Matrons, 1855-1868
Between 1855 and 1868, four women held the position of Matron, who was responsible the care, feeding, and clothing of the children and widows. Ann DePass served most of the first five years, while Hannah Noel served the last eight. Other than coming from New York, the board recorded little else about DePass and Noel. Even less is known about the two other women whose tenure lasted mere months: Jennie Goldstein and “Mrs. DeYoung.”
Serving as Matron was not easy. Subject to constant scrutiny by volunteer Honorary Matrons (whose husbands served on the board) and regular, publicly-reported inspections by the City’s Grand Juries, the Matrons ran the Home amid recurring epidemics and the hardships of the Civil War and the Federal occupation that followed — all while attempting to control the discipline of a growing population, which by 1868 (with 86 children and two widows) exceeded the capacity of the original building on today’s Jackson Avenue at Chippewa Street.
This female silhouette, in the style of the mid-nineteenth century, stands in for photographs or realistic depictions of the Home’s Matrons, for whom no such representations exist.