Troubled Family

I came across this February 1907 article regarding a family in dire trouble. 
Spent the afternoon researching this family that was literally torn apart.  The father, John Welch, died in what the paper termed “a hovel” near Godard’s mill in South Fork Twp.  His wife, named Juliette, and six boys moved in with her parents, Moses & Sally Prindle.  In January 1907, Grandma Prindle died, the boys’ mother became ill and the youngest boy broke his leg, all in quick succession. 
According to the grandfather, Moses Prindle's, obituary , four adult members of this household died within a month. It was then that the family’s extreme poverty and deplorable living conditions came to the attention of the township trustees.  The article also said that all the boys were “without education” and “afflicted” in some way “with hair lip, club foot or some other deformity.”  The trustees sent the family clothes and provisions and took the injured boy to the hospital for treatment. 
Then the Des Moines Finding Home Institution offered to take the five youngest children, ages 3-11, and put them up for adoption, for the consideration of $30 apiece.  The institution would not take the oldest boy, age 12.  All the others but the boy in the hospital were immediately sent by train to Des Moines.  Someone would come for the youngest boy later.  Grandpa Prindle died later that month. 
In the 1910 census, Julia Welch is listed in Maquoketa with the two youngest boys, Arthur, age 8, and Enoch, age 5.  She is employed as a laundress at the Hurst Hotel. 
In the 1920 and 1925 censuses, both of these boys are listed in Glenwood, Mills Co., Iowa as inmates in the Institution for Feeble Minded Children.  Enoch is still listed there in the 1930 census.  Does anyone know what became of these children?

© 2011 LuAnn Goeke