HISTORY OF PCHAS

During the 1950s, three Presbyterian agencies were home to orphans and other children who were separated from their families. Like distant cousins, the agencies would eventually meet and unite as one family. This is the second in a series of articles about PCHAS history, which began 120 years ago. Our website has more photos and details at: pchas.org/who-we-are

The Southwestern Presbyterian Home and School for Orphans, founded in 1903, was in Itasca, Texas, about 50 miles south of Fort Worth. It became the Presbyterian Home and School for Children in 1953. The president at that time was Rev. Nelson Hawkins, a father figure for many. He and his wife Clara guided the staff and the youngsters for 20 years. One of their last projects was the construction of the Bertram Memorial Chapel, built in in 1955.

The next year, under President Jerry Newbold, the agency added an adoption program that the Synod of Texas had formed. This prompted a new name for the Home: Presbyterian Children’s Home and Service Agency (PCH&SA). Another significant changed occurred in 1957, when the Home closed its on-campus school and residents began attending public school. President Newbold’s 17-year term included the building of another cottage, a youth center and a swimming pool.

An F4 tornado destroyed one of the Itasca cottages in 1976. That same year, the agency expanded to San Antonio with a foster care group home for boys. In 1981, the administrative office of PCH&SA moved to Austin. Rev. Jerry Tompkins steered the agency from 1980 to 1996.

Reynolds Presbyterian Home had been founded in 1916 in Albany, Texas, and moved to northern Dallas. In 1951 it celebrated its 35th anniversary with 84 children in care. James Read was superintendent during the 1930s and his son Ralph Read served in the same capacity from 1940 to 1971.

In 1957, United Presbyterian Homes (UPH) was chartered to care for children as well as senior citizens and the Reynolds home joined it. Three years later, UPH built a new campus for youth in Waxahachie, about 30 miles south of Dallas and, coincidentally, about 40 miles northeast of Itasca. Although Mr. Read steered the agency through World War II, the post-war era and the tumultuous Sixties, this re-location remains an important part of his legacy. To create a more family-like environment, he did away with the dormitory and built cottages to accommodate 10 youngsters apiece.

The move was timed so the children could start school on schedule. Looking back, Mr. Read remembered, “We went down on Friday before school was going to open on Monday. Everything was supposed to be bought and set up (already). The drapes weren’t up, lots of furniture hadn’t been delivered. We got busy and got the beds put up, hung sheets over the windows as drapes. For, I don’t know how long, they used packing boxes for tables in the cottages to eat their meals off of.”

Executive Director Alfred Travis served from 1971 until 1986. He reported among the highlights of 1971: “Individuals accomplished opportunity to go to France for six weeks during the summer through the Lions Club exchange program. Twelve boys and girls had parttime jobs throughout the community. One of the four graduates had a successful fall on the freshman Rice University football team. The music program under the leadership of Mrs. Paul Cooper involved the majority of the boys and girls in piano lessons, guitar lessons, voice and singing groups.”

Farmington, Missouri had established a Presbyterian orphanage south of St. Louis in 1914. Staff and trustees formally stated that any child without an adequate home could enter the orphanage. Accordingly, in 1952 they re-named the orphanage the Presbyterian Home for Children. The Home consisted of a farm property where older boys lived and the “town campus,” with dorms for girls and the younger boys.

Like the two Texas agencies, it was a loving home for hundreds of children. It was also like them because many employees stayed for many years. The first superintendent, Rev. William Stinson, served for 11 years. When he fell ill and died, his wife became superintendent for the next decade. After her, Rev. Walker served in the position for a total of 20 years.

Farmer Lewis Asher joined the staff in the 1940s. For 36 years he and his wife, Maude, were surrogate parents for several girls and more than 100 boys. Maude became the cook on the farm, remembering, “There were always between 30 and 36 hungry boys to feed.”

In 1957 B.H. Jennings donated 10 acres. Known as Camp Jennings, the property served as a country retreat for 30 years.

During the 1960s, the Farmington home saw more adolescents arriving and they saw more intense emotional, physical and spiritual needs than before. The agency collaborated with a state organization of child welfare organizations and started hiring social workers and caseworkers. When searching for a new executive director in 1970, the Presbyterian Home for Children hired Harold Showalter. His experience in residential treatment, social work, education and psychiatry positioned the Home to evolve into a multi-service agency and to expand into new locations.

The Home established a family counseling office in St. Louis in 1977. Two years later it acquired a girls’ shelter in Springfield, Missouri, and began assisting young women with their transition from foster care to independence. In 1981 it founded the Stubbins Memorial Regional Family and Youth Center in northeast Missouri. That same year, the Presbyterian Home for Children moved its accounting, development and executive offices from Farmington to St. Louis. The Home, then, became a program of the newly named Presbyterian Children’s Services.

My name is Martha Jane Hays. I am 14 years old. I have been in the Home for eight years. I think it is a wonderful place for children to be raised. We have the best of food, the best of care and a lot more privileges than the town kids have. It is a swell place, but I have one thing against the Home. I don’t like so many people to tell me what to do. There are at least seven people to satisfy and doing everything they want I consider a hard job.

– The Children’s Voice newsletter, December, 1950