Orphan Trains Head West

[Sanguine]

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Jenny Ashcraft   


Children board the Orphan Train

In 1853 Charles Loring Brace formed the Children’s Aid Society to develop programs for the growing population of orphaned children in New York City. In the mid-1800s, a wave of immigration brought newcomers to America. Without an extended family to fall back on, immigrants often crowded into unsanitary living conditions where illness spread creating high mortality rates. Other factors that contributed to the orphan population were disease, unsafe working conditions, poverty, and the Civil War. At one point an estimated 30,000 orphans roamed the streets of New York City. The Children’s Aid Society aimed to change that. From 1854 to 1929 an estimated 250,000 children were loaded onto Orphan Trains and transported from eastern cities to the rural Midwest hoping to find adoptive homes. At the time, there was no federal government program to oversee child welfare. 

For some, the Orphan Trains resulted in children being placed in loving, adoptive homes. Others were paraded before prospective adoptive families and treated like indentured servants. 

Little 3-year-old Louise Anderson rode the Orphan Train and got adopted by a family whose daughter had died. She remembered her adoptive mother commenting, “We lost a little girl; she was so smart, and this one was a dummy.” Louise’s adoptive home was not a happy one. By the age of 12, she spent nights alone outside minding the cattle. She never attended school and was illiterate as a child. She married at 17 and learned to read and write alongside her young children. ...

https://blog.newspapers.com/orphan-trains-head-west/

These little glimpses into our recent history are so fascinating.

[bigheadfred]

[Sanguine]

I bet they had them lined up around the building. 

[bigheadfred]

I bet they had them lined up around the building.

I was watching a vid the other day about these orphan trains, etc. It was one of those weirdo videos that said there was a natural disaster that wiped out a lot of adults but left all these orphans.

It seems like there were lots of orphans around from 1850-1900.

[Sanguine]

I was watching a vid the other day about these orphan trains, etc. It was one of those weirdo videos that said there was a natural disaster that wiped out a lot of adults but left all these orphans.

It seems like there were lots of orphans around from 1850-1900.

It does seem that way.  But, we know women died frequently in childbirth, and men frequently didn't consider themselves capable of raising children given what their work was like.  Maybe that helps explain it?

[thackney]

I was watching a vid the other day about these orphan trains, etc. It was one of those weirdo videos that said there was a natural disaster that wiped out a lot of adults but left all these orphans.

It seems like there were lots of orphans around from 1850-1900.

It is not that the need to place orphans stopped around 1900.  Western states began to pass laws that required a bond with the kids to be sure New York and Massachusetts we not passing the financial obligation onto others.  Also about that time the Foster-care programs began to work.

https://orphantraindepot.org/history/end-of-an-era/

https://nfpaonline.org/page-1105741

[bigheadfred]

It does seem that way.  But, we know women died frequently in childbirth, and men frequently didn't consider themselves capable of raising children given what their work was like.  Maybe that helps explain it?

I've got a relative on my mom's side that sort of popped up. Had no history that he wanted to talk about. Don't know if that was because he was an orphan that had a crappy raising. Maybe he was a criminal. He died around 1918 or 1919.

[Fishrrman]

The Great Ron Thomason with his band, The Dry Branch Fire Squad, perform U. Utah Phillips' "Orphan Train":


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