I just found out that I had a great uncle, Robert L. Meyer, who was never mentioned by my grandmother. In the 1930 US Census he was listed as an "inmate" of the Harris County School for Boys. There's no record on Ancestry.com of his death. I wonder why he was an "inmate" and what happened to him. Why was he never mentioned by my family? Perhaps this is the proverbial "skeleton in the closet."
On 6/7/2008 at 4:51 AM, FilioScotia said:
Hey WestU...nice to see your name in these spaces again.
You're right about the history of that orphans home, but it's a somewhat complicated history, because today's Burnett-Bayland Home is the result of several relocations, mergers and ownership transfers over more than a hundred years. Here's some information on that from the archives of the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department. (HCJPD)
On May 19, 1914, Harris County Commissioners Court approved the construction of a girls' home in Bellaire, to be known as the Harris County Training School for Girls1. Ethel Claxton and Mary Burnett were hired to be the school's Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, respectively, on August 1, 1914. On September 26, the home was opened and ready for occupancy. The home filled rapidly. During the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, Claxton noted that the institution cared for 200 girls in four houses. The school was originally intended to educate both dependents and delinquents, but by 1952, only delinquent girls were living at the facility.
The Bayland Orphans Home, founded as a private entity on September 24,1866, as a home for dependent boys and girls, was turned over to county control in October, 1918. The transfer was problematic, with the original Bayland Orphan Home board members charging that the County failed to fulfill its obligations to the home. By 1922, however, settlements were reached, and the Bayland Orphans Home was fully under County control. The County transferred all the girls in the home to the Harris County Home for Girls, and the Bayland Home became a home for boys, exclusively.
The Harris County School for Boys, which served delinquent boys, was founded at Seabrook in 1910 and relocated to South Houston in 1914. In 1924, the home moved yet again, to Clear Lake on property adjacent to the county park. Beginning in 1936, Bayland and the Harris County School for Boys were consolidated into one institution at the Clear Lake location. After a small fire in 1951 which required moving the boys to the Girls School, the HCJPD realized the benefits of a co-ed home in keeping siblings together. The two homes were merged to create the Burnett-Bayland Home in 1952. The Harris County School for Boys (at Clear Lake) was refurbished and reopened in 1955. In 1972 the School was re-named the Harris County Youth Village.
The Poor Farms
in Historic Houston
Posted · Edited by AliQ
clarification
I just found out that I had a great uncle, Robert L. Meyer, who was never mentioned by my grandmother. In the 1930 US Census he was listed as an "inmate" of the Harris County School for Boys. There's no record on Ancestry.com of his death. I wonder why he was an "inmate" and what happened to him. Why was he never mentioned by my family? Perhaps this is the proverbial "skeleton in the closet."