BERACHAH HOME CEMETERY-UNWANTED INFANTS STILL SEARCHING....

It's hard to believe that a community or that our society could turn our backs on "unwed" mothers and girls with know place to go....but that is EXACTLY what happened back in 1894.  These were VERY hard times if you were an "unwed" mother or a young girl that had "fallen out of grace" with your family or community.  But for one man and his wife, we ALL have a place in this world, even for those "others" may have discarded.
The Berachah Home was established on Rescue Hill on South Cooper Street in Arlington, Texas, May 14, 1903.   Reverend James Tony (J.T.) Upchurch, the Home's founder, initially established the Berachah Rescue Society in Waco, Texas, in 1894 for the purpose of redeeming and aiding prostitutes and other "fallen" women. After some success, he and his wife Maggie Mae moved to the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, in 1903 to continue the "mission" in Oak Cliff's slum areas. One newspaper account contends he was "driven away [from Waco] by angry fellow Methodist church members who opposed his missionary work with prostitutes."    A trip to Arlington resulted in the purchase of the original twenty-seven acres of land for the establishment of the Berachah Home for homeless, usually pregnant, girls. These girls came from Texas and the surrounding states to have their babies and learn to care for themselves. Adoption was not allowed as Reverend Upchurch believed mothers and children should not be separated.  He had three rules that must be followed....each girl must work and attend church on Sunday.  And for those "expecting" must care for their baby for at least one year before giving it up for adoption.  Sounds like a GREAT deal to me!!! During the next thirty-two years, the Home expanded to include forty more acres, purchased in 1928, a hospital/clinic, nursery, dormitory, dormitory and dining room named Hammil Hall, printing shop, handkerchief factory, chapel, office building, schoolhouse, auditorium, barn, and a cemetery. The girls were kept busy working in the printing shop, gardening, operating the handkerchief factory, teaching at the school, and working at the hospital/clinic. The Home was funded by Dallas-Fort Worth area businessmen. It was primarily for the contributors that Reverend Upchurch published The Purity Journal, to keep them informed about the Home's affairs. The Home closed in 1935 for reasons not clearly known, but perhaps due to competition from the Edna Gladney Home in Fort Worth, or because of Reverend Upchurch's poor health. It was reopened later that year as an orphanage, the Berachah Child Institute, by Reverend Upchurch's daughter Allie Mae and her husband, Reverend Frank Wiese. In 1942 the property was purchased by the Christian Missionary Alliance. Reverend Wiese attempted to get the Dallas Church of the Nazarene to take over the Berachah Child Institute in 1941, but the offer was rejected. The University of Texas at Arlington purchased the property in 1963 and is the current owner.  On March 7, 1981, an historical marker was erected at the cemetery site, the only surviving structure on Rescue Hill. I can only IMAGINE the pain and suffering these girls must have felt being all alone with know place to go and knowing they were about to be Mothers!  And the children.....what about the children???  Did they, the ones that were lucky enough to survive child birth(something very difficult to do back then), and their Mothers chose to keep them....did they get "shunned" by the community...........get "picked on" of because of where they lived and who their mother was?????  There is nothing left of this place now except a small cemetery where "unsettled" spirits seem to still cry out for families they never knew.  Children still searching for their mothers.....  By locals, it is known as "the cemetery of infants".  A PAINFUL PAST of memories. Reports of ghostly shadows, children crying, and toys suddenly appearing can be found in this small cemetery. Some of its' head stone markers only have numbers on them because the child died to young to even be given a name.  And several ONLY have a first name on them.  This was to protect the mother's identity.  I LOVE communicating with children spirits so I will be visiting this place VERY SOON!!! They won't be lonely for long....:) I want to give a SHOUT OUT to Tui Snider for writing about this place in her book Paranormal Texas, Your Travel Guide to Haunted Places near Dallas & Fort Worth.  I would have not known about it otherwise.