Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum

10/28/2026

The past 7 days included two trips to Rochester to give presentations on the State School. One group was the Southeast Retired Educators Association of Minnesota and the other a LIFE (Learning Is Forever) class for seniors at Rochester Community and Technical College.

Did you know that we can take the show on the road? Since the pandemic, it has been increasingly expensive to fill buses with the necessary passengers to make the trip affordable. What if we eliminated the bus cost and went to them for a reasonable price?

Coming to Owatonna and the State School campus is the optimal experience, but for those who can't, we have another way. Call us to discuss what the presentation includes and the cost options.

10/23/2026

𝐖𝐞𝐭 𝐍𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐬?

The mystery of “Baby,” the little boy buried in the Children's Cemetery who died on February 14, 1916, has led us to another chapter in the history of the Minnesota State School for Dependent and Neglected Children: the role of wet nurses.

The school's 1910 Biennial Report explained why they were considered so important:

“Milk is the natural food for the young animal, but cow's milk is not perfectly adapted to very young children. It is better adapted to children a year or more of age, so we have found it necessary and of incalculable value to employ wet nurses. The results of feeding our infants, especially those who have had a poor start, by means of wet nurses have been highly satisfactory and the lives of many have thus been saved.”

The report also emphasized the importance of trained nurses caring for the babies both day and night.

By 1913, the State School had a new Nursery building with the capacity to accommodate 30 babies at a time. How many wet nurses were employed to feed them? That's one question we'd like to answer.

But there's another question that is much more personal.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐭 𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞'𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧?

Wet nursing was an important source of nourishment for infants whose mothers could not breastfeed. But for a woman nursing another family's child, the arrangement could present difficult choices. How did she divide her time and milk if she had a baby of her own? Did her child remain with her, or was someone else responsible for feeding and caring for the baby while she worked? She was often faced with desperate choices.

Some wet nurses in the early 1900s faced separation from their own children, and some women took the work because they needed the income to support themselves and their families. Their circumstances varied, and we don't yet know how these arrangements worked at the State School.

In the case of “Baby,” we know his mother was employed in the nursery as a wet nurse. We know her six-week-old son died while apparently away from the school, and that she had neither the means to bury him nor friends to help her. We still don't know her name, where she came from, or what became of her.

Her story raises questions that reach beyond one child's grave.

As we continue researching the children who lived at the Minnesota State School, we're also beginning to uncover the lives of the people who cared for them—and the challenges they may have faced in their own families.

Sometimes, one mystery leads us to another.

10/20/2026

𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 “𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲”
by Tim Shea, Cemetery Historian

For those of you who didn't have a chance to read the article Tim contributed to the Owatonna People's Press, here it is:

Behind the Administration Building of the Minnesota State School for Dependent & Neglected Children, a small, quiet cemetery rests on a hill. There, 198 children who lived at the school are buried. The cemetery contains 52 headstones and 146 crosses, marking the children’s resting places. Every child who died at the school and was buried on the grounds has been identified and accounted for—with one exception.

Toward the far west section of the cemetery, there is one cross that simply reads “BABY.” The information provided by the Orphanage Museum just states that nothing is known about this child, and asks for help identifying who it might be.

The tiny grave is located between two other students — Leonard Trudell, who died on January 28, 1916, and Burton Schafer, who died on April 10, 1916. So, the assumption was made that whoever lies in the middle, died sometime between these two dates. But that was the only miniscule piece of information that was known.

Fast forward to the research being done now at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) library. They have tons of files on hand pertaining to the State School. We know that Superintendent Galen Merrill was required to give a “State of the Union” update to the legislature every two years. His letters, notes, and communiques are archived at MNHS, and with the help of their excellent staff, we’ve been able to find one of his reports delivered on July 7, 1916.

