Gladney Center for Adoption

The Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, provides adoption and advocacy services. Following its 1880s origins, when it focused on locating homes for orphans during a period of mass migration. It evolved into lobbying, international adoptions, counseling, maternity services, education and philanthropy.

The history of the center can be traced back to 1887. Fort Worth was established in 1849 and became the center's home, at the close of the Mexican-American War. By 1886, the Texas and Pacific Railway was operating and at least four stockyards were in service close to the railroad lines. The trains brought migrants from the southeast and, in 1887, the first "Orphan Train" from the northeast. The Orphan Train Movement transported roughly 200,000 children from the northeast throughout the Midwest and as far west as Texas.

Reverend IZT Morris (born Spalding Co, Georgia, March 21, 1847), a Methodist circuit minister, began locating homes for children who had reached the end of the line in Fort Worth. He and his wife Isabella took in many children while trying to identify permanent homes for them among local residents and slowly began the Texas Children's Home Society. It was formally chartered in 1896 and incorporated in 1904 as The Texas Children's Home and Aid Society.

In 1906, a house was purchased by the Board of Directors on Avenue H in the city of Fort Worth. The purpose was to house children until they could be placed with a permanent family. Reverend Morris was the State Superintendent, fundraiser and Chairman of the Board of Directors until his death in 1914. Reverend Morris was responsible for finding homes for some 1000 children. Isabella ("Belle") succeeded him and supervised the Society until 1924.

Edna Gladney (née Edna Browning Kahly, January 22, 1886) joined the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society's Board of Directors in 1910. By 1927, she had been named Superintendent. She widened the scope of services to include the needs of unwed mothers and provided adoption services for their babies. In 1949 she convinced the Board of Directors to purchase a small hospital, the West Texas Maternity Home, so that these women could receive medical care throughout their pregnancies and have a private place to deliver their babies. The Texas Children's Home and Aid Society also operated a Baby Home where infants were cared for until they were adopted.

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