Tipton Children’s Home Museum

Tipton Children's Home Museum Panorama

With over 90 years of history, the Tipton Children’s Home museum is full of milestones, historical documents and life stories. Visit our museum the next time you’re in Tipton, OK

The Tipton Children’s Home history starts in 1921 in Canadian, Texas, with the decision to take care of four children after the death of their mother. Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Beach, a couple whose own children were all married, showed a great interest in the children, and their hearts went out to them. They volunteered to take the children into their big house if someone would help them with the expenses. In September of 1922, the elders at Canadian were notified that the home would have to be moved out of the old building by March 1923. At this time they had 72 children. The elders met and decided it would be wise, if possible, to move the Home to another location. The elders were not tired of the work, but felt it would be in the best interest of the children to move to another location that was on a farm close to a town, with the Home closer to larger population centers. After hearing Mr. Swinney talk about the Home and the need to move the Home, Sol and Maggie Tipton determined together that they could give eighty acres of the “best land in the Southwest.” The Tipton elders, L.A. Todd, H. N. Seymour, R. E. Chitwood, S. D. Jackson and Sol Tipton, were in agreement about accepting the responsibility of the orphan’s home.

By the early summer of 1927, The Tipton Children’s Home family had increased to 220. In September of 1927, there were 158 children in the first six grades. Forty-seven children were above the sixth grade level, and they were made a part of the public school system of Tipton. The first six grades went to school at The Tipton Children’s Home. Read the full history of the Tipton Children’s Home here.