The Mission Home.  The Report of Its Work for the Month of April

At the monthly meeting of the mission home it was resolved to present for publication the following report of the president of the home:

…

The average number during April was fifty; new inmates received, eight; dismissed for work or for adoption in country homes, thirteen; present at the close of the month, forty-two.

Our two scarlet fever cases, Oscar Wespe and Robert Burkhard, are well again; but chickenpox and now measles take slowly their course through the house.  We had fifteen of these cases, three of which attend school again and twelve are recovering.

Our baby, Rudolph Harris, was again operated on by Drs. Cates and Deaderick, and his deformed foot gives now the best hopes of being normal.

The sixth of April we rented three rooms at 218 Front street of Policeman Hicks at $5 per month.  We were induced to do so by the occurance [sic] of several contagious diseases of our Mission Home children in order to isolate the afflicted ones from the rest; but besides this we have numerous applications for admittance from homeless women who will live an upright life, but on account of sickness are not able to make fully their own living.  Others ask to be admitted who cannot be sent to the poor asylum because they are too sick to stand transportation, or because they need more medical attention than they can secure at the county farm, especially surgical treatment.  Others come because for some cause admittance was refused to them by the city hospital.  The faculty of Tennessee medical college would be willing to give their services to that institution free of charge.  It is publicly admitted that there is in Knoxville an absolute necessity for an institution of that kind.  Besides supplying the bodily needs and medical treatment we intend to give the inmates also all spiritual attention for reform and convertion [sic] to God.  Mr. Hicks offers to give the whole house with eight rooms for eleven dollars per month for these purposes.  Seven patients occupy already the rooms of this our mission home hospital but more room is needed as numerous applications are at hand.

The carrying on of this hospital necessitates extra expenses, wherefore we call the attention of our friends to this new addition to the mission home and invite them to come and see it and to help us to uphold it in its wants.  We will also give monthly reports concerning this hospital.  Respectfully submitted.

Mrs. John R. Lauritzen, President
John R. Lauritzen, Manager

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, May 13, 1894, page 4

 

At the Mission Home.  What Is Badly Needed by this Benevolent Institution

There are now just forty-two children in the Mission Home on State street, a less number than usual, perhaps, for all that, considering the hard times and the little money given to the home.  But it is the Lord who has filled our hands and for his sake we are only too glad to care for so many little ones, and more to come yet.  It will be easily understood that it is not an easy job to feed clothe and to manage such a lot of children during school vacation, especially and keeping school daily was our recreation during that time.

During July we received in the Home ten persons and eleven in our hospital, a total of twenty-one.  Dismissed from the home sixteen and fifteen from our hospital; total thirty-one.  At present there are in the home five adults and twenty-seven children and at our hospital five adults and five children, making forty-two in all.

Our hospital on Front street was opened in March, since which time we have received and treated sixty-one patients, four of whom died.  This hospital is a branch of our home, a tender and young, but very promising plant, and the charitable people ought to give more liberal towards it support than so far.  It is not at all furnished as it ought to be and while we do the best we can, we hope to be able to do better in the future.

The Mission Home is now the owner of a six to eight room house, which was given to us by Mr. R. Z. Roberts, of West Knoxville, but as the lot was not given we are now in such a fix as to ask where to put our house.  Certainly the Mission Home, now soon six years old and so remarkably prosperous, ought to have its own grounds, so as to be relieved of the heavy burden of paying rent.  At present we pay for the two houses we occupy, thirty four dollars, and all this money could be turned toward paying for buildings of our own, we would be very glad to do so.  Here it presents itself a rare chance for some good men and women to do good in putting this large orphanage and hospital and home on a basis that it can live and branch out, by giving the necessary grounds for the purpose.  If any one is able to do so, and is willing to serve the Lord in this way, let him or her come to the front.

Jno. R. Lauritzen, Manager

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, August 19, 1894, page 3

 

Why She Was Refused.  The Mission Home Hospital Already Overcrowded

Referring to the recent failure of a sick and destitute woman from Murphey [sic], North Carolina, to get into a hospital here for treatment, Rev. Lauritzen stated to a reporter yesterday:  “We did not refuse her admission to the Mission Home hospital because she was from out of the county, but because the Mission Home hospital was filled.  The disease of the woman was of such a character as to require treatment in a room by herself, and this we could not do.

“The Mission Home strives to its uttermost [sic] to help such persons where no others seem inclined to help.  But here we have fifty-seven persons on hand to take care and it is quite an effort for us to say where the fifty-eighth person is to be placed — to say nothing of a separate room.”

This much is due the Mission Home and due the public, so that it may be understood as the condition of the home.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, October 8, 1894, page 3