The Orphan Trains
By Denis Fessler
November 10, 2004
The community of Wien Missouri
was settled in the latter part of the 19th century, primarily by individuals of
German heritage. Early residents left
their families in Germany, Indiana, and other states, and made their way to the
fertile fields of north-central Missouri
to establish new lives. But some arrived
as children with no families other than perhaps a sibling or two. They came from New York City by way of what we call now the
Orphan Trains.
The Beginning
New York City in the 19th century suffered from the same
problems as many large urban areas, then as now – overpopulation, unemployment,
poverty, prejudice, drugs, crime. Also
at that time hundreds of thousands of immigrants were pouring into New York City each year,
often penniless upon their arrival. The
Statue of Liberty proclaimed: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses”. And so they came. This exacerbated the already significant
problem of homeless children – orphans, runaways, or abandoned. Even some caring parents left their infants
on the doorsteps of the wealthy, hospitals, and the churches, hoping they might
find better lives. An estimated 30,000
children were abandoned on the streets in New
York City in 1854[1].
To help remedy this situation, Charles Loring Brace, a 26-year-old
Congregational Minister, founded the Children’s Aid Society in 1853. Children were taken off the street, cared
for, educated, and taught a trade. But
the need soon outgrew the means. So he
took up the plan that Boston
had tried ten years earlier – sending orphans “West” on trains to families at
the various stops along the way who were willing to adopt them. The first train was sent out on September 20,
1854 with 46 ten-to-twelve-year-old boys and girls. Their destination was Dowagiac, Michigan.
All 46 children were successfully placed
in new homes.[2]
This system endured for 77 years, from 1854 to1930. By the 1870’s the New York Foundling
Hospital, run by the
Catholic Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul, began sending orphans to
Catholic families. Together, an
estimated 150,000-400,000 children were sent West on the trains1 - from Indiana
to Kansas, Minnesota
to Texas. As many as 100,000 orphans were placed in Missouri. Some 50 became members of the Wien community.
The Process
The Children’s Aid Society would send notices to local
postmasters along the train’s route announcing the time and date a trainload of
orphans would arrive in each community.
Those notices would be posted in post offices, stores, churches, and
newspapers. Typically 25-35 children
were placed on a train under the supervision of only 1 or 2 adults (usually a
man and a woman), called “agents” (note the railroad term). Initially the children’s ages ranged from 3
to 17, although later this was narrowed to 5 to 12. Sometimes agents preceded the train by
several weeks to organize a selection committee and to screen prospective
foster parents.
Shortly before the day of departure (oftentimes just the night
before) the children would be told that they were going on the train, and they
would be bathed, their hair tended to, and given new clean clothing. Then they would board the train, and off they
went to their new destiny. It was a long
trip from New York,
but many of the children were able to see for the first time fields of crops
and animals, orchards, forests and large open areas.
Upon arrival in one of the projected towns, they would
disembark and go to a meeting place such as a church, hotel, courthouse, opera
house, or the train depot, and be lined up on a stage or platform at the front
of the room. Usually, a local town
“committee” had been at work prior to the arrival of the train, trying to line
up good potential families for the expected children. At this time, members of the community would
be allowed to visit with (and inspect) the children. If a match-up was made between adult and
child, and the local committee and placing agents approved, a written agreement
was signed. Then the child would leave
the group and go on to his/her “new home”.
Contact continued thereafter by semi-annual letters and occasional
visits by representatives of the Children’s Aid Society.
Overall the system worked very well. The orphans had a better chance at life with
placement in a new home “out West”, than they did remaining in New York. Thousands of children were removed from lives
on the street or in orphanages and placed in loving families. A 1910 report of the Children’s Aid Society
gave the final destinations of the children they had sent out on the Orphan
Trains. It listed all 48 States plus the
District of Columbia and Canada, with the majority going to the Midwest. There
were some problems, but these should not detract from the successes of the
Orphan Trains. Children were shipped
with no certainty that they would be adopted.
Some were not, and returned on the train to New York and the orphanage. The children had to face the ordeal of
separation from home, leaving familiar surroundings and perhaps parents,
brothers and sisters. Some left New York with siblings
but were separated upon selection, often to never see their brothers and
sisters again. English-speaking children
were placed with foster parents who spoke another language (e.g., German), and
vice-versa. Sometimes children went from
one family to another, to another. Foster
parents were also allowed to return children who did not “work out”. Not all orphans were treated well.
A record of the Children’s Aid Society noted that in 1871
more than 3000 orphans were transported at an expense of $31,638, which
included train tickets, food and the agent’s salaries1 – approximately $10 per child!
The New York
Foundling Hospital
Charles Brace required that the adopting home be
Christian. However, there were
complaints that Catholic children did not always go to Catholic families. This, in part, led the Catholic New York
Foundling Hospital
to begin sending children on their own version -- the Mercy Trains.
