The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that
transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of
the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the
Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1853 and 1929, relocating about
200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children.
Two charitable institutions, the Children's Aid Society and later, the
New York Foundling Hospital, endeavored to help these children. The two
institutions developed a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned
city children, who numbered an estimated 30,000 in New York City alone in the
1850s, in foster homes throughout the country. The children were transported
to their new homes on trains that were labeled “orphan trains” or "baby
trains". This relocation of children ended in the 1920s with the beginning of
organized foster care in America. Background
In the mid 1800s many children in New York City lived in poverty with parents
who abused alcohol, engaged in criminal activity, and were otherwise unfit
parents. Many of these unwanted kids had been in trouble with the law. Others
were orphaned when their parents died in epidemics of typhoid, yellow fever or
the flu. According to an essay written by Brace in 1872, one crime and poverty
ridden area around Tenth Avenue was referred to as “Misery Row”. Misery Row
was considered to be a main breeding ground of crime and poverty, and an
inevitable "fever nest” where disease spread easily. Orphans or runaways found
themselves drifting into this destitute area, as well as the old sheds of
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. Such was the severity of child poverty in
1854 that the number of homeless children in New York City was estimated
as high as 34,000. They were often referred to as “street urchins”.
Orphan asylums and almshouses were the only "social services" available for
poor and homeless children.Brace did not believe that these were worthwhile
institutions because they merely served the purpose of feeding the poor and
providing handouts. He felt that such institutions only deepened the
dependence of the poor on charity. Brace was also influenced by the writings of
Edward Livingstone, a pioneer in prison reform who believed that the best way to
deal with crime and poverty was to prevent it. Brace focused on finding
jobs and training for poor and destitute children so they could help themselves.
His initial efforts in social reform included free kindergartens, free dental
clinics, job placement, training programs, reading rooms, and lodging
houses for boys. History
Brace believed that institutional care stunted and destroyed children. In his
view, only work, education and a strong family life could help them develop into
self-reliant citizens. Brace knew that American pioneers could use help
settling the American West, so he arranged to send the orphaned children
to pioneer families. "In every American community, especially in a Western one,
there are many spare places at the table of life," Brace wrote. "They have enough
for themselves and the stranger too." The "placement" of orphans was not
entirely original idea as there had been similar efforts tried in Boston as early
as the mid 1840s. Many were sent west to find families and new homes, on trains
that became known as "orphan trains". The arrangements for placing orphan
children varied. Sometimes they were pre-ordered by couples; at other times a
local screening committee tried to make sure the children would be given to good
parents; at other times the scene was more random.
The Children's Aid Society made arrangements with train companies for
the children to travel in regular passenger coaches,. Brace received
special discounts on fares for the orphan children from the railroads.
Whole coaches were sometimes filled with children. Prior to departure, they were
bathed, given new clothes, a coat, often a Bible, and reminded of good manners.
The trains transported children from lodging houses, orphanages, private
homes or the street, bringing them to towns where local organizers had created
interest in the program. Notices were posted around town and in newspapers,
informing locals when the children would arrive and of the viewing location. At
towns along the route, the children assembled at the train station or were
brought to opera houses, schools, or town halls for the community to meet and
interview. The first "train" went out from The
Children's Aid Society on September 20, 1854, with 46 ten-to-twelve-year-old
boys and girls bound for Dowagiac, Michigan. In January the society sent
out two more parties of homeless children, both to Pennsylvania. It
became the responsibility of the placing agent to "keep tabs" on each child they
placed in a new home. The agent would make return trips to check on the
children's welfare. If the placement was not working out, or the agent thought
the child was being abused, he/she would then remove the child from its new home
and try to find another family. While the Boston plan had allowed for
children to be taken on as "indentured servants", this was not an acceptable
option for Brace. His "family plan" anticipated that families should provide
for the "orphans" with the same food, clothing, education, spiritual training,
etc. that they would for their own biological children. Sometimes this
happened, sometimes it didn't. Because the majority of placements worked out
well, the numbers of children riding the trains grew over time. An attempt was
made to place non-English speaking children of immigrants with people who
spoke their language. Older children placed by The Children's Aid Society
were to be paid for their labors. Two famous former orphan train riders
are Governor John Green Brady of Alaska, and Governor Andrew Burke of North
Dakota. Other agencies also adopted the
practice; Orphan Trains were also sent from Boston and Chicago.
Forwarding institutions Some of the children who took the trains
came from the following institutions: Foundling Hospital "Mercy Trains"
The New York Foundling Hospital was established in 1869 by Sister Mary Irene
Fitzgibbon of the Sisters of Charity of New York as a shelter for abandoned
infants. The Sisters worked in conjunction with Priests throughout the
Midwest and South in an effort to place these children in Catholic families. The
Foundling Hospital sent infants and toddlers to prearranged Roman Catholic
homes from 1875 to 1914. Parishioners in the destination regions were asked to
accept children, and parish priests provided applications to approved
families. This practice was first known as the "Baby Train", then later the
"Mercy Train." By the 1910s 1,000 children a year were placed with new
families. Decline
The Children's Aid Society and The New York Foundlinig Hospital continued to
"place out" children until 1930. The onset of the depression in made it
extremely hard for familes to consider "adding another mouth to feed", and
foster care homes were beginning to replace the large orphanages of the
past. There was a strong demand from farmers
who could not have children of their own, so the Foundling Hospital set up
"baby trains" to take as many as a thousand children a year west to
Catholic farm families recommended by local priests. If there was a problem,
the Foundling Hospital sent out agents to move the child to a better family.
