I was recently talking with someone about a project that became a somewhat long term one involving the Orphan Trains. That person was under the impression that the local Baby Fold was an off shoot of the orphan train organizations. While both organizations had the same purpose, finding homes for children, they are not related. The Baby Fold was started by the Methodist Episcopal Deaconesses, almost accidentally after a Normal woman donated her home for a place of retirement for the Deaconesses. It is only incidental that the home of the Western Agent for a New York Orphan's asylum was directly across the street from the Baby Fold.
The Deaconesses were responsible for hundreds of charities, mostly hospitals such as Brokaw Hospital. The women worked as volunteers giving nursing care in the hospitals, and in their old age needed a place to live since they had accumulated no savings or property throughout their lives. This was the home that Nancy Mason provided in Normal around 1902. After the house was established a few babies were left there with the women for care. The situation happened very organically, with no plan, but very soon the Deaconesses created order and the Baby Fold came into being and was called the Baby Fold by 1906.
One of the rules that the Deaconesses had to make early on was that they would only take children under the age of two at the Baby Fold. A Deaconess Orphanage in Renslaer, Iowa was where older children were sent. Numerous photographs of the babies were made into charming postcards, possibly to encourage gifts to the home. The Pantagraph published the Fold's request for food stuffs for the babies, who were of course dependent upon the charity of the public. Some parents paid a small fee to have their children at the Fold, and it must have been a very small fee for these parents were usually destitute themselves and only temporarily giving up their child. Other children were placed for adoption as soon as possible, to make room for the next orphan or half orphan.
A Pantagraph article in August of 1909 reported that the home was currently being run by Mrs. Asher, a Deaconess, and five nurses. Four of the nurses would be on duty during the day and just one would look after the children at night. On that date there were seventeen babies in the Fold. The diet of the older children was discussed in this article and goes a long way toward explaining the chubby appearance of the children. The only vegetables consumed by the children were potatoes and asparagus. The rest of their diet was egg custard, milk and bread, and canned fruit. The Deaconesses reported that the five largest children ate an entire quart of canned fruit in a day. Which would have been a several cups of sugar. Things must have been lively in the Fold!
Of course these women were doing wonderful work, taking care of children that otherwise would have had no home, or a home with very little in the way of cleanliness or food. Disease was still a great danger to children. In fact the first head of the Baby Fold, Miss Randall, had to leave because she contracted typhoid. Her replacement, Mrs. Asher, was luckier and stayed with the Fold for 23 years. Having a clean place and nourishing food was a luxury poorer families in McLean County did not have that left them vulnerable to typhoid, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. Surprisingly, the nurses opened the home for teas once a month, mostly to encourage gifts to the Fold. I can imagine the many ladies visiting, all anxious to hold the babies and admire them. Different organizations in Normal and Bloomington worked to support the Fold with clothing and food for the children, but in the 1920's when the Community Chest was organized the Baby Fold began receiving funds from that body rather than seeking donations individually.