Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/556

 soldiers. The proposition met with general favor and representative men and women throughout the State associated themselves into a body corporate and determined to raise a fund sufficient to establish the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home. Judge Chester C. Cole was chosen president, B. F. Allen, treasurer, Miss Mary Kibben, secretary and Rev. P. P. Ingalls, general agent. Mr. Ingalls gave his entire time to the work of raising funds, traveling through all parts of the State presenting to the people the plans of the Association, everywhere meeting with cordial reception. Ingersoll says “There has never been any one work in the State that has convened so many people in large and enthusiastic assemblies, filled so many churches and halls, thrilled so many hearts, awakened so much emotion, suffused with tears so many eyes, commanded such great liberality, or enlisted so many great minds as the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home.” The soldiers in the field made most liberal contributions to the fund, amounting to more than $45,000. One of the Homes was located at Davenport where Government buildings were appropriated to its use and remodeled for that purpose. Three hundred orphans were there gathered and provided for within a year from the time the Home was opened.

Another Home was established at Cedar Falls where the soldiers’ orphans in the northern part of the State were cared for to the number of more than one hundred the first year.

So generous had been the contributions of the people of Iowa that, after the buildings had been remodeled and furnished, the Association had remaining in the treasury more than $75,000. All of the money used in this humane enterprise had come from the voluntary contributions of the people in addition to the heavy burdens cheerfully carried through the war. This generation cannot realize the continued sacrifices borne by the men and women during the war period. No pen can describe them in all of the