The Gleaner Home for The Aged

and of coffi ns being stolen from front porches where they awaited the bodies of the dead.

Gleaner offi cers had long feared an epidemic would destroy the Society, and the Spanish Flu epidemic must have seemed like a nightmare come true. No one knew how long it would last or what the eventual cost to the Society would be. The fi nancial condition of the Society was sound by 1918 so everyone simply hoped for the best while preparing for the worst.

By March 1919, 169 members had died from infl uenza, an average of 42 per month starting in October 1918. By June, when the epidemic subsided, 301 had been buried. Financial reports from the period stated that $261,825 was paid out in claims, or two and a half times the amount paid to the families of servicemen who died during the war. None of the Society’s investments had to be sold to pay the claims, although it was a close thing.

The idea of a home for elderly members did not originate with the Gleaner order. Before state or federal assistance, elderly or disabled people who outlived their savings or lacked helpful relatives faced a bleak future at a countyrun “poor house” or “poor farm.” Homes operated by societies for members were a superior alternative. By 1927 at least 15 societies had homes in operation, one of them with an endowment of about $1.5 million. The Gleaner Forum reported on one society, The Daughters of America, who in 1926 were building a new home in Tiffi n, Ohio. Although Gleaner members were not fi rst, they started their own project with thoroughness matched by few societies.

Slocum started thinking about a Gleaner home as early as 1915. He wanted it built in Florida, which he called “the old folks home state of the future.” The question was placed before the delegates at the biennial convention held in Toledo in December of 1921. A motion was made authorizing the Society president (Slocum’s title had recently been changed) to appoint a committee to investigate and to report at the next convention to be held in Detroit in 1923.

In January 1922, The Gleaner published an article titled “A Gleaner Home in Sunny Lands.” Slocum had an architect draft a sketch showing a large central building with a hospital, dining room, meeting, and recreation rooms. Around the central building were dozens of small cottages containing a living room, kitchen, and bedroom. He thought the location should be in west central Florida and should be surrounded by citrus groves. When it was built, Slocum said, “it would be the happiest colony of old people to be found anywhere in the United States.”

In May, The Gleaner published a second article, this time with the architect’s sketch titled “Gleaner Shadyside Florida Home,” along with a request that members write suggesting other ideas for its location. An editorial stated:

“Probably no other project which the Gleaners have ever voted to start under the head of ‘Good of The Order’ has caused such widespread interest as the Home For Aged Members which the delegates at the last Biennial Convention held in Toledo, Ohio, last December, voted to establish.”

Arbors discussed the question at length and suggested Michigan, Ohio and San Diego as alternate sites.

When the delegates met in the Hotel Statler in Detroit two years later the question of the home was left in the air.

“The President, in making his report to the National Convention, stated that the interest taken by the membership in the plan to establish a home for aged Gleaners was not su cient to warrant the appointment of a committee and the expenditure necessary for an investigation, but suggested that the matter again be taken up, and later nally disposed of.”

During 1921 and 1922 the problems of the Clearing House probably used up much of Slocum’s physical and mental energy and may have caused him to postpone the Home idea. The question was referred to the 1925 convention but Slocum’s death in August 1924 caused further delay.

When delegates gathered for the 16th Biennial Convention in Kankakee, Illinois, in December 1925 they were determined to honor Grant Slocum. What better way than to approve his idea for a national Gleaner home? A fund of $10,000 was created, using $6,000 from the Gleaner Service Bureau (the latest name for the Bureau of Information and Assistance), $3,000 from Temple Arbor,

Women of Gleaner

Mabel Clare Ladd

In the annals of Gleaner Life Insurance Society, perhaps no member witnessed quite as much growth fi rst-hand as Mabel Clare Ladd.

Ladd began working for Gleaner on Aug. 1, 1903, after high school at age 17. Her duties included processing new insurance applications and assisting Medical Director Sherman Chase. She moved with the Society to its third location in Caro in 1904, then to Detroit in 1908. She began writing for Gleaner’s publication before women won the right to vote in 1920. Helped several times by the Society to attend summer classes at the University of Michigan, she soon was the magazine’s business manager and handled most editing. She was careful in the Gleaner Forum to include women’s achievements, especially by members. Ladd passionately supported the Junior Gleaner program as well as the Detroit Audubon Society. She was a Detroit women’s business leader, and president in 1942 of the Michigan Fraternal Congress. Most important, over her 52 years as a Gleaner employee she compiled notebooks and stories detailing the Society’s fi rst seven decades. Her career saw nine U.S. presidents, two world wars, several pandemics and fi nancial crises — bridging an era before “horseless carriages” and women’s suff rage all the way to the jet age. and $1,000 from the Supreme Offi cers. President Ross Holloway also proposed that a fi xed appropriation be made from an annual contribution of 10% of any surplus set aside for the payment of annual dividends under the American Experience certifi cates. This was expected to equal 1.25% of annual premium payments. He also proposed that members contribute 10 cents per year and that both arbor and individual contributors be sought.

At the Ohio meeting held in Bowling Green in November 1926, delegates proposed the Thomas Elliott farm, two miles east of Defi ance, as the home site. Elliott, recently deceased, had been a popular Chief Gleaner. The 165-acre farm was located on the Maumee River and heavily traveled U.S. Route 24. It had the additional advantage of being near the geographic point where Indiana, Michigan and Ohio came together. Ohio Gleaner members lobbied vigorously for the Elliott farm, and at one point off ered to raise $15,000 to buy the property and an additional $10,000 for operation. Considerable sentiment existed for having the home in Michigan, and since most of the money would come from that state the issue was probably predetermined. Slocum’s proposal of a Florida home was not seriously considered, possibly because of the real estate scandals in the news in 1926. His promotion of Florida as “the old folks home state” was one generation ahead of its time.