The program lasted until the 1920s, when policy shifted to using orphanages and
foster homes in New York. Legacy
Roberta Lowrey, genealogist and great-granddaughter of a train rider,
noted that child labor was a fact of life, “whether you were an orphan train
rider, or whether you were born into a farm family in the Midwest, or a
cotton-picking family in Texas, or a corn-growing family in Iowa.”
According to Stephen O'Connor, although the majority of children placed by the
CAS went to the Midwest and West, the state that received the greatest number
by far was New York. Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania also received
substantial numbers of children. Historians who have studied the records
of the Children’s Aid Society closely have concluded that the largest number
of orphan train children were temporarily transferred or shared, not
given up. Most children were not permanently separated geographically or
culturally, from their parents and communities of origin. Well into the
twentieth century, impoverished but resourceful parents took advantage of
the services for their own purposes, including temporary caretaking during
periods of economic crisis and apprenticeships that helped children
enter the labor market. Many poor parents had no intention of losing track
of their children, and they usually did not, even in the case of very young
children placed permanently for “adoption.”
Despite problems, the system provided the best chance for many children. While
some of the riders expressed sadness at being separated from siblings during the
process because the foster parents wanted to take only one child, as often,
they speak with gratitude toward their foster families. Linda McCaffery, a
professor at Barton County Community College notes a broad range of
experiences diverse as the quarter million orphans who rode the trains.
“Many were used as strictly slave farm labor, but there are stories, wonderful
stories of children ending up in fine families that loved them, cherished
them, [and] educated them.” Lowrey points out, “They were so much better
off than if they had been left on the streets of New York. ... They were just
not going to survive, or if they had, their fate would surely have been
awful.” D. Bruce Ayler writes, "The Orphan
Trains were needed at the time they happened. They were not the best answer,
but they were the first attempts at finding a practical system. Many
children that would have died, lived to have children and grandchildren. It has
been calculated that over two million descendants have come from these
children. The trains gave the children a fighting chance to grow up.
Organizations The Orphan Train Heritage Society of
America, is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas.
The National Orphan Train Complex, also known as the "National Orphan Train
Museum and Research Center", is located in Concordia, Kansas. The Museum and
Research Center is dedicated to the preservation of the stories and
artifacts of those who were part of the Orphan Train Movement from 1854-1929.
The museum is located at the restored Union Pacific Railroad Depot in
Concordia which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Complex in maintains an archive of riders' stories and houses a research
facility. Services offered by the museum include rider research, educational
material, and a collection of photos and other memorabilia.
Media references "Extra! Extra! The Orphan Trains and
Newsboys of New York" by Renée Wendinger, is an unabridged nonfiction
resource book and pictorial history about the orphan trains. ISBN
978-0-615-29755-2 Good Boy, Norman Rockwell painting
"Eddie Rode The Orphan Train", song by Jim Roll and covered by Jason Ringenberg
Orphan Train, a 1979 television film directed by William A. Graham.
"Rider on an Orphan Train", song by David Massengill
Orphan Train, a 2013 novel by Christina Baker Kline
Placing Out, 2007 documentary sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council
See also Home Children - similar program in the
UK Notes
Further reading Creagh, Dianne. "The Baby Trains:
Catholic Foster Care and Western Migration, 1873-1929", Journal of Social
History 46(1): 197-218. Holt, Marilyn Irvin. The Orphan Trains:
Placing Out in America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. ISBN
0-8032-7265-0 Johnson, Mary Ellen, ed. Orphan Train
Riders: Their Own Stories,, Kidder, Clark. Emily's Story : The Brave
Journey of an Orphan Train Rider. [Janesville, Wisconsin]: C. Kidder. ISBN
978-0615153131. Kidder, [Edited] by Clark. Orphan Trains
and Their Precious Cargo : The Life's Work of Rev. H.D. Clarke. Westminster,
Md.: Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0788417559.
Magnuson, James and Dorothea G. Petrie. Orphan Train. New York: Dial Press,
1978. ISBN 0-8037-7375-7 O'Connor, Stephen. Orphan Trains: The
Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ISBN 0-3958-4173-9
Patrick, Michael, and Evelyn Trickel. Orphan Trains to Missouri. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1997. Patrick, Michael, Evelyn Sheets, and
Evelyn Trickel. We Are Part of History: The Story of the Orphan Trains. Santa
Fe, NM: The Lightning Tree, 1990. Riley, Tom. The Orphan Trains. New York:
LGT Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7884-3169-2 External links
West by Orphan Train - A documentary film by Colleen Bradford Krantz and
Clark Kidder, 2014 DiPasquale, Connie. "Orphan Trains of
Kansas" "He rode the 'Orphan Train' across the
country" - CNN "Orphan train riders, offspring seek
answers about heritage" - USA Today "The Orphan Train"- CBS
"98-Year-Old Woman Recounts Experience As ‘Orphan Train’ Rider"- CBS
The Cawker City Public Record, 8 April 1886
"Placing Out" Department form "The Orphan Trains", American
Experience, PBS