The Daughter I Don't Have

By Jeffrey P. Dague

One hundred and fifty years ago, on November 11, 1865, the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport, Iowa opened its doors to its first 150 orphaned children. The home was established by Ms. Annie Wittenmyer to care for the orphaned children of Civil War soldiers. In honor of the first matron, the orphanage's name would later be changed to the Annie Wittenmyer home. Although initially founded to serve orphans of the United States Civil War, the home still existed through the Great Depression, housing children of destitute families. It was at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in 1939 where 9 year old Elizabeth Louise Ostert was subjected to what is known as the "Monster Study". Wendell Johnson, a professor from the University of Iowa, spent most of his life trying to figure out why he stuttered. His "Monster Study" was just one of a long line of experiments he designed to figure out the reason why children began to stutter. If he was able to induce stuttering in children, he might be able to prove his theory that stuttering was a learned disorder. Elizabeth Louise was my grandmother's daughter. My grandmother would refer to her lost child as, "The daughter I don't have." This book was created to answer how my grandmother lost her child, why her child was sent to the orphanage, and why the "Monster Study" was conducted using orphan children.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514731282
• ISBN13: 9781514731284
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"