of others who have lived here or been involved in this home through the Brethren Church, and also working diligently to find the records from this home that will hopefully tell more of the story about Sarah and Franklyn.

If anybody reading this knows the names of any of the children in this photo, including my grandmother and her brother, please post on this blog (or send me an email to gspne61@gmail.com) and help bring life to this photo. I also hope to soon have a date for this photo but currently don't even have that much.

UPDATE: (02/29/2016)

I just found the following in the Lititz Record Newspaper from September 3, 1920. Possibly this little girl named Dorothy Killhegner is in the above photo.

She Deserves Jail for This

For outrageously beating and otherwise
abusing seven-year-old Dorothy
Killhegner, a child that she took from
the Brethren Home orphanage at
Neffsville, Mrs. Mabel Ness of York
was sentenced to pay $200 and costs
in court there. Only because she has
a baby ten weeks old was she saved
from a sentence to jail by Judge Wanner.

 

Orphanage Names

Postcard "Brethren Orphanage between Lititz and Lancaster, Pa." (Photo is from the Elizabethtown College: Church of the Brethren Photograph Collection and may be used only for non-commercial educational purposes.)

The orphanage that is the focus of my blog has been known by many different names, making it very difficult to research or gather information about. I'm hoping that through the help of this blog those of us who have had family either living in this children's home, or family that has worked there and contributed in some way to this children's home, can gather here and help all of us learn more about those days in this home.

Here are the names of this home that I have located so far:

• Brethren Orphanage
• Brethren Children's Home
• Brethren Children's Aid Society
• Neffsville Children's Home
• Detention Home for Children
• Home for Orphan and Friendless Children
• Brethren Orphanage and Old Peoples Home (I just found out today that this home was used for both children and older people during the 1930s and 1940s.)

Whatever we call this building, the facts are that from 1914 through 1962 nearly 1,000 children and young people were cared for at the home, which was located between Lititz and Lancaster on Lititz Pike, also known as 501.

If you know of any other names for this home, have photos of the home or the children and others who were a part of this home, or have stories of your own about life in this home, please feel free to post them here as the purpose of this post is to provide a place where the history of this home will no longer be a mystery. To add a comment click on the link below, or if you'd prefer to send an email, you can do so at gspne61@gmail.com.