It was one page in length and covered four topics. The first gave details about an outbreak of diphtheria in February. Fifty children were attacked by the disease, but it was quickly brought under control with no deaths. Three months later, there was a measles epidemic, involving 96 children. Fortune smiled again, as there were no fatalities. The report then went on to account for the
deaths of Leonard Trudell and Burton Schafer, who died from pneumonia. Our efforts were rewarded in the last paragraph!
It stated:
“There has been one other death in the institution, that of an infant whose mother was employed in the nursery as a wet nurse. The child died February 14, 1916, aged 6 weeks. He had never been committed to the school, but his mother was a poor girl without friends and without means of burying her child. A coffin was
furnished and the child buried in the State School cemetery.”

Success! Or at least partial success. We now know that Baby was a 6-week-old boy and that he died on Valentine’s Day in 1916. However, we still do not have a name for this child.

Since we had a date, I did a quick check at the Steele County Recorder’s Office. However, there was no record of a child this age dying on that date. This indicated that he had not died in Steele County. Next, I did a search of the five counties surrounding Steele and still discovered nothing. It is possible that this child could have been with grandparents or relatives in another county, but nothing showed up in a statewide search. The next step will be to pull the records of State School employees in 1916 (if they list everyone), try to find out the original home of his mother, and see if the infant may have died in that county. We may finally find a name and be able to give this child the respect and closure he deserves.

In the meantime, with all this detective work, we now know much more than we did when this investigation began…and this story will continue to evolve. Sherlock Holmes would be proud!

Please stop by the Children’s Cemetery to commemorate this little child, along with the other 197 who are at rest on this property.

10/20/2026

Our visitors today came from Oregon and Washington state! Although the gentleman grew up in Mankato, he had never of the State School. We're happy they stopped by to learn about the school and the children.

10/14/2026

Another great visit! We've been "patiently" waiting for members of the Schleifer family to make the journey to Owatonna from Texas. They donated a memoir written by Margaret Schleifer, who came to the State School with 5 siblings. Can hardly wait to read it. We'll be sure to share any interesting tidbits with our Facebook Friends!

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

Thank you to Kay Fate and The Steele County Times for this compelling story! It's connections like this that let us know the work we're doing at the Children's Cemetery touches many people, both locally and from far away.

Community News 8 October 2026 ‘Rose was a mission’ Tim Shea and Cheryl Pfeifer discuss the short, unhappy life of Rose Steele, who was orphaned at the age of 9, then sent to the State Public School for Dependent & Neglected Children in Owatonna. Shea has done research on many of the 198 children...

10/08/2026

Owatonna was the final stop for a very fun group of travelers before they headed to their final destination. The group travels together twice a year from their base near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Today they visited the History Center of Olmsted County, toured Mayowood, ate a late buffet at Torey's, and then explored the Museum. I think they'll sleep well tonight.

10/05/2026

Sisters from Minnesota, Utah, and Alaska made the trip to Owatonna today to explore where their grandmother and her brother came in 1903. They'd recently received the children's State School records and were able to piece together more of the family's story.

It's always a joy when State School descendants visit. They are a very specific audience that the Orphanage Museum was created for.

Their grandmother had a good life and married a wonderful man. The brother was more of a rascal who ended up in the Merchant Marines as soon as he was old enough!

10/02/2026

You never know who might stop by the—and what memories they might bring with them!

Yesterday, we ran into 1960 OHS graduate Clay Whiteis at the cemetery. He grew up in the westside neighborhood surrounding the State School. Clay and a friend stopped in to look around, and before long, he was sharing memories of playing with the OSS kids.

Clay grew up here during the transition from the orphanage phase to the Owatonna State School. His memories offered a glimpse of a much quieter Owatonna: no I-35 traffic, Bridge Street was simply a road that passed Cashman Nursery and headed out into the country, and Jefferson School was his elementary school.

It was fun to listen as Clay remembered the neighborhood—and the State School kids who were part of it. Sometimes the best history comes through the door unexpectedly.