Indentured children of the Wisconsin Public School

Author / Creator

Coombs, Jan, author

Available as

Online

Summary

The care provided to orphaned or neglected children has varied drastically throughout our nation's history, with different states implementing different degrees of assistance to dependent children....

The care provided to orphaned or neglected children has varied drastically throughout our nation's history, with different states implementing different degrees of assistance to dependent children. Wisconsin opened the State Public School in 1886 in an attempt to house and care for neglected children. Siblings "Alice Hacek" and "Tomas Hacek"-whose identities are protected by state law even today-became wards of the state when their father could no longer take care of them, entering the State Public School in 1923. After several months at SPS, both were indentured to different farms in Wisconsin where they stayed until they came of age. While in state custody, they were not permitted to have any contact with their family or with one another, a policy strictly enforced by SPS director C.D. Lehman, making it much harder to connect after they were out of care. The siblings' experiences as "indentured" children of the state school provide an example of the difficulties faced by hundreds of children in their situation, as well as demonstrate the successes and limitations of the SPS system in Wisconsin.

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