Some thoughts from "Miss Catherine"
Today we are going to look back at some thoughts that Catherine Fay Ewing put to paper in her diary in the weeks after the Children’s Home was opened in 1858. These entries appear in the June 1967 issue of the Tallow Light.
The article “Like Apples of Gold” was published over several issues of the Tallow Light in 1967. Our previous post discussed the fortitude and faith of Miss Ewing. In this post we look at what was on her mind during the early days of the Children’s Home when it was on Moss Run.
I found it interesting that when the Home was established, the term “asylum” was used for charitable institutions, and that asylums were “pestiferous abodes, neatly hidden, more neatly to be shunned.” It was the goal of Ewing, to have a “Home” for the children.
It must have been quite a raucous transition for staff and residents alike when they moved into the new home in Washington County. On April 14th, 1858, Catherine Ewing wrote the following:
“I have had the children now two weeks. I have tried to govern them by love. They are quite puzzled to know what to do and often look at me in utter surprise when I do not beat them for every offence.”
On the same day she begins a story about a three year old boy who liked to swear. It begins as follows:
“Among the children I received the first year into my home, was a little boy three years old. The most profane child I have ever heard. He would shock us all with his expressions....One day he got angry at one one of the children, and such horrid expressions came from his lips as only the most profane could use.”
To hear how Miss Catherine addressed the situation, you will need to come to the Archives when we get back open after Covid, and read the rest of the article. The Tallow Light articles concerning Miss Ewing and the building of the new Children’s Home in Marietta do a good job of describing the many trials and successes Miss Ewing experienced.
As I said in the last post, Catherine Ewing was not one to be messed with. But she was also very human and suffered for her dedication to the children. In a moment of personal struggle in 1860 she wrote:
“When I look at my own heart I wonder at God’s forbearance with me, the chiefest of sinners. How unworthy of the high trust that I bear! How unfaithful to these little ones. Yet I try to do right, but, in a moment when care and anxiety...arise like a cloud, I sink under...yet I feel strong and rejoice that I am counted worthy to bear these trials.”
That must have been a particularly trying day for her. This is just a snippet of a long and interesting series of article about Catherine Ewing that is recorded in the Tallow Lights. We have copies of issued from 1967 to the present in our collections at the Archives and look forward to sharing them with visitors when we finally get to re-open to the public. We look forward to seeing you soon.
While preparing this post I came across two articles online that discuss the early Children’s Home. The first is from the Washington County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, and the second is from the Early Marietta Blog.