Report made to Mrs. Ethel Nichols, Superintendent
     Children's Division
     Board of Control of State Institutions
     Des Moines, Iowa
 
Re: Peterson, Larry Eugene
Case Number:  8465 Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' home
Date of Birth:  May 13, 1934
Date of Admission:  January 27, 1942
Date of Placement:  February 10, 1943
Foster Parent:  Mr. Ross H. Potter, 50th and North Rustin (Leeds), Sioux City, Iowa
 
I.  PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION
 
 Test:  Stanford Binet.  Form L
 Examiner:  R. Thompson
 Date of Examination:  February 16, 1942
 Chronological Age:  7 years, 11 months
 Mental Age:  8-0 years
 I. Q.:  101
 Classification:  Average intelligence
 
II. SCHOOL REPORT
 
 Larry is rather nervous and excitable and needs careful training. He is retarded in reading.
 
III. HOME CONDITIONS
 
    Since the Death of Mrs. Potter in September, 1943, it appears that Larry has not been receiving
adequate care.  Mrs. Todd, the State Agent reported in October that Mr. Potter was trying to get a
housekeeper to cook meals and look after the house, but he had not yet been able to do so.
 
IV. FOSTER PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP
 
    Mr. Potter wishes to keep Larry.  His wife asked him to do so before she died.
 
V. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION
 
   1. Classification of Mental Ability; Average level of intelligence.
 
   2. Prognosis of Mental Ability: It is probable that under the handicap of
a broken home and inadequate arrangements for his care and training Larry will not be able to
develop his full potentialities.

page 2.
Re: Peterson, Larry Eugene
 
 
        3. Recommendation:  After conferring with the State Agent, Mrs. Todd, and with Mrs. Ethel
Nichols, Superintendent of the Children's Division. it is recommended that Larry be returned to the
Iowa Soldiers' Home in Davenport. Placement in a more suitable home  might be arranged later.
 
            If Mr. Potter is very anxious to keep the boy and Larry is equally anxious to stay, his
placement from Davenport might be deferred until Mr. Potter makes good provisions foe his care and
training. Larry should not be returned to the Potter home until the State Agent is satisfied that the
conditions are suitable.
  Signed Katharine M. Banham, Ph.D. Acting Director, Division of Psychological Services-Board of Control of State Institutions    KMB:es
 
 N.B.  Complete records of intelligence test and examinations are on file in the office of the
Division of Psychological Services, Board of Control of State Institutions, Iowa City, Iowa
  [Stamped] Approved Dec 14, 1943 Board of Control By R. T. Pullen

[NOTE by the author:  First I would like to point out the date on the stamp.  Refer to the adoption application in Section Two and you will see this same stamp, singed by the same person on December 10, 1942.  One year and four days before this document had been stamped.  I would also like to point out the date at the head of this document, December 11, 1943.  It is a Saturday for those who do not have the means of telling that. It looks like from the end of November things have been moving fairly fast.  I would also like to point out the person who wrote this report was a psychiatrist in Iowa City a hundred miles east of Des Moines where Mrs. Nichols was.  Mrs. Todd was in Ida Grove over a hundred miles north-northwest of Des Moines.  The psychiatrist did not come to see me nor did I go to see her, she based all of her report on a psychological examination taken two years prior to this report and on what Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Todd had told her either by telephone or letters.  Mrs. Nichols only knew what Mrs. Todd had told her, by telephone or by letters.  There seems to me, to be something wrong with this system.  At their point in time, based on what Mrs. Todd had told them, and seeing they did not have foresight, I would say they made the right decision.  But based on my hindsight of knowing what happened after I returned to the orphanage, it would it have been best to have left me with my dad for nothing could of happened as bad as it did when after I had been taken from him.  For the rest of my childhood and into my adult years I have paid the price of their decision to send me back to the institution.  They had made a mistake in sending me to him in the first place but a bigger one by taking me from him.  Am I bitter?  No, I am very hurt that something like this could of ever of happened. ]

Dr. Katherine M. Banham, Director,
Division of Psychological Services,
West 618 East Hall,
Iowa City, Iowa.

     Re: Larry Eugene Peterson #8465

Dear Dr. Banham:
 
 Since talking with you on long distance Saturday, December 11th, we gave Mrs. Todd verbally the report of our visit and indicated to her
you felt that since this child's case was not a psychological problem
it would not be necessary for you to go in on the case.
 
