Tipton Children’s Home to celebrate 100th anniversary

TIPTON — It started with four children. Since then, more than 5,000 children have come and gone.

The Tipton Children’s Home in Tipton, 1000 N. Broadway, will celebrate its 100th anniversary Saturday. Registration begins at 9 a.m. at the Tipton Children’s Home Cafeteria.

According to the Tipton Children’s Home’s website, in 1921 in Canadian, Texas, Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Beach took in four children in their home, with assistance from the church in Canadian. Calls from churches, broken homes, relatives of homeless children, state and city agencies began to pour in seeking to admit children who had no home. Before many months, 18-20 children were staying with the Beaches. They soon realized they needed a bigger home.

The website said in 1923, the church bought a large, brick, two-story building with a basement in Canadian and fixed it up. The building was built as an academy, but was condemned over time. By that time, some Churches of Christ and interested individuals sent unsolicited money to the Canadian congregation to help care for the children. The Beaches were overseeing the children temporarily. When they moved to the new building, they turned over the work to Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Swinney.

Sol and Maggie Tipton gave 80 acres of the “best land in the Southwest” to build the new home in 1924. On June 27, 1924, Burley Slayton moved all the children and adults 120 miles to the new home with his brother in their 1924 model cars, according to the website.

When the children and staff moved to the home, it was spacious and beautiful, but only a little more than half of it was ready to use. The funds were lacking to complete the building. The first floor had many amenities including four large dormitories, bathrooms and two play rooms.

By the early summer of 1927, the Home increased to 220 children. In September of the same year, there were 158 children in the first six grades. Forty-seven children were above the sixth grade level. The first six grades went to school at the Home and the grades after six went to Tipton Public Schools, according to the website.

Joe Waugh, executive director of the Home, said the children now come through private placement, which is where the guardian of said child places them in the home. This is one of the main differences between the Home and other means of caring for homeless children.

“No matter what happens, if that child is under 18, they’re not an adult,” Waugh said. “Their guardian has to initiate whatever it is that gets done to that child. If the guardian doesn’t, then (the child) stays homeless. We don’t take DHS kids, but we are regulated by DHS.”

Waugh said their mission is to get their kids to transition better into later life.

“We’re constantly asking the question, ‘What can we do better? What can we do for this child that will make them better?’” Waugh said.

Waugh said they’ve helped over 5,000 children since 1924, but the average is “all over the book.”

“Right now, we’re averaging about 32,” Waugh said. “I’d say the average has been probably 50, but right now 32.”

Alex Brooks, 15, said she’s been at the home for five years. She said she’s looking forward to seeing a bunch of people at the celebration on Saturday.

“It’s really fun, honestly,” Alex Brooks said.

Alex Brooks said her typical day consists of getting ready, going to school and doing her homework and laundry after school.

“I really just don’t want to get up, but I have to,” Alex Brooks said. “I’m not a morning person.”

Alex Brooks said she wishes everyone would have phones in their junior and senior year.

“Just because you want to experience your last two years of high school,” Alex Brooks said.

Romina Brooks, 12, said she’s also been at the home for five years. She is looking forward to playing games at the anniversary and wishes they could go on more vacations.

Romina Brooks said her typical day consists of many tasks including waking up, getting ready for school, coming home and taking care of her pigs.

The Brooks girls are cousins, but arrived at the Home at separate times.

Waugh said the Home has impacted the community with the children who attend Tipton schools, as well as being involved with other things in the town.

“Since it’s such a small town and a lot of us are from here, we kind of help out as much as we can downtown,” Waugh said. “We provide jobs for the people who work here, we provide kids for the school (and) we do volunteer work downtown, sometime’s different projects.”

Waugh said 100 percent of their funding comes from donations.

“It’s a place for kids that through no fault of their own, are here … we’re trying to improve on their lives,” Waugh said. “It’s a place that maybe is better than where they came from. That’s what we are here.”