Sister Irene Fitzgerald, a Sister of Charity of St. Vincent
DePaul, opened the New York
Foundling Hospital
to help address the monumental problem of homeless and unwanted children. It was incorporated on October 8, 1869. Three days later on October 11th, the Feast of
the Maternity of Our Lady, Sister Irene and her two companions, Sister Teresa
Vincent and Sister Ann Aloysia, moved into a small house at 17 East 12th Street. Although they expected to spend three months
in preparing for the opening of the institutions, an infant was laid on the door-step
that very first night. Before January 1,
1870, the proposed opening date, they had received 123 babies. When they finally opened the doors formally,
a white cradle was placed in the foyer of their building where mothers could
anonymously leave their children to be cared for by the sisters.[3]
The story of Sister Irene and The New York Foundling
Hospital runs parallel with that of Rev. Brace and the Children’s Aid Society. However, there were a few key differences. The Sisters worked in conjunction with Priests
throughout the Midwest and South in an effort
to place these children in Catholic families, whereas the Children’s Aid
Society requested that the children they placed be given spiritual training but
left the choice of religion up to the “adoptive” family. Also, the children from the Foundling Hospital
tended to be younger than those from the Children’s Aid Society.2
Probably the largest difference in how the Foundling Hospital
placed their children is that the children were not sent out to be “randomly”
adopted from a town hall or opera house, but were “requested” ahead of time by
families who wanted a child. Requests
would be sent to the New York Foundling Home for a child (for example: a 2 year
old, blue eyed, blond haired girl), and then the Sisters would do their best to
find a “matching” child. They would then
send the requesting family a “receipt” for the child telling when and where the
child would arrive by train. This notice
requested that the family be at the station ahead of time so as not to miss the
train. For each child, the sisters of
the hospital made a suit or dress with his or her name and the name of the new
parents pinned on the inside of the back collar. When the train arrived, the new parents were
to have their “notice of arrival” with them which they were to present to the
Sisters. This notice had a number on it
that would match up with a child on the train. Once the match was made, the parents would
sign the “receipt” for the child, and they were free to leave with their new
child.2
Chances are that most of the orphans adopted by the Catholic
families in Wien came from the New
York Foundling Hospital
The Railroads
The first railroad line across Missouri
was built in 1859 from Hannibal to St. Joseph. This is known today as the
Burlington-Northern line that still runs through New Cambria and Bucklin – most
likely the final stop for the orphans who were adopted by families around
Wien. It was not until 1868 that the
first train bridge across the Mississippi River from Illinois
to Missouri was built at Quincy.
The other railroad line in the area of Wien, known today as the Atchison
Topeka and Santa Fe, came down out of Southeast Iowa, crossed the Burlington-Northern at
Bucklin and went through Marceline on its way southwest. Stations were ultimately built in New
Cambria, Bucklin, and Marceline, but a station was not required for the Orphan
Train. The trains made “whistle stops”
between stations to pick up and drop off passengers, mail – and orphans.
The End
Not everyone embraced the concept of the Orphan Trains. As noted earlier, there were several
problems. In Missouri, a law was passed
in 1901 forbidding the orphan trains, purportedly because the Children’s Aid
Society “is pouring carloads of children into the state without properly
supervising them”.1 Apparently the law was never enforced because
it did not stop the trains.
The last of the orphan trains came to Missouri in 1929. By then most states had passed stricter
adoption laws and policies. Many Eastern
states and cities
assumed more responsibility in caring for orphans, and so the
trains were no longer needed. Also, the
onset of the Depression made it more difficult for families to take on the responsibilities
of additional children.
But the Orphan Trains left a lasting legacy. Thousands of children left the streets and
orphanages of New York,
and other large Eastern cities, to find homes with loving families. It was an inexpensive way out of solving
juvenile crime. But its greatest triumph
was proving the value of foster families, and for that millions of children
have benefited since the last train headed west out of New York City carrying homeless children to a
new life of hope.
For More Information
Many books and articles have been written about the Orphan
Trains.
One of the best, and a source of
much of
the information in this article, is
Orphan
Trains to Missouri, by Michael D. Patrick and
Evelyn Goodrich Trickel,
published in 1997.
It is available in
libraries and can
be purchased on the Internet.
Articles on the Internet that I found particularly good
include:
A History of the
Orphan Trains, by Connie DiPasquale
www.kancoll.org/articles/orphans/or_hist.htm
The
New York
Foundling
Hospital
www.orphantrainriders.com/newyork11.html
The History of New York
Foundling
Hospital
www.NewYorkFoundling.org
One can also contact the Orphan Train Heritage Society of
America, Inc., 614 East Emma
Avenue, No. 115, Springdale, AR
72764
, 501-756-2780.
This article is written in memory of my great-great-aunt
Christine Harmon, who came to Wien on the orphan train in the 1890’s and was
adopted by my great-great-grandmother Therese Biegel.