Erie County (PA) Genealogy
Faces of Erie County
Home for the Friendless - Adams
This picture and information about it has been provided by Mary Lou Cheney. Any inquiries about this photo may be directed to her. Only two boys in the front row are indentified in this photo taken between May and November 1921.
First row, 1st child John Adams, 8th child Earl Adams front row, head just tipped forward
John and Earl Adams were cousins to Mary Lou Cheney's mother-in-law, Nora Alice Case. John and Earl's mother was Della (Decker) Adams. In February 1921, their father, Thomas Adams, died and by May 1921 Della Adams placed her sons into the Home for the Friendless due to financial reason. She also passed her niece off as her daughter and placed her in the Home also. This niece was Mary Lou Cheney's mother-in-law, Nora Alice Case. In November 1921, Della came back to the Home for her two sons and left her niece. So the picture would have been taken in 1921. In May of 1922, Nora Alice Case was taken out by a family named Murray and Anne Rhinehart from Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio, and Nora was raised by them. According to Mary Lou, Nora was never able to find out if this was an adoption like she was lead to believe.
The Home for the Friendless, was a home for orphaned children 1871 until 1934. Then it was changed to The Sarah Reed Home, and then the Sarah Reed Retirement Home. Mary Lou Cheney wrote to the Sarah A. Reed Children's Center in 1992 for information on these three children, but all that was left was a card file index card. She was told that the rest of the files are held for 10 years and then destroyed. Mary Lou said that this was a shame since she has never been able to prove that her mother-in-law was really adopted by the family that raised her.
This page has been designed, and is being maintained by Bill Klauk.
This page was last updated on Sunday, March 18, 2001 .
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