Brief Reports of the Orphans

Robert G. McMahon was sent to Illinois in 1879 at just eight years old. A large number of very young children were sent in 1878, and Robert was presumably sent to Champaign County, because he continued to live his life there and married a young woman from Ogden, Champaign County. She was Elizabeth Van Buskirk and they gave a home to her aunt, Sarah Hardesty for over twenty years. They had four children: Lillian, Luther, James and Isabel. Robert died in 1954 in Champaign County and his wife died in 1961. His children Lillian and Luther both predeceased him. No letter is written providing any insight into Robert's experience as an orphan.

Otto Wendt came to Illinois in 1878 at the age of about 8 and was placed in the William Evans family in Peotone, Will Co. He was noted as an "apprentice from the New York Juvenile Asylum" in the census of 1880. He appeared in the census again in 1900 in Douglas, Iroquois Co. where he was boarding with a couple and working as a grocery merchant. He continued to follow this career path in Kankakee, where he lived with his first wife, Clara Lee and his second wife, Florence Morris. Otto died April 1, 1940 in Kankakee.

Lewis or Louis Dessing's name appeared in the 1882 annual report as a boy being commended after 6 years of life in Illinois. In 1880 he appeared in the Illinois Census for Waddams, Stephenson County with J J Bomgardner. He next appeared in the census as a married man with four children in Prophetstown, Whiteside County. He was married to Minnie Hills, a native Prophetstown woman since 1888. They married in Clinton, Iowa and then made their home in Prophetstown the rest of their lives. Lewis designated his place of birth as unknown in 1910, New York in 1920 and Illinois in 1930. His obituary (3 Oct 1951) in The Dispatch stated that he had been born in Prophetstown, but no information as to his parentage was provided. He and Minnie had five children: Roy, Emma, Edward, May and Fred. Lewis worked in the lawn mower factory in Prophetstown.