Guest post by Tanya Brunner
September 22, 2026
An air of loneliness and mystery hangs over the Children’s Home Cemetery next to the Tiffin River along Schick Road in Defiance County. There are 8 small, granite gravestones that reside under the shade of a tree on a small hill. When Nickole Dietrich Wilhelm wrote a 4-H project paper in 1994, she referred to this special location in the county as the “Forgotten Community.” She was referring to a small, isolated community north of Defiance on Evansport Road that existed beginning in the 1880s. It included the Defiance County Home, the County Children’s Home, and the Rural Chapel Church.
The County Home (also called County Farm) was a refuge for those in the area that were physically or mentally unable to secure work that would sustain them in their own home. They were called “inmates” on the U.S. Census because they lived in a government facility. The County Home was a large, fully functional farm with a quality dairy herd and large gardens. Some of those who came to the home also had minor children with them, and there were additional children who were orphaned or destitute and needed a place to stay. Some parents could not afford to feed or care for their children.
In 1884, the County Commissioners felt the need to establish a children’s home, separate from the County Home. On September 4th of that year, they appointed three men to be trustees over the home. They were Isaac Corwin, William Rath and J.P. Frederick. A nearby farmhouse was designated for the children. It was a two-story brick structure that would need extensive remodeling to hold the 30-40 children that rotated in and out of the home. The Trustees hired a Matron to manage the home, a teacher, a cook and a seamstress. To get money to start the home, the Commissioners transferred $1,000 from the Dog Fund to the newly established home. The Dog Fund was used to reimburse livestock owners for animals killed by mad or wild dogs.
The Children’s Home sat just one mile down the road from the County Farm, but the two facilities maintained separate graveyards for residents who perished. The original seven stones were all that remained of what may have been quite a few burials. Those stones marked the final resting places of: Bessie Jackson, 1892-1892, Carrie Mitchell 1878-1886, Clara McCracken “Gone Home,” Loby Langdon, 1881-1893, Sarah Langdon 1884-1893, Stella Cole 1882-1893, and Bertha Slocum 1894-1905. An eighth stone was added much later for Hazel Boyce 1909-2002. Hazel lived most of her life at the County Home and when she passed she asked that she be buried “with the other children.”
In 1996, a troop of Cadette Girl Scouts from the village of Evansport took a field trip to see the remains of the Children’s Home Cemetery. The stones were broken and scattered around the small cemetery. The troop overwhelmingly voted to take on the restoration of the cemetery as part of their Silver Project for Girl Scouts. They would need to research the history of the home, rebuild the foundations for the remaining markers, place a historic marker on the site, landscape the site, then plan a memorial service to rededicate the cemetery. It was a daunting series of tasks. The girls who took on all that work were: Suzanna Brunner, Elizabeth & Kimberly Manon, Carrie and Stacy Hancock, Sara Ream, Amber & Desirae Armstrong, Kate Richey and Tara McCreight. Leaders were: Tanya Brunner, Gail Manon, and Deb Hancock. A Cemetery Restoration Dedication was held on June 22, 1997, at the site of the graveyard.
The troop composed a history book of the materials they had garnered from the County archives and the Defiance Public Library. They were mentored along their journey by archivists and historians who took a personal interest in helping with the project. The materials they gathered were turned over to the Defiance Public Library and the public can access them.
The Children’s Home on Schick Road would be open from November 25, 1884, to October 13, 1914. There was a need for a much larger home, closer to the City of Defiance. The Defiance Democrat Newspaper reported, “Defiance County’s little wards enjoyed transfer trip which was made by auto … Promptly at 12:15 Tuesday, the automobiles of the Defiance Chamber of Commerce began to line up at the courthouse front and at 12:30 sharp, nineteen machines drew away from the courthouse in a long procession.” For many of these children, it was their first ride in an automobile. That home on East Second Street would be used until 1971, when it was abandoned and the children were moved to a newer home just a few steps away. The old home was torn down to make way for the current Island Parkway Senior Apartments.