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In 1895, Anna Delaney, gave birth to
Francis Delaney in this orphanage and home for
unwed mothers. She was directed to this Catholic instution by both the local parish of
St. Patrick's, Duelm, MN and the St Cloud Diocese after Fr. Francis Welp took advantage of this
15 year old country girl, who had cleaned the parish house.
After contacting the Archdiocese of Chicago's
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Archives & Records Center, I ordered these photographs of the building
and some inside photos. The asylum closed in the 1970's, but the building is still being used
for other programs.
The word 'orphan' comes from old Latin and Greek
words meaning bereaved. Orphanages were formed to care for bereaved children. Different forms
or orphanages were created. They were often called boarding schools, county almshouses, or
poorhouses. In the large cities there were foundling asylums run by either private associations
or religious bodies and communities. In Chicago in 1907, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia,
the infant asylum had "676 inmates". The Chicago Asylum was run by the nuns and some lay
workers who cooked and cleaned.
According to Legends & Legacies, "Churches were
great advocates of orphanages in the 1800". Church orphanages have been under attack as long as
they have been in existence. Legends & Legacies states:
"Many Catholic orphanages hold a tarnished reputation with tales of abuse . . . Priests, brothers, and nuns were the primary role models that filled the boots of teacher, caregiver and parent."I am not aware of any instances of abuse at Chicago, but I imagine the time Anna spent here was difficult for a young girl away from family. 
This is certainly a dreary almost hallway looking
area in St. Vincent's Infant Asylum. While most of the children were kept at the asylum for
years, or adopted out to families, our great grandmother Elizabeth, Anna's
mother, traveled to Chicago and brought both Anna and Francis back to her home in Minden, Twp
Benton County. Elizabeth raised the baby, who later married Ben Albright and had a family
of her own: Ruth, Ralph and a girl Lauretta, who died as a toddler. She lived the rest of her
life, except for the last several years when she was in ill health, in Minden Twp. She died in
1984, in Sauk Rapids.
Play area at St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, Chicago IL
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