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Grandchildren of Annie Ehler Orts, who immigrated with her family to Texas in 1906, visit the St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home in San Antonio Dec. 27 to make a donation to the home, where Annie and her sister were placed by their mother after their father died shortly after arriving in Texas. After their mother remarried, the family moved to Poth. Grandchildren came from Poth, San Antonio, Gonzales, and El Paso in December to visit “St. PJ’s” in their grandmother’s memory. COURTESY/Nell Lyssy. Send photos to reader@wcn-online.com for possible publication.
The grandchildren of Annie Ehler Orts visited the St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home — “St. PJ’s” — in San Antonio during the Christmas holiday. The cousins made a donation to the home in honor of their grandmother, Annie. Staff at St. PJ’s also gave the group a tour of the facility, a brief history of the orphanage, and an overview of the services that they provide.
Annie Ehler was a young child when she and her parents, Fritz and Theresa Ehler, and her younger sister, Stephanie, emigrated to Texas from Austria in 1906. Unfortunately, her father died shortly after arriving in Texas. To support the family, their mother, Theresa, had to place her two daughters, in the St. Joseph’s Orphanage in San Antonio, while she took a job as a full-time housekeeper. She was only able to visit her daughters at the orphanage on Sundays. Fortunately, Theresa remarried and moved to Poth with her two daughters.
The St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home, affectionately referred to as St. PJ’s, is a social service agency operating under the Archdiocese of San Antonio Inc. as an independent 501(c)3 non-profit. The mission of St. PJ’s is to be a safe and loving refuge for children in crisis and to accompany them on their journey to healing and wholeness, breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect one child at a time.
Information and photo shared by Nell Lyssy.
St. PJ’s
What is now St. Peter- St. Joseph Children’s Home in San Antonio began in 1869, when three Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word began caring for abandoned and orphaned children. They established St. Joseph’s Orphanage for girls and St. John’s Orphanage for boys. In 1912, the orphanage was destroyed by fire, killing three boys and five nuns, as they struggled to save the boys. People around the country were inspired by the story of the nuns’ heroic efforts; one man, Peter Kuntz, made a donation to rebuild the residence. His contribution was honored with the renaming of the boys’ residence to St. Peter’s. The two orphanages merged in 1929, and today “St. PJ’s” provides a loving refuge for abused, neglected, abandoned, and homeless children. Learn more at https:// stpjhome.org/#.