Eff orts to raise funds continued. November of 1927 was named “Memorial Home Month” with the drive to end on Thanksgiving. A Memorial Home Leader was named in each arbor and a permanent tablet designed to list contributors. Goal for the drive was set at $250,000, or about $5 per member. The goal was not met, and eff orts continued in 1928 with November again designated “Memorial Home Month.” Proposed sites were visited, with preference given to those where a model farm could be developed. The committee insisted the home be a dignifi ed place for older people to spend their last years and that it have “nothing savoring of ordinary charity.” The home would be a memorial to Grant Slocum and at the same time an example of Gleaner benevolence.

After the 1929 stock market crash, fundraising for the Defiance location failed to meet a Jan. 28, 1930, deadline. As that deadline passed, the Society was able to purchase a mansion belonging to Charles Rhodes located on 2.7 acres in Alma, Michigan, for

Gleaner co-founder Joseph J. England was among speakers Sept. 13, 1930, at the dedication of the Memorial Home in Alma, Michigan.

$17,500. The mansion at 633 N. State St. had been built in 1894 by Dr. J.H. Lancashire for his wife, Sara, the daughter of Alma lumber baron Ammi Wright. There were 23 rooms including a ballroom and a billiard room. The idea of a model farm was abandoned because of the need to have older people near community facilities.

A crowd of about 1,500 came to the Memorial Home’s dedication Sept. 13, 1930. Gleaner President Holloway spoke about how the Society’s strengthened life insurance business — sometimes criticized as cold and impersonal — had made possible the Memorial Home, “the greatest evidence of practical benevolence that has marked the history of the Ancient Order of Gleaners.”

The fi rst occupant was John Francis of St. Louis, Michigan, a member of Fox Grove Arbor. Twelve others followed between September and December of 1930. A waiting list quickly developed. A pamphlet, “The Gleaner Memorial Home,” was published to answer questions and to explain the rules for admission. It reveals a good deal about the Gleaner idea of benevolence and the care with which the home was planned:

“The Gleaner Memorial Home is established for the purpose of providing a place available for the general care of aged and disabled members of the Ancient Order Of Gleaners who have not command of nancial means su cient to provide for their own needs; the nature of the home is not to be that of a charitable institution, but rather such as to furnish an atmosphere and environment that shall be homelike in all respects. Members admitted for residence at the Home shall be known as the Memorial Home Family.”

The home would not accept applicants unable to “care for their personal necessary wants” since it was not a hospital, but care was guaranteed for those who became ill or disabled after admission. Only benefi t members of the Society were admitted, but wives who were not members could be admitted by special approval of the

committee. Five couples were among those who lived in the home during the years it was in operation. Of the 35 people who made up the Memorial Home Family, 29 were from Michigan, two from Ohio, two from Indiana and two from Illinois.

The Lancashire mansion was an ideal place for older people to live out their years. The Society spent $29,000 to upgrade the facility and grounds, then hired a full staff to cook meals and keep the home neat and sanitary. Medical help was available for those who needed it, and a gardener kept the grounds in showplace condition. The Memorial Home Committee supervised the staff and almost every Arbor contributed money and materials to make it a congenial place.

The issue of caring for the elderly commands national attention and seems nearly impossible to solve. Under those circumstances, why is the Gleaner Memorial Home no longer in existence? In 1935 the federal government passed the Social Security Act to provide a partial retirement income for those over 65 years of age, and in the process doomed the Gleaner home and many others like it. In August of 1942, as the home was being closed, The Gleaner Forum observed:

“Applicants for membership learned that, if they accepted the [Society’s] benevolence, they could not draw the government pension, nor could the Society bene t by this provision. As death took members of the family, places were not lled because our members have been able to nd among their relatives someone who would care for them if they could pay with their pensions.”

While costs to maintain the home remained fairly high, the number of residents dwindled. In 1940, longtime Supreme Council member Elfa L. Munn reported as chairman of the home committee that:

“During the past two years we have lost seven members by death and have had only one new member. We have noticed that the Old Age Assistance and the amount of Welfare Aid administered everywhere has made a di erence in the applications received by us.”

When World War II began, rationing of meat, butter, sugar, gasoline, and tires made it harder for arbors to send fresh food and canned goods to feed residents. Amid these issues and lingering eff ects from the Depression, the Society decided to sell the home. The May 18, 1942, Alma Record was headlined “Two Ohio Women Acquire Former Gleaner Home.” Mary L. Kennelly of Cleveland and Karen Dorothy Bowman of Cincinnati purchased the property to establish a convalescent home. Six former members of the Gleaner Memorial Home were their fi rst customers. The Social Security laws evidently permitted a commercial relationship between pensioners and a convalescent home, or the law had been changed between 1942 and 1944.

There were 13 residents in the Home when it closed in May of 1942. The Society did not abandon its old members, but chose to house them in the Park Hotel located in nearby St. Louis, Michigan. In September, The Gleaner Forum reported there were nine left. The last member of the Gleaner Home Family, John Edward Bislosky, formerly of Elkhart, Indiana, died in a nursing home in Beaverville, Illinois, in December of 1951.

This postcard from the 1930s depicts the Gleaner Memorial Home in Alma, Michigan.

The Memorial Home included a formal garden with at least 25,000 tulips and 85 rose bushes.

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