What Happened to Kate?

Permit of Admission of Destitute Child - Kate Nunn

I have been distracted from verifying sources (read: tedious) for the Hardenbook monograph I hope to finish soooon, to provide additional information I have on St. Joseph’s Home in Peekskill, NY. So I am taking the opportunity to post the form I was sent by the Franciscan Sisters archivist on my grandfather’s sister, Kate (or Katie) Nunn.  This family continues to be very elusive. I put them aside with the hope that sometime in the future information will be forthcoming. I post this so that those who had relatives at St. Joseph’s during this time can see what the form looked like.

Kate Nunn was born 21 December 1893, the sixth child of Joseph and Catherine (Kurtz) Nunn. The family lived at 2030 First Avenue in New York City. On 12 June 1900 the Department of Public Charities took Kate and her siblings from the parentless home and the children were sent to St. Joseph’s Home in Peekskill, New York.  The City of New York paid $2.00/week for her care.

On May 11, 1906, Sister Margaret of the Missionary Sisters Third Order of St. Francis received the following letter:

Dear Sister Margaret:

    This will be handed to you by the sister of Katie Nunn, an inmate of your institution who has applied at this office for her discharge, and after a careful examination we find she is in a position to provide for her support at home, and is willing and anxious to do so.

    I would therefore recommend that said child be discharged from your Institution to the custody of her sister, Mrs. Siebert and thereby relieve the City of her care and maintenance.

Frederick E. Bauer

Supt. Out-Door Poor

Enter Elizabeth “Lizzie” Nunn Siebert, Kate’s older sister, who upon getting married and winning a law suit against her neighbor, then made application to retrieve her siblings from St. Joseph’s Home.  Kate was discharged into Elizabeth’s care on 14 May 1906, and lived with her sister in the Bronx through 1920. It is after that when I lose Kate.