This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Kraterfield (Schoen) Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/4EC.2ACE/733 Message Board Post: Does anyone have any info on the state orphange that was in Sparta during the 1930's. The building was in a fenced area with playground equipment. I believe that there was a hospital within the property.

I have asked my parents to get me information about this. They promised to send me something in the next few days. In later life this facility was a place for mentally retarded people. I do know that my aunt worked there for over 20 years. More later. Bill Betts Center Cross, Virginia

I asked my parents to write something of what they remember about the orphanage. Below is what they sent. Bill Betts Center Cross, Virginia From your dad: Bill, what the person on the internet was referring to was what was known as the "State School". It was on the east side of Sparta at Montgomery St. and Rusk Ave. It occupied several hundred acres and probably more than 20 buildings. Officially it was the "Wisconsin State School for Dependent Children". It was like an orphanage. Children were put there by the courts and county welfare offices. It was not a penitentiary or reform school. Most of the kids were there because of death, divorce, loss of parents ability to care for them. In the 1920's-30's there were several hundred children there from new born babies to high schoolers. Some times they got adopted out by their families or friends. Of course the state provided their clothes, food, shelter, schools up through 8th grade. A few went on to Sparta or Tomah high schools. I had a classmate who lived at the State School. When I taught at Printz Creek school (1934-36) I had a 11 and 12 yr. brother and sister that had been "adopted" by a farmer, Ralph Printz, (who incidentally was a relative of yours). Ralph Printz's father was a brother of your great, great, great grandfather, John Printz. (The one who died of starvation and disease in Salisbury, N.C. in the Civil War). The State School did not have a hospital. There was an infirmary and a cemetery. It ran 50-60 years. Finally in the 1970's I think the State Legislature refused to fund it any more. Over the years with the growth of State and County Welfare programs, most of the children sent there were handicapped- mental or physically- and sometimes both. My sister Lillie worked at the school for 25 years (got a State pension until her death). She worked with the handicapped. When the state closed Sparta facilities, they gave the land and buildings to the city of Sparta. The school's farm (one time produced all the milk for the school) and I guess 20/25 buildings were in included. Now the Municipal Golf Course is mainly on the school land. The Sparta School District has used some of the buildings for schools. One of the buildings became the Sparta School District Hockey rink. One building is leased by a pentecostal church. What children who were still there were transferred. The handicapped to a smaller facility at Chippewa Falls, near Eau Claire. A few returned to their parents and others to other facilities. A lot of Sparta people who were employed there had to find other jobs.