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In the Davenport Home the boys number 209; the girls, 196. The average attendance has been 515. The average age of those now in the Home is 10 years. The whole number in the Home from its organization is 971. The children are taken care of in separate families, in fifteen cottages, thirty being the ordinary number assigned to a family. The ideas and associations of home are fostered, and the children are instructed in the industries, amenities, order, economy, and neatness of a well regulated house. In addition to the fifteen cottage-managers, with their sacred duties and trusts, there are employed, for the welfare of the children, nine persons in the kitchen and dining-hall, eight in the laundry, six teachers, six in sewing and knitting, a nurse, steward, shoemaker, carpenter, teamster, fireman, watchman, and laborer.

The receipts of the Home have been :

From M. B. Cochran M. D., former Superintendent......$
From the State for orphans' support...................

From the State for improvements and repairs.
From donations and other sources..

26 5.01

......

115,965.77

12,000.00

1,507.66

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* Dr. Cochran resigned as Superintendent, and Mr. Pierce was appointed Dec. 1, 1867. During the month of November previous, the purchases were $8,922.30, which, with the indebtedness ($2,598.81) reported to the 12th General Assembly, exceeded the receipts ($4,667.10) for that month by this amount.

1,310.92

664.98

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In addition to the improvements and repairs, for which an appropriation of twelve thousand dollars was made by the last General Assembly, a neat and commodious chapel has been erected and suitably furnished, at a cost of three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. A Sunday school is held in this chapel, and divine worship is celebrated each Sabbath, conducted by ministers of the gospel from Davenport.

All children of suitable age are regularly detailed in the various departments of work and trained to habits of industry. During the past season the boys have performed a great deal of labor upon the grounds, making roads and lawns, planting four hundred evergreens and shade-trees, adding much to the beauty and attractiveness of the Home.

The health of the children has been remarkably good, though a large number have been afflicted with measles, whooping-cough, and the various ills incident to their age. The new cisterns and laundry and other improvements have had the happiest sanitary influence.

At Cedar Falls, an eligible tract of land containing forty acres has been given to the Home by the citizens, and a building of brick, three stories and basement, forty-six by ninety feet, with vestibule, seven by thirty feet, and center wing, forty by thirty-six feet, has been erected upon a substantial foundation. To escape the inconveniences of the old buildings the children were removed into the new buildings, although these were in an unfinished condition, Oct. 12th, 1869. The basement is used for dining-hall, kitchen, store-room, and bath-room, the first floor for officers' rooms, reception-room, and school-rooms. The second story has four ward-rooms for girls,

sewing-room, and rooms for employees. The third story has four ward-rooms for boys, and a suite of rooms for hospital.

The ward-rooms are each twenty-one by thirty-eight feet in size. The dining-hall in the basement affords the only place for a general meeting of the children, and is altogether incommodious for that purpose. The erection of a suitable chapel is altogether necessary.

The appropriation ($25,000) for the building is exhausted, and a further appropriation is indispensable to provide for the safety and comfort of the children, and also to furnish the building, and to construct cisterns; there being no water upon the premises, except surface water. The old furniture is worn out, and altogether unserviceable for use in the new building.

Here, as at the other Homes, the children of proper age are systematically detailed for the general work of the institution. Another season the boys will find a larger variety of labor in the improvement and cultivation of the land belonging to the Home.

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At Glenwood, a substantial and commodious building, two stories with basement, of brick, has been erected on a commanding elevation upon sixteen acres of land given for the purpose. It will furnish accommodations for about one hundred and twenty-five children. A portion of the grounds was cultivated by the children the past season, and made very productive. In this institution are thirty-two boys and thirty-six girls. Their average age is nine years. They attend the churches and Sunday-schools of their choice in Glenwood, A religious service is also held at the Home Sunday afternoon, conducted alternately by the ministers of the gospel in the town. For many months the ladies of Glenwood devoted a day in each week to sewing for the Home. The appropriation ($15,000) for the building has been expended as follows:

W. C. Mills, contractor...

W. C. Mills, extra work....

Architect, survey, and advertising.

Improvement of grounds....

Cisterns....

Lightning-rods....

Furniture and repairs

House and lot two (2) in block forty-six (46)..

Balance on hand, Nov. 1, 1869....

....

The other receipts and expenditures have been

Cash, Nov. 1, 1867....

Received from State for orphans' support.......
Donations....

Paid for orphans' support...

Balance, Nov. 1, 1869..

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.$ 158.05

The report of the Treasurer and a copy of the By-Laws, revised June 10, 1868, are herewith submitted.

The Board recommend an appropriation of twenty-one thousand two hundred dollars, ($21,200.00), for the necessary improvements in the different Homes, as follows:

For furniture and repairs at Davenport
Library...........

Completion of building at Cedar Falls.......
Cisterns......

Barn and storehouse......

Furniture.......

Chapel......

Library.....

Furniture, at Glenwood......

Library...

Barn and storehouse....

Laundry....

....

.$ 5,000.00

600.00

4,000.00

1,000.00

1,500.00

2,500.00

3,000.00

400.00

1,200.00

200.00

1,000.00

800.00

$21,200.00

In order to promote uniformity with the schools of the State, and secure the highest educational advantages for the children, we also recommend, that it be made by law, the duty of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, twice during the school-year, to examine the teachers and schools at the several Homes, and report their condition to the trustees, with such improvements and suggestions as he may deem proper; and also that on his certificate the benefit of the State University and of the Agricultural College be extended to those qualified to enter those institutions.

Observing from newspapers that a bequest had been left by Horatio Ward, a citizen of the United States, residing at the time of his death in London, for the benefit of soldiers' orphans of the loyal States we forwarded an application with all the requisite papers duly verified before the British Consul at Chicago, to the attorneys in the case (Messrs. Jernegan Hammond & Cleveland, 155 and 157

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