After the Civil War shattered many families, leaving orphans, destitute widows, and children whose stepfathers could not or would not support them, Henry Gillette led a group in 1866 to form an orphanage for children of Confederate soldiers, chartered by the Texas Legislature on September 24 as The Orphans Home at Bayland. A board of trustees organized on January 15, 1867, at the Houston home of Dr. John L. Bryan included Gillette, Bryan, and Rev. C. C. Preston, who had bought Bryan's property on the west bank of Goose Creek overlooking Tabbs Bay, where a two-story brick house became the home. Preston served as the first superintendent until his death in August 1867, after which Gillette succeeded him. Gillette's sister, Jeanette Duke, a Confederate widow with two young sons, became matron in 1870, and Dr. Ashbel Smith served as physician. Beginning with two sisters enrolled in February 1866, the orphanage grew to serve 76 youths by 1870. Its cemetery, now unmarked, contains at least eight burials. In 1873, the state legislature granted the home more than 48,000 acres to sell for operating funds, and additional large gifts included land and stocks donated by William and J. J. Hendley of Galveston. By October 1886, the number of orphans had decreased to 37. Because Houston was the site of most board meetings and support for the school, the board closed the Bayland site in 1888 and relocated the home to 35 acres north of Houston, now in Woodland Heights. In Houston, the home changed names, location, governance, and mission, and it survives today in Harris County's Burnett Bayland Rehabilitation Center.