W: Wednesday, "Wow, I didn't expect a history lesson!", Welfare

I hated studying history in high school and college (with the exception of a college course in ancient Greek history, which was taught by an inspiring professor). So, I was surprised by the interest in history that I have developed while learning about my ancestors. I think the difference is that what I'm learning now is directly related to someone's day to day life. I haven't much cared what generals and senators were up to, but I care very much what everyday life was like for the people who came before me and lived in the places where I have lived.

The photo above is my grandmother Mae Cynthia Bertalot Smith Lloyd (1884-1952) and her six sons (one of whom is my father) and one daughter. Family tradition was that this photo was taken (probably in 1916) just after the death of her husband Fred H. Smith. Left with seven children ranging in age from 8 to infancy, she was faced with the real possibility that she would be unable to support them, and the alternative was to place them with other families or see them removed to an orphanage. So she had this photo taken.

Fortunately, around this same time, American society had begun to recognize its role in protecting and preserving families.

"In 1911 Illinois and Missouri became the first states to enact mother's pension laws. Advocates argued that children deprived of a male breadwinner should not also be deprived of a “normal home life.” Mothers' pensions offered cash payments so that children could remain in their own homes in the case of a father's death, desertion, or imprisonment... By 1921, 40 states had programs similar to Illinois', and by 1931 only Georgia and South Carolina had no mothers' pension programs. In 1935, state mothers' pensions were replaced by the Social Security Act's Aid to Dependent Children program (later, Aid to Families with Dependent Children). " Source: "Children and the Law", by Kriste Lindenmeyer, Encyclopedia of Chicago, http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/279.html

Yes, my grandmother was on "welfare".  In June of 1918 she applied to the Stephenson County (Illinois) court for a mother's pension -- that was the procedure in those days -- and began receiving payments of  $50.00 per month. 

In 1920, Mae remarried, and her second husband worked and supported his, her and their children (they added another boy and a girl to the blended family). They probably remained poor by today's standards, but they stayed together, and, according to another family legend, her children remembered her as a loving and caring mother who did what she could with what she had.





Sources:
 Freeport Journal-Standard, June 15, 1918, p. 7.
 The Institution Quarterly, State Board of Administration, State Charities Commission, State Psychopathic Institute (Illinois),  Vol. 4, No. 1 (March 31, 1913), p. 35.