The Soldiers' Home at Orting: A Haven for Veterans
A report on the successful founding, management, and low death rate at the new state-funded home for disabled soldiers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A visit to the Soldiers' home at Orting, Pierce county, demonstrates how much good can be accomplished with little money if its expenditure is guided by intelligent, charitable and humane motives. In conformity with a resolution of the first legislature, an appropriation of $20,000 was made to locate and purchase a site for indigent and disabled soldiers of the late war. The board of trustees procured a donation of 190 acres of land one mile west of Orting. They erected a two-and-a-half-story building, four cottages, and outhouses, and developed a spring on top of a hill for water and fire protection. Since its opening on June 25, 1891, ninety-four soldiers have sought admittance, with an average of forty-five inmates at any given time. The home is self-sustaining in produce, with 25 acres under cultivation, and it boasts the lowest death rate of any such institution in the nation. The facility provides a dignified space for veterans of the late rebellion, and the trustees now hope for an appropriation from the next legislature to add a proper hospital.
“The Soldiers' home should by right be called the soldiers' farm, for, while the institution does not lack in any of the ordinary comforts of a city home, it is surrounded with all the healthy influences of a well-cared-for farm.”
The Soldiers' Home in Orting remains an active facility today, continuing its long history of care for Washington veterans. This report highlights the early 19th-century reliance on agricultural self-sufficiency for public institutions, a stark contrast to modern, highly centralized healthcare systems for veterans.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.