You’ve probably read about orphanages, the orphan train,
and the plight of homeless children in the 19th century. For babies,
there was another, often more onerous arrangement—baby farms.
Many baby farms took good care of the children and were
like a residential version of family daycare. However, thousands of unwanted infants
died in baby farms that failed to meet even the most minimal standards.
Not much different than today, there were many women who felt
they had no choice but to send their infants to these less than satisfactory
farms.
·
Prostitutes
·
The Destitute
·
Deserted Wives who had to work
·
and, Unmarried Middle-And-Upper-Class
Girls
 |
| Depiction of babies at Waters Baby Farm 1870s |
Some women turned their infant over to a baby farm soon
after the birth. Other women gave birth to their children at baby farms. Either
way, they had to pay the owners to take care of the children. In that era, if a
girl had an illegitimate child and anyone found out, it carried profound
consequences. Baby farms relied on the large sums of money these girls’
families paid to house these unwanted babies as far away from the mother as
possible.
Baby farming was a profitable way for a woman with a house
to make a living. She could take in babies for $3 to $7 per week, per baby.
Women working in factories and department stores only earned $6 a week.
One baby farm owner sold an infant for $100. Their
business slogan was, “It’s cheaper and easier to buy a baby for $100 than to
have one of your own.”
Still, some women went into baby farming because they
genuinely liked children. However, some ended up collecting babies like many people
collect cats or dogs. At some of these baby farms, there was only one woman to
look after eight to ten babies. It just wasn't possible for them to provide
adequate care to that many infants.
Bad
Conditions
In Dicken's Oliver
Twist, Oliver spends part of his childhood on a baby farm. Here, is an
excerpt, "contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the
weakest possible food."
And in this next excerpt, Dickens writes of what it was
like for the children who were farmed out.
“It did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of
ten, either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from
neglect, or got half-smothered by accident; in any one of which cases, the
miserable little being was usually summoned into another world, and there
gathered to the fathers it had never known in this.”
 |
| Chicago Baby Farm, Library of Congress |
The conditions at baby farms in 19th century America were
pretty much the same. Here is a report taken by Miss Lathrop of the U.S.
Children’s Bureau regarding an investigation of the Sunshine Nursery in
Kensington Maryland. It documents what a woman, Miss Emery, found when she
visited Sunshine Nursery which was run by a lady named Miss Washington.
There Miss Emery saw one little child tied in bed. Then,
she saw a filthy rug on a bed and picked it up. She was shocked to find
a baby beneath it.
The housekeeper said, "We have to cover the baby with
the rug because he won't sleep in the light."
Miss Emery saw a child whose nose and mouth were covered
with a mass of flies. Furthermore, she noticed that the children had no toys to
play with. And, the only bathroom facilities the children had was an uncovered
slop jar on the porch.
Miss Emery was at this Baby Farm from one to five o’clock,
and in that whole time, the staff only changed one pillow.
Miss Emery was interested in one of the children, a 15-month-old
baby girl, named Catherine. She asked the housekeeper, “Can you get some water
for the little girl?”
The housekeeper replied, “We do not give water because it
poisons the children.”
When Miss Emery picked up Catherine she saw that her legs
were numb as well as chaffed and bruised as though she’d been
whipped. Miss Emery told the housekeeper, “Catherine needs a bath.”
The housekeeper said, “No, she doesn’t.”
Miss Emery said, “Can you bring some water, so I can
bathe the child?”
The housekeeper refused, saying, “All the water has to be
heated in a kettle.”
When Catherine was given a cup of milk, Miss Emery noticed
it was cold (just off the ice). She asked the Housekeeper, “Can you
heat this for her?”
 |
| Malnurished baby taken from a baby farm. |
The housekeeper put the tin cup on the stove then gave it
to Catherine. It burned the child’s lips.
The conditions at some baby farms were even worse than
those just described. There was a case in Minnesota of a young single mom, with
no one to count on, who paid a baby farm $2.50 a week—a lot of money in 1906—to
care for the infant.
She visited her son as often as she could until she got
sick and had to stay away. When she grew well enough to go back and see
her baby, he was in a severe state of starvation. She immediately took him to
the hospital. The doctors and nurses were fairly confident that the baby could
be saved.
An investigation was initiated, and the conditions of
the baby farm were found to be horrendous: the bedding was soiled, the infants
were neglected, and the owner had been feeding the babies sour milk.
Where
did the baby's go once born?
Many of the babies who were sold were taken out of state.
The people who bought the children wouldn’t have been approved by certified
child placement agencies because they purchased the babies for immoral or
fraudulent reasons.
In Philadelphia, some young women would buy an infant, so
they could trick a man they’d slept with into marriage by saying it was their
baby and he was the father. This scam was uncovered when one of the babies used
for it died.
 |
| Maragaret Waters disposing of a deceased baby c1870 |
In 1911, a couple wanted to marry, but the man’s parents
were against it. So, he and his girlfriend bought a baby at a baby farm for $5.
to pretend it was their own, so his parents would let them get married.
The baby got sick and the young woman didn’t know how to
take care of the infant. She found the baby dead in the morning and dumped the
body in an alley. The dead baby was discovered half-dressed and soaked by the
rain.
Check out my
latest book, Bay’s Desire, book 9 in the MacLarens of Boundary Mountain
Historical Western Romance series. Available now!
Please take a moment to sign up for my
Newsletter
and Follow Me on:
Shirleen, I had no idea these baby farms existed in the 19th century. What horrid places. I feel so sorry for the babies. I'll bet when one died the matron failed to tell the mother so money still came in. Great post and BAY'S DESIRE looks like a must buy.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of baby farms. How awful! I knew orphanages lacked funds and things weren't usually very good. When I was growing up there was a home/boarding school for children. It was private and church run. Most of the children there were the sons and daughter's of missionaries. It's where my toys and clothing went as I outgrew them. My memories of that place were horrible as my mom would often make cookies or other treats to take to the home. Mom told me that place was excellent compared to most orphanages. (Shudder)
ReplyDelete