 Mrs. Todd plans to again call at the Ross H. Potter home where this little boy is placed and will make her recommendation as to whether or not he should be removed from the home and will take care of the removal either by asking the state car to call for the child or by returning
him to the institution herself.
  Very sincerely yours,   BOARD OF CONTROL OF STATE INSTITUTIONS   By[NOTE: UNSIGNED CARBON COPY]   Ethel Nichols, Superintendent Children's Division  
EN/mb
 
cc-Daines
   Mrs. Todd
 
[ NOTE by the author:  "cc-Daines" is a copy of this letter was sent to Superintendent Daines of the Iowa Solders' Orphans' Home.  Apparently to notify him of my pending arrival.  As you will later see, or have read, it was a day Mr. Daines would live to regret.  Also a copy of this letter was sent to Mrs. Todd.  Had the final decision been made to send me back to the orphanage, apparently not according to this letter by Mrs. Nichols dated the 13th of December.  Mrs. Nichols was the top honcho in all of this.]

December 15, 1943.    
Mrs. Ben Todd,
Ida Grove, Iowa.
     Re: Larry Eugene Peterson           #8465 Dear Mrs. Todd:
 
 Since writing December 13th, copy of which was sent to you, in reference to the above case, we have received a letter from Dr. Banham with her psychological report and recommendations. We are enclosing
this report and letter. Will you please return them when you have read them and make plans to return the boy to the institution, either by having the state car call for him or by returning him yourself: In making the above plans, please do not fail to let Mr. Potter know how deeply sympathetic we are with him in this separation.
 
 You will note in Dr. Banham's report that we are willing to give Mr. Potter a little time after the child is returned to the institution to make a suitable home for the child, if both he and Larry are wanting Larry returned at a later date.  We could of course, not hold the child too long a period of time for such plans.
 
  Very sincerely yours,   BOARD OF CONTROL OF STATE INSTITUTIONS   By[NOTE: UNSIGNED CARBON COPY]   Ethel Nichols, Superintendent Children's Division  
EN/mb
Enc- 2
cc - Dr. Banham
[ NOTE by the author:  Well Mrs. Nichols will sleep better, she can blame the Dr. for all of the grief.  Notice how they are holding out the proverbial carrot to my dad?  They knew it was a lie but they still did it.  I guess it would be a lot easier on them if my dad thought he had a chance of getting me back, me too.  Note they could "not hold the child too long of a time."  We will make reference to this in a later comment of a letter a couple of years later.]

---

Ida Grove, Iowa Dec. 30, 1943  
 
Mr. Ross H. Potter
Sioux City, Iowa
 
 
Dear Mr. Potter:
 
 We feel it would be to the best interest of Larry Peterson to return him to the Institution.  We are deeply sympathetic with you in this separation, but we feel sure that you will realize that in the loss of your wife, Larry has lost a most important part of his foster home life.  We believe that if your circumstances should change in a reasonable length of time, and Larry and you should want him returned,
it might perhaps be arranged.
 
We hope to transfer another boy in Woodbury County soon, and will be ready to transfer Larry at the same time.  Will you please get his things in readiness, so that we can get him on short notice when a day is decided upon? Possibly next week.  Would it be possible for you to meet us at the Martin Hotel in Sioux City with Larry?  Since we shall have a long trip ahead, it would help if you could do this.
      Yours sincerely,     By[NOTE: UNSIGNED CARBON COPY]Agent Mrs. Ben Todd - Ida Grove

[ NOTE by the author:  According to the next letter, my dad received this letter the following day, December 31.  He must have been sick. ]

[NOTE by the author The following letter, or note if you will, was the last my foster father had written.  The letter  was the size of all of his letters, apparently a page from a small tablet.  Below you will find the typing of his hand written letter.
    I will point out here in this letter my dad is using my birth name and not my adopted name of Jessie, something which was very unusual for him to do.  I can see, he had on this day received the previous letter and by now had submitted to submission, to accepting the fact of loosing me back to the State.  Though he received the previous letter and wrote this one the 31st of December he did not tell me I was going back to the orphanage until the 6th of January, six days later.  I can imagine how he must have felt those six days every time he looked at me.  He must have been sick with grief.  At the time of this letter he had been married to my girl friend Mary's older sister by one or two months.  Why he hadn't told the State this I don't know but I feel it must have been because he felt they wouldn't have approved of his marriage to such a young girl, she was 21 years old and he 61.  If this is so then he couldn't have gotten married for my sake.  Though I would hate to think that.

Sioux City, Iowa
12/31-1943
 
   Mrs. Ben Todd;
 
   Dear Mrs. Todd
   Your letter at hand will say that I
   will [be] at this Martin Hotel if you
   will tell me what day, my phone is 9338
    and Larry will be their [there] so let
    me no [know]
 
     Yours sincerely
     R. H. Potter
     50th N Rustin

  [NOTE by author: Why didn't he tell them he was married?  It would be spring before even her father knew my dad and his daughter were married.  It would be another four years before I would have found out they had gotten married.  It would be another 50 years before I found the whole story, that they had been married two months before I had been taken from my dad, less than two months after my adopted mother had died.  He may have been an old man of 62, but it looks as though my dad was pretty fast getting with the neighbor girl. <G>
  I might point out at this time, he was to live another 11 years (dying in January 1955 of a heart attack) after having two natural sons of his own.]