In 1918 a small article appeared in the Pantagraph regarding the Soldier's Orphan's Home. Statistics regarding the home were presented, and what the purpose was of printing these particular statistics can be speculated on. Why did the Pantagraph want the public to know what the per capita cost of the orphanage was during the different months of the year? There was a terrific shortage of coal that January and prices had probably sky rocketed. The local schools had been closed for three weeks because of the coal shortage. I'm sure that people were resentful that their children could not go to school. For what were they paying taxes, if not to have schools for their children? The education of the children at the orphanage had not been interrupted - the orphans did not attend public school. But I digress.
The other bit of information was the ratio of veterans' children who were in the home. Established after the Civil War, the home was created for the children of the Illinois veterans of that war and only those children. In 1899, entry to the orphanage had been opened to the children of the Spanish-American War, and from 1907, any child who was determined to be "dependent" (on the State of Illinois) could be admitted.
In 1870, just three years after the home was opened, there were 265 orphans in the home on the date the census was taken. Twenty nine employees lived at the orphanage and cared for them there. In 1880 there were 330 orphans in the home and 24 employees living at the orphanage. All of these children would have been orphaned by the Civil War, their father had been so incapacitated by the war, he was no longer able to support his children, or their father was simply a veteran. In 1900 the orphanage had 393 children and 27 live-in caregivers. This was of course after the Spanish American War, and children of other veterans were admitted to the home after 1899, so not all of these children could be said to be the orphans of the Civil War.
In 1918, of the 500 children who lived at the home during that year, less than 50 were the children of the veterans of the Civil War. Which is in itself fairly amazing -- that the veterans of that war were still producing off spring. The youngest veterans would have been in their seventies in 1918, or their fifties at the turn of the century, when the oldest orphans would have been born. The Civil War veterans were attractive as husbands due to their pensions and the widow pensions that would come to their wives after their deaths. After all, marriage was often a financial decision "back in the day."
One book has been written by a Peoria teacher about the "late blooming" offspring of the Civil War. Civil War Fathers: Sons of the Civil War in World War II. In this book Tim Pletkovich told the story of several sons of CW veterans who fought or served in WWII (there is even a daughter who served!!). I highly recommend this book; it is fascinating.
Another book, that looks at the Illinois Soldier's and Sailor's Children's School, was written by a local author, Ruth Cobb, and is available in local libraries: A Place We Called Home. This book was written with the cooperation of past residents of the home and is chockfull of reminiscences and photos of the home as it was in the later years.