Hello and welcome to our Van Bibber site.
Much has been researched and written about the Van Bibbers and although I will include their distant history, this page
will concentrate on our Van Bibbers from Indiana. I want to tell their stories, the tragic events that molded who they
became, their marriages, families, children and deaths.
I had a lot of help gathering this information from wonderful people who assisted me in amazing ways. Virginia Aldridge
and Gary Hawpe are at the top of my list for people to thank and throughout these pages I will try to give credit to
those who furnished the information. Thank you all.........
Thanks to Virginia Aldridge, I have copies of the original indenture agreements for the five Van Bibber children sent to
the Warrick County Orphan's Home. To read them is heart breaking. Children in these orphanages were rarely if ever formally
adopted but indentured out........anyone could come in off the street and sign an agreement which gave them total control
over the chosen child until they outlived their usefulness or became old enough to leave and go out on their own. Anyone looking
for free labor which was the case in most instances could take their pick of children. They were asked only to feed, clothe
and educate the children and to supply medical care if needed. Families were broken, children separated from their siblings
to hopefully unite later in life as did our Van Bibber children. It was a common practice in the late 1800's for parents with
too many mouths to feed or with other unfortunate circumstances to use the Orphanages as a way of lightening their burden.
Thousands of children passed through the doors of these institutions yearly.
I will attempt to add documentation whenever possible to these pages as well as the source information.
Thank you for visiting. I would appreciate any additional information anyone can give me and all comments and suggestions
are welcome. Also needed are additional Indiana Van Bibber obituaries and additions to this page would be greatly appreciated.
