The Pantagraph announced in 1911 that Elsie Moore had been sent to the Girls Industrial Home. Her father had died and her mother was in very poor health. Rosa Belle Moore was "paralytic" and was an inmate at the poor farm.
Elsie Moore was born May, 1898 to Frank and Rosabelle Moore, a farming couple in Dale Township. Frank and Rosabelle had nine other children, all older than Elsie. She and her husband were from Kentucky but the two had married in McLean County in 1875. Ten of their eleven children were living at the time of the 1900 census and all but two were still living at home: Curtis, Burt, Myrtle, Allie, Willie, Pearl, Earl, and Elsie.
In 1910 sisters Allie and Berniece lived together. Allie's married name was Turchon and Berniece Ulery was a widow with a son. 17 year old Pearl lived with older sister Myrtle Gabbert, her husband and two children. (Husband Eli Gabbert died of tuberculosis in February of 1912.) City directories around that time suggest that the Moore parents were no longer living together. William Moore was living on Madison Street and working in his profession as a carpenter, and Belle was living on Lee Street and working as a "tailoress." Curtis had moved to Peoria.
Elsie's older brother, Earl, was just 20 years old in February of 1914, when he died of pneumonia at the St. Joseph Hospital. The notice of his death included the information that three of his sisters were living in Bloomington, including Elsie, who was at the Industrial Home. Their mother (Belle Moore) died March 6, 1918 at the poor farm and was buried with her parents at the Scrogin Hill Cemetery.
Elsie married David Berlin a railroad worker, and had one son with him in 1925 (Richard). Elsie died July 12, 1934 as the result of uncontrolled bleeding during childbirth. Her child died as well. After a trouble filled life, poor Elsie died without knowing her second child. Her son, Richard Berlin, served during WWII and then worked for Caterpillar for 31 years.