08/15/2026
What would you do if hundreds of children in your own city had nowhere to go?
In the late 1800s, children living on America’s streets were dismissed with cruel names like “guttersnipes,” “urchins,” and “waifs.”
They were homeless. Abused. Abandoned.
And far too often, ignored.
Elizabeth Sherrard refused to look away.
Born in New York in 1829, Elizabeth had already spent much of her life serving people in desperate situations. She nursed cholera victims, cared for wounded Civil War soldiers, and worked among Chicago’s poor.
Then she came to Dakota Territory.
Here, Elizabeth and her husband William encountered children with no safe home, no protection, and sometimes no one willing to claim them.
Their answer wasn’t simply an orphanage.
They believed children belonged in families.
So in 1893, at 63 years old, Elizabeth helped establish what became the Children’s Home Society of South Dakota.
And she didn’t lead from a distance.
She fed the children. Comforted them. Guided them. Cared for them personally.
Within only two years, nearly 400 children had already passed through their care.
By 1902, more than 600 children from many different backgrounds had found refuge through their work. Many eventually entered foster homes across South Dakota.
For some, it was the first real chance they had ever been given.
To the children, Elizabeth wasn’t remembered by a title.
They called her “Mother Sherrard.”
She continued serving until her death in 1908 at age 78.
But the work didn’t die with her.
The organization she helped build continued growing, eventually touching the lives of thousands more children across South Dakota.
And more than a century later, Children’s Home Society continues serving children and families.
Elizabeth Sherrard’s story leaves Sioux Falls with a question worth asking:
When everyone else looks away… will you be the one who steps in?
