The butter box babies are a sad but true fact that happened in Nova Scotia beginning in 1920. It was a home for wayward girls (pregnant unmarried women) and young married women. It was run by William and Lila Young who were in charge of a maternity home. She was deemed to have been an obstetrician when all she was is a midwife and her husband claimed to have been a Chiropractor. The horrors that took place in this home are embedded in some people’s memories until today. Some of the horrors weren’t revealed until many years after the home was closed down.

They advertised it as being the ideal home which was located in East Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada. The home promised that they would give maternity care for local married couples and discreet pregnancies. The children that were born out of wedlock were promised that their babies would have the finest of home placements that could be found. It was not known at the time but Lila and William had a very profitable business going with the selling of the babies that were born out of wedlock. Most of these children were sold to the US.

At the time the US forbid adoptions across religious backgrounds which caused an acute shortage of babies especially for Jewish people. This is where William and Lila Young stepped up to the plate and sold the black market babies for as high as $10,000. It was found out later that most of these babies ended up in New Jersey in Jewish homes. The income didn’t stop there, in spite of what they were selling the babies for, they also charged the mothers of these babies $500.00 for the privilege of having their baby born there.

Some people back then would find great difficulty in trying to accumulate the money as the wages were only $8.00 a week. If the bill couldn’t be paid then the girls were put to work in the home to pay the bill while they waited to have their babies, sometimes this work went well beyond the time of having their babies and some girls had to stay up to eighteen months to work it off.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, a major port during the war, in World War II business was booming. There were always ships coming and going and the sailors would squeeze as much life out of their stop over as they could which ended in unwanted pregnancies. The Ideal Maternity Home was the girl’s only option in that area at the time. It was the only place that could provide help for the mothers and babies as well.

This home went on carrying out these practices for 20 years. After it was over and Lila and William were prosecuted it was found that the babies that weren’t wanted would be starved to death and placed in a butter box ( a box that groceries were delivered in and originally made to hold quarts of fresh milk) and buried without as even as much as a service. These were the babies that were deemed unmarketable. All these babies received while they waited to die were water and molasses which on a diet such as this the baby would die in less than two weeks.

The bodies of these innocent babies would be buried on the property, adjacent to a cemetery but not in it, sometimes their bodies would be thrown into the sea or burnt in the furnace that heated the maternity home.

When married couples came to the home to have their baby it was often told to them that the baby had died in childbirth. They would return home never knowing how their baby truly died or for that matter was still alive. Behind the scenes these babies were also sold on the black market by Lila and William. The Young’s had another scheme going where they would create babies or separate them if they were a twin to meet the desires of the customer. Approximately four to six hundred babies died at the hands of Lila and William Young and another thousand were put out for adoption.

Business for the Young’s was exceptionally good, so good, that they built on one extension after another and by 1939 the Young’s were mortgage free. They then built their own home which had nine bedrooms, three bathrooms, den, dining room, living room and kitchen. All paid for at the price of new born, innocent babies. They added to their assets for the next six years.

Back in 1933 the Young’s found a thorn in their side by the name of Dr. Frank Roy Davis. He had heard some rumors about the home and for the next fifteen years he was relentless to find out the truth of what was really taking place there. In 1933 the Young’s were made hire their first Registered Nurse. The pressure on the Youngs was mounting.

In March of 1936 it finally came to a head as both William and Lila was arraigned on two counts of manslaughter which was related to the death of Eva Neiforth   and her baby. This trial would last a very long time. They were convicted on these counts but with no penalty but it did give Dr. Davis the opportunity to have the RCMP investigate every death that took place at the home since it had opened. In the following years they were charged with fraud and many more injustices. The Young’s had built a good support system by this time which included prominent citizens and politicians. Some of these people had secretly used their services. Up until then the home had operated for 17 years without a license. Ironically the next year there was a law passed that this type of home had to be licensed, the Young’s applied and were turned down. On November 17th, 1945 based on the findings of all the inspections on the home it was ordered to close its doors.

It wasn’t long after through the persistence of Dr. Davis to be rid of this home forever he found out about the illegal adoptions and the Young’s had to face justice again. There were many court appearances and fines. At first they rebuked the charges and sued for slander. They lost the case. The Young’s were never charged for their crimes but following the trial they developed serious financial problems. They left East Chester penniless and broke. William died of cancer and Lila returned to Nova Scotia where she and resumed teaching school. She died in 1979 at the age of 70 of Leukemia and was buried where she had grown up as a child. Ironically she was buried in the cemetery right across from the Butter box babies who didn’t have a chance at life.