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[?], shelter and for education.
It was in the spring of 1865 when the honored Right Reverend Wilmer, bishop of the diocese of Alabama, announced to the diocesan convention, assembled in Greensboro, the beginning of this home. It was opened in Tuscaloosa, where suitable property had been bought; and funds for investiment for the home were in the hands of the bishop. These funds consisted mainly of bonds and certificates which, in a short time after the opening of the home, were rendered worthless by the fall of the Confederate government. The only certain support left was a few bales of cotton which had been bought for $4000 of Confederate currency. The proceeds from this cotton, sold later for a very much smaller sum in United States money, and the offerings from smokehouse and pantries in Tuscaloosa county were the only means of support for nearly three years. That was immediately after the war, and people learned to meet emergencies that would have seemed overwhelming at any other time. Those who have kept in touch with the home and knew its history give credit for its being maintained through those times to Bishop Wilmer, and to one of the sisters, Harriet Erwin, who was one of those wonderful women fitted in every way to assume the responsibilities of managing the home and able to adapt herself to the trying circumstances.
In 1876 the church home was moved from Tuscaloosa to Mobile, where the bishop might give it to his personal supervision. The property in Tuscaloosa, which has been bought for $30,000 in Confederate currency, was sold for $2000 in gold; and the home was established in a modest way on the South Warren street, Mobile, the house and lot being given by the Mobile St. John's parish.
The children were from all parishes of the diocese, being taken on the simple condition of being in need of a ome. Some had neither parent, some had one parent who was unable to support them, and, as in the case of every orphanage, some had indifferent parents. The object of the home was and is to give them, first of all, the teaching and discipline of the Episcopal church and to educate them in mind and hand.
The children spent half the working day in a well-conducted grammar school in the home, and the remainder in leaning housekeeping, sewing and mending, while the older girls helped, also, with the care of the younger children.
The whole story of the work of these sisters would be a very, very long one. The details of their work with the children sent them, all kindness with every sort and [?]