Search for a Catholic Orphanage: Paris, Arkansas

         "As long as one keeps searching, the answers come."  Joan Baez

 

I certainly hope the above quote is true.  I have spent the past few months contacting and researching possible locations for various orphanages near Paris in Logan County Arkansas.   My grandfather and his siblings were placed in an orphanage sometime after their mother died in 1909.   I know from looking at the 1910 census the children were living with their paternal grandparents.   My grandfather said he was in the orphanage until an uncle came and got them out when they were old enough to help on the farm.  So my guess is that they were living in an orphanage between 1911 to around 1916 or so.  On the 1920 census he was 12 years old and living with an uncle in Logan County.  His sister was living with a maternal uncle in Oklahoma.  I have not been able to find his older brother on the 1920 census, but he does show up in Oklahoma in 1922 when he gets married.   My grandfather had told his kids that it was a Catholic orphanage that they were in.  I first inquired about orphanages in Logan county on a FB group and they gave me several that were in the area around Paris.  I was told that there used to be an orphanage were the jail now sits in Paris.    I am probably going to have to go there to get more information on that one.  Another suggestion I got was the St. Scholastica Convent that used to be in Logan County.  At one time they ran a school and orphanage.  They are now located in Fort Smith.  I contacted them and one of the sisters was really nice to look at their old log book one night, but my grandfather and his siblings were not listed.  The sister gave me a few more suggestions were to look.  I wrote to the diocese to see if they had any more records, but I have not heard back from them.   There might have been another home for orphaned children near Schole Creek Community or the Subiaco Community.   I was also told there was a Catholic orphanage near Hot Springs, Arkansas.  So, I still have a few more leads to check out.  Hopefully one day I will get more information about his time in the orphanage.  




 

 


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