Lutheran Deaconess Motherhouse at Milwaukee

See also LDMNA 1 Administrative History.

In 1863, Mrs. Eliza Ayers bought a four-acre property on the main street in her home town of Jacksonville, Illnois, for the purpose of starting an orphanage for girls. The property was originally owned by the Christian Church Disciples of Christ as site for a college and a large brick bilding had been erected house it. Mrs. Ayers's family physician, Dr. Prince, had visited the Civil War military hospitals in Washington, D.C., and saw the fine work that deaconesses, on leave from the Pittsburgh Hospital, were doing there. He visited Dr. Passavant, touring the Pittsburgh hospital and the Orphans' Home in Zelienople before returning to Jacksonville. He urged Mrs. Ayers to donate the property to Passavant for a hospital, but she was adamant in her desire for an orphanage. She offered the property to Passavant, but he felt that it was too far from his institutions in Chicago and Milwaukee to be useful. Mrs. Ayers was persistent, and finally, upon her fourth offer, the property was accepted in November, 1868.

The orphanage was to open in June, 1869, but two weeks before the expected date, the state asylum for the blind, which was across the street from the orphanage property, burned down and the eighty blind children were moved into the vacant brick building. It was agreed that they would occupy the building until the next spring, but when the time came, it apparently was still unavailable, as Passavant said in a letter to his mother that he was fixing up the old Hardin house. Dr. Henry Reck, Director of the Orphans' Home for Girls in Rochester, Pennsylvania, was chosen as the director of the new orphanage. He and his wife and eight girls from Rochester arrived in Jacksonville in April, 1970. However, there was no real need for an orphanage in the area, and the home did not prosper, although it continued until 1887.

Mrs. Ayers was dissatisfied with the progress of the orphanage and brought suit to recover the property, probably in 1874. The orphanage was owned by the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses of Cook County, Illinois, which was the charter establishing the Chicago hospital. That charter's specific purpose was for providing a hospital in Chicago, and the court ruled that the orphanage could not therefore be established under it. The property reverted to Mrs. Ayers, who soon presented it again to Passavant, this time for a hospital. It was refused, but was finally accepted under the condition that title would be vested in The Association for Works of Mercy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Illinois (AWM). The hospital opened in November, 1875, with Sister. Louisa Marthens in charge. Sister Caroline Ochse came to assist her a year later. In 1894, Mrs. Ayers requested that the name be changed to Passavant Memorial Hospital.

The lack of deaconesses to manage it plagued the hospital, and in response, a nursing school was started in 1902. By 1906, the hospital was spending far more money than it was taking in. Convinced that the community would support the hospital only if local citizens controlled it, the AWM leased it to the Passavant Memorial Hospital Association, who managed it for ten years. In 1916, the AWM gave up ownership and control of the hospital to the local association.

From the description of Records 1868-1945; 1888-1916 (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 173185157