Those Peterson Kids

A family is torn apart.

It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a disease. It wasn't a natural disaster that took eight young children from their parents in the spring of 1952. It was an act of the county government that tore the family apart.

In early April 1952, a North Dakota district court judge signed an order removing eight children from the custody of their parents. The children became wards of the State. Seven were immediately taken to the North Dakota Children's Home Society in Fargo, a state agency orphanage that was often simply called the "Home". The eighth child, a 14-year-old girl, was taken directly to a foster home.

Within a year, some of the children were being sent to foster homes and several were quickly adopted. Others spent more than six years as wards of the State. None were told where their brothers and sisters were sent.

This is the story of what happened to those children. After years of suffering under a system intended to endure their well-being, these children, with the help of some older siblings, managed to find each other and restore the family.

It's been nearly 70 years since those Peterson kids were taken to the Home. Four are now deceased, including the oldest and the youngest. This is the story of how they endured their childhood trauma and through determination and family love put their family back together.