Children’s Home History, Experiences Shared
It was a “full house” Thursday evening at the Watt Center for History and the Arts as local historian Marie Bundy and several former children who had resided at the Belmont County Children’s Home (BCCH) from the 1940s through the home’s closing, provided information on the institution once located in Tacoma.
While most attendees were from Barnesville and Belmont County, others came from as far away as Columbus, Cleveland and North Lewisburg, Ohio, and the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
After Bundy gave a general history on the establishment of the home and its century-long operation, general life growing up in the home was vividly shared by adults who spent parts or their entire childhood there.
Nancy “Whitlatch” Toto, who was in and out of the home during her youth and who has spent decades documenting BCCH history as well as organizing reunions, was first to speak.
Cleveland resident Bea Champ McDowell, who went on to a long and successful career in medicine, shared great details of what life in the home was like during her youth.
Don Newsome of Columbus, Champ McDowell’s nephew, recounted that while growing up, his mother, also a home resident, repeated in his youth the rules and norms of the home – beds made without wrinkles, all dishes spotlessly washed, etc.
Michelle Myers Ritz of North Lewisburg was in the home when it closed in 1981. She was a junior at Barnesville High School at that time. Relocated, she spent her senior year elsewhere.
Barnesville resident Carol Ann Decker remembered being given a small amount of money to purchase Christmas gifts at the G.C. Murphy Store in Barnesville. One such gift was a 39-cent handkerchief for her grandmother.
Harry Danford, of McMechen, connected to the home through his grandfather, Virgil Danford (1917-2015) and his grandmother Gladys Trott Danford (1911-2015). Virgil was hired as the BCCH farm manager about 1950 working for decades. The couple lived in the big white wood-frame farmhouse that stood east of the main building.
Growing up in New Matamoras, Danford remembered specific farm chores he and his grandfather shared on his visits to the farm. The elder Danford, who kept detailed records of his work at BCCH, loved his work, his published obituary noting “he worked in Barnesville at the Children’s Home and also loved to farm.”
St. Clairsville resident Thomas Rattine shared written notes of his memories at the home.
“Mother died when I was nine years old. Dad was not able to care for us properly (three boys), voluntarily placing us in BCCH. We had some privileges other did not…some boys never got visitors,“ Rattine wrote.
He gave Mr. and Mrs. William Diab, home managers, good marks but of the six house mothers he remembered, Mrs. Vargo “could be harsh”.
Rattine enjoyed roast beef … eggs (over easy) for breakfast though he hated prunes. “We ate as a group in the dining room, and you were expected to eat everything on the plate.”
“We had cider in the fall, eggnog at Christmas – first time for both.”
“Big boys worked in the fields with Virgil Danford and Charlie Workman” and “brought home tomatoes and other produce including apples and carrots”.
As far as putting in time, Rattine played softball and basketball, adding sled riding in the winters.
“Summertime was waiting on the bell to ring to get on the bus to go to the Barnesville swimming pool two or three times a week.” Mrs. Diab helped the youngster learn how to swim.
He spent time “on the benches” learning how to play euchre and double solitaire. He also learned how to play Jacks and he ”got pretty good at it, as did a number of other boys.”
He spent a lot of time listening to the radio and saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show!
“Homework was every school night at the tables in the main room… quiet times.” Rattine wrote.
For work, his “main chore was to clean the stairwell from the ground floor to the second floor every Saturday afternoon. Mary Secrest and the other girls did the stairwell from the ground floor to the basement.” This established camaraderie, noting, “I still think of her sometimes.”
“Experiences at BCCH was not great but could have been much worse, I suppose…strict but not inhumane”.
“All (almost all) of us looked forward to the time we got to go home. For some, that day would never come. Some had been there for years when I arrived, still there when I left,” the St. Clairsville resident said in conclusion.
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