the union orphan asylum in baltimore

In addition to fashion and photography, I'm a big fan of genealogy. Late last night I was going through some unfiled records that I retrieved during my last visit to NARA in DC, and I rediscovered mention of a distant relative spending time at a Baltimore orphanage in the 1870s.

My great-great-great-grandmother, Frances Elizabeth (née Tarr) Towson, was the only daughter of Union Civil War veteran John Thomas Tarr. JTT and his first wife, Griselda Boyd, had five children, two of whom died in infancy. In 1864, Griselda died, leaving 18-year-old Benjamin, 17-year-old Frances, and 7-year-old George in the care of their father.

JTT would soon marry for a second time. In May of 1865, he married 20-year-old Mary Elizabeth Gillingham. The couple would go on to have two sons, David (born 1866) and William Howard (born 1868). The marriage was short-lived, however; at the age of 49, John Thomas Tarr died in Baltimore, presumably as a result of recurring illness he faced after the end of the war.

This left young Mary a widow and the caretaker of 2-year-old David and six-month-old William, as well as 12-year-old George. At the time of their father's death, Benjamin had his own young family, and Frances had suffered the loss of her infant twin sons. In this state, none of the family was prepared to take on responsibility for young George.

In Mary Tarr's 1869 Widow's Claim for Pension, she lists John's 3 children under the age of 16.Her two sons, David and William, remain in her care, but George B. Tarr is listed as an "inmate" at the Soldiers Orphan Asylum in Baltimore, Maryland. This confirms family legend from Art Tarr, George's great-grandson, that his grandfather had indeed spent time in an orphanage. But what is known about the Soldiers Orphan Asylum?

Photo of George Buchanan Tarr, circa 1892. Courtesy of Art Tarr.

Firstly, that was not its name. It was actually the Union Orphan Asylum, and a description of the organization can be found in John Thomas Scharf's "History of Baltimore City and County, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men," which can be found on Google Books.

The Union Orphan Asylum. – The pressing necessity for a home for the orphan children of the Federal soldiers from the State of Maryland became obvious during and after the late civil war. In obedience to this silent appeal of the soldiers' orphans a number of benevolent ladies of this city determined to estab- lish such a home, and in 1865 they organized a board and made an appeal to the generosity of Marylanders to aid them in this object. Miss Margaret Purviance, the president of this institution, was cheered in her efforts by liberal donations from the citizens of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. On the 8th of Decem- ber, 1865, Miss Purviance obtained three donations, — one of five hundred dollars from Wm. McKim, five hundred dollars from Mrs. Susan McKim, widow of the late Wm. McKim, Sr., and five hundred dollars from John W. Garrett, — and aided by these and other liberal contributions the board at once secured the old Hyatt mansion, situated on the southwest corner of Schroeder and Franklin Streets, as a home for the orphans. It was purchased at an outlay of fifty-seven thousand dollars, and was formally opened July 6, 1866, at which time there were thirty-six children under the care of the lady managers of the institu- tion. The ceremonies were opened with prayer by the Rev. G. D. Purviance. Short addresses were delivered by Rev. Mr. Longacre, Governor Swann, and A. M. Carter.

    The highest number of children at any one time residing at the asylum was ninety-one. The children were educated at the public schools. Four girls of their number graduated at the Western Female High School, and three of them are now teachers in the public schools of Baltimore. Two of the boys graduated at the High School, and one of ) them afterwards at West Point, and is now second 1 lieutenant in the United States army. As only I thirty-two thousand dollars of the purchase money had been paid, the debt upon the institution in 1878 amounted to twenty-five thousand dollars, and an act ; was passed by the Legislature in that year authorizing the sale of the building and the distribution of the proceeds, after the payment of the debt, at the discretion of the directors. The children in the mean I time having grown old enough to take care of them- selves, it was determined by the managers to close the institution. The lady managers, however, saw the necessity for an infant asylum in Baltimore, and at a meeting in September, 1878, determined to transfer the property to the trustees of the Protestant Infant Asylum on condition that the trustees of that instituttion would assume the debt of twenty-five thousand dollars, and thus, after thirteen years of usefulness, the Union Orphan Asylum closed its labors.
    The Institution is now known as the Nursery and Child's Hospital, and has fifty children under its charge. The directors of the asylum at present time are Messrs. Eugene Levering, Charles F. Slagle, Dr. Thomas Opie, Wm. Canby, T. H. Garrett, and C.K. Baker, Mrs. C. F. Bevans, Mrs. W. H. Brune, and Miss Kate McClellan, Mrs. E. B. Murdoch, Mrs. Hamilton Easter, Mrs. Woodward Abrahams.

Today at the corner of Schroeder and Franklin, it would be impossible to find a building as grand as a mansion. But research into the "Hyatt mansion" reveals that it was the residence of Alpheus Hyatt, a respectable Baltimore merchant. The mansion was known as "Wansbeck" and a photo of the building was published in a 1911 edition of Popular Science Monthly, featured as part of a biography of the zoologist and paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt, son of the Baltimore merchant. This is what Wansbeck looked like in the early 1900s, during its tenure as the home of the Nursery and Child's Hospital.

Wansbeck in 1911. From Popular Science Monthly, Volume 78, February 1911.

A later photo exists in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, showing the Nursery and Child's Hospital circa 1930. In addition, the MDHS is also in possession of the Union Orphan Asylum Account Book, "Records of Emily Albert, Treasurer of the Union Orphan Asylum, showing receipts and expenditures, 1865-1882, on behalf of this Baltimore institution."

It is unknown when George B. Tarr left the asylum, though by the time it closed he would have been twenty-one years old. However, it is known that he went on to marry, have children, and live a full life. He died August 18th 1940 in Verona, Pennsylvania, at the age of 82.