In 1895, following the death of Isaac Schlesinger, a lawyer in Woodville, Mississippi, his widow Sarah Schwartz, admitted their three children – Alphonse, Judith, and Ida (“Ikie”) — into the Home. 

After nine years, noting his “excellent conduct,” the Home selected fourteen-year-old Alphonse to attend the National Farm School in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Established by Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf in 1897, the National Farm School taught “practical and scientific” agriculture to equip young men for stable employment outside of mercantile jobs, which Krauskopf viewed as a mean to combat prevalent antisemitic stereotypes. The Home sent a total of 12 boys to the National Farm School, which today is known as Delaware Valley University.

Alphonse Schlesinger, c. 1895. From Ancestry.com.