Bayland Orphans Home
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Civil War shattered many families, leaving orphans, destitute widows, and children whose stepfathers were unable or unwilling to support them. Motivated by such conditions, Henry Gillette led a group who met in 1866 to form an orphanage for children of Confederate soldiers, which the Texas Legislature chartered on September 24 as "The Orphans Home at Bayland." A board of trustees organized on January 15, 1867 at the Houston home of Dr. John L. Bryan included Gillette, Bryan, and Rev. C. C. Preston, who had bought Bryan's property on the west bank of Goose Creek overlooking Tabbs Bay. This site, including a two-story brick house, became "The Orphans Homat at Bayland." Preston was the first superintendent but died in August 1867; he was succeeded by Gillette. Gillette's sister, Jeanette Duke, a Confederate widow with two young sons, became matron of the home in 1870. Dr. Ashbel Smith served as the home's physician. From two sisters enrolling in February 1866, the orphanage grew to serve 76 youths by 1870. The Orphans Home Cemetery, now unmarked, contains at least eight burials. In 1873, the state legislature granted the home more than 48,000 acres to sell for operating funds. Additional large gifts included land and stocks donated by William and J. J. Hendley of Galveston. By October 1886, the number of orphans had decreased to 37. Through the years, Houston was the site of most board meetings and support for the school, so in 1888, the board closed the Bayland site and relocated the home to 35 acres north of Houston (now in Woodland Heights). In Houston the home changed names, location, governance and mission but lives on today in Harris County's Burnett Bayland Rehabilitation Center. The original orphans home site in Bayland Park is remembered as the beginning of a story of charity and hope for young Texans. (1964, 2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the wreckage the Civil War left across Texas, Henry Gillette and a small group of citizens gathered in 1866 to care for the children of Confederate soldiers, and the Texas Legislature chartered their orphanage that September. On a bluff overlooking Tabbs Bay, a two-story brick house became home to a growing family of children—76 of them by 1870—sustained by donated land, stocks, and a state grant of tens of thousands of acres. When support shifted toward Houston, the home relocated in 1888 and, through many changes of name and mission, endures today as Harris County's Burnett Bayland Rehabilitation Center.
Why it matters
The home reflects how postwar Southern communities improvised social welfare for war orphans long before the state built such institutions, and its unbroken survival links Reconstruction-era charity to modern child services.
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Related people
- · Henry Gillette
- · Rev. C. C. Preston
- · Dr. John L. Bryan
- · Jeanette Duke
- · Dr. Ashbel Smith
Related events
- · Founding of the Orphans Home at Bayland (1866)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Born in Connecticut and Yale-educated, Ashbel Smith (1805–1885) arrived in Texas in 1837 and was soon appointed surgeon-general of the Texas army. He served the Republic as secretary of state and as minister to Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain, then sat in the state legislature after annexation. A Confederate colonel in the Civil War, he also presided over the first Board of Regents of the University of Texas and championed its Galveston medical branch.
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