Mary K. wrote: >Hello and I am writing to inquire if anyone knows where the following was >located: The House of Refuge for the Correction and Reformation of >Junivile Offenders. Was it in Marion Co., IN or where? I found a couple of articles in an Indiana newspaper about what I presume to be the place which you are referring to. - Ed ______________________________________________ The Fort Wayne, "Daily Gazette", Tuesday Evening, June 18, 1867; pg. 4 Gov. Baker has located the Indiana House of Refuge near Plainfield, Hen- dricks County, a station on the Terra Haute Railroad, fourteen miles west of Indianapolis. The farm to be purchased contains 218 acres under cultivation. ______________________________________________ The Fort Wayne, "Daily Gazette", Thursday, January 18, 1870; pg 2 INDIANA HOUSE OF REFUGE. About a year ago I published an article in the Gazette calling the attentiion of the people to our your but promising House of Refuge for boys, located on a farm of 225 acres, near Plainfield, Hen- dricks county. I recently had the pleasure of visiting this institution and seeing for myself, evicences of its success and prosperity, and I only express what I am confident would be the feeling of every citizen of the State, after visiting the institution, and seeing its practical working and results, that it is a wonderful success, and that it is destined soon to become one of the leading and most popular institutions of the State. At the time I visited the institution they had 105 boys. These congregated, the worst boys of the State, are here placed under the very best reformatory influences. The simple truths of the gospel as taught in the Holy Scriptures, andthe powerful influences which prevail in well regulated families, have been found the most effectual means of reform. The boys are divided into families of fifty each, as near as can be, having a "House Father" over each, assisted by his wife, if married, and an assistant call- ed an "Elder Brother." The whole in- stitution being under the government of a superintendent and matron, to whom the boys have access at all times. The matron fills the place of a mother to the boys, to whom all their wants and griev- ances can be and are freely commuica- ted, and it is wonderful the influence for good she has over them. One-half the boys in each family are in school half the day, while the other half are at work, the "Home Father" and "Elder Brother" being half the day in school and the other half at work with the boys. Of the 100 boys there, 8 work at shoe- making, making and mending all the boy's shoes; 6 at tailoring; 30 at cane bottoming chairs, which promises to be- come a very profitable employment for the boys. It is now bossed by one of the first inmates of the institution. Besides these, the baking, cooking, washing, iron- ing, etc., is mostly done by the boys. A large force work on the farm, raising last season 20 acres of corn, 18 of oats, 8 of sorghum, 6 of broom corn, 10 of potatoes, 5 of beans, 12 of wheat, and 16 meadow, besides garden vegetables for their own use. The first boys received at the House of Refuge were 10 from the Northern Peni- tentiary, January 1868, and by October of that year the two family houses, which had been erected, were full, and since that time the applications from all parts of the State, necessarily have had to be rejected. The Legislature last spring wisely ap- propriated $50,000 for the erection of ad- ditional buildings and furnishing the same. One additional family building was finished and ready to occupy on the 1st of December, which makes room for 50 more boys. The centre main building will be complete by April, and then one of the family buildings, now occupied by the family of the Superintendent and other officers, can be used for another family of 50 boys; so that within a few months from this time they can receive 100 additional boys, and half of the num- ber they are ready for now. The object of the institution is to have a proper place to send boys guilty of crime, instead of their lying in our jails under the pernicious influence of adepts in crime, and sent to the penitentiary to come out educated and hardened in crime; also, for those not yet guilty of actual crime, but are on the high road leading thereto, and have become unmanageable by their parents, or have no parents or others to care for them. The law specifies the following classes as those intended to receive the benefits of the House of Refuge: 1st -- Boys con- victed of crime. 2nd -- Those guilty of crime can be sent by the court to this in- stitution, on presentment of the facts by the Grand Jury, without trial and convic- tion. 3rd -- Boys who have parents or guardians, but have become ungovernable and vicious, can be sent by the Judge of the Court on application of said parent or guardian. 4th -- Boys who are destitute of a suitable home, and of adequate means of living, or are in dange of be- ing brought up to lead an idle and vec- tious life, may be admitted to the institution by the Trustees of the town- ship, or by the mother when the father is dead, or has abandoned his family, or is an habitual drunkard, or does not pro- vide for their support. "No one can be sent to the institution for a shorter period than until they shall be reformed, or until they attain the age of twenty-one years." I close this article with the earnest re- quest that our city authorities and courts will not allow juvenile offenders to be sent to the jail and kept there for days, but at once take the necessary steps to place them under the guardianship of this insti- tution, where they will be under those kind, moral and religious influences that are working such wonderful effect in the reformation of those under their care. A.S. Evans. _____________________________